When you first head off to places in the world that are a lot different from where you live, a number of things change. You have to learn to adapt.
I still make a lot of mistakes everywhere I go, but I try to learn from each of them. Here’s a short list of things I [...]

In its first estimate, the United Nations reports about 10 percent of the housing in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince has been destroyed, leaving some 300,000 people homeless. The UN says a full assessment of the damages inflicted by the powerful earthquake will take several days to complete.
In its first estimate, the United Nations reports about [...]

By Wang Huazhong (China Daily)
Unlike most people who connect the image of a loving mother with a smiling face, Xiong Mingqiang visualizes the pair of thin shoulders that have carried him for 35 years.
Born with a deformity, Xiong’s head is disproportionately large for his small 80-cm tall body, which prevents him from even standing up [...]

Beijing total vehicle sales hit 13.6 million — a 45 percent growth over 2008
BEIJING – China overtook the United States as the biggest auto market in 2009 and automakers should see more strong growth this year, an industry group reported Friday.
Boosted by Beijing’s stimulus, 2009 passenger car sales soared to 10.3 million and total vehicle [...]

COPENHAGEN — A man charged with attempting to kill a Danish cartoonist over his Muslim prophet Mohammed caricatures was also involved in an alleged plot against US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Danish newspaper reported Sunday.
But one Danish diplomat played down the report.
The online edition of Politiken newpaper said that the 28-year-old man charged [...]

NAIROBI, Kenya — Property prices in Nairobi are soaring, and Somali pirates are getting the blame.
The hike in real estate prices in the Kenyan capital has prompted a public outcry and a government investigation this month into property owned by foreigners. The investigation follows allegations that millions of dollars in ransom money paid to Somali [...]

Denmark shocked by return of Islamist terrorism after 2005 storm over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad
Danish police admitted yesterday that a Somalian caught breaking into the home of a cartoonist whose work sparked riots across the Muslim world five years ago was a would-be assassin with links to al-Qaida.
The 28-year-old had an axe and a [...]

Danish police have shot and wounded a man at the home of Kurt Westergaard, whose controversial cartoons of the prophet Muhammad sparked a storm of Muslim protest five years ago.
Danish media reported last night that Westergaard, 74, was at home near the city of Aarhus with his wife and grandchild when a 27-year-old Somalian man [...]