Word: seriousness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Persian Gulf was greeted with relief at the Pentagon. The Aug. 20 cease-fire between Iran and Iraq put an end to attacks on gulf shipping, and the Reagan Administration wasted no time in moving to relieve the Navy of a difficult task that since July 1987 has caused serious damage to two U.S. warships, led to the accidental downing of an Iranian jetliner and cost an estimated $20 million a month. Although 26 Navy warships will remain on duty in the gulf flotilla (down from a high of 42), the White House said from now on the U.S. will...
...China too faces serious problems with its economic-reform program, despite such bright spots as a plentiful supply of most meats. The two Communist giants are floundering, and for some of the same reasons, in their efforts to modernize and reorganize their political and economic systems. Both Gorbachev's perestroika (restructuring) and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's gai ge (reform) face opposition. Barriers to reform in the Soviet Union are an entrenched bureaucracy and a growing indifference on the part of citizens who have yet to see a tangible return for their requested sacrifices. In China people are balking...
...example, water shortages may be particularly serious in the agricultural areas of the Great Plains if the dry weather continues, as many climatologists suspect. Traditionally dry--the whole area was once known as the Great American Desert--it has become enormously productive through irrigation and crop improvement. But a good deal of the water bodies there are now polluted by fertilizer nitrates and pesticides. Should the drop in the water table continue, safe drinking water may become increasingly scarce...
...Their goal is below any soil sample you could take in an urban environment," he said, describing their standards as "a serious problem...
...magistrates, attackers can be forced, in effect, to compensate their victims by the punch. Sample penalties: $84 for a simple graze, $168 for a black eye, $1,428 for a broken nose, $2,940 for a fractured jaw and as much as $13,440 for a serious facial scar. Said Home Office Minister John Patten: "I am anxious that the victims get a better deal." As for the bad guys, sock...