Dubai is today the shining torch-bearer of the Middle East. Unprecedented high oil prices have provided the region with the impetus to invest, diversify, and build. And Dubai has emerged as the model for much of the Arab world, growing at an exponential rate of 16 percent. But is it sustainable? And how have companies as diverse as a Singapore electronic solutions company, a Thai-based international group of hotels and resorts, and a Singapore architectural...

The second episode in this three-part mini-series distills Rick Steves' 30 years of travel experience into 30 minutes of practical advice on how to have a fun, affordable, and culturally broadening trip to Europe. Shot on location in Amsterdam, Germany's Rhineland, Venice, Siena, the Italian Riviera, the Swiss Alps, Paris, and London, these episodes cover Rick’s favorite 3,000-mile European loop while providing viewers with essential travel skills....

Tucked between Nepal and Bhutan, Sikkim occupies a place of rare geographic splendor, and Buddhism is the state's religion. Buddhism also has a prominent place in the daily life of Darjeeling, an adjoining district of West Bengal. This program presents the tenets and history of the belief system founded on the teachings of Buddha. A discussion of the Four Noble Truths, including the Eightfold Path, sheds light on the practice of Buddhism, while ancient...

The Orthodox Monastery of St. Catherine stands at the foot of Mount Horeb where, the Old Testament records, Moses received the Tablets of the Law. The mountain is known and revered by Muslims as Jebel Musa. The entire area is sacred to three world religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. The Monastery, founded in the 6th century, is the oldest Christian monastery still in use for its initial function. Its walls and buildings are of great significance...

Two years after CNN exposed "Chocolate's Child Slaves," correspondent Richard Quest takes The CNN Freedom Project back to the cocoa plantations of the Ivory Coast. It is a journey that will take him in search of progress in the fight against child labor, which ultimately has its roots embedded in poverty. Following the supply chain, from bean to bar, Quest will examine the collective efforts to reform the cocoa industry—the fundamental socioeconomic...

April 1453. The Ottomans, led by Sultan Mehmed II, lay siege to the city of Constantinople. They intend to seize the city and unify their Sultanate, which was cut into two by the Byzantine Empire. In the defense of his capital, Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI can count upon his citizens, and also upon Genoese and Venetian soldiers. The reinforcements expected by the Byzantines are late in arriving, but the besieged city holds firm under the command...

The olive tree is at the heart of Sicily’s identity, which for centuries has been the king of the island’s agriculture. At the start to the 20th century, the Sicilians were under the rule of bandits, specialists in “the business of protection” who originally provided protection for olive growers during harvest time. Change only came in 1992, with the assassinations of the Palermo magistrates Falcone and Borsellino: they had been the symbol...

Jennifer Robichaud belongs to a new generation of urban dance artists who are literally breaking their way into the established dance scene. With a formal background in contemporary dance and street education in break dancing, she and her company Larchaud Dance are as at much at home in clus as in a formal theater setting. Highly involved in her role as a teacher, Robichaud is in big demand by various studios and schools. Her company's recent trip...

Is the Queen of Sheba, ruler of Saba, a figure of legend or of history? This program delves deeply into Yemen’s past on a journey of discovery, visiting important stops on the caravan route that once carried frankincense—the principal source of wealth and power in ancient Yemen’s three kingdoms—to market in Palestine, the Levant, and even Rome. Archaeological artifacts from the collection housed in Sana’a and footage from Wendell Phillips’...

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni—a documentary on China, concentrating mainly on the faces of the people, filmed in the areas they were allowed to visit. The first part, shot around Beijing, includes a cotton factory, older sections of the city, and a clinic where a cesarean operation is performed using acupuncture. The middle part visits the Red Flag Canal and a collective farm in Henan, as well as the old city of Suzhou. The final part shows...