Word: regions
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...from acting against Mugabe by the uncertain results of their own foreign policy interventions elsewhere, and by Mugabe's accusations that they are behind a plot to overthrow him and recolonize Zimbabwe. Despite increasing complaints about Mugabe's behavior from other African leaders, the most influential power in the region, South Africa and its President, Thabo Mbeki, has been ineffective in its efforts to temper Mugabe's excesses. Zimbabwe will now most likely be left to rot behind a wall of international sanctions that will bite its people far harder than its leaders. "Our victory is certain," said Tsvangirai...
...Grand Tower residents are anxiously watching the surrounding rivers. Stubborn bands of storms have saturated the region's corn and soybean fields, swelling the Mississippi River and its tributaries above St. Louis, Mo. Today the rising waters were only about two hours' drive to the north. Some 21 Illinois counties and all of Missouri have been declared disaster zones, and dozens of points along the Mississippi River's levees in both states have ruptured. "We're just standing by, hoping for the best but expecting the worst," says Burke "Bear" Ellett, 49, Grand Tower's mayor for the past dozen...
...earthquakes in 1811 and 1812, for instance, are believed to have been on a scale of 8.0 or higher (by comparison, the 1994 Northridge earthquake in California had a 6.7 magnitude). And historically, earthquakes in the Midwest convulse much greater territory than their equivalents in California. Another problem: the region is also affected by the Wabash Seismic Zone. An April 18, 2008, earthquake from that zone, centered near Belmont, Ill., 128 miles east of St. Louis, carried a magnitude...
...fringe benefits of being a Middle East correspondent is that my travels in the region have allowed me to start a decent little collection of Oriental rugs and, in the process, get better at the art of buying them. I bought my first one--a prayer rug, to celebrate my safe return from Iraq--at a suq in the Old City of Damascus. Carpet seekers flock to similarly byzantine markets in Morocco and Turkey, among other countries. But Syria is a particularly good place to pick up rugs and has been ever since Silk Road travelers from the great weaving...
...first." Then everyone else, he asserts, should be enrolled in food-for-work programs, improving the roads, digging water ponds and farming. "That's what can help people," he says - and he may be right. Long-term, WFP's only way out of Karamoja will come when the region is self-sufficient once again. Getting there will take a predictable budget, more security, and time for forward planning - all luxuries now. And yet as the sun beats down on the squabbling crowds, no one here claims that WFP's efforts have been wasted. "We're happy!" one woman says...