his efforts to free the hostages failed

  • 71Military Affairs — ▪ 2009 Introduction        Russia and Georgia fought a short, intense war in 2008, fueling global fears of a new Cold War. On August 7 Georgia launched an aerial bombardment and ground attacks against its breakaway province of South Ossetia.… …

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  • 72Colombia — Colombian, adj., n. /keuh lum bee euh/; Sp. /kaw lawm byah/, n. a republic in NW South America. 37,418,290; 439,828 sq. mi. (1,139,155 sq. km). Cap.: Bogotá. * * * Colombia Introduction Colombia Background: Colombia was one of the three countries …

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  • 73France — /frans, frahns/; Fr. /frddahonns/, n. 1. Anatole /ann nann tawl /, (Jacques Anatole Thibault), 1844 1924, French novelist and essayist: Nobel prize 1921. 2. a republic in W Europe. 58,470,421; 212,736 sq. mi. (550,985 sq. km). Cap.: Paris. 3.… …

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  • 74japan — japanner, n. /jeuh pan /, n., adj., v., japanned, japanning. n. 1. any of various hard, durable, black varnishes, originally from Japan, for coating wood, metal, or other surfaces. 2. work varnished and figured in the Japanese manner. 3. Japans,… …

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  • 75Japan — /jeuh pan /, n. 1. a constitutional monarchy on a chain of islands off the E coast of Asia: main islands, Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku. 125,716,637; 141,529 sq. mi. (366,560 sq. km). Cap.: Tokyo. Japanese, Nihon, Nippon. 2. Sea of, the… …

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  • 76United States — a republic in the N Western Hemisphere comprising 48 conterminous states, the District of Columbia, and Alaska in North America, and Hawaii in the N Pacific. 267,954,767; conterminous United States, 3,022,387 sq. mi. (7,827,982 sq. km); with… …

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  • 77Philippines — /fil euh peenz , fil euh peenz /, n. (used with a pl. v.) an archipelago of 7083 islands in the Pacific, SE of China: formerly (1898 1946) under the guardianship of the U.S.; now an independent republic. 76,103,564; 114,830 sq. mi. (297,410 sq.… …

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  • 78Union of Soviet Socialist Republics — a former federal union of 15 constituent republics, in E Europe and W and N Asia, comprising the larger part of the former Russian Empire: dissolved in December 1991. 8,650,069 sq. mi. (22,402,200 sq. km). Cap.: Moscow. Also called Russia, Soviet …

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  • 79Calendar of 1995 — ▪ 1996 January January 1       Cardoso assumes office       Having won some 54% of the ballots cast in the October 1994 election, Fernando Cardoso took the oath of office as president of Brazil. As chief executive of South America s largest… …

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  • 80Ireland — Irelander, n. /uyeur leuhnd/, n. 1. John, 1838 1918, U.S. Roman Catholic clergyman and social reformer, born in Ireland: archbishop of St. Paul, Minn., 1888 1918. 2. Also called Emerald Isle. Latin, Hibernia. a large western island of the British …

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