Shortening the period of entitlement to unemployment benefit, for instance, would only bring it back to the position in 1985, hardly as radical a move as it first appears.

ECONOMIST: Schr?der still struggles

Here, shortening the period to five years would help by encouraging partners to make their investments early in the development cycle, when the cash may do the most good.

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France's game shots, for example, are almost literally up in arms over the shortening of the period to conform belatedly with European Union law in which they can blast away at migrating birds.

ECONOMIST: The battleground of France

With the shortening of the payment period under Agenda 2010, joblessness has fallen by more than average among older workers during the economic upswing.

ECONOMIST: Germany's government

It is an imbalance in this status quo that has allowed the seasons to change: the daylight hours of summer, the time of good, shortening, whilst the time of evil, the winter of night, has gained strength, the interim period, known as dusk, when both are present, becoming an all consuming battle for supremacy.

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