Optimism has given way to doubt.

This, however, does not mean that the scope of the problem has been reduced.

Today, the risk has receded to one death per 2,000 people.

Violence has declined dramatically over the last 500 years.

War is simply no longer the best option, and that is why violence has decreased.

And of course, I was only interested in the math, so the whole time, he kept shaking his head going,

For the Somalis, the spectre of starvation and disease has receded, and in Mozambique, too, the humanitarian situation seems hopeful.

Growth momentum has fizzled and, with inflation persistently high, Indian producers are struggling to compete in world markets.

And of course, I was only interested in the math, so the whole time, he kept shaking his head going, You know, I didn't learn it this way.

As the threat of nuclear confrontation between the major nuclear Powers has receded, the dangers of nuclear proliferation now appear to be their major preoccupation.

Inflation reached 200 per cent during the first six months of 1992 but subsided somewhat in the latter part of the year.

For a while, international interest in Africa seemed to have ebbed as the world's attention shifted to other issues that have emerged to dominate the global agenda in recent years.

But, while French national identity is intimately bound up with France s international standing how it is perceived in the world enthusiasm for intervention has receded.

An active Russian civil society, which seemed to appear out of nowhere in Mikhail Gorbachev s Soviet Union of 1989 1990 after the long Soviet hibernation, receded far too quickly.

It is also interesting to note that when TNG disappeared and its opponent, SRRC, correspondingly diminished in importance, the highly visible and aggressive direct support for key Somali factions subsided.

Today, such talk has been displaced by concern about what The Economist calls the great slowdown. Recent economic data in China, India, Brazil, and Turkey point to the weakest growth performance in these countries in years.

The improvement recorded in the region apos s ability to finance imports from export proceeds in 1989 and 1990, when the export import ratio increased by 31 and 11 per cent respectively, was partly eroded in 1991 by a decline in exports and higher imports.