Word: swifts
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...when every Albanian house was burned. But the Serbs came a third time, just two weeks ago, in a focused fury to obliterate the whole of Ljesane. In the yard of their shattered house last week lay Rukije's body; her skull was crushed, and maggots had made swift work of her body, leaving only bones, rags and hair. The brown, rotting corpse of Haxhi lay nearby in the garden...
Deciding on these kinds of details took hours. Talbott, Chernomyrdin and Ahtisaari haggled on through the night over two other issues--how fast the Serbs had to leave and how central NATO would be to the peacekeeping force. Washington held out for a swift timetable, and "Strobe just hammered to make sure the document had NATO at the core," says a senior U.S. official. When the exhausted diplomats reconvened Wednesday morning, Ahtisaari threatened to pull out if there was no agreement, and Chernomyrdin conceded. Now Moscow had sided with NATO, leaving Milosevic isolated...
Compared with that marathon, the talks in Belgrade were swift and matter-of-fact. On Wednesday night the envoys and Milosevic talked for 4 1/2 hours. Chernomyrdin never veered as he read from the prepared script. Ahtisaari went over it in detail, explaining why each demand was not negotiable. "Can we make improvements in the text?" Milosevic asked. "Absolutely not," Ahtisaari shot back. This was NATO's best offer, and not a comma could be changed. Hoping to soften the Finn, Milosevic invited him to dinner. "Let's not have dinner," answered Ahtisaari. Instead, the Serbian leader should go back...
...those templates that some airlines put on airport X-ray machines weed out carry-on bags that won't fit under the seat or in the overhead rack? Probably not. It's more likely that ticket takers are trained to eyeball patrons from the rear, in a swift and nonthreatening manner, and give the extra-large-approaching signal (maybe a quick puffing out of the cheeks) to an usher, who then asks, with a helpful look and no smile at all, "Could I interest you in something in the full-cut section, sir?" I can imagine the final examination...
...with most activities of this complexity, no-method is completely fool-proof. From time to time, even your best efforts will be met only by he stubborn red light on the card reader, blinking insanely, mocking you. The only course of action at this point is swift and violent retribution. Follow a series of "Double-Dips" with a barrage of vicious kicks and off-color remarks. Eventually someone will open the door...