ROUMIYEH: Cigarette smoke wafts through a hall in Lebanon''''s biggest jail where an all-male jury is arguing over whether an accused murderer should be hanged.

TAIPEI: When the global recession began to take a toll on high-tech manufacturers in Taiwan, the factories gave their workers a vacation that many would have just as soon skipped.

TEHRAN: Habib Mostofi is one of thousands of Iranians who believed buying property in Dubai would be safer than Iran, isolated by the West over its disputed nuclear plans. But that was before the emirate''s property bubble burst.

CINCINNATI: With Christmas approaching and money tight, Cincinnati father of three Robin Marshall has had frank conversations with his children about the family''s finances and the U.S. recession.

LONDON: "Did you guys miss me?" asked Pete Sampras when he faced the media at the Royal Albert Hall on his first visit to London in six years this week.

CAIRO: With black smoke belching from battered vehicles on the congested streets of Cairo and the sickly smell of exhaust hanging in the air, Mohamed Daoud''s taxi glides quietly along on cheap, clean fuel.

NEW YORK: When crude oil prices climbed to a record $147.27 a barrel this summer, many Americans -- their thoughts turning to winter heating bills -- rushed to line their homes with insulation and replace drafty windows.

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill: Many U.S. retailers, large and small, have good reason to envy Sue Opeka -- sales at her store have been up 15 percent for the past four months and she''s up 5 percent for the year so far.

LOS ANGELES: After 17 years, millions of dollars, and numerous false dawns, the waiting finally ends for fans of Guns N''''''''Roses on Sunday when the rock group''''''''s long-awaited "Chinese Democracy" is rel

TRIPOLI: As economic barriers fall between Libya and the West, a boom-town atmosphere fed by the novelty of consumer culture has gripped its capital Tripoli.

AL-QUDS PLANT: For many Iraqis, progress in rebuilding a nation reduced to rubble by years of war and destruction is measured by the flick of a switch.

TOKYO: Japanese office worker Satoshi Tada pays for shopping, wins free food and gets store discounts all by waving his cellphone.

TEHRAN: Sebastian Straten is going against the flow. As some Western corporations pack up and mothball projects in Iran under pressure of sanctions, the entrepreneurial Dutchman is preparing for the day when tourists flock to the Islamic state.

KUALA LUMPUR: Politics often appears to be a family affair in Asia with Pakistan''s Bhuttos, India''s Gandhis and the Lees in Singapore; now Malaysia looks set to join the party.

BERLIN: A pit-bull with lipstick may not be every woman''s idea of a role model.

FLORENCE: After 10 years of painstaking study and restoration that tested both cutting edge technology and human patience, one of the greatest masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance is returning to the public.

MOHALI: Empty seats at last weekend''s test between India and Australia have alarmed cricket''s administrators, who were already worried that the runaway success of Twenty20 could spell doom for the classic, five-day game.

BASEL, Switzerland: After years of inspiring football fans around the world, FC Barcelona will on Wednesday face the lesser-known Swiss club which claims to have been the inspiration behind the creation of the Spanish giants.

TOKYO: Designer boutiques in Tokyo are still packed with well-dressed young people, but these days, few of them carry shopping bags.

MANAMA: With their ban on interest, the Gulf Islamic banks that managed to avoid the types of debt which proved toxic for their conventional counterparts are now praying the global crisis will bypass their property holdings.

BANGALORE: On a computer monitor in his office in the high-tech hub of Bangalore, Indian radiologist Arjun Kalyanpur examines a scan of the skull of a six-year-old boy who fell off his bicycle.

DUJAIL: Saddam Hussein was hanged for killing 148 Shi''ite men and boys in Dujail in 1982. But today, some people in this town on the Tigris say they miss life under the Iraqi dictator because they felt more secure.

TRIPOLI: Grenade blasts echo nightly across a sectarian frontline in Lebanon''s northern city of Tripoli despite a month-old reconciliation pact.

AMSTERDAM/LONDON: What if there were a run on a bank and no one knew? In recent days some U.S. media have focused on a "silent run" on the deposits of Wachovia bank, which is now being taken over, after a bailout plan stalled and its rival Washington Mutual was seized.

NEW YORK: Gina Sutton takes aim and deftly strikes down several targets in a row as they pop up on the screen in front of her.

CANCUN: Dainty blue fish dart around coral shaped like moose antlers near the Mexican resort of Cancun, but sickly brown spots are appearing where pollution threatens one of the world''''s largest reefs.

LONDON: Twenty years divide two astonishing Olympic 100 metres finals where the world record was not merely broken but shattered.

GONTEN: For Swiss water firm Goba, small is beautiful, quality is everything and location is everything else.

MUMBAI: For the last 34 years, Adrian Eric Baldrey has driven trains on India''s railways but he is a dying breed and his retirement on his 60th birthday will spell the end of Mumbai''s Anglo-Indian "motormen".

KUALA LUMPUR: The ads promoting "Malaysia: Truly Asia" aim to welcome visitors with a warm smile to a prosperous and modern nation, so the taxi fleet branded "the worst in the world" can come as a bit of a shock.

RABAT: Morocco''s Gnawa, heirs to a musical and spiritual tradition brought north across the Sahara centuries ago by black slaves, are enjoying new fame as their hypnotic rhythms hook listeners across the world.

PAJU: There is no resting in peace at South Korea''s "Enemy Cemetery". On a quiet hill, just south of the heavily armed border that divides the Korean peninsula, wooden grave markers with fading white paint are aligned in neat rows above bodies no one wants to claim at plots few dare visit.

GENEVA: Particle physicists were to fire up the world''''s biggest atom-smasher on Wednesday in a mission to answer some of the most perplexing questions in the cosmos.

LONDON: Rare vintage jewels are increasingly popular investments to protect against rising inflation and economic uncertainty, and Art Deco designs are commanding the most attention from collectors.

MOMBASA: Maasai warrior Lempuris Lalasho went to Kenya''''s tourist haven Mombasa to find a white woman to marry, but he ended up working as a hairdresser, a profession that is taboo in his culture.

ROMOOS: In the remote hills and valleys of central Switzerland, mountain farmers are still making charcoal to a centuries-old method.

KABUL: A reality TV show broadcast in Afghanistan has encouraged Afghans to start their own enterprises, stirring entrepreneurial spirits in a country that has been ravaged by three decades of war.

SHANGHAI: The dizziness strikes within the first steps onto the world''s highest public walkway as the view of fast-changing Shanghai unfolds from more than 100 storeys up.

MUMBAI: The twisted metal of smashed up cars lining highways is a grim testament to India''s road toll, one of the worst in the world with around 100,000 people killed in traffic accidents last year alone.

BAGHDAD: At a communal water station in a Baghdad slum, a young boy''s skinny arms fly up and down as he uses a bicycle pump to coax water from the dry ground.

BEIJING: It''s almost over. After years of preparation, athletes are heading home from the Beijing Olympics to resume jobs, studies, training, and a handful to cash in on new-found fame and many will struggle to adjust.

ATLANTA: The US presidential election presents a sharp contrast between two types of patriotism: John McCain stands as a war hero. His rival Barack Obama calls Americans back to the can-do spirit of the nation''s founders.

SAMSO: Concerns about energy security may run high elsewhere in Europe, but on the windswept Danish island of Samso the inhabitants have achieved a decade-long target of self-sufficiency in renewable power.

SARAJEVO: The narrow tunnel that ran beneath Sarajevo airport was people''s only escape route during the longest siege in modern history, a symbol of a brutal war that split families and pitted neighbours against each other.

NEW ORLEANS: Three years after Hurricane Katrina wrecked parts of New Orleans, all that separates the biggest successes and failures in the city''s revival is a short drive.

HONG KONG: Former Chinese gymnast Li Ning was $30 million richer on Monday when shares in his company soared thanks to a starring role at the Olympics opening ceremony, when he was hoisted by cables to light a

HARGEISA: Almis Yahye Ibrahim remembers when he and his friends hit on the idea of building a university in one of the world''s most neglected corners, the breakaway republic of Somaliland.

BAQUBA: In a video sold in Baghdad''''s souks, a group of women draped in cartridge belts and clutching pistols and rifles explained why they had taken up arms against the U.S. military in Iraq.

BEIJING: Olympic sponsors are launching possibly the largest advertising and marketing campaign ever, aiming to etch their brands in the minds of a new generation of Chinese consumers for far beyond the upcoming Games.

DAKAR: Chaotic transport is a part of life in West Africa, but getting to work has become even harder as rocketing fuel prices ignite protests by bus and taxi drivers, squeeze family budgets and encourage fuel smuggling.

BEIJING: Is managing a bank in China complicated? No more so than executing a fine work of calligraphy.

BEITEDDIN: Lyrical notes from the saxophone of U.S. jazz artist Branford Marsalis waft into the cool night air of a mountain palace courtyard in Lebanon.

CHICAGO: Protests against China''''s policies at home and abroad, as well as marketing techniques used by companies that are not official Olympic sponsors, have made the Beijing games a risky proposition for some sponsors.

ERFURT: Voters in Germany''s former communist states feel deserted by Angela Merkel, the first chancellor from the east, and could punish her conservative party in federal and state elections next year.

PRINCES RISBOROUGH (England): When the rest of Britain''s furniture trade headed to China for mountains of cheap leather sofas to slake the demand of a raging housing boom, Edward Tadros had a different plan.

NEW YORK: Out of work for six months and desperate to find a job, one innovative New Yorker donned his new power suit a sandwich board and hit the streets of Manhattan to lure potential employers.

WEST POINT, N.Y: Climbing ropes and crawling in the mud under barbed wire, dozens of American high school kids at an unusual summer camp vied to see who could get most dirty as they tackled an Army obstacle course.

SALMON, Idaho: In the classic Hollywood western, a cowboy portrayed by John Wayne gallops across the sagebrush steppe and rocky ridges of the American West with only his horse for a companion.

ISTANBUL: For centuries, Istanbul lured intrepid shoppers with colourful jewellery and carpets which tumbled from shops in the ancient alleyways of the Grand Bazaar.

SHANGHAI: With a possible U.S. recession looming, Colonel Sanders is turning to China to fill the breach, offering a menu of fried dough and preserved egg porridge alongside the chicken that turned KFC into an American icon.

TOKYO: You''re never too old to fall in love. That''s what Yoji Kawamura figured after retiring at the age of 62 and deciding that part-time work and his new hobbies of photography and computers weren''t enough to fill his days

BASRA: Last week Haider Lefta took the boards off his shop hiring out musical instruments and session bands for parties, and dusted off a wooden "oud" – the traditional Arabic lute central to much Iraqi music.