dicator of certain kinds of sex discrimination in some countries. For
instance, high sex ratios at birth in some Asian countries are now
attributed to sex-selective abortion and infanticide due to a strong
preference for sons. This will affect future marriage patterns and
fertility patterns. Eventually, it could cause unrest among young adult
males who are unable to find partners.

Suffrage
This entry gives the age at enfranchisement and whether the right to
vote is universal or restricted.

Telephone numbers
All telephone numbers in the Factbook consist of the country code in
brackets, the city or area code (where required) in parentheses, and
the local number. The one component that is not presented is the
international access code, which varies from country to country. For
example, an international direct dial telephone call placed from the US
to Madrid, Spain, would be as follows: 011 [34] (1) 577-xxxx, where 011
is the international access code for station-to-station calls; 01 is
for calls other than station-to-station calls, [34] is the country code
for Spain, (1) is the city code for Madrid, 577 is the local exchange,
and xxxx is the local telephone number. An international direct dial
telephone call placed from another country to the US would be as
follows: international access code + [1] (202) 939-xxxx, where [ 1] is
the country code for the US, (202) is the area code for Washington, DC,
939 is the local exchange, and xxxx is the local telephone number.

Telephone system
This entry includes a brief general assessment of the system with
details on the domestic and international components. The following
terms and abbreviations are used throughout the entry:
Africa ONE - a fiber-optic submarine cable link encircling the
continent of Africa.
Arabsat - Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia).
Autodin - Automatic Digital Network (US Department of Defense).
CB - citizen's band mobile radio communications.
cellular telephone system - the telephones in this system are radio
transceivers, with each instrument having its own private radio
frequency and sufficient radiated power to reach the booster station in
its area (cell), from which the telephone signal is fed to a telephone
exchange.
Central American Microwave System - a trunk microwave radio relay
system that links the countries of Central America and Mexico with each
other.
coaxial cable - a multichannel communication cable consis