Word: regions
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...without serious risk to the environment. "We're conducting one of the largest environmental-study programs in Alaska's history," notes John Shively, CEO of the Pebble Partnership, which is overseeing the project. Moreover, the Pebble Mine offers the potential for new jobs - which are vitally needed in a region where steady employment can be hard to find, especially for Alaskan natives. "It's a battle between traditional culture and the modern world," says Ralph Anderson, president of the Bristol Bay Native Association. "I don't know if we can reconcile them...
Although official results won't be due for up to a week, the victory of the two ruling parties in last Saturday's provincial election in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq was never in doubt. The Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have run the region in a virtual duopoly since 1991, when the U.S.-patrolled No-Fly Zone helped force Saddam Hussein's military out of the region. However, a new coalition, the Change List, is expected to make gains in the election, with polls showing that it could capture as much as a quarter...
...them win major concessions for the Kurds while the rest of Iraq was mired in civil war. Besides winning the presidency for Talabani, the Kurds had their claims to disputed areas of northern Iraq, particularly the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, recognized in Iraq's new constitution. But the region's leaders have been cautious about pushing the Kurds' nationalist claims too far. Although the Kurdish population overwhelmingly supports the creation of an independent Kurdish state carved out of northern Iraq, Kurdish leaders realize it would have a slim chance of survival surrounded by hostile neighbors - Turkey, Iran and Syria...
...there's a darker side to the dominance of the KDP and PUK in Kurdistan. Human-rights groups claim that the ruling parties use security issues as an excuse to jail and torture opponents and rivals. In addition, the parties' leaders control vast sectors of the region's economy, and foreign and local businessmen say it is nearly impossible to start a venture in Kurdistan without a silent partner from one of the two groups. Critics also say the parties use the allocation of jobs in schools, hospitals and government ministries as a way to enforce loyalty. And the region...
...started to shift in the KDP's favor after Talabani took the prestigious but highly symbolic office of the Iraqi presidency, allowing Massoud Barzani to build up a power base back home in Kurdistan. The Change List further eroded the PUK's stature in the region by mounting a significant challenge against the party on its home turf in Sulaimaniyah...