Word: spreading
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...only four democracies in South America, along with Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, Venezuela has long been enthusiastic about using its petrodollars to spread its concept of democracy elsewhere in the region. Venezuelan President Luis Herrera Campíns, 56, calls his country's assistance program a campaign in favor of "democracy for the poor." Says Energy Minister Humberto Calderón Berti: "Venezuela's oil is the main stabilizer of the democratic system...
That sort of gallows humor was just about the only relief Californians had last week from their worst agricultural crisis in years. Despite stepped-up chemical warfare, the epidemic of Mediterranean fruit flies showed no signs of waning. The creatures spread beyond the populated suburbs south of San Francisco and approached the very heartland of California's $14 billion-a-year agricultural industry, the fertile 12,000-sq.-mi. San Joaquin Valley. Repercussions were quick and far-reaching. Even as helicopters doused the lush fields and orchards with pesticide, word came from Japan, California's largest overseas agricultural...
...unless the Medflies are contained, they could spread to other states as well. Some have already appeared in Florida. Each new outbreak will require more spraying, at considerable cost. Much produce would be lost, and consumers would have to pay more for fruit and vegetables, spoiling the Reagan Administration's anti-inflation efforts. Everyone would be a loser...
...clock, a U.S. B-29 flew high over Hiroshima, a small industrial city (pop. 350,000) in southern Japan. Seconds later the entire landscape was lit by a blue white flash that quickly turned into a giant fireball accompanied by powerful shock waves. Death and destruction spread for miles around. Three days later, there was a similar attack on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. For the first and only times, atomic bombs had been unleashed...
...save the world from pneumococcal pneumonia, an infection that then had a mortality rate as high as 85%. But as more and more antibiotics came into use, nature fought back, creating more resistant bacteria. When first used, penicillin was nearly 100% effective against the most prevalent Staphylococci aureus that spread hospital-related infection among patients. Today the drug is far less effective. Both tetracycline and penicillin, once used to cure gonorrhea, now have a failure rate of more than 20% against certain strains. For years a growing body of evidence has suggested that the overuse of antibiotics is helping...