Word: blocs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...that in less than five years it would lead to a massive exodus of poverty-stricken East European women, desperate to sell themselves for what rarely turns out to be the good life. Police say a quarter of Germany's 200,000 prostitutes are now from the former East bloc. Even in the puritanical Middle East, charter flights full of Russian women disembark weekly at Dubai's airport, ply their trade on 14-day visas and head home, loaded with color television sets. At the Gallery, a Brussels nightclub, a naked Hungarian couple thrash about in what appears...
...victimization is a direct result of the former East bloc's economic distress: in Russia alone, 75% of the unemployed are female. "The naivete is unbelievable," says Prague vice-squad chief Petr Vosolsobe. "The vision of earning hard currency blurs the girls' senses." Besides the usual promises of dance- and waitress-jobs, myriad ruses are used. One Russian student of German literature received an invitation to complete her education. She sold her stereo to pay for gifts for her "host family" in Germany, only to arrive and be forced into a brothel. Others are lured by traffickers posing as marriage...
...intelligence estimates that nearly one-third of the 50,000 Muslim forces do not have enough heavy weapons. Until now, they have kept fighting by stealing arms left behind by the Yugoslav army and clearing smuggling channels through Croatia. That means they mainly use old Soviet-bloc equipment, and to save training time, Pentagon officials say, the U.S. may attempt to tap those former Warsaw Pact arsenals for additional materiel. Slovak plants could provide T-72 tanks. Small arms, including the Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle, might be obtained from Afghan arms bazaars or a sympathetic stockpiler like Syria. To counter...
...practical argument that gays are a significant Democratic voting bloc lost force this month when a major sex-research study suggested that only 1% to 2% of men are homosexual, vs. the traditional assumption of 10%. The findings may be re-evaluated, but their immediate impact has been to make gays seem a far smaller group that could be shortchanged without grave political peril...
...HAWK, THE OTHER A DOVE. EACH HAS NOW soared to great political heights in Israel. Former Deputy Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 43, was elected chief of the opposition Likud bloc, and ultraleftist politician Ezer ) Weizman, 68, was chosen by the Knesset to be Israel's next President, a largely ceremonial post...