Word: kilo
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...What happened during Redback Kilo Three's patrol is a war story the Australian Army would prefer to forget. During a gunfight many believe was the longest engagement by an SAS unit since the Vietnam war, the patrol's six members showed undoubted heroism. But their actions - which led to the deaths of those Afghan men - won no bravery awards. Instead they brought recriminations, investigations, and claims of command failures, insubordination, the killing of civilians, and the souveniring of trophies from the dead. Some troopers were disciplined, and the patrol leader resigned in disgust over what he believes...
...forces, and help eliminate them. The squadron won high praise from U.S. commanders, particularly for its role in locating and orchestrating an attack on a senior al-Qaeda leader. When Three Squadron replaced One Squadron in April 2002, its members felt they had much to live up to. Redback Kilo Three's first mission, in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, kept up the high standard. Led by a patrol sergeant with 12 years' experience in the regiment, the six men of RK3 were at their peak. Perhaps the only weak link was the sixth man on the patrol, a Green...
...strong euro has sent the price of French truffle imports up 30% in the past year, leading some restaurants and gourmet-store owners to substitute Eastern truffles for P?rigords. Purists are outraged. "You can't compare the two," sniffs Guy Monier, who sells French truffles for $2,300 a kilo at his Paris shop but has seen the Chinese fungus masquerading as the French variety in nearby supermarkets. "The Chinese import is just a flavorless, rubbery black ball...
...Kunming Rare Truffle Co.'s Wu cheerfully admits that some of his European and American clients mix his fungi with French ones. But the former metallurgist is astounded less by the chicanery than by the prices his truffles can command abroad. What Wu sells to wholesalers for $80 a kilo can be resold to Westerners for 30 times that, or more than double the average yearly income in China. "Who would pay that much for a mushroom," Wu marvels. "Is it because they think it's an aphrodisiac?" (Since medieval times, many have believed just that.) Nevertheless, Wu does maintain...
...luck, like angels and five-pointed stars." And although she doesn't quite say it, she thinks American revelers are a bit dim. Case in point: among her big sellers this year is a red bow with a tiny pinecone in the middle. She had paid peasants 60? a kilo to collect the cones for her, making a tidy profit when she sold them. In China, the merchants are having the merriest Christmas...