Word: regions
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...Iceland have identified, for the first time, specific gene variants that appear to make some smokers and former smokers more susceptible than others to cancer. The two variants - or differences in a single nucleotide - exist in about 34% of the population and occur in genes in the same region of the long arm of chromosome 15. Those genes code for nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, cell-surface proteins that selectively bind to nicotine molecules. Once nicotine attaches to these receptors, a series of changes in the cells is triggered: in the lungs, for example, cells are pushed into rapid, uncontrolled growth, which...
Most of Mugabe's peers in the region think the same way. Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, José Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, Armando Guebuza of Mozambique and Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia are all heirs to liberation leaders. They have done their utmost to protect - even support - Mugabe in his battle against the West. So has the Malawian President. None of them have good relations with Tsvangirai - a populist outsider whose way of thinking represents a threat to them...
...think we know this about Italy's social topography: the north is efficient and prosperous, the south beset by poverty, mobsters and bad governance. But it was never that simple, as Amendolara demonstrates. This generally well-run coastal town is in the most troubled southern region of all: Calabria, the toe of the Italian boot, where the baleful influence of the crime syndicate 'Ndrangheta is pervasive, the infrastructure is dismal, and the unemployment rate is 13% - double the national average. Amendolara partakes of some of that woe - it's still underdeveloped and isolated...
...there's another bad omen. Calabria and the south are conspicuously absent from the national agenda. Only in passing does the region feature in campaign speeches, and there are few premium spots for southerners on the political parties' parliamentary-candidate lists. True commitment to solving the problems of the "Mezzogiorno" - as Italy's eight southernmost regions are known - is clearly not considered a vote getter. Yet for reasons that transcend geography, turning around the south ought to be Italy's most pressing national priority. Youth unemployment in the Mezzogiorno is a staggering 36%; and between 1991 and 2005, according...
...crime syndicate, the Camorra, which has long infiltrated the waste-disposal business. The government's failure to confront the situation erupted in December, and the burning garbage may have tainted more than Italy's image. The trash emergency may be linked to elevated toxin levels in the Naples region's famous buffalo-milk mozzarella. Italian health officials have recently been forced to check hundreds of factories that produce the cheese after South Korea and Japan temporarily banned imports and the E.U. threatened to do the same...