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beef

(Encyclopedia)beef, flesh of cattle prepared for food. It has become one of the chief products of the meatpacking industry and is sold either chilled, frozen, or cured. The leading beef consumers, as well as export...

Fabius, Laurent

(Encyclopedia)Fabius, Laurent lôräNˈ fäbyüsˈ [key], 1946– French politician. After graduating from the École National d'Administration, he became an auditor at the Council of State and has been a Socialist...

Ahtisaari, Martti Oiva Kalevi

(Encyclopedia)Ahtisaari, Martti Oiva Kalevi äkhˈtēsärrē [key], 1937–, Finnish diplomat, political leader, and international mediator; grad. Univ. of Oulu (1959). Joining (1965) the foreign affairs ministry, ...

colony

(Encyclopedia)colony, any nonself-governing territory subject to the jurisdiction of a usually distant country. The term is also applied to a group of nationals who settle in a foreign country or territory but reta...

protection

(Encyclopedia)protection, practice of regulating imports and exports with the purpose of shielding domestic industries from foreign competition. To accomplish that end, certain imports may be excluded entirely, imp...

Henry, Mary Kay

(Encyclopedia)Henry, Mary Kay, 1958–, American labor leader, b. Detroit, B.A. Michigan State Univ., 1979. She began working with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 1979, focusing on union organiz...

Liverpool

(Encyclopedia)Liverpool, city and metropolitan borough (1991 pop. 448,300), NW England, on the Mersey River near its mouth. It is one of Britain's largest cities. A large center for food processing (especially flou...

Villepin, Dominique de

(Encyclopedia)Villepin, Dominique de (Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin) dômēnēkˈ märēˈ fräNswäˈ rənāˈ gälo͞ozōˈ də vēlpănˈ [key], 1953–, French diplomat and government of...

clearing

(Encyclopedia)clearing, in banking, the periodic settling of bankers' claims against each other, for which local banks establish clearinghouse associations. Clearinghouses are said to have existed in Florence by a....

Trans-Siberian Railroad

(Encyclopedia)Trans-Siberian Railroad, rail line, linking European Russia with the Pacific coast. Its construction began in 1891, on the initiative of Count S. Y. Witte, and was completed in 1905. The completion of...