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Amtrak
Amtrak the National Railroad Passenger Corp., authorized to operate virtually all intercity passenger railroad routes in the United States. Amtrak was created by Congress in 1970 in response to more than two decades of continuous operating deficits by privately run passenger railroads; over 100 of ...
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International Atomic Energy Agency
International Atomic Energy Agency intergovernmental organization established in 1957 under the aegis of the United Nations to promote the peaceful uses of atomic energy. Its headquarters are in Vienna. It may purchase and sell fissionable materials, offer technical assistance for peaceful nuclear ...
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Wen Jiabao
Wen Jiabao , 1942-, Chinese political leader, b. Tianjin. Originally a geologist, he worked for the Gansu provincial geological bureau (1968-82), where he was the head of its political section, and rose to deputy director general. He later (1982-85) was an officer of the Ministry of Geology and Mine...
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François Truffaut
François Truffaut , 1932-84, French film director and critic. Known in his early 20s as a writer for the influential French film journal Cahiers du Cinéma, he was noted for his excoriating criticism of traditional French filmmaking and for his promotion of the auteur theory. The dire...
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auteur
auteur , in film criticism, a director who so dominates the film-making process that it is appropriate to call the director the auteur, or author, of the motion picture. The auteur theory holds that the director is the primary person responsible for the creation of a motion picture and imbues it wit...
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Sir James Stephen
Sir James Stephen 1789-1859, British colonial administrator; father of Leslie and James Fitzjames Stephen. He served (1825-35) as permanent counsel to the colonial office and Board of Trade and drafted the bill (1833) for the abolition of the slave trade. As assistant undersecretary (1834-36) and u...
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Oveta Culp Hobby
Oveta Culp Hobby 1905-95, American public official and newspaper publisher, U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (1953-55), b. Killeen, Tex. She served as parliamentarian of the Texas house of representatives from 1925 to 1931 and from 1939 to 1941. In 1931 she married William Pettus Hob...
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Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), division of the U.S. Dept. of Justice charged with investigating all violations of federal laws except those assigned to some other federal agency. The FBI has jurisdiction over some 185 investigative matters, among them espionage, sabotage, and other subversi...
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Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), independent executive bureau of the U.S. government established by the National Security Act of 1947, replacing the wartime Office of Strategic Services (1942-45), the first U.S. espionage and covert operations agency. While the CIA's covert operations receive t...
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National Labor Relations Board
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), independent agency of the U.S. government created under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (Wagner Act), and amended by the acts of 1947 ( Taft-Hartley Labor Act ) and 1959 ( Landrum-Griffin Act ), which affirmed labor's right to organize and bargain col...
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