In preparation for the meeting, construction workers built an elevated floor to make a level surface and covered the windows so no one could get a glimpse of the meeting.

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The session was held to set out Parliament's position on the draft budget in preparation for the first "trilogue" negotiation meeting between representatives from the Council, Commission, and Parliament, due to take place next month.

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That meeting was in preparation for the upcoming G8 summit at a Baltic Sea resort in Germany, and that could be dominated by the Russian-American split as the foreign ministers' meeting was.

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Gere did his own research in preparation for his role, meeting some of the brokers and traders who form part of the world to which his character, hedge fund magnate Robert Miller, belongs.

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In preparation for our meeting in Chicago, at NATO, in my hometown, we talked about the transition that was already agreed to in Lisbon, when it comes to putting Afghans in the lead in security over the next several years.

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Although there was a flurry of stories in mid-June, reporting that Sandberg had been meeting with investment bankers in preparation for taking Facebook public, two senior executives at the company flatly deny this.

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