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Abdul Rahman, Tunku

(Encyclopedia)Abdul Rahman, Tunku, to͝onˈko͞o äbˈdo͝ol räˈmän [key], 1903–90, Malaysian political leader. A prince (tunku), he was the fifth son of Sultan Abdul Halim Shah of Kedah and was educated in En...

profit sharing

(Encyclopedia)profit sharing, arrangement by which employees receive, in addition to their wages, a share of the net profits of a business. The purpose is to give them an incentive to increase their output through ...

Public Works Administration

(Encyclopedia)Public Works Administration (PWA), in U.S. history, New Deal government agency established (1933) by the Congress as the Federal Administration of Public Works, pursuant to the National Industrial Rec...

open enrollment

(Encyclopedia)open enrollment, a policy of admitting to college all high-school graduates in an effort to provide a higher education for all who desire it. To critics it means an inevitable lowering of standards as...

Business Roundtable

(Encyclopedia)Business Roundtable (BRT), an association consisting of the chief executive officers of major U.S. corporations that was founded in 1972 through the mer...

Berger, John Peter

(Encyclopedia)Berger, John Peter bûrˈjər [key], 1926–2017, British art critic, cultural historian, and writer, b. London. Berger, who began his career as a painter, is best known for his art criticism. He wrot...

Singapore

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Singapore sĭngˈgəpôr, sĭngˈə–, sĭngˌgəpôrˈ [key], officially Republic of Singapore, republic (2015 est. pop. 5,535,000), 299 sq mi (774 sq km). It consists of the island of Singap...

Siberia

(Encyclopedia)Siberia sībērˈēə [key], Rus. Sibir, vast geographical region of Russia, covering c.2,900,000 sq mi (7,511,000 sq km) and having an estimated population (1992) of 32,459,000. Historically it has h...

Papua New Guinea

(Encyclopedia)Papua New Guinea păpˈo͞oə, –yo͞oə, gĭnˈē [key], officially Independent State of Papua New Guinea, independent Commonwealth nation (2015 est. pop. 6,672,000), 183,540 sq mi (475,369 sq km), ...

Brown, John, American abolitionist

(Encyclopedia)Brown, John, 1800–1859, American abolitionist, b. Torrington, Conn. He spent his boyhood in Ohio. Before he became prominent in the 1850s, his life ha...

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