Word: deserted
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...pesky UNITA guerrillas of Jonas Savimbi in the southern part of the country. Last year the Cubans moved into Ethiopia in a big way. Reinforced by huge supplies of Soviet equipment, they helped the unstable Marxist junta in Addis Ababa drive Somali insurgents out of Ethiopia's Ogaden desert region. Now the Ethiopians, with the reluctant help of their 17,000 Cuban guests, are attacking secessionists in the northern province of Eritrea, where a brushfire war has been smoldering for some 15 years. All told, Cuba now has 43,000 troops on duty in at least 14 African nations...
...near its postwar peak of 40,000, and as the struggle became increasingly unpopular at home, the now disbanded First Parachute Regiment joined the generals' putsch against Charles de Gaulle. After De Gaulle accorded Algeria its independence in 1962, the legionnaires disinterred their most illustrious dead from their desert graves and transported their pink Saharan granite Monument aux Morts from 118-year-old headquarters in Sidi bel-Abbés in Algeria to metropolitan France, together with their battle-worn flags, standards, regimental colors and a multitude of medals and decorations. These tokens of the legion's past...
Saudi Arabia is a feudal monarchy, but at least one institution of the country gives it the flavor of a desert democracy. That is the majlis (Arabic for a "sitting," although the word can also mean "council," or even "parliament"). According to Arab custom, reinforced by a 1952 decree of King Abdul Aziz, every subject has the right of access to his ruler, whether the ruler is a tribal sheik, a governor or the monarch himself, to present petitions of complaint or pleas for help. Even the poorest Saudi can approach his sovereign to plead a cause; functionaries...
...this occasion served Q, meal consisting of asparagus soup, fried shrimps with tartar sauce, kebabs with cooked vegetables, a ragout of okra, meat and rice with almonds, chocolate cake, watermelon and fruit. Most of the guests were not from Saudi Arabia's upper class; many appeared to be desert tribesmen. There was no ceremony at the table, and no distinction between rich and poor. A few guests finished quickly and left without so much as glancing at their host. Others stayed to sip coffee with the Prince in the palace corridor. There were, of course, no women present...
...once plentiful plants and birds are gone, and human beings who live there are disfigured by skin cancer. The scene is 300 sq. mi. in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo, a once lush strip north of Rio de Janeiro that is now on its way to becoming a desert. The cause of this ecological disaster...