beyondBeijing2008.com

By NBC News’ Karim Hilmi
BAGHDAD – A few weeks ago, Arab satellite channels were airing live coverage of the Democratic Party convention. At a cafe in my Baghdad neighborhood, the TV was tuned into the goings-on in Denver.
The cafe was full, as it is usually is after working hours. But hardly a head was [...]

Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
BEIJING – Last week, three books about Barack Obama were published in China – to little fanfare.
Despite being prominently displayed inside one of Beijing’s larger bookstores, the books – two were his own and the third was a collection of his speeches and writings – attracted little interest the day [...]

By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
BEIJING – As if having 1.3 billion people on the planet weren’t enough, China has sent three men into space.
In the country’s most ambitious space mission yet, the Shenzhou 7 spacecraft launched on Thursday from China’s Jiuquan space center in the remote northwestern province of Gansu. It was [...]

By NBC News’ Don Snyder
WARSAW, Poland – Elzbieta Ficowska leaned forward to place red roses on a new grave in Warsaw’s Powawazki Cemetery. The 66-year-old woman also lit two votive candles.
They were in memory of Irena Sendler, the person to whom she owes her very existence.

NBC News/ Krzysztof Galica

Elzbieta Ficowska places flowers on [...]

By Jennifer Carlile, msnbc.com reporter
 SLUPSK, POLAND – For the citizens of the Polish city of Slupsk, the American election is personal.
Like the rest of Poland, the northern city has borne the scars of Europe’s many wars and invasions. Now Slupsk is preparing for another potential conflict – as proposed host to a controversial U.S. missile site, [...]