DEVELOPMENT: Dubai Meet in Quest of Urban Success Stories

The central Chinese city of Benxi used to be so polluted it became invisible in satellite pictures for at least four months in a year. But a decade-long effort by city authorities to curb industrial and vehicle emissions means the air there is breatheable again.

DEVELOPMENT: Dubai Meet in Quest of Urban Success Stories

The central Chinese city of Benxi used to be so polluted it became invisible in satellite pictures for at least four months in a year. But a decade-long effort by city authorities to curb industrial and vehicle emissions means the air there is breatheable again.

MEDIA-SOUTH ASIA: Pawns in a Proxy War

Negative portrayal of neighbours in the domestic media of South Asian nations is preventing the peoples of the subcontinent from better understanding each other, diplomats and regional experts say.

SOUTH ASIA: Rocky Path of Democracy

True or false: dictatorships are more prone to war, and democracies get along better with each other.

SRI LANKA: Darkness At Noon As Militants Ignite Oil Installations

A black, billowing pall of smoke hung over this capital city blocking out the sun as the fire set off by suspected rebel Tamil Tiger militants in two key oil storage facilities early Friday continued to rage well into noon.

SRI LANKA: Darkness At Noon As Militants Ignite Oil Installations

A black, billowing pall of smoke hung over this capital city blocking out the sun as the fire set off by suspected rebel Tamil Tiger militants in two key oil storage facilities early Friday continued to rage well into noon.

RELIGION: Media Warping Islam Image, Scholars Say/CORRECTED REPEAT/

When Annemarie Schimmel, a noted German scholar on Islam, was given the 1995 Peace Prize by the German Booksellers' Association earlier this year, the award was greeted by howls of protest from critics in Germany and Austria.

RELIGION: Media Warping Islam Image, Scholars Say

When Annemarie Schimmel, a noted German scholar on Islam, was given the 1995 Peace Prize by the German Booksellers' Association earlier this year, the award was greeted by howls of protest from critics in Germany and Austria.

RELIGION: Media Warping Islam Image, Scholars Say/CORRECTED REPEAT/

When Annemarie Schimmel, a noted German scholar on Islam, was given the 1995 Peace Prize by the German Booksellers' Association earlier this year, the award was greeted by howls of protest from critics in Germany and Austria.

RELIGION: Media Warping Islam Image, Scholars Say

When Annemarie Schimmel, a noted German scholar on Islam, was given the 1995 Peace Prize by the German Booksellers' Association earlier this year, the award was greeted by howls of protest from critics in Germany and Austria.

RELIGION-ISLAM: A Non-Violent Jihad

Worried by what they see as a Western-led campaign to demonise their religion, some Muslim intellectuals want to project the non-violent face of Islam.

SOUTH ASIA: Mangroves Find a Protector in Wetland International

The wanton decimation of mangrove ecosystems worldwide -- often to make way for industrial development -- is raising alarm among environmentalists who this week launched a new body to protect the world's swamplands.

SOUTH ASIA: Mangroves Find a Protector in Wetland International

The wanton decimation of mangrove ecosystems worldwide -- often to make way for industrial development -- is raising alarm among environmentalists who this week launched a new body to protect the world's swamplands.

ENVIRONMENT: Mangroves Find a Minder in Wetland International

The wanton decimation of mangrove ecosystems worldwide -- often to make way for industrial development -- is raising alarm among environmentalists who this week launched a new body to protect the world's swamplands.

MARSHALL ISLANDS: South Pacific’s Lone Nuclear Voice

Its neighbours are growing more livid as protests to stop the resumption of French underground bomb tests in the South Pacific are stepped up, but the Marshall Islands is pushing through plans to turn itself into the world's nuclear waste dumping site.

MARSHALL ISLANDS: South Pacific’s Lone Nuclear Voice

Its neighbours are growing more livid as protests to stop the resumption of French underground bomb tests in the South Pacific are stepped up, but the Marshall Islands is pushing through plans to turn itself into the world's nuclear waste dumping site.

SOUTH PACIFIC: AIDS in Paradise

When David Konz, a soldier in the Papua New Guinea army, was discharged because he had AIDS they sent him home to his mountain village to die.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Volcanoes, Wars Keeping Rabaul in Rubble

Fifty years ago this scenic city at the northern tip of the island of New Britain was bombed to rubble in one of the most relentless U.S. air raids of the Pacific War. Today, Rabaul lies once more in ruins.

SOUTH PACIFIC: Pacific Episcopal Conference taking surprisingly progressive line in dealing with AIDS in paradise

When David Konz, a soldier in the Papua New Guinea army, was discharged because he had AIDS they sent him home to his mountain village to die.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Wars, Volcanoes Keep Rabaul in Rubble

Fifty years ago, this scenic city at the northern tip of the island of New Britain was bombed to rubble in one of the most relentless U.S. air raids of the Pacific War. Today, Rabaul lies once more in ruins.

MEDIA-PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Negative News From Paradise

For the past three years, Papua New Guinea ambassador to Seoul Lucy Bogari had told potential investors there that things were not so bad in her tropical homeland, it was safe and that they should bring their business to the South Pacific nation.