Furthermore, the annual drop in the level of the river threatened to strand his deep-draft ships.

It registered its second worst annual drop in 12 years, with a 0.7% fall in total sales last month compared with August 2010.

"After May's minus 1.1%, this is the second worst annual drop in total sales since we began compiling these figures in 1999."

Enrollment of nursing students in bachelor's degree programs fell by 2.1 percent in the fall of 2000, the sixth annual drop.

This year the fund is expected to post its fourth consecutive annual drop and its largest decrease since its creation in 1934.

Call it his annual drop in the polls, the leading-hitter polls.

For the year, the Dow is now down 7.7 percent, putting it on pace for its first annual drop in a decade and worst performance since 1981.

A decline in newspaper advertising spending this year would be the first back-to-back annual drop since World War II.

It would represent an average annual drop of about 5 percent in spending after inflation over the three-year period, Administration officials said.

Overall, 120 million people moved out of poverty between 2000 and 2005, which corresponds to an annual drop of 2.4%, but there is no time for complacency.