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US acknowledges flinty academic deserves respect

 Shanghai Prime Minister Helen Clark’s strong backing for the American war on terrorism won her and New Zealand new respect at the Apec conference. After just four days at Shanghai, she is now looking like an emerging Asia-Pacific leader and power player. She has shed, in United States eyes, her image as a flinty anti-American academic and joined the ranks …

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Fran O’Sullivan: NZ should link arms with US

Today’s Wall St opening will be the most difficult hurdle for financial markets since the 1987 global sharemarkets collapse. The one-week halt to trading is the longest since the First World War closure. The human carnage wreaked by terrorists who destroyed New York’s twin pillars of capitalism – the World Trade Center towers – will exact a different toll on …

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Clinton Swansong plays to different tune

ANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – In Auckland last year, Bill Clinton could hardly move without feeling the beady eyes of his mother-in-law tracking his every move. The Clinton women: wife Hillary, daughter Chelsea and mother-in-law Dorothy Rodham, were not about to risk another bimbo eruption. Hillary Rodham Clinton – stepping up her campaign to run for a seat in the US …

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Business leaders meet the world shapers

More than fine New Zealand wine will be flowing this weekend at Apec. The chief executives’ summit will bring together around 330 international delegates for four busy days of debate and discussion in a forum which aims to build relationships between business and politics and analyse the impact of globalisation. After a full day of registration, guests will be welcomed …

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Plugging Apec – or how not to sell politicians

The latest classic involves a public relations spin artist who APEC employed to sell the benefits of trade liberalisation, and, our Trade Negotiations Minister Lockwood Smith. Let’s get one thing straight from the start. The technique PR consultant Jane Sweeney uses is called “marketing public policy correctly”. Not simple propaganda – as some cynical readers might incorrectly infer from the …

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