Word: sierras
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Postage stamps of odd shapes and sizes have been around for decades. The Pacific island nation of Tonga released coin- and star-shaped stamps in the 1960s and '70s; Sierra Leone once produced a kola nut-shaped offering; New Caledonia has had stamps shaped like turtles and other sea mammals. But these days odd shapes alone won't cut it, which is why national post offices and stamp manufacturers are coming up with new twists on the standard colorful squares and rectangles...
...reward those who govern well, and peacefully give up office. An increasing number of Africans believe they can ask for better behavior from their leaders. Observer missions from the A.U., the Southern African Development Community and the Pan-African Parliament declared Zimbabwe's poll not credible. Some went further. Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma said Africa must "in no uncertain terms, condemn what has happened"; and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa was among those who backed the deployment of A.U. troops to stem the violence. Even South Africa's ruling party, long comrades-in-arms with Mugabe...
...outrage at Zimbabweans' fate, and likely draw up stringent economic and diplomatic sanctions. But neither is likely to save Zimbabweans from their government - and that is proof of the end of an era. In 1999, the U.N. launched successful military interventions to stem bloodshed in Kosovo, East Timor and Sierra Leone. That was in keeping with a declaration the year before by then U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan hailing a "new century of human rights." "No government has the right to hide behind national sovereignty in order to violate the human rights or fundamental freedoms of its peoples," he proclaimed...
...Philip Gourevitch's book We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families, that the full horror of what had happened was brought home. By the same token, the film Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, brought to wider attention the misery of Sierra Leone's civil wars...
Diedrich's farm is located on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, traditionally a cornucopia of tomatoes, almonds, cantaloupe, pistachios and lettuces. The area around Firebaugh has been hit hard by a severe drought caused by two years of below-average rainfall, a diminished Sierra Nevada snowpack and new court-ordered environmental restrictions on pumping. Despite having officially recognized the drought on June 4, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has yet to declare a state of emergency that would lift some of the environmental restrictions on providing relief to the farmers - although he is pushing the state legislature to approve...