Michael Dudley

Surging oil wealth, a huge provincial surplus, and a booming real estate market make Calgary the new "centre of the universe" in Canada.

Official neglect, prejudice, cronyism and political inertia are crippling reconstruction efforts in the Gulf states, writes Mike Davis.

Despite years of efforts on the part of planners and governments to promote "smart growth", census data shows that the fastest-growing counties in the U.S. are "suburban, rural or a mixture of both."

There has been little to equal the speed and extent of the development of the Chinese city of Chongqing, which is growing so rapidly, a population equivalent to that of Luxembourg is added each year.

Downtown locations for many of the social service and training opportunities immigrants need may no longer make sense in rapidly-growing cities such as Calgary.