Word: fortnights
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...able to use a 6-to-6 deadlock to stall any legislation they disliked. By adding two new Democrats and only one Republican, Sam Rayburn expected to tilt the 6-to-6 standoff to an 8-to-7 majority. So much was at issue in the shift that the fortnight before the showdown saw the House's fiercest struggle for votes in many a year, a struggle that ultimately involved personal pressure from the new President of the U.S., broad threats of blacklisting by his Cabinet members, cursing and conniving on both sides...
...Fortnight ago 5,000 Burmese troops attacked and overran the Nationalist headquarters at Mongpa-Liao. Caught between the Burmese and the Chinese Communist border guards, the Nationalists poured over the neighboring borders of Laos and Thailand. Last week Bangkok proposed to evacuate them to Formosa. It was the end for the last Nationalist Chinese fighting force on the mainland of Asia...
Touring Canada on a buying mission for Red China, two Hong Kong traders named Liu Liang and Yang Lu-liang were as quiet as could be, seemed chiefly interested in eluding publicity. Canadians hoped they were also interested in grain, were moderately pleased fortnight ago to land a $5,300,000 order for barley. Last week Agriculture Minister Alvin Hamilton rose in Parliament to announce that the Red traders had expanded the order beyond his most optimistic hopes: just before taking off for Hong Kong, they signed a $60 million cash deal for 28 million bushels of wheat...
President Kennedy's action last fortnight in ordering Chief of Naval Operations Arleigh Burke to rewrite almost completely a speech that minced no words about Russia brought press growls from several quarters. Said the New York Daily News: "Such suppressions can only stir up rumors, gossip and exaggerated guesses as to what the muzzled persons would say if permitted to talk...
Worried about the inflow of foreign electronic parts, the big International Union of Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers called upon Congress and the President not only to curb imports but also to limit the flow of U.S. capital into manufacturing overseas. Fortnight ago the Chicago Brotherhood of Electrical Workers went even farther. It notified its 137 employers that after May 1 its 23,000 members would refuse to handle any electronic parts imported from Japan. The Pottery Workers, the Boilermakers and the Carpenters unions are currently weighing anti-import actions...