Word: baing
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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British Airways' abrupt decision last week to reverse its generous policy for some sports enthusiasts traveling with their equipment has outraged the world surfing community. As of today, passengers are banned from checking surfboards, kayaks, canoes or wind surfing boards. BA's decision is what surfers might call a roundhouse cutback - a 180 degree shift in direction - from their original policy that still allows passengers to bring most sporting goods free, including golf clubs and bags, skis and snowboards...
...World No. 1 surfer, Australian Mick Fanning said, "As a British Airways Platinum One World frequent flyer, it's really hard to take that people who have been so loyal, and spent so much money with BA have been dealt this blow." The British Canoe Union, which supports the 1.5 million U.K. residents who canoe and kayak is similarly alarmed. In a statement, it wrote, "We are concerned about the irony of 2008 being Olympic year. Our athletes will need to transport their equipment to pre-Olympic events, training camps and to the Olympics themselves in Beijing, China. This will...
...BA spokesman, Richard Goodfellow isn't so sure about that. Despite the uproar, he says, the airline is not considering changing its decision. "If you look at it as a percentage," he says, "the numbers of surfers that are traveling is tiny, miniscule...
...Several airlines that serve high-profile surfing destinations such as South Africa and Australia are poised to gain BA's lost customers - and none is ready to follow suit with BA by banning surfboards. BA's reversal is particularly drastic: going from allowing these items for free to banning them entirely, while other airlines like Qantas, SAA, Delta and American charge extra for surfboards and similar equipment and will continue...
...fetus. But the laws are all but impossible to enforce. Every expectant mother somehow learns whether she is expecting a boy or a girl. Abortions are readily available for around $5 in government clinics. "We must expand our propaganda activities to educate people aching to have boys," says Nguyen Ba Thuy, deputy minister of health. Other Asian countries have seen the sex imbalance towards boys reverse, including South Korea, one of the first countries to report the missing-girls phenomenon. In recent years the skewed gender balance in that country has reversed down to near-natural ratios, thanks in part...