Taiwan and China are enjoying their warmest relations in years, with stronger economic ties that have been welcomed by the business community. As President Obama visits Asia, some Taiwanese warn that their country could pay a price for expanding commerce with China.
Many Pakistanis believe that India is a bigger threat than Taliban militants.
As China seems to lead the way out of recession, some Chinese say America still has big advantages.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai was inaugurated in Kabul on Thursday for a new term amid tight security and ceremonial flourishes. But his second term is already beset by severe doubts that he will be any more effective at tackling the country's rampant corruption.
President Obama wraps up his trip to Asia with a stop in South Korea, where leader Lee Myung-bak joked that Obama had saved the best for last. The two men discussed a range of issues, including free trade and the ever-present nuclear threat from North Korea.
More than two years ago, U.S. and South Korea signed a bilateral free trade agreement but lawmakers of both countries have yet to ratify the deal. Officials from both countries hope the deal will create new jobs and open up markets. However, auto trade is a major hurdle.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai was sworn in for another five-year term Thursday. Watching with a critical eye were foreign dignitaries who are pressing Karzai to make his second term in office far better than his first. Karzai promised to prosecute corrupt officials.
When Ayon committed suicide in 1999, she was just 32 years old — and already a star in the Cuban art world. A major exhibit of her work now under way in Havana has revived an enduring mystery in Cuba — about art, African myths and the shadowy, all-male secret society known as Abakua.
Prices for MRIs are much cheaper in Japan than in the U.S. The difference in prices provides some insight into why health care costs are so high in the U.S. There's something else at work, too. MRIs are very popular in Japan: Some people get them every year even if they aren't sick.
Cuban leader Raul Castro has maintained an abusive system that his brother put in place to repress dissent, according to Human Rights Watch. The report also calls for a change in U.S. policy, lifting the longtime trade embargo in favor of more targeted sanctions.
President Obama, in his first trip to China as president, met Wednesday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Harry Harding, dean of the University of Virginia's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, discusses what the China visit say about U.S.-China relations.
The U.S. economic downturn and tighter border security has not deterred migrants from Central America seeking to enter the United States. But they are being abused in new and alarming ways. Tens of thousands of them are robbed, kidnapped and even killed attempting to cross Mexico.
A top Iraqi official vetoed the country's election law Wednesday, throwing plans to hold parliamentary elections in January into disarray. The move could unravel hard-won compromises, and it could complicate U.S. efforts to withdraw U.S. combat troops next year.
South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world. But what is widely being called the government's "shoot-to-kill" policy is being blamed for the recent murders of innocent bystanders, including the shooting death of a 3-year-old boy.
Pakistan's army says it has captured most major Taliban bases in South Waziristan. It plans to fan out across the area's rugged countryside to hunt down militants. The tribal area along the Afghan border has been a command center for extremists. The army flew a group of journalists to the area to see two Taliban strongholds that were captured in the offensive.
President Obama's talks in China were cordial, but it was not a breakthrough visit. The modest results have raised questions about how well the two countries can cooperate on important issues. In China, everyone's expectations of Obama's first trip there were different. Some expected him to try to connect more with ordinary Chinese.
The Obama administration is planning to send more diplomats and civilian aid workers to Afghanistan, and it is working out a strategy to spend billions of dollars for development projects across the border in Pakistan. In both countries, U.S. officials will have challenges working with the local leaders while trying to strengthen their countries.
U.S. officials need to engage Afghan President Hamid Karzai as they craft a new strategy for Afghanistan. Alex Thier, director for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the U.S. Institute of Peace, tells Steve Inskeep that U.S. officials are considering options that work with Karzai, and options that work around him.
