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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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102389
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10238900.028
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1990-09-22
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WORLD, Page 59World NotesCOMMERCESheep at Any Price
"We're poor little lambs, who have lost our way . . . "
Eight thousand lost lambs, now fully grown into muttonhood,
have been haunting the harbors of the Middle East for two months.
Originally sent from Perth to Saudi Arabia, which buys 3 1/2
million Australian sheep a year, this flock was turned away after
the Saudi Ministry of Agriculture and Water asserted that the
bleaters were afflicted with sheep pox and bluetongue. Australian
officials say those diseases do not exist in their country and that
the Saudis were pressured by their own sheep producers to cut
imports.
Abu Dhabi and other Middle East locales refused to admit the
suspect sheep, and Jordan and Egypt would not even take them free.
An Italian company finally offered to take them on consignment for
resale in Europe, but Egypt balked at allowing the sheep through
the Suez Canal and escorted the ship out of Egyptian waters. Last
week the firm posted a $250,000 guarantee that no sheep or
carcasses would be dumped in the canal, and the ship set sail for
Italy. That seems like a happy ending, except possibly from the
point of view of the sheep.