In the mid-1990s, she became the first federal public defender to head the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

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"Asean markets have done particularly well as foreign investors, especially large institutions, tend to target north Asia, " said Khiem Do, head of Asian Multi-Asset Strategy at Barings Asset Management, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional grouping.

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Once overshadowed by her powerful and ambitious husband who has now been shipped off as an ambassador to Vienna she has grown from a shy woman barely audible when speaking in public to the self-confident chairman of the Khabar media group, the head of Kazakhstan's journalism association and a publicly acclaimed singer, who recently performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

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