Word: years
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Swiss military has not engaged foreign troops since 1815, when Napoleon's army withdrew after a 17-year occupation. As a result of Switzerland's extraordinary military preparedness, no aggressor since then has seen fit to challenge its control of the mountain passes. Last week, however, the Swiss army suffered a rare setback -- not in battle, but at the polls...
Virtually every man serves -- and serves and serves. Currently, all those who are able-bodied go through a 17-week training course when they are 20 years old and annual refresher courses and deployments of three weeks or more, depending on their rank, until they are 32, when the demands lessen a bit. For those who refuse to join up, the options are grim. Each year several hundred Swiss are convicted of refusing to serve, and many of them spend three to twelve months in jail...
Thus, considerably more was at stake in the referendum than the $3 billion spent each year by the military. One survey by the Lausanne-based research institute MIS showed that only 15% of voters really wanted to get rid of the army. The rest wanted the army reformed and defense spending trimmed, a clear- cut result of lessening East-West tensions...
BOOKS: The year's twelve outstanding works for children...
Streep is the one reason to catch (maybe next year on video) this choppy adaptation of Fay Weldon's exemplarily mean-spirited novel. The story could serve as a parable of feminist revenge. Mary steals accountant Bob Patchett (Ed Begley Jr.) away from his fat, drab, warty wife Ruth (Roseanne Barr). Then Ruth, with a systematic resourcefulness she has never displayed as a homemaker, destroys everything Bob loves: house, family, career, freedom. The worm turns into a winner...