The test - most commentators agreed - would come when he was forced to decide the future of the community charge, or poll tax - the policy that had brought ruin to his predecessor.

BBC: NEWS | UK | UK Politics | First 100 days: John Major

The combination of international sanctions and government neglect has brought ruin to Mesopotamia's famously fertile fields.

ECONOMIST: Iraq

Reform began in 1983, year zero in Ghana's history, when civil unrest and drought brought ruin to an already declining economy.

ECONOMIST: Ghana

Unfortunately, nothing in the plan addresses the fundamental economic imbalances that underlie our economy and that brought us to the brink of ruin in the first place.

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