Birds have nests, spiders have webs and people have friendships.

The greatest democratic politicians have a large capacity for shallow friendships.

Some create strong ties, while others produce weak ties. Think of the difference between friendships and acquaintances.

Manners and customs Eating is a dominant aspect of Chinese culture, and eating out is one of the most common ways to honor guests, socialize, and deepen friendships.

Equally important, historically much foreign aid was provided not to promote development, but to purchase friendship, especially during the Cold War.

And in fact, through those interactions, for the first time, I was starting to get to be friends with some of those people in that big amorphous group out there that was supposed to be far away.

Iran s regional foreign policy has not yet caught up with its new pre eminence it is making as many enemies as it is gaining friends, and it might squander the windfall gains that it made in the past three years.

CAMBRIDGE When US President Barack Obama announced in late January his intention to seek tough new rules for banks, he wasn t expecting to make friends on Wall Street.

We think we can throw money at the problem or throw technology at the problem we can undo and unfriend And the problem is that there are certain things that happen in life that we desperately want to change and we cannot.

There is no question that the crisis left the country unable to service its debts. But Argentina made no friends by waiting four years to negotiate with its creditors and then offering settlement terms that were stingy by the standards of previous debt restructurings.