Attracted by the climate, favorable tax policy and laid-back lifestyle, home buyers and investors are flocking here from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Europe and the United States.
The skyline increasingly resembles a mini-Sao Paulo, a dense forest of steel and concrete towers that includes dozens of new high-rise condominiums and apartment buildings. (Not enough of the buildings [...]

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A sleepy stretch of sand visited mainly by the odd camel caravan over the centuries, Qatar is in the midst of a massive spending spree, financing museums, skyscrapers and rapid modernization - like much of the Gulf region. But unlike Dubai, which wants to dominate in tourism, Qatar has more modest targets for its seemingly [...]

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[A detail from a rendering of the King Abdullah Economic City, on the Red Sea. It is one of six new cities planned by Saudi Arabia as it works to diversify its economy beyond oil exports.]
RABIGH, Saudi Arabia — THE alarm bell sounded the end of the lunch break here one November afternoon, and suddenly [...]

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As the death toll soars from the powerful earthquake that ravaged central China’s Sichuan province, the scale of the devastation is raising questions about the quality of China’s recent construction boom.
“This building is just a piece of junk,” one newly homeless resident of Dujiangyan yelled today, her body quivering with rage. Her family salvaged clothing [...]

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