Word: regions
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...Family Values The lush jungle-covered hills and sapphire-blue seas of the southern Philippines look serene, but the region is a battleground where the MILF and its parent group, the Moro National Liberation Front, have long waged bloody struggles for independence. In the mid-1990s the MNLF brokered a deal with the government to share power in areas of Sulu, 900 km south of Manila. The MILF has been in sporadic peace talks over its claim for territory in the south, but a clash with government troops last year left 14 marines dead, 10 of them beheaded. Ranging across...
...While authorities combed villages in Indonesia and Malaysia, Dulmatin and family were living quietly under aliases, living off local food and using coconuts and oil palm to produce oil and fuel. They used a small boat to travel around the often-flooded region. Hiding nearby were Patek and his local wife Rumaisah. Several times, the Dulmatin family hid in the jungle as the Philippine military launched air and artillery strikes against separatist rebels. Despite the stress of being on the run, the couple in late 2003 had their fourth child...
...more than uniformed thieves. Opium traffickers have a firm grip on the agricultural production of the province, providing credit, seeds and fertilizer to farmers, who have no other recourse than to grow the raw material for heroin--which in turn finances the insurgency. Helmand is the biggest opium-producing region in the world. And it is home to a Pashtun population that has historically resisted centralized rule. It is, says Chris Alexander, the U.N.'s deputy special representative in Afghanistan, "the place where the challenges that used to be nationwide have been swept like dead leaves into a pile...
Just a few miles down the road from where Shervington stopped to talk with the farmer is Kajaki Sofla, a bustling town on the banks of the Helmand River that is the local Taliban headquarters. It holds the region's largest bazaar, an essential stop for daily necessities like tea, oil and sugar. To get to the bazaar, travelers must pass through a Taliban checkpoint, where they are taxed and interrogated. Those suspected of collaborating with the British are beaten, or worse. Shervington can do nothing about it. All he can do is pace his area of operations like...
...rumblings on the specific issue of divorced Catholics were in large part stirred by the Pope himself. Shortly after rising to the papacy, Benedict said the problem needed "study." During a July 2005 meeting with priests from the Italian mountain region of Valle d'Aosta, the Pope said: "We all know that this is a particularly painful situation. None of us has a ready-made solution, because each person's situation is different...