Columns / Country

The country, once one of Italy’s few colonial possessions, covers an 800-kilometre strip along Africa’s Red Sea coast, stretching from Sudan in the north to Djibouti in the south.

St Lucia’s stunning beauty, capped by the famous twin peaks of the Pitons, hides a turbulent history.

Facts, figures and a brief history of life in Guinea.

The top tourist destination in Niger until the late 1980s, the city of Agadez – located in the dead centre of the country – is today no more than a shadow of its former self.

Nowhere near as religious as its neighbour, Saudi Arabia, nor as bling-obsessed as nearby United Arab Emirates, Qatar has astutely observed the paths other Gulf states have chosen, and then cherry-picked what seems to work best.

Facts, figures and statistics of Trinidad & Tobago

A country profile of South Korea.

Facts, figures and the history of Ghana.

Visitors to Kuala Lumpur could be forgiven for thinking that they have landed in a highly developed nation. But hidden from the casual visitors’ view are the urban slums, crammed high-rise lowincome housing, rural villages still in poverty.

A country at the edge of Europe home to wolves, bears, lynx and Europe's last dictator.

The facts and figures of St Kitts and Nevis.

Tanzania is home to the highest point in Africa as well as to Olduvai Gorge, where some of the oldest human remains have been found. It also contains most of the Serengeti region, which hosts a dazzling array of animal, bird and plant life.

Since independence in 1966, Botswana’s annual growth rates have been the highest in the world – bar none. It is estimated that were it not for the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, growth rates would be one or two per cent higher today.

Dominica is a small island both in population and size. Yet the island feels a lot bigger than this, with dozens of mountain peaks, waterfalls and some say a river for every day of the year.

Timor-Leste’s landscape is still deeply scarred from the conflict that raged in 1999, after the Timorese population voted for independence from Indonesia.

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.