TOKYO, Japan — On a recent Saturday afternoon at a fake European village in Tokyo, a group of Japanese women with fake eyelashes sipped cappuccinos at a fake French cafe and watched a real wedding. A Japanese couple in Western wedding clothes was getting married in a fake, vaguely European-looking chapel by a Caucasian priest. A fake one, of course.

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Valery Hon owns what in local business jargon is described as a “tasty morsel.” Hon is founder and chairman of the board of the VOSST company, located just outside of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital. Among his holdings is one of the most sought-after pieces of real estate in Kyrgyzstan: a fuel storage facility located about half a mile from the country’s main international airport, Manas. 

BANGALORE, India — The Chinese are out to conquer the world, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the India operations of the giant Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei Technologies. Against the backdrop of deeply rooted suspicion about a Chinese company making inroads in a politically sensitive area like telecom, Chinese employees of Huawei have hit upon a new strategy to win over their subcontinental customers: doing in India as the Indians do.

BOSTON — The “D” word — derivatives — achieved pariah status again this week on both sides of the Atlantic as governments continued their epic battles to rein in an unwieldy financial system. In an effort to curb speculation, Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority banned the purchase of credit default swaps on government debt unless investors own the underlying bonds. The U.S. Senate Senate Thursday passed a sweeping financial reform bill that requires most derivatives to be traded on exchanges and prevents banks from trading them.