Word: pacts
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Lithuania will be answered, as all three countries receive formal invitations to join NATO. But given the weakness of the countries' militaries, why is NATO admitting them? And in the absence of any obvious Russian threat, why do the Balts still want to join? Unlike other former Warsaw Pact countries, such as Poland and Hungary, the Balts didn't have national armies during the Soviet era, so they had nothing to build on as they regained independence. And in contrast to Ukraine, which inherited warships and planes from the Red Army, departing Russian troops completely stripped their Baltic bases. Given...
...team of medical specialists, but without any equipment or means to get them to Afghanistan. Part of the problem is that the army is not highly regarded at home. "It comes from Hungarian history," says another Western diplomat in Budapest. "When you have a military that during the Warsaw Pact period was considered the instrument of an oppressive regime, there is not a lot of public support for it." And once Hungary was inside the alliance, politicians balked at the cost of the necessary military reforms. Competing projects, particularly expensive preparations for E.U. accession, took priority. "Of the three...
...Right To Work Harder Unionists from South Korea's largest industries launched a strike to keep the government from cutting the workweek from 44 hours to 40. The strikers won, and parliament shelved the bill, but with goals like that, Korea's unions probably won't be forming a pact with European counterparts soon...
Perhaps it was a pact with the devil or just impossibly advantageous genes, but MICHELLE PFEIFFER adamantly asserts that her enviable appearance owes nothing to plastic surgery. The clarification came after a comment made by PATRICIA HEATON, who happily cops to her own touch-ups. Heaton, the co-star of Everybody Loves Raymond, joked to David Letterman about an actress currently on the cover of a magazine who said she was afraid of Botox, a comment Heaton said amused her because she had spoken to that actress's plastic surgeon. As it happens, Pfeiffer is on the cover of Harper...
...Greece - outraging the non-Greek producers who make three quarters of the world's feta. Danish firms vowed to fight the decision, but Italians may also want to point out that the word feta is originally from Latin, not Greek. BOTTOM LINES "I know very well that the Stability Pact is stupid." Romano Prodi, European Commission President, admitting that E.U. deficit limits are too rigid "Of all the places to be marooned by a strike I guess this is the best." Emma Marsh, tourist in Venice, after her flight home was canceled when unions launched Italy's second general strike...