Country profile

Facts, figures and more

Uzbekistan

In the heart of Central Asia, enclosed by the Pamir mountains to the southeast and desert in the northeast, Uzbekistan was once the seat of vast wealth and influence.

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Uruguay

It was the meddling British who used their cartographic skills to delineate the country that would become Uruguay in the early 19th century, as a buffer zone between the two regional giants, Argentina and Brazil. The result was a country stuck in the shado

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Lebanon

Living in Lebanon is like watching a dramatic thriller unfold. At times it’s exciting, at other times heart-wrenching or just petrifying.

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Brunei

There is a little hole on the wall of every office, restaurant, reception area, hotel lobby, shop – even in the humblest of the living rooms – which serves as a formidable metaphor for the vicissitudes of power, prestige and privilege in Brunei.

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Kazakhstan

A nation of extremes.

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Laos

As the forces of corporate globalization press on its borders, change is inevitable.

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Cuba

Experimenting with capitalism in Cuba

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Sri Lanka

Over two decades of conflict have bred a climate of impunity where human rights violations – killings and unexplained ‘disappearances’ of people – have become all too common.

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Costa Rica

Costa Rica stands apart from its Central American neighbours, not least because it has no army.

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Burundi

A small landlocked state in central Africa, sandwiched between its vast neighbours Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi has suffered as much from ethnic conflict as its other (equally tiny) neighbour, Rwanda. Yet while the 1993 Rwandan genocide continues to commandeer international attention, Burundi’s travails tend to slip under the radar.

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Antigua and Barbuda

When new Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer moved into Antigua’s government offices in 2004, his predecessors had bequeathed him a scene of desolation. Wilmoth Daniel, his deputy, explained that they found ‘the drawers open – all the files were removed like a thief in the night ... What a shame of those individuals in authority to [remove] all those files, the soul and heart of the country.’

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Tajikistan

Although Tajikistan is the heir to an ancient Persian and Turkic cultural legacy, the modern state dates back to 1929 and Stalin’s creation of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic.

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A concise profile of the most recent countries featured in the NI magazine. Click here for a complete list of all country profiles available on-line.


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