Word: poorest
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...Such is the mix of anticipation and frustration forming, along with the rain clouds, over the western hemisphere's poorest country. Haiti's challenges seem even more daunting now that a new study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington has re-estimated the earthquake damage from $5 billion to between $7 billion and $13 billion, making it one of history's worst natural disasters. "This has never happened to a country before," says the European-educated Bellerive, 51, a doctor's son and international-relations expert. "Forty percent of our GDP was destroyed in 30 seconds...
...world's poorest regions, West Africa already had its work cut out for it in trying to develop economically, fight the advance of the Sahara and establish rules of law. Now the world's largest terrorist group and biggest drug barons are in the mix - as in Afghanistan, only much larger. Niger adds an extra dimension to this worrying picture: it is home to Africa's largest deposits of uranium, needed to build nuclear power stations and weapons. And lawlessness is endemic. While I was reporting in Niamey last April, my car was attacked twice by mobs wielding steel poles...
...actions by saying he wanted to continue his mission of serving the people. And they need serving: Niger's population of 15 million is growing at the fastest rate in the world (an average woman there gives birth to seven children). Nigerians are also among the world's poorest, subjected to periodic droughts and famine. But Tandja's claims were made hollow by his track record in office - his government has been accused of corruption and harassment of political opponents, journalists and aid workers. Among those unconvinced by his motives was the West African regional group ECOWAS, which suspended Niger...
...That's understandable thinking in Haiti, the western hemisphere's poorest country, where children are frequently given up by their destitute parents. Those kids are all too often funneled to more-affluent families who turn them into slaves, known in Creole as restaveks, or to outright traffickers who force them into lives of prostitution in Haiti and abroad. The Haitian government estimates that there are about 300,000 restaveks in Haiti today. In many cases before and after the quake, parents and orphanages have delivered their kids to well-meaning but naive foreigners like the Idaho missionaries, who were collared...
...Greece's government is resisting pressure from its E.U. partners to make even deeper cuts. True to its socialist roots, it's trying to structure the measures in ways that will protect the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. To that end, the government says it will lower the threshold for the highest income tax bracket rather than increase the sales tax. But all Greeks are likely to feel the pinch in some way. The fact that many families usually rely on a variety of sources of income (including untaxed or black-market work), and because many own their...