Charles Recknagel is standards editor for RFE/RL.
The U.S. dollar fell to its lowest level of the year on May 20. But the timing of the fall was strange indeed: it came just as U.S. officials said the U.S. economy is stabilizing. So why is the dollar in retreat?
Iraq has been struggling to boost oil production and agree on how revenues should be shared among the country's different regions. Now, a new dispute over how oil is to be exported from the Kurdish autonomous region is again raising the question of who ultimately controls the northern oil fields.
Turkey says there are no signs that a massacre at a wedding ceremony in southeastern Turkey was a terrorist attack. Instead, it appears to be the result of a feud between two families. But because both families are tied to the government-controlled Kurdish paramilitary force, the Village Guards, the events also raise a larger question -- the wisdom of arming citizen militias as a force for stability.
Turkey and Armenia say they have agreed upon a framework for normalizing their relations. The announcement provides no details as to points for discussion between the two sides. But it comes at a time of great political sensitivity as both Ankara and Yerevan -- for very different reasons -- worry their recent progress toward rapprochement could be in jeopardy.
Speculation has been rife that Turkey may be close to reopening its border with Armenia and restoring the diplomatic ties it broke over the Armenia-Azerbaijan war. But Ankara's desire to include progress over Nagorno-Karabakh could signal a more go-slow approach.
U.S. President Barack Obama has wrapped up his visit to Turkey, spending his final hours in Istanbul speaking to Turkish students in the kind of roundtable forum that has become one of his trademarks. The event was informal but may have helped underline one of the main points of Obama's visit to this predominantly Muslim country: to improve the image of the United States.
There is widespread speculation in Turkey that the country could soon reopen its border with Armenia. The suspicions are heightening with U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Ankara. Turkey closed its border some 16 years ago. Why is it suddenly such a priority to make peace now?
U.S. President Barack Obama has arrived in Turkey for the start of a two-day tour. It is his only visit focused on a single state, and his only stop in a predominantly Muslim country before he heads home later this week.
Tax havens have become an increasingly big part of the world's economy. In fact, so much money goes to tax havens, and so much financial speculation takes place with that money, that tax havens are a major factor behind the global financial crisis. The leaders of the G20 are due to consider how to crack down on tax havens when they meet on April 2 in London.
Turkey's efforts to deprive the PKK of bases in northern Iraq may have reached a watershed moment with Turkish President Abdullah Gul's visit to Baghdad, which ends March 24. Ankara looks set to strike a deal with the self-rule Iraqi Kurdish region whereby the PKK must disarm or leave the territory. The deal would also open the way for Ankara to officially recognize the Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq, despite its former reluctance to do so.
Iraqi farmers have suffered through two years of drought, watching as their wells dry up and dust and salt accumulate in their fields. Aid from the central government and the Red Cross might help them survive the crisis, but Iraq's overuse of water resources means it will remain vulnerable to drought for years to come.
As officials, activists, and entrepreneurs from 130 nations meet this week in Istanbul to seek better ways to manage the world's water problems, there is one solution under discussion that might seem obvious: exporting water from wet countries to dry ones.
As Iraq's central government seeks to extend his control over northern hotspots like Mosul and Kirkuk, Kurds are warning it not to go too far. The situation makes Prime Minister Maliki's efforts to build on security successes in the south and Baghdad appear both urgent and risky.
Switzerland has devalued its currency, the franc, as the country tries to adjust to the wild fluctuations of the global economic crisis. The move raises concerns that as the crisis continues, more governments may be tempted to manipulate their currency exchange rates in hopes of gaining advantages for their export sectors -- a destructive move for the global economy.
The world is looking to the G20 meeting in London on April 2 for a coordinated strategy for reviving the global economy. But in the run-up to the summit, it is becoming clear that the United States and Europe have very different philosophies about how to get out of the current crisis.
Scientists excavating a Kazakh site have found the earliest evidence yet of tamed horses. The discovery suggests horses were reined in 1,000 years earlier than is generally assumed.
China's prime minister says this year will be the most difficult the country has faced this century. Wen Jiabao said that China maintains its economic target of growing by 8 percent each year, but that doing so requires going ahead with a promised half-trillion-dollar stimulus package. His speech comes as China's export market shrinks with the global recession and the country finds itself at a crossroads.
Armenia's national currency, the dram, has lost some 30 percent of its value in one day after the Central Bank stopped intervening to support it. The sudden drop is the first blow from the global economic crisis to strike Armenia, which until now has been largely shielded by its dependence on remittances from abroad.
Germany has Europe's biggest economy, so many Europeans regard it as the natural leader for forging any united response to the financial crisis. But so far, Berlin has avoided that role, partly because Germany has been less hard-hit than its neighbors.
Just a few weeks ago, at the start of this year, the euro celebrated its 10th anniversary. At the time, the eurozone's single currency looked strong and -- compared to the dollar -- immune from the global economic crisis. But today, the euro's value against the dollar is sinking. And some economists worry the European currency will keep weakening.
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