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Benazir Bhutto knows how to tell Western audiences what they want to hear, but when the former prime minister had a chance to shut down Pakistan’s nuclear Wal-Mart, she looked the other way instead.

From Baghdad to Islamabad, doom and gloom dominate today’s headlines. And yet, a peek beneath the daily drumbeat reveals a world that may never have been better. Herewith, some of best reasons we should all give thanks.

Fresh out of college, American Dana Burton arrived in China to bring hip-hop to the Middle Kingdom. Now, eight years later, he’s become the godfather of hip-hop in the most populous country in the world. FP talks to the 32-year-old impresario about his unlikely journey from the streets of Detroit to the nightclubs of Shanghai.

Most Internet censorship regimes—including those in Burma, China, and North Korea—rely on list-based software that flags and then blocks access to certain keywords, domain names, and URL addresses. Such technology can be highly effective. But it is also possible for ordinary citizens to get around it using some simple techniques. Here’s how to do it.

This summer, political journalists Gian Antonio Stella and Sergio Rizzo exposed the excess and corruption of Italian politics in their book, The Caste: How Italian Politicians Have Become Untouchable. Reviewing the work in the November/December issue of FOREIGN POLICY, Antonio Carlucci says The Caste has “become the center of political debate” in the country. Now, FP sits down with the men who started the firestorm.

Forget Branson and Buffett. Like Carlos Slim, many of the world’s wealthiest people operate in the shadows of the global economy. Meet the tycoons you don’t know but should.

Something funny has happened to the price of oil: It no longer reflects reality. The reason, according to Fadel Gheit, one of Wall Street's top energy analysts, is that “financial players have seized control of the oil markets”. Find out how they did it in this week’s Seven Questions.

We’re used to shrugging off all sorts of rhetorical gobbledygook from our politicians. But when you hear U.S. presidential candidates start to mouth off about free trade, watch your wallet: A discredited 14th-century theory of economics is enjoying a dangerous renaissance in the 2008 campaign.

Now that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is single again, FP takes a look at a few of the other world leaders whose affections may be up for grabs.

Can Pervez Musharraf hang tough in Islamabad? Najam Sethi, editor of Pakistan's Daily Times and one of the country’s most respected political analysts, sees a leader who is reviled everywhere but where it matters most: in the barracks.

Pervez Musharraf, Vladimir Putin, and Hugo Chávez are merely the latest in a long line of strongmen who have used the trappings of democracy to stay in power. In this week’s List, FP takes a look at the world’s longest-serving “elected” leaders.