Word: regions
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...gold standard" for the Middle East. Indeed, the two dominant political parties are now being challenged by the reformist Change List and various coalitions of religious, leftist and independent parties, which are taking advantage of popular frustration at the level of corruption and heavy-handed governance in the region. (Read about how Kurds vs. Arabs could be the next Iraqi civil...
...electricity and fuel are good and increasingly available to all Kurds. Booming foreign investment has created a business culture complete with plans for a golf course as part of a gated-community outside the capital city of Erbil. There have been no U.S. combat fatalities in the autonomous Kurdish region since the fall of Saddam Hussein, in 2003. But there's one thing the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) can no longer lord over the struggling central government in Baghdad: democracy...
...decades, to bear fruit, and there are growing signs that America's patience is fraying. On July 23, Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged that a lot more sacrifice would be required of Americans, but he insisted that it was worth the price to "straighten out" the Afghan-Pakistan border region because of the terrorism threat it potentially represents to Europe and the U.S. Still, American officials are lowering expectations after nearly eight years of fighting in Afghanistan, insisting that progress rather than victory is the best that can be achieved over the coming year...
...with surprising speed, fear in Asia has swung back to greed as the region shows signs of recovery - and some economists are warning that asset-price bubbles that had been popped by the global recession may be reinflating. Property and stock prices are soaring in many parts of Asia: Shanghai's main stock-market index has surged about 90% this year, while Indonesian stocks are up 70%. By comparison, the S&P 500 is up 11%. (See the World Economic Forum...
...feels a bit curmudgeonly to suggest these happy Asian trends should be greeted with skepticism. Higher asset prices mean households feel wealthier and better able to spend, which could further fuel the region's nascent rebound. But just as easily, Asia could soon find itself saddled with overheated markets similar to the U.S. housing market of a few years ago - and on the brink of another crash. "The seeds are being sown for Asia's next bubble," HSBC economist Frederic Neumann said in a recent report. "The world has not changed, it just moved places." (Read "Asian Nations Step...