World in brief

U.N. report: Latin America liberty in peril

LIMA, Peru - Latin American democracies are in trouble and losing the support of their citizens because of inequality and extreme poverty, the United Nations said Wednesday in a sweeping report on the region's political health.

"The good news is that in the last 20 years there has been a great leap in the number of democracies in the region," said Mark Malloch Brown, head of the United Nations Development Program.

"But we also know that democracy does not enjoy good health, fundamentally because it has not provided benefits in terms of reduction of poverty and inequality."

The 250-page study is the result of three years of research involving interviews with 231 opinion leaders, including former and current Latin American presidents.

NICOSIA, Cyprus - Campaigns on a U.N. plan to reunite Cyprus heated up Wednesday with former presidents addressing mass rallies of Greek Cypriots and police on the Turkish side of the island arresting 47 suspects who attacked supporters of the proposed union.

World officials stepped into the campaign as the United Nations, the United States and the European Parliament urged Cypriots to vote "Yes" in the separate referendums that will be held on the Turkish and Greek speaking sides of the island on Saturday.

Russia, meanwhile, vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on new U.N. security arrangements that would take effect if both communities voted yes. Russian Ambassador Gennady Gatilov said his country saw the draft as an attempt to influence the vote.

N. KOREA TALKS: The Chinese government announced that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, will continue with the six-nation talks organized by China to defuse North Korea's nuclear standoff with the United States.

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