At just past midnight on July 1, 1997, in a glittering and poignant ceremony, Hong Kong passed from being the last jewel of an old empire to a component of a new global power. to China with mixed feelings: joy at a fresh start; sadness at seeing the British go; pride over returning to the motherland; apprehension over the future. As the territory marks its first decade as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China, it faces an interlocking set of existential...

The drug shipments are flowing nearly unhindered from Colombia into Venezuela, then leaving by the ton on ships and planes making deliveries for the multibillion-dollar U. CARACAS, Venezuela - A twin-engine plane swoops low across the open waters south of the Dominican Republic, and three men in a fishing boat haul in the airtight bales that have just splashed into the waves. condemnation on the issue twists the facts "to demonize our government" and ignores the fact that trafficking and...