Word: swiss
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...greatest heights by what he calls "fair means," avoiding the rope networks, high-mountain camps and bottled air that were part of the historic eight-thousander sieges, which frequently involved ten or more climbers supported by dozens of Sherpas. The minimalist technique has attracted thousands of imitators. Says Swiss Mountain Guide Erhard Loretan, 27, who, with his countryman Jean Troillet, 38, raced to the top of Everest last August and back down again to base camp in an astonishing 43 hours: "The reason we can now climb so quickly and easily is that Messner served as an example...
Indeed, his breakthroughs have led many to believe he has a mysterious physical edge over other mountaineers. Not so, says Oswald Oelz, a Swiss physician and one of Messner's former climbing partners, who conducted a series of tests on high-altitude climbers in a hypobaric chamber. Messner emerged with results similar to those of an above-average marathon runner. He and other mountaineers who had successfully penetrated the 8,000-m barrier proved to have what Oelz calls a "rather active respiratory center," meaning that as the air gets thinner, their rate of breathing involuntarily increases. "He's obviously...
Either side can request a special session in the Swiss city and it is customarily granted...
...newest and most important additions to the local guerrilla arsenal, however, are two highly accurate rapid-firing Swiss 20-mm Oerlikon antiaircraft guns that keep the deadly Soviet Mi-24 helicopter gunships at bay. There are reportedly some 40 Oerlikons now in Afghanistan. In the absence of reliable shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, they give the rebels effective antihelicopter weapons for the first time...
Pope John Paul II began his reign eight years ago, at a time when theologians and laity alike were openly questioning some traditional teachings of the church. Since then the Vatican has attempted to restore a sense of doctrinal discipline; it removed renegade Swiss Theologian Hans Kung from his teaching post at the University of Tubingen in West Germany and silenced for a year Brazilian Franciscan Leonardo Boff, an advocate of Marxist-tinged liberation theology. Last week Rome moved against an American priest who has openly questioned the church's stance on sexual morality. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, head...