The Christian Science Monitor

More and more walls are rising in Baghdad neighborhoods, giving areas a calmer, safer feel. But the walls also create a prison-like atmosphere and many residents are conflicted about the tradeoff.

Officially named in 2001, this small town in China's Yunnan Province is struggling to cope with over 2 million visitors a year. It's becoming a "high altitude hell."

Desperate to find ways to relieve traffic congestion, local planners are getting creative with transportation plans and potential sources of revenue.

Congestion issues are high on many lists of urgent urban issues. Politicians and governments are now easing up to the formerly-avoided expense of improving highways and roads.

Increased development in wooded and fire-prone areas is one of the major causes of California's recent "megafires".

Government officials in Rwanda are looking to the high-tech sector as a way to bring the country into economic viability. Rwanda is wiring up in hopes of becoming Africa's tech center.

San Francisco and Los Angeles will turn off their lights tonight in a voluntary effort to show how simple changes in behavior can have a big effect, especially on big city skylines.

Private ownership of the site of ancient Mayan ruins in Mexico have legislators clamoring to claim the site as property of the country.

The tourism industry is booming along the Mayan Riviera on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. Many are worried that the ever-increasing supply of hotels and the flood of tourists will displace most of the area's local residents and hurt the environment.

The Purdue University researcher who revealed that there is more than three times more parking than drivers in one county in Indiana is looking to expand his count to the entire nation.

In one of the most congested cities in the world, one entrepreneur is hoping to etch away at the problem with his fledgling bicycle rental business. Currently there are 500 bikes in the system, but the owner has plans for more than 50,000 by 2009.

The second phase of Sao Paulo, Brazil's strict advertising and signage ban has begun, and is resulting in the renovation and preservation of the city's historic facades.

The number of American dams rated as "deficient" has topped 1,000, which could spell disaster for many floodplain communities.

Over the summer, plans fell through on a number of major municipal Wi-Fi projects in major American cities, such as Chicago and Houston. But these networks are thriving in smaller communities around the country.

The rapid rural-to-urban population shift is felt heavily in many African cities, but especially so in the continent's smaller cities, such as the Botswanan capitol of Gaborone.

Urbanization is threatening and consuming forests in New England more rapidly than in any other place in the nation.

By increasing the amount of migrant work permits and political rights, Ireland has beckoned immigrants from all over the world, becoming one of Europe's immigration leaders.

A new network of sensors will detail how ecological threats to the waterway affect the seacoast.

An 'urban heat island' effect, fed by the city's growth, is trapping heat and making temperatures soar.

Sprawling housing developments and shopping center parking lots threaten many historic battlefields, such as the site of Abraham Lincoln's famed Gettysburg Address.