The Catskills, in upstate New York, are known for their natural beauty and quaint lifestyle. But they could become a lot flashier, thanks to one businesswoman's proposal for the area: a multibillion-dollar "China City of America," complete with an amusement park, mansions, a casino, retail centers, a college, and more. Creator Sherry Li says the plan would attract domestic and foreign tourists, residents, and investors. Back in May, she introduced her concept to Thompson, a town of 15,000 people 90 miles north of New York City.

Asia’s emerging markets remain on edge over the U.S. Federal Reserve’s actions, damaging investor confidence from India to Indonesia. However, a new survey by the World Bank suggests that foreign direct investment (FDI) flows won’t be drying up anytime soon. In its World Investment and Political Risk 2013 report released Thursday, the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) said macroeconomic instability and political risk ranked “neck and neck” as the top concerns for investors over the short and medium terms.

The euro crisis has put most people off currency unions. But not in Africa, it seems. In November the leaders of five countries of the East African Community (EAC) agreed to form a monetary union within ten years. A month before West African politicians agreed on a plan to introduce a new shared currency, the eco, over the next few years. It should eventually subsume West Africa’s existing currency bloc—but not its central African cousin.

Rio de Janeiro's shanty towns, its favelas, long stricken by poverty and violence, have a new boogeyman: Gentrification. First, only academics were worried about whether gentrification might really be happening in the favelas. Those fears have since migrated from anxious blog entries to coverage in major newspapers.

The great imperialists of the 19th Century built railroads to solidify their control of vast expanses of land and incorporate their territory into modern industrial economies. And although the construction of railroads may seem archaic today, the government of China has demonstrated their continued relevance in both internal state building and external diplomacy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has had a good run over the past few months. Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor, landed on his doorstep, a gift from the PR gods. Agreement on Syria went from no chance to golden opportunity in the course of one afternoon. Forbes dubbed Putin the most powerful man in the world. Yet all these successes obscure a basic fact: Russia is running out of money.

Port-au-Prince is experiencing a building boom in luxury hotels. There is the Royal Oasis, which bills itself as Haiti’s first five-star hotel. The general manager, Jean-Marc Rousseau, shows me a suite with two rooms, two TVs, and a dramatic view of the mountains. I notice a gleaming white building below. “It is The Rancho,” he says. “Our new competitor.”

The United States and Afghanistan are close to finalizing a deal that would set guidelines for the two countries' relationship after 2014, when the bulk of American forces are supposed to leave the country—more than a dozen years and hundreds of billions of dollars later.