Since taking over, Soria and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, of the center right Partido Popular, have followed an austerity-heavy strategy to deficit reduction, with cuts proposed across the energy sector.

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France's fishermen, another grumpy lot, came off best from his tax package, aided not by direct cuts in their fuel costs, but by a special reduction to the heavy social taxes they pay as employers.

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But this rescue package will deliver only a modest reduction in the back-achingly heavy burden of Greek indebtedness.

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Bill Clinton, who is not French, and who came into office calling for the discontinuance of heavy echelons in favor of power projection, simultaneously pressed for a severe reduction in aircraft carriers, the sine qua non of power projection.

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What one can say, however, is that global economic stability calls for a gradual reduction in America's enormous current-account deficit (and its consequent heavy demands on the global capital market).

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Those who stuck to wine had the biggest reduction in cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks, compared with non-drinkers, heavy drinkers or those who drank other types of alcohol.

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