Word: desertions
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...forces on the trail of Osama bin Laden and the leaders of the Taliban in late 2001 didn't worry much about elderly, pious-looking men like Haji Juma Khan. A towering tribesman from the Baluchistan desert near Pakistan, Khan was picked up that December near Kandahar and taken into U.S. custody. Though known to U.S. and Afghan officials as a drug trafficker, he seemed an insignificant catch. "At the time, the Americans were only interested in catching bin Laden and [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar," says a European counterterrorism expert in Kabul. "Juma Khan walked...
...black Sudanese. Khartoum, which denies it is backing the Janjaweed, says the U.N. resolution is "unfair" but it will comply with the demand to disarm the fighters. Moving Again MIDDLE EAST Israel reopened a border crossing between Egypt and Gaza after having stranded thousands of Palestinians in the desert for three weeks. The Israelis closed the crossing on July 18 because of intelligence indicating that one of the Palestinian militant groups in Rafah intended to tunnel beneath it. About 20 tunnels, used to smuggle weapons between Rafah and Egypt, have been uncovered this year. One Tiny Step SAUDI ARABIA Government...
...forces hot on the trail of Osama bin Laden and the leaders of the Taliban in late 2001 didn't worry much about elderly, pious-looking men like Haji Juma Khan. A towering tribesman from the Baluchistan desert near Pakistan, Khan was picked up that December near Kandahar and taken into U.S. custody. Though known to U.S. and Afghan officials as a drug trafficker, he seemed an insignificant catch. "At the time, the Americans were only interested in catching bin Laden and [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar," says a European counterterrorism expert in Kabul. "Juma Khan walked...
...while a few hours away, crops wither in parched fields. South Asia's water woes are hardly unique. China faces simultaneous floods and droughts every year, as devastating surges down the Yangtze River cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, while deforestation turns farmland north of Beijing into desert. In Uzbekistan, the Soviets created one of the world's worst environmental disasters by using the Amu Darya to irrigate massive cotton farms, shrinking the Aral Sea by half and, as pesticide run-off evaporated and poisoned the air, creating a cancer cluster the size of England. Meanwhile, China...
...Tempting, but foolish. Marvel at the emptiness of the desert plain, but remember, Barbara Sturt and her people can find waterholes and billabongs here in a landscape that could kill the rest of us in hours. That kind of knowledge, you suspect, takes more than one lifetime to acquire...