Word: descent
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...coup was staged by native Fijian officers who objected to last month's election victory by the coalition of Labor and National Federation parties, which is dominated by Fijians of Indian descent. Although native Fijians have controlled the government since the country's independence in 1970, they make up only 47% of the population. Indians, who arrived in the 19th century as sugarcane workers, now constitute...
...this century Fijians of Indian descent, whose ancestors were brought in by the British colonial government to work sugar plantations, have come to dominate the country's economy. Ethnic Indians make up 49% of the population and are the largest group on the islands, much to the chagrin of the indigenous Fijians, who make up 47% of the island nation's 715,000 people. Since Fiji gained independence from Britain in 1970, racial tensions had been held in check by the government of Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. But in April -- with the support of Indians and both poorer...
...descent to Khost's dirt airstrip is gut wrenching, a series of dizzying circles, jigs and S-turns as once again the planes pop flares in rapid succession. Last week Soviet-built government transports delivered 60 journalists from India, the Soviet bloc and the West on a propaganda tour aimed at dispelling "rumors" of intense fighting in the area. Unfortunately, the tight security around the reporters only betrayed the government's fear of the guerrillas. Soviet-made Mi-24 helicopter gunships whirred protectively overhead, sweeping across the surrounding terrain. From a distance came the echoes of explosions...
...effort was like "trying to catch a football that was flopping down the road at 40 m.p.h.," said Bill Rothe, Williams' fiance, who watched from the ground. At 3,500 ft., about ten seconds before impact, Robertson caught up with Williams, almost hitting her but slowing his own descent by assuming the open-body froglike position. He angled the unconscious sky diver so her chute could open readily and, at 2,000 ft., with some six seconds left, yanked the rip cord on her emergency chute, then pulled his own rip cord. The two sky divers floated to the ground...
...built over hundreds of feet of soft black mud, deposited there, over thousands of years, by the Mississippi. The mud comes from the Midwest, all the way uup to Minnesota, along with the tourist hordes who contribute their dollars and their considerable collective weight to the city's inexorable descent towards Australia. When we were there, mind you, most of the buildings were still very much visible. The locals, for their part, seemed unconcerned about the dreadful fate awaiting them in just a few brief moments of geological time. The NCAA Final Four games were happening at the Superdome...