China reportedly threatened Melbourne's mayor with ending a sister-city relationship with Tianjin.

ECONOMIST: Australia and China

Given the mayor's admiration for Paris, a sister-city of Chicago, and his penchant for borrowing ideas from the French, such grand projects are perhaps not surprising.

ECONOMIST: The Daley dynasty

For Morocco, their absence was a small victory in a long campaign to take over the 12 square kilometres of Melilla and its 65, 000 people, along with its sister-city of Ceuta, which is just a shade bigger in size and population.

ECONOMIST: Spain in North Africa

Columbus' sister city across the border, Puerto Palomas, became known for narco-violence in 2009 when the mayor, Estanislao Garcia, was kidnapped and executed.

CNN: On the border: Guns, drugs -- and a betrayal of trust

Since my self-exile, I had lived in New York City, Washington DC, Dallas, and Philadelphia - but the light that emerged from my sister's death and dying showed me the way home to a place that looks and feels a lot like Mayberry.

BBC: Is the ideal of small-town America a myth?

In 2001, she and her sister Judy Bush founded the nonprofit Classic and Contemporary American Plays, an organization that introduces great American plays to inner-city schools' curriculum.

WSJ: Bonnie Franklin, 'One Day At a Time' star, dies