UN: Water pollution, drought threaten world's poor (AP)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark ? Prosperous countries have not lived up to their promises to help the poor, the U.N. declared Wednesday, saying poor people often go hungry because of polluted water, drought and other environmental factors that are increasing poverty.

In its annual report on the quality of life worldwide, the United Nations Development Program said more should be done to address international environmental concerns and that sustainability must become a way of life as the world population grows above 7 billion.

"Sustainability is not exclusively or even primarily an environmental issue," UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said in the report's introduction. "It is fundamentally about how we choose to live our lives, with an awareness that everything we do has consequences for the seven billions of us here today, as well as for the billions more who will follow."

The report noted that although aid to poorer countries grew 23 percent from 2005 to 2009, it was not enough.

"Rich countries have consistently failed to meet their stated pledges," including promises made by the G-8, the European Union and the United Nations to give $100 billion a year by 2020 to fight the impact of climate change in developing countries.

"The pledges fall well short of estimated needs, and disbursements fall well short of pledges. Most of the 'new and additional' funds pledged at the 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen have not been delivered, and less than 8 percent of pledges for climate change were disbursed in 2010," the report said.

Last month, the world population hit 7 billion. The U.N. estimates the world's population will reach 8 billion by 2025 and 10 billion by 2083.

The UNDP report, published annually since 1990, said high living standards don't need to be carbon-fueled and follow the examples of the richest countries, adding CO2 emissions have been closely linked with national income growth.

Among the 187 nations surveyed, Norway, Australia and the Netherlands topped the annual Human Development Index while Congo, Niger and Burundi were listed last.

The United States was fourth, ahead of New Zealand and Canada, but when the index is adjusted for internal inequalities in health, education and income, some of the wealthiest nations drop out of the UNDP's top 20, the report showed.

The U.S. falls to 23 on that list, South Korea drops from 15 to 32, and Israel ? at 17 ? falls to 25.

___

Online: http://hdr.undp.org/en/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111102/ap_on_re_eu/eu_un_world_development

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Italian borrowing rates soar as govt weakens

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi attends a G20 meeting in Cannes, Thursday, Nov.3, 2011. U.S. President Barack Obama joined other world leaders in the south of France Thursday for a G20 meeting that is expected to focus on the Greek debt crisis and broader European financial troubles. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi attends a G20 meeting in Cannes, Thursday, Nov.3, 2011. U.S. President Barack Obama joined other world leaders in the south of France Thursday for a G20 meeting that is expected to focus on the Greek debt crisis and broader European financial troubles. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrives for a G20 summit in Cannes, France on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011. French President Nicolas Sarkozy will welcome Barack Obama of the U.S., Hu Jintao of China as well as the leaders of India, Brazil, Russia and the other members of the Group of 20 leading world economies in the city made famous by its annual film festival, but the event is far from the star turn the unpopular French leader had hoped to make six months before he faces a tough re-election vote. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrives for a G20 summit in Cannes, France on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011. French President Nicolas Sarkozy will welcome Barack Obama of the U.S., Hu Jintao of China as well as the leaders of India, Brazil, Russia and the other members of the Group of 20 leading world economies in the city made famous by its annual film festival, but the event is far from the star turn the unpopular French leader had hoped to make six months before he faces a tough re-election vote. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

(AP) ? Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government failed to come up with immediate growth measures to show a summit of world leaders, sending Italy's borrowing rates to dangerous new highs Thursday and igniting talk of a possible government collapse.

Italy's respected president, who would be responsible for choosing an interim government if Berlusconi's did fail, was holding talks with party leaders in a search for possible alternatives.

Berlusconi's weakening grip on his majority was evident in a Cabinet meeting that lasted late into the night Wednesday amid reports of discord with his finance minister, Giulio Tremonti. Berlusconi wanted the Cabinet to agree to enforce some emergency economic reforms as a decree, so they could take immediate effect, including selling government property and privatizing some local public services.

Instead, he headed Thursday to a summit in Cannes of the Group of 20 wealthy nations with only proposed legislation, requiring approval by a divided Parliament.

At Cannes, Berlusconi pledged to other eurozone leaders that he would put the measures to a vote of confidence within the next two weeks. If those measures fail, Berlusconi would be forced to step down.

Berlusconi has insisted that his government will survive its mandate until 2013, but even his coalition partners, the Northern League, have cast doubt on that.

"It is difficult to avoid the impression that this government's time is numbered in days, or weeks, and that the legislature will finish at the beginning of 2012," the Corriere della Sera newspaper wrote in a front page editorial.

"Berlusconi has become a puppet in the Italian political theater," the speaker of the lower house and former Berlusconi ally, Gianfranco Fini, told state TV.

He urged Berlusconi to show his leadership by seeking a broad alliance to see the country through the crisis.

Market reaction to Italy's political deadlock was withering. Italy is the eurozone's third largest economy, far too large to be bailed out like Greece, Portugal and Ireland have been. Yet Italy has a debt of euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion), or 120 percent of GDP, second only to the debt ratio in extremely troubled Greece.

The yield on Italy's 10-year bonds jumped to 6.4 percent on the secondary market at one point Thursday, 4.62 percentage points higher than the rate on the German equivalent bund. Speculation that the European Central Bank was back in the markets buying up Italian bonds took the yield back down to 6.17 percent.

The ECB has been buying up Italian bonds for weeks in an attempt to keep borrowing rates at manageable levels. Borrowing costs of 7 percent or more are widely considered unsustainable, which could cause a default on public debt.

President Giorgio Napolitano met with leaders of Italian parties Thursday to gauge the political situation and seek alternatives. If the government falls, Napolitano would decide if a technical government or someone else in the center-right would run the country before new elections.

Napolitano sought to reassure Italy's partners and the markets, saying that both the majority and the opposition "are aware of the weight of the problems that Italy must confront with urgency." He said the next parliament vote would allow him to better evaluate the political situation.

The head of Berlusconi's party, Alfonso Alfano, insisted after meeting with Napolitano that Berlusconi has a majority to continue to 2013. But even he addressed the possibility of the government's failure, saying that new elections, and not a technical government, should be next.

Berlusconi's influence frayed further when six of his Party of Freedom (PDL) lawmakers signed a letter saying they would no longer support him in parliament if he did not seek to build a national unity government.

"The current government does not have the consensus in parliament to achieve the difficult agenda of commitments taken in front of European institutions, the parliament and the Italian people," they wrote.

Later, another two of his lawmakers defected to a centrist party.

The government has been further weakened by reports of discord on emergency measures between Berlusconi and his finance minister.

After raising expectations of a decree, the government announced legislation reportedly after Napolitano suggested they would enjoy more legitimacy if passed by parliament. They include divesting government-owned real estate, privatizing local public companies, encouraging investment in infrastructure and liberalizing the labor market.

The measures must be approved by the end of the year, the government said in a statement.

They were outlined to the European Union last week after Italy and Berlusconi came under pressure from other eurozone governments and financial markets to find ways to boost the country's anemic growth.

However, doubts have been growing that Berlusconi has the political muscle to push such reforms through.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-03-EU-Italy-Financial-Crisis/id-65215f67e7554d6aa403a37d4391add6

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NBC Buys Legal Drama From 'Outlaw Country' Scribes, Producer ...

Nellie Andreeva

With their Nashville pilot Outlaw Country heating up for a series pickup at FX, Josh Goldin and Rachel Abramowitz have sold a second drama project to NBC. The legal drama, titled Major Crimes, hails from Sony Pictures TV and producer Michael London (Milk), who is executive producing through his Groundswell Prods. Described as ?ER in the LA prosecutor?s office,? Major Crimes is set in the world of young ADAs in a Los Angeles downtown court building. Moving at a bullet pace, the show focuses on an ensemble cast of massively overworked ADAs falling in love, battling their own demons and ambitions, while seeking out justice on the run. Goldin and Abramowitz are co-writing/executive producing the project, which came out of the extensive research the two did in the court offices in downtown LA. Major Crimes joins two other recently announced Groundswell series projects: A Visit From The Goon Squad at HBO and Magicians at Fox through 20th TV. Abramowitz and Goldin are with CAA & Media Talent; London is with CAA.

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Britain should welcome climate refugee species

Some places are ideal havens for species threatened by climate change. One is Britain, and it should throw open its doors

VISIT an estuary or wetland in the lowlands of Britain and chances are you will see a slender white bird called the little egret. Although widespread, the species is a recent arrival from more southerly latitudes: the first breeding population established itself in 1996.

The little egret isn't the only one. As the climate warms, species all over the world are relocating to higher latitudes at an average rate of 17 kilometres per decade.

However, some species are unable to relocate - those restricted to the summits of single mountain ranges, for example. Many are projected to become extinct.

What are the options for such species? One possibility is "assisted colonisation", which means deliberately introducing them into areas where the climate is more suitable. Assisted colonisation divides opinion among conservationists. I would argue it is now the only realistic way to maintain wild populations of some species.

To some extent, assisted colonisation is already part of established practice, as subspecies are sometimes introduced to areas outside their native ranges. The Swedish subspecies of the large blue butterfly, for example, was introduced to Britain after the native one became extinct.

In some cases, extinct species are being replaced with ecologically equivalent ones. On Mauritius's Round Island, giant tortoises from Madagascar and the Seychelles are being experimentally introduced to replace the native ones driven to extinction in the 19th century.

Why stop there? Introductions could be even more desirable if the introduced species were themselves endangered.

This, too, is not unheard of. In New Zealand, Brothers Island tuataras have been moved to predator-free Titi Island without anyone knowing for sure whether they ever lived there. Similar attempts are under way to establish the Bermuda petrel on Bermuda's Nonsuch Island, where hurricanes and sea-level rise pose less of a risk than in its native breeding areas.

In these cases, it is accepted that the benefits outweigh any negative consequences. It is surely better to maintain such species somewhere in the wild than condemn them to captivity or extinction.

There are, of course, arguments against assisted colonisation. One is that relocated species could displace native species from their new homes. That is a real danger, but the risks are low in some situations.

It is true that about 40 per cent of extinctions with a known cause have been associated with invasive species. But almost all these extinctions either occurred in environments with high concentrations of "endemic" species that occur nowhere else, or involved moving species between continents. These are not the types of movement I advocate.

Another fear is the creation of "unnatural" communities, but this is not particularly relevant in today's world. A philosophy of conserving communities as they are, or restoring them to some specified or imagined historical state, is no longer credible. The transport of species has already altered biological communities permanently. Whatever we do, species will continue to be moved for agriculture, horticulture, forestry, the pet trade, medicine - and by accident.

Climate change adds to the melting pot. Everywhere we have looked, it has already altered the composition of biological communities. Why should they not also contain species that would otherwise be endangered?

At present we don't know how many climate-threatened species with narrow distributions could thrive if they were transported elsewhere, but further research should reveal this.

Another key question is, where should we move species to? Given that invasive species hardly ever cause extinctions in places with few endemics, we should be looking for places dominated by non-endemic species. One such place is Britain.

To the best of my knowledge, no native species has gone extinct here as a result of the arrival of non-native species (other than humans). Britain is already home to around 2000 introduced species which have increased biodiversity while causing few, if any, major problems. True, there have been ecological changes, and we spend a lot of money trying to get rid of aliens, but Britain appears virtually immune to extinctions from introduced species. It therefore represents an ideal destination for endangered species from elsewhere in Europe.

One is the Iberian lynx, the most endangered cat in the world. Establishing it in Britain would represent a great contribution to global conservation. Another is the Spanish imperial eagle; a third possibility is the Pyrenean desman, a semi-aquatic mammal restricted to streams in north-west Iberia.

Various butterflies and water beetles might also find a suitable home in Britain. In fact, the vast majority of species endangered by climate change are likely to be plants and insects that would be relatively easy to accommodate.

Virtually all of Britain's land is heavily modified by humans, and its extensive tracts of largely artificial habitat - conifer plantations, for example - could be enhanced by translocated species. I think it is time for gardeners, landowners and conservation organisations to get involved in identifying species we might be able to save and places where we could move them.

Conservation is now about managing change. Retaining or restoring the past is no longer feasible. We should avoid the unproductive question "how can we keep things as they are?" and instead ask "how can we maximise our contributions to global conservation?" One way will be to open our doors to endangered aliens.

Chris Thomas is a biologist at the University of York, UK. This is adapted from a review in Trends in Ecology and Evolution (vol 26, p 216)

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A child is born and world population hits 7 billion

Countries around the world marked the world's population reaching 7 billion Monday with lavish ceremonies for newborn infants symbolizing the milestone and warnings that there may be too many humans for the planet's resources.

While demographers are unsure exactly when the world's population will reach the 7 billion mark, the U.N. is using Monday to symbolically mark the day.

A string of festivities are being held worldwide, with a series of symbolic 7-billionth babies being born.

The celebrations began in the Philippines, where baby Danica May Camacho was greeted with cheers and an explosion of photographers' flashbulbs at Manila's Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital.

The Guardian newspaper reported that Danica, whose name means morning star, had been chosen by the U.N. to be one of a number of symbolic 7 billionth babies. It is not known who the actual baby is.

Danica arrived two minutes before midnight Sunday, but doctors decided that was close enough to count for a Monday birthday.

'She looks so lovely'
The baby received a shower of gifts, from a chocolate cake marked "7B Philippines" to a gift certificate for shoes.

"She looks so lovely," the mother, Camille Galura, whispered as she cradled the 5.5-pound baby, who was born about a month premature.

Story: Seven big problems for 7 billion people

The baby was the second for Galura and her partner, Florante Camacho, a struggling driver who supports the family on a tiny salary.

Dr. Eric Tayag, of the Philippines' Department of Health, said later that the birth came with a warning.

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PhotoBlog: World population set to exceed seven billion

"Seven billion is a number we should think about deeply," he said.

"We should really focus on the question of whether there will be food, clean water, shelter, education and a decent life for every child," he said. "If the answer is 'no,' it would be better for people to look at easing this population explosion."

Chart: 7 billion people (on this page)

The Guardian reported that children chosen to mark the world's population reaching six billion and five billion ? Adnan Nevic, 12, of Bosnia Herzogovina, and Matej Gaspar, from Croatia, respectively ? felt they had been forgotten.

"We saw Kofi Annan as almost like a godfather to him," Adnan's father, Jasminko, told the Guardian. Adnan said: "He held me up when I was two days old but since then we have heard nothing from them."

Population growth rate slows
According to the United Nations Population Fund, the seven-billionth child is most likely to be a boy born in India or China, but the trend of fertility in the longer term is in a different direction, Dudley Poston, a professor of sociology and demographics at Texas A&M University, told Reuters.

For the first time ever, the human reproduction rate is slowing, in many places slowing significantly, and the slowing growth is not only happening in Europe and Japan, he said.

"Once your fertility rates drops below two, it is very very hard to get it to go back up again," Poston told Reuters.

"We now have 75 countries in the world where the fertility rate is below two," meaning the average woman is having fewer than two children.

Video: India?s growing population (on this page)

That is far below the rate of 2.2 to 2.3 considered optimal to hold the population steady, factoring in the number of females who have no children or who don't live to reach childbearing age.

While he said Europe and the industrialized democracies of east Asia are the poster children for demographic shift, low birth rates are also being seen in Brazil, in China, and in the Islamic Middle East, where the fertility rate in the United Arab Emirates is 1.8.

"Japan is losing more people today than they're gaining," Poston said. "South Korea has an alarmingly low fertility rate, 1.1."

Not long ago, the opposite was true. In 1970, the average fertility rate worldwide was 4.5, leading to predictions of demographic doom in books like Robert Silverberg's "The World Inside" and Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich's "The Population Bomb."

Wars, unrest once feared
They saw a world where hoards of wildly reproducing humans desperate for dwindling food supplies would destroy social cohesion and spark wars and societal unrest.

But a funny thing happened on the way to population Armageddon.

Poston said the fastest growth period in the history of the world was in the mid to late 1960s, which prompted a gloomy outlook for the future.

"When Paul Ehrlich wrote that book the world was growing at about 2 percent per year," Poston said. "Now we're growing at about half that."

But Poston said a combination of factors led to what may be the most significant demographic shift ever.

In the industrialized West, improved methods of birth control and greater opportunities for women in the workplace and in society meant the end of 5,000 years of women generally being considered society's baby-makers.

In China, there has been aggressive enforcement of a "one-child" policy, drastically reducing population growth rates.

Worldwide, urbanization has reduced the need for large families beneficial in rural agricultural areas.

Reasons for significant growth rate declines in places like Iran, where the rate has fallen from 7.0 in 1974 to 1.9, remain more of a mystery, but Poston said they probably could be traced to cultural changes that can be very difficult to reverse.

"We have been growing very, very fast in the world and now we're starting to slow down," he said.

March of science
Poston said it took until about 1800 for the earth to see its one billionth resident, as high fertility rates were effectively countered by high infant mortality rates, diseases, and nearly continuous warfare that generally cut down men at the height of their most active reproductive years.

The march of science led to a decrease in infant mortality and deadly diseases, and combined with a continued high fertility rate led to a huge population bloom. The two billionth human was born in 1930, and the six billionth in 1999.

Moreover, the warfare and constant societal violence that helped keep the population in check has retreated, Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker said in his recent book "The Better Angels of our Nature."

"It is really only in the countries of sub Saharan Africa where fertility is still high...," Poston said, "but even in several of these countries there have been fertility declines in recent years."

So Poston said while it took 12 years to reach Monday's seven billion mark from six billion, it will take 14 years to reach eight billion ? the first time in history a billion milestone has taken longer to reach than the one before ? and then 18 years to reach nine billion.

Thus far the world has been able to produce enough food to feed its new mouths.

The U.N. says world food production per person today is 41 percent higher than in 1961, thanks largely to the "Green Revolution" in farming which brought higher yields not only to Western farmers, but brought traditional subsistence farming in Africa and Asia into the modern age.

Food production per capita in India today is 37 percent higher than fifty years ago, according to the World Bank.

Some still fear food shortages and price rises, and problems with supplies of other commodities like oil.

"(Whether) the rate of farm production slow down or level off is uncertain," Poston said. "But right now there is no difficulty."

And the trends may bring problems of a different sort, he said, predicting the world will begin seeing the impact of declining populations in as little as 40 years.

"That is going to be the issue in the future," Poston said. "We are going to have to start thinking for the first time in human history about fewer."

That will mean thinking in an entirely new way about everything from resource production to old age pensions, he said.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45100073/ns/world_news/

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Photo Contest - Austin Pets Alive!

by jenna.riedi ? Posted in: Donations, Events, Fundraising

Does your dog know how to strike a pose?? Did you capture your cat in the perfect lighting?? Then this contest is for you!? Submit your best pet photo and you and your pet will have a chance to win the title of Austin?s Favorite Pet!

Photos can be submitted to email hidden; JavaScript is required from November 1 through November 7. Please submit the photo, name of pet, and who is nominating the pet!? Voting runs from November 9 to November 30.? The dog or cat with the most votes? at 11:59:59pm on November 30 will be crowned Austin?s Favorite Pet!

$1 donated = 1 vote.? You may donate as much and often as you like and can share with everyone you want to encourage votes for your pet or your favorite pet.? All donations go to Austin Pets Alive! to allow us to pull more dogs and cats from local shelters that would otherwise be killed.

The grand prize winner will be featured in a half page or full page ad in the January 2012 edition of Austin Woman Magazine!? The winner also receives an on-location natural light photo session with Nicole Mlakar Photography, which includes the following?

  • Up to two locations of your choice
  • Up to three hours of session time
  • Minimum of 35 image choices
  • Password protected on-line gallery to view image choices
  • A disc of web-resolution files, of every image, to share on the web
  • A print credit of $250 to apply to any size loose prints.
  • A model release will be required. Session travel is up to 20 miles outside of Austin.? Additional travel fee will apply for mileage beyond this limit.

There will be prize packages for second and third place as well! Hit us with your best shot!

Source: http://www.austinpetsalive.org/2011/11/austin-pets-alive-photo-contest/

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Samsung Illusion, Casio G'zOne Ravine 2 and BlackBerry Curve 9370 to hit Verizon this month?

Don't rub your eyes. That above pic is no mirage. It's a leaked rebate form heralding the Big Red arrival of an actual Illusion -- a 3G Samsung-made one, that is. The form, sent to us by an eagle-eyed tipster, confirms that mysterious Gingerbread phone's imminent November launch, while also outing two other equally un-hyped devices: the BlackBerry Curve 9370 and Casio G'zOne Ravine 2. No official release date could be gleaned from the info at hand, but with a redemption period ranging from the 1st of this month to the 28th, we're fairly certain this triumvirate of mid-range phones will be making a retail debut soon. So, if you need to replace your last battle-weary, ruggedized smartphone or have a hankering for portrait QWERTYs, this fair fall month's mobile refreshes could be just the ticket.

Samsung Illusion, Casio G'zOne Ravine 2 and BlackBerry Curve 9370 to hit Verizon this month? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tense Kyrgyz vote tests democratic reforms (Reuters)

BISHKEK (Reuters) ? Kyrgyzstan voted Sunday to elect a new president who will determine whether bold reforms to create Central Asia's first parliamentary democracy will succeed in the divided and restive former Soviet republic.

A clean election would signal the first peaceful handover of the presidency in the mainly Muslim country after 20 years of failed authoritarian rule, the culmination of reforms set in motion after a bloody revolt toppled the president last year.

But less than an hour before polls closed, six of the 16 candidates said they would reject the outcome. Some said they had witnessed multiple voting, while others said poorly prepared voter lists had excluded many people from the ballot.

"Tens of thousands of voters couldn't vote in line with their constitutional rights. They are outraged," said Adakhan Madumarov, one of two serious challengers to the Moscow-backed Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev.

Instability in Kyrgyzstan worries the United States and Russia, which operate military air bases in the country of 5.5 million people and share concerns over drug trafficking and the possible spillover of Islamist militancy from Afghanistan.

"We want an honest president who can uphold the law, somebody who will not allow the country to be divided by clans or by north and south," said 43-year-old schoolteacher Aida, who declined to give her second name.

Those who took power after an April 2010 revolution, led by outgoing President Roza Otunbayeva, have watered down the powers of the president and established parliament as the main decision-making body in Kyrgyzstan.

Atambayev, the pro-business prime minister, is the flag-bearer of these reforms. His policies are closest to those of Otunbayeva, who will step down at the end of 2011.

"A parliamentary system is more suited to the nomadic spirit of the people," Atambayev told reporters after casting his vote. "After 20 years, we are convinced that we don't need absolute power, which can transform itself into dictatorship."

Opinion polls have made Atambayev, 55, the clear favorite.

"He's a grafter," said retired construction worker Nikolai Dubovik, 77, who braved the first snow of winter to vote early at a school in the capital Bishkek.

But analysts question whether he can secure the outright majority required at the first attempt. If he falls short, he will face a strong challenger from the south in a run-off.

Per capita GDP in Kyrgyzstan, at below $1,000, is less than a tenth of that in its oil-rich neighbor Kazakhstan. The economy relies heavily on remittances from migrant workers and the production of a single gold mine.

Stamping out graft will also be a major challenge to the next leader of a country that ranked level with the Democratic Republic of Congo in Transparency International's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index.

"The current authorities have done a lot, but not everything they promised," said 53-year-old architect Kubanbaike Aliaskarov. "The price of gasoline is hitting us in the pocket. Sugar has nearly doubled in price."

NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE

The election threatens to expose a north-south cultural divide. Atambayev, from the more Russian-leaning and industrial north, faces challenges from Madumarov and a second candidate who can draw on the nationalism of voters in the poorer south.

Madumarov, a 46-year-old former national billiards champion, wants to reverse the constitutional reforms to give equal prominence to the presidency and parliament.

The other leading southern candidate, trained boxer and former emergencies minister Kamchibek Tashiyev, has said "millions" would take to the streets to overthrow the country's leaders if they believed the elections to be unfair.

"We had a unique chance to hold honest, transparent and secure elections," said another candidate, Marat Imankulov. "Unfortunately we haven't seen this. The authorities have thus given a reason for people to express their dissatisfaction."

A representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's election monitoring arm said earlier that only minor electoral violations had been witnessed in what he called a "competitive race."

"(There is) the possibility for candidates without impediments to bring their views to the voters," said Douglas Wake, first deputy director of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

But he added there had been "some challenges with voter lists, with the transparency of the work of the electoral administration."

'KYRGYZSTAN IS DIFFERENT'

In the village of Gulbakhor, home to 3,000 ethnic Kyrgyz in the snowcapped mountains around the main southern city of Osh, residents voted overwhelmingly for Madumarov, who has vowed to spend half his time outside the office if elected president.

"He's young and honest, and his pockets are empty. He does not pursue selfish goals," said pensioner Kamchy Aliyev, 82.

But ethnic Uzbeks in the south were voting for Atambayev. Many believe his close ties with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will protect them from a repeat of the June 2010 ethnic violence in which hundreds were killed.

The next president will be allowed by the current constitution to serve a single 6-year term and will appoint the defense minister and national security head.

The field of 16 candidates and the unpredictability of the result mark Kyrgyzstan out in formerly Soviet Central Asia, a region otherwise governed by authoritarian presidents.

"In the context of the region, Kyrgyzstan is different," Walburga Habsburg Douglas, head of the OSCE observation mission, told Reuters. "The people have a genuine choice of candidates, who are presenting different programs."

The hopes of many voters were simpler.

"May God help our children not to kill and steal from each other," said 62-year-old pensioner Jamillya Karashova. "We want peace on our soil. And maybe just a little happiness."

(Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov in Osh; Writing by Robin Paxton; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111030/wl_nm/us_kyrgyzstan_elections

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Israel aircraft hit Gaza, 2 found dead (AP)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip ? The Israeli military says its aircraft struck at a rocket squad that attacked Israel from the southern Gaza Strip, and Palestinians officials report that two men were found dead in the area.

Palestinian security officials say two bodies were discovered around dawn Monday. They say the men were wearing the uniform of a little-known group with ties to Hamas that previously had not been involved in violence against Israel.

They say the men were unarmed and that no rocket launchers were found in the area.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Deadly violence between Israel and Gaza militants flared over the weekend. In earlier fighting, 10 militants and an Israeli civilian were killed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111031/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

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