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2012's 'good news' stories

2012 saw jobs returning to the US, health concerns improve in historic numbers, and more.

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Terrorism & Security Clashes in tightly-controlled Muslim region of China leave 27 dead

The simmering conflict in China's western province of Xinjiang boiled over again Wednesday, with state media reporting 27 people died in the latest violence to hit the largely Muslim region.
Terrorism & Security Just how bothered is Beijing about North Korea?

While neither Beijing nor Washington want to see North Korea's belligerence explode into actual conflict, Beijing is not willing to push Pyongyang too hard for fear of toppling the regime.
Editor's Blog Chinese communism: cause or club?

It has long since walked away from its founding principles, but the Chinese Communist Party still has a hammerlock on power in the world's most populous nation. How long will the Chinese people tolerate a ruling clique that can't be voted out of office?
Focus Why combat role for US women could reverberate worldwide

In many countries, women have historically served in combat when demographics demanded it. But the US move is based on equal opportunity for women – and could become a model for others.
2012's 'good news' stories

2012 saw jobs returning to the US, health concerns improve in historic numbers, and more.
Focus In 2013, possibilities for stability from Somalia to South China Sea

Policymakers in many of the world's hot spots have a common New Year's wish: for unity to usher in and consolidate political and economic stability.
Global sympathy for Newtown, antipathy for US gun laws (+video)

Even as observers around the world mourned the teachers and children killed in Newtown, many expressed frustration with a US political system that has left guns so easily accessible.
Terrorism & Security Japan scrambles F-15s after China flies over disputed islands

The Chinese plane had already left the islands – known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan – by the time the Japanese F-15s arrived.
Terrorism & Security And the most corrupt nation this year is.... (+video)

It's a tie between Afghanistan, North Korea, and Somalia. Elsewhere, bankrupt Greece, one-party China, and various 'Arab Spring' nations stand out in Transparency International's annual rankings.
Backchannels Obama to visit Myanmar, an overture to a one-time pariah

President Obama's trip to Myanmar comes as the capstone of a stunningly fast rapprochement with a country the US once treated as a pariah. Is it too soon?
How the world is reacting to Obama's reelection

From China to Iran, President Obama's reelection elicited everything from celebration to doubt about his second-term agenda. Here are 11 responses:
One small step: Was Neil Armstrong misquoted?

The millions worldwide who watched the Apollo moon landing in 1969 heard Commander Neil Armstrong say, rather ungrammatically, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." But a 2006 analysis of the audio indicates that the astronaut did not omit the definite article.
China: Al Jazeera reporter expelled for 'breaking Chinese laws'

Chinese authorities forced Al Jazeera English to close its China news operations, and suggested that its reporter had broken unspecified laws and behaved unethically.
China forces Al Jazeera to close Beijing news bureau

China refused to renew the visa for Al Jazeera's China reporter. This is the first time an accredited foreign correspondent living in China has been ejected since 1998.
Global News Blog Good Reads: Predicting the end of history and the fall of China

Year-end pieces predicting future events may seem like just so much guesswork, but looking deeply at present events and guessing where they will go is part and parcel of journalism.
Correspondent reflections: The 10 news events that shaped 2011

In this special section, we look at the year’s biggest stories, and seven staff correspondents reflect on events in hot spots from Latin America to the Libyan front.
12/31/2011 12:24 pm
Global News Blog Good Reads: When to shelve 'Arab Spring' jargon, and China's 'little emperors'

With so many North African rebellions falling short of their goals, has the term 'Arab Spring' lost its usefulness? And since when did China's young people become obsessed with 'lifestyle' issues?
11/28/2011 09:18 am
Global News Blog China: toddler run over twice. Why did no one stop to help?

China: toddler run over by two cars is in the hospital. Some 18 people passed by her before a trash collector stopped to help, sparking intense debate over morality.
10/18/2011 11:35 am
Looking back: The Monitor's coverage of 9/11

Ten years ago, The Monitor had recently moved into a renovated newsroom on the second floor of the venerable Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston. It featured new, modular desks, carpeting instead of linoleum, and many large TV monitors hung from the ceiling. They were tuned to various network and cable channels, but with the sound turned off, normally. So the first indication of a crisis on 9/11 was a chilling silent image of smoke billowing from the North Tower of the World Trade Center, an image that spread from screen to screen across the newsroom. When the second plane hit, 17 minutes after the first, it was clear that the United States was under attack. We had four hours till deadline that day. Four hours in which to try to make sense of what had just happened. Reporters, editors, photographers, editorial writers, columnists, feature writers, even editors and writers of the religious article that appears in the Monitor daily, sprang into action. It was the beginning of days, weeks, and months of reporting and analysis of that incident and its aftermath that would follow. The list below represents some of the most significant reporting and writing we did that day and on subsequent days. The 9/11 stories and images are The Monitor's first draft of the history of that moment. Like most first drafts, some could do with some revising now. But give credit to the swiftness with which they had to be written -- especially those produced that first day and week -- and the decades (if not centuries) of accumulated wisdom, knowledge, and expertise they represent on the part of a staff that worked around the clock to bring them to you.
09/06/2011 03:00 pm
The price of gold: as influential as a global power

The record price of gold and the universal obsession with the sparkling metal make it a parallel global power.
07/16/2011 11:55 am
Social media: Did Twitter and Facebook really build a global revolution?

Social media: From Iran to Tunisia and Egypt and beyond, Twitter and Facebook are the power tools of civic upheaval – but social media is only one factor in the spread of democratic revolution.
06/30/2011 01:21 pm
Global News Blog Artist Ai Weiwei released, Chinese police say

After more than 2-1/2 months of detention, prominent dissident and artist Ai Weiwei has been released because of his 'good attitude in confessing,' according to Chinese state media.
06/22/2011 02:12 pm
Underdog candidate Carstens takes on IMF's European tradition

Mexico's central bank chief Agustín Carstens faces an uphill battle against French frontrunner Christine Lagarde, who this week is lobbying India, China, and Egypt for support.
06/07/2011 03:54 pm
Editor's Blog Can the planet handle more middle-class humans?

In just 10 years, the world for the first time will be more middle-class than poor. That will tax resources and set up conflicts. But with more people free from just trying to survive, the arts and sciences should boom as well.
05/23/2011 11:02 am
Surging BRIC middle classes are eclipsing global poverty

By 2022, those living in poverty will be a minority for the first time, as the global middle class – particularly from BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) nations – surges. Does new affluence signal shifting global power?
05/17/2011 09:55 am