By PAUL KORINGFriday, November 21, 2008An ill-paid Filipino deckhand armed with a fire hose and peering into the blackness from the stern of a slow-moving supertanker is little match for...

By GEOFFREY YORKFriday, November 21, 2008When he visited South Korea a few years ago, Jang Song-taek was sometimes seen in his pajamas, wandering the hallways of his hotel, always followed...

By ROD MICKLEBURGHFriday, November 21, 2008Stocks are plummeting, layoffs abound and a recession is on the way, but the desire to fork out big bucks to attend the 2010 Winter...

By MARTIN MITTELSTAEDTFriday, November 21, 2008Mattresses and bedsprings may never fit into a recycling container, but efforts are under way to try to make the unwieldy home furnishings the latest...

By SIRI AGRELLFriday, November 21, 2008Wanted: a large piece of property, preferably tropical and empty, with room for 300,000 inhabitants. Mohamed Nasheed, who took office this week as the newly...

By JESSICA LEEDERFriday, November 21, 2008Once each week, in a fluorescent-lit room in a stout building near the heart of Kandahar Air Field, a multinational mix of troops and civilians...

By GEOFFREY YORKFriday, November 21, 2008In a potentially seismic shift in South African politics, a breakaway faction of the African National Congress has decided to form a new political party...

By DOUG SAUNDERSFriday, November 21, 2008In Russia, the power is suddenly in the hands of those who hold the cash, over those who can't get any. That became clear Thursday,...

By MARK MACKINNONFriday, November 21, 2008Here in Bashar Assad's hometown, they love their leader. Or at least they make an extremely good show of appearing to do so. The dictator's...

By DOUG SAUNDERSFriday, November 21, 2008A month ago, the aisles of the gold-encrusted Okhotny Ryad mall near the Kremlin would have been packed with Muscovites on any weeknight. Earlier this...