beyondBeijing2008.com

By NBC News’ Bo Gu
BEIJING – Thirty-three years after his death, Mao Zedong is still a god to many in China. And you can see him everywhere.
He’s mostly standing, in a military uniform or a long buttoned-up winter coat, sometimes wearing his symbolic little red-starred army hat, usually waving his right arm high up [...]

By Martin Fletcher, NBC News Correspondent  KAKUMA, Northern Kenya – They shuffle aimlessly in the dust: 50,000 refugees crammed into thousands of huts made from branches, leaves, mud and plastic in the Kakuma camp in Northern Kenya.
Natives of Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, the refugees have fled wars aggravated by drought, [...]

By NBC News’ Carol Grisanti in Islamabad and Mushtaq Yusufzai in New York
The negotiations took weeks. The tribal council was called to try to convince Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the 42-year-old militant commander of North Waziristan, not to send his fighters to support the Taliban militants in the south.
Elusive and cunning, Gul Bahadar would [...]

By Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News Correspondent
Afghanistan’s presidential elections, marred by allegations of widespread fraud, appear headed for a runoff,  but no matter what the outcome there appears little chance it will change the government’s pervasive culture of corruption and crisis of confidence.
“Corruption?  Corruption?  The entire Karzai regime is corrupt!” Dr. Wadir Safi bellows in a [...]

The gold medals for the 2010 Vancouver winter Olympics have been revealed, and they’re made from melted down old circuit boards. Because athletes will really appreciate that geeky touch.
The medals, designed by Canuck artists Corrine Hunt and Omer Arbel, are made from the gold, bronze and silver reclaimed from old electronics. They’re also laser-etched so [...]