The Seattle-based coffee chain formed a joint venture with Tata Global Beverages earlier this year, wherein the two companies plan to open outlets in India as early as October.

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In just the past month, Burger King has introduced no-bun burgers, and the Subway sandwich chain has introduced a joint marketing promotion with the Atkins Diet Center to promote low-carb wraps.

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The Alpha chain will be controlled from a joint control center, with teams from the mine, railroad and port sitting in a single place to optimize results.

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In Britain, for example, Goodwin's niche brands besides NatWest and RBS range from Coutts (bankers to the Queen of England) to Tesco Personal Finance (a bank that's a joint venture with the supermarket chain) to DirectLine (insurance sales over the telephone).

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Carrefour, the French retail chain, is selling its stake in its Greek joint venture owing to fears about Greece's deteriorating economic situation.

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The France-based company also was the first major international chain to establish a presence in Asia, through a joint venture in Taiwan in 1989.

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Facing down such a determined foe could easily set off the chain reaction that the U.S. Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently expressed concern about.

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Such behavior might make sense when a diner is willing to put up with a mediocre meal at a crowded chain restaurant to avoid the risk of food poisoning at a quirky neighborhood joint.

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The law cited by Sheehan is the 1986 Defense Reorganization Act, known as Goldwater-Nichols, which defined the chain of command: from the President to the Secretary of Defense, through the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and on to the various combatant commanders, who were put in charge of all aspects of military operations, including joint training and logistics.

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