But in the world of Middle Eastern politics a world that now includes Syria in flames, Egypt in chaos, and even Jordan in a state of instability the prospects are dim for anything other than an increasingly volatile status quo.
But officials are wary of reading too much into the mini-boom in tourism, noting that to the outside world eastern DR Congo remains "a war zone" and that although there are some signs of positive change, the country is a long way from emulating neighbouring Rwanda's dramatic transformation.
The stakes are high for a country strategically positioned in Middle Eastern politics and in world trade through the Suez Canal.
Firefox phones are likely to be sold first in the developing world and Eastern Europe and will be at the cheaper end of the smartphone market, according to Jay Sullivan, vice president of products at Mozilla.
We mentioned the Western Hemisphere above, but we would like to start somewhere unexpected - the Old World shetls of Eastern Europe.
Between 1000 and 1250, Turkish converts gained control of Baghdad, and the Islamic world split into eastern and western spheres.
Coal, which is mainly carbon, is subsidised in much of Eastern Europe and the developing world, as well as in Germany and Spain.
Deepak Chopra is the founder of The Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California, and is acknowledged as one of the master teachers of Eastern philosophy in the Western world.
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He says he must take harsh measures not just to impress visiting Eurocrats but to prevent Romania from sliding into the third world like its eastern neighbours, Moldova and Ukraine.
Anyone who has done anything but the most cursory reading about the Eastern Front in the Second World War knows that the use of human wave attacks is hardly a uniquely Persian phenomenon.
But the idea has also spread to eastern Europe and Asia and may even be reaching the bankruptcy-averse Muslim world (last year ten Middle Eastern and north African countries signed a joint declaration on planned reforms).
Parts of the world, most notably Eastern Europe, experienced below-average to extreme cold temperatures this winter.
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First, Eastern Canada beat the touring Australian World Cup side by five wickets.
Thatcher's strength and drive made her an icon to conservatives in many parts of the world, especially in eastern Europe.
In some parts of the world, particularly in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, flat taxes have been cited as a spark for economic growth.
The Arab world is not like eastern Europe two decades ago, when repressive regimes tumbled because ordinary people suddenly dislodged the prop of Soviet power.
And if Asian countries are in any doubt about what can be done on their own, they need look no further than Latin America and Eastern Europe, parts of the world where (admittedly) they have hardly been accustomed to find economic or regulatory models to emulate.
While disconnected from the world at large I, again like countless others up and down the Eastern Seaboard, also fell out of touch with the sports world.
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When communism was collapsing back in the 1980s and the early 1990s in Eastern Europe, equity markets around the world cheered.
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Of course, baseball's recent ruling class isn't yet willing to surrender, even if an Eastern Division team hasn't made the World Series since 2009.
The European Union is to hold an informal summit in Klagenfurt, Austria, to discuss the world economy, EU expansion into eastern Europe and the crisis in Kosovo.
The prints in question were made in eastern North America, a part of the world then full of rift valleys similar to those in East Africa today.
"To recover your wealth you have to work over many years to rebuild your capacities, to produce goods and services to sell to the world, to compete with the eastern countries, " he says.
Eddie Rickenbacker, the World War I ace, bravely founded Eastern Airlines in the late 1930s.
And I really would like for us to let the rest of the world fight for and fight over Middle Eastern oil.
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OPEC, which is dominated by Middle Eastern producers, owns three-quarters of the world's proven reserves (see chart), it currently produces only 41% of the world's annual oil supply.
In 13 countries of eastern and southern Africa that are regarded by the World Health Organisation as being priority areas for the procedure, over half a million men were circumcised explicitly for AIDS protection between 2008 and 2010.
The world holds its breath as 08.30 Eastern Time approaches on the first Friday of a new month.
Just as the fall of the Berlin Wall transformed Eastern Europe, so is revolution now sweeping the Arab world.
To a western world whose darkest fear is that south-eastern Europe will slide into anarchy, a strongman who can deliver may seem preferable to chaos.
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