CAIRO, Egypt — At El Rifai, tucked away in a narrow corner of one of Cairo’s poorest neighborhoods, the only thing on the menu is meat. For more than 40 years, this alleyway restaurant has been a carnivore’s dream, dishing up nightly over 200 pounds of fire-grilled kabob, seasoned lamb chops and tarb, a sausage-like stick of minced beef wrapped inside a layer of moist fat.

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Greece, embroiled in its worst economic crisis in living memory, has received an offer of support from an unexpected source. While the headlines are filled with strikes and violent riots in Athens, as the country staggers under $400 billion in debt, increasingly expensive repayments and a junk status credit rating, Turkey is reaching out diplomatically and — the Greeks hope — soon financially. Turkey's rise as a powerful regional actor stands in contrast to the trajectory of its age-old rival across the Aegean.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Here in Sierra Leone and across Africa experts struggle to define what it means to be middle class. But many people know they want to be part of that group. “It’s my education [secondary and vocational school] and experience,” said Michael Tommy, a generator mechanic for one of the United Nations’ compounds here. “With the money they pay me I’m able to sustain myself and my family, but I’m not able to save for a house.”

WASHINGTON — In 1992 George Soros sold short more than 10 billion pound sterling. He bet that the British government would devalue its currency and withdraw the pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), the precursor to the euro. By locking exchange rates within certain ranges, the ERM helped provide stability across European markets.