Ben Bartenstein

SAN NICOLAS, ARUBA — Syria and Venezuela plotted in recent years to evade international sanctions on Syria through a secret deal to transport its crude oil through Russia to the Caribbean.

LIMA, PERU – Among the conflict-of-interest questions swirling around U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s global business interests, Trump Tower at Century City in Manila’s financial district stands out.

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. - Last December, when 18-year-old Andrew Hughes got down on one knee to propose to his girlfriend, Katie Koller, 19, the couple experienced a rare burst of euphoria. Katie began to tear up.

NEW YORK, NY — As Turkey's economic troubles spread, a dispute with the U.S. plays a role.

JEBEL ZIREG, Morocco - The television crew follows him from bivouac to blister station to the bathroom scale, where he weighs in at 176 pounds. While Sir Ranulph Fiennes, 71, munches on mixed nuts, the BBC videographer grabs him.

EAU CLAIRE, WIS. — Chants for "Justin" serenaded Wisconsin's Chippewa Valley throughout the weekend. No, not Bieber or Timberlake, the crowd wanted Justin Vernon.

LIMA, PERU – As Peru clears up the mess left by the worst flooding in almost 20 years, the country’s leader says preparing for the next big one is more urgent than ever.

LIMA, PERU – Geopolitical risks may be on the rise in emerging markets, but investors from Goldman Sachs to BlackRock aren’t much bothered by them. Developed nations, on the other hand, are giving them the jitters.

LIMA, PERU – The investor who called emerging markets the “trade of a decade” before their rally last year sees further gains to come.

NEW YORK, NY – Federal prosecutors are preparing to charge several individuals and confiscate their property over the alleged looting of Venezuela’s state oil company in what may amount to one of the biggest asset seizures in U.S. history.

LIMA, PERU – Dictatorships are on a hot streak in the bond market. In the past year, sovereign notes from emerging markets under autocratic rule have returned 15 percent on average, compared with just 8.6 percent for securities from developing countries considered democratic, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

ST. PAUL, MINN. — In the months after she went deaf, Mai Vang, 35, found solace picking up trash from streets and organizing fundraisers to support her neighbors on St. Paul's East Side.

NEW YORK, NY — When Carmelo Haddad and Francisco Ghersi invested half their hedge fund’s money into a soon-to-mature Venezuela bond in mid-January, only two outcomes were possible: the trade could go horribly wrong or it could pay off fabulously.

NEW YORK, NY — On February 26, 2014, Reda Jaber sat in his Ann Arbor, Michigan apartment agonizing over where to go for his medical residency in pathology.

NEW YORK, NY — Seven weeks after assuming office, Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski is trying to lure investors by touting an economic agenda of boosting credit, repairing inefficiencies and reducing the nation’s reliance on copper.