As an American in Tehran, I was reminded that most everyone is already in Iran keen to do business, everyone except Americans. (All photos by Dick Simon) As one of the only Americans in the largest international hotel in Tehran, I was reminded that most everyone is...
By Janet Guttsman If the Canadian province of Alberta were part of the United States, it would be what U.S. locals call a “red state.” That means a U.S. state that consistently elects the right-of-center Republican party, dislikes big government, believes firmly in...
At 240 million people, it is home to the world’s fourth largest population. It’s also the third most populous democracy after India and the United States. It has by far the world’s biggest Muslim population but has always rejected attempts to create an Islamic state....
By Jonathan Thatcher Indonesia, the world’s third biggest democracy, sparked an international outcry with last month’s mass executions of convicted drug traffickers, most of them foreigners. At home, however, President Joko Widodo’s refusal to cave in to foreign...
By Alistair Lyon Yemen’s green terraced mountains, exuberant architecture and proud heritage of music, poetry and Islamic learning, not to mention its inhabitants’ fondness for whiling away the afternoons chewing mildly narcotic leaves, mark it out from its Arab...
By Bernd Debusmann When President Barack Obama announced the opening of a new chapter in U.S. relations with Cuba last December, he said, “We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different result.” The phrase echoed Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity...
You might think Sri Lanka would be small change for Asia’s two powerhouses. But maneuvering by China and India underscores the strategic importance both attach to the island nation. Called Ceylon in English until 1972, Sri Lanka occupies a strategic location in the...
By Barry Moody The Islamist massacre of nearly 150 university students in Kenya last week will accentuate concerns about the capacity of this strategic Western ally to face a mounting threat from al Qaeda’s Somali allies. The killings, which occurred only three months...
By Jane Macartney China’s ruling Communist Party has just announced it will put on trial its most senior official to be arrested for corruption since the Party swept to power more than 65 years ago. It is a part of a campaign by Party chief and President Xi Jinping to...
By Alan Wheatley The dollar bestrides the globe. How are oil, copper and other commodities priced and traded? In dollars. Unsure what currency to take to a faraway country? Best take dollars. How does every nation measure the strength of its currency? By how much it...