Special Reports

Insight: Luxury brands position for U.S. boom

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PARIS/NEW YORK - Most men might balk at spending $600 on a pair of Dior sneakers but for U.S. shoppers like Ephraim, an upbeat 30-year-old, such indulgences are becoming increasingly commonplace.

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Special Report: The deeper agenda behind "Abenomics"

TOKYO - When ill health and political gridlock forced Shinzo Abe to quit after one dismal year as Japan's prime minister, his pride was dented and his self-confidence battered.

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Insight: In attacker's argot, Londoners shocked to hear one of their own

LONDON - In the lurid scene of the red-handed knifeman describing his motives for hacking to death a British soldier in broad daylight, perhaps the most chilling aspect for many Londoners was the man's unmistakably familiar accent.

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Special Report: Poor planning left Texas firefighters unprepared

WEST, Texas - The fertilizer-plant explosion that killed 14 and injured about 200 others in Texas last month highlights the failings of a U.S. federal law intended to save lives during chemical accidents, a Reuters investigation has found.

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Insight: No more easy pickings in Russia's banking market

MOSCOW - Foreign banks that once treated Russia as virgin land where easy money could be made are now finding it a cut-throat market tougher than some bargained for.

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Insight: The road to a greener America is littered with road-kill

LOS ANGELES - In October 2004, then California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger rolled up to a pioneering fueling station at Los Angeles International Airport in a hydrogen-powered metallic blue Hummer loaned to him by General Motors Corp.

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Insight: The fight for North Dakota's fracking-water market

WATFORD CITY, North Dakota - In towns across North Dakota, the wellhead of the North American energy boom, the locals have taken to quoting the adage: "Whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting." | Video

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Special Report: The Rise and Fall of China's Sun King

HONG KONG - In a 2010 speech before a packed ballroom of university students in Sydney, Shi Zhengrong, founder of Chinese solar-panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd, listed the people who had been important in his rise to fame and riches.

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Insight: Syria's Nusra Front eclipsed by Iraq-based al Qaeda

BEIRUT - The most feared and effective rebel group battling President Bashar al-Assad, the Islamist Nusra Front, is being eclipsed by a more radical jihadi force whose aims go far beyond overthrowing the Syrian leader.

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Insight: Mid-sized Italian banks face big bang for want of bucks

GENOA, Italy - A deepening recession and banking stress tests could find Italy's mid-sized lenders short of billions of euros, putting the state on the hook for a new wave of cash calls and triggering an overhaul of how they do business.