anchor.diff:  Monaco,"This is the second smallest independent state in the world (after the Vatican) and is almost entirely urban.
    Monte Carlo is not the capital of Monaco but a government district. The country is divided into four areas: Monaco-Ville (the old city), the Condamine (port quarter), Monte-Carlo (business and recreation), and Fontvieille (recreation and light industry). With no natural resources to exploit other than its location and climate, the principality has become a resort for tourists and a tax haven for businesses. Monaco is six times the size of the Vatican and the world's most densely populated independent country.
   "
  -Virgin Islands,"U.S. Virgin Islands is an unincorporated organized territory of the United States of America between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, east of Puerto Rico. It was formerly known as the Danish West Indies. Together with the British Virgin Islands, to the northeast, the territory forms the Virgin Islands archipelago. The islands natural resources are sun, sand, sea, and surf.
  +Virgin Islands,"There is more than one place called Virgin Islands:
    
   "
   Turks and Caicos Islands,"The currency used in the island is the US dollar and the spoken language is English. Daylight savings time is observed and they are in the Eastern Time Zone. 
  
positive.code:  Mauritania is an Islamic Republic. Don't be afraid of this political status - most Mauritanians are not extremists, even if the majority of the people in the North are very conservative and quite reserved. Neither slavery, female genital mutilation, child labour nor human trafficking are rare and racism against people with darker skins is both open and prevalent. The Southern part of the country is filled with friendly people, and they are very welcoming, if a little unused to tourists. 
  "
  Mali,"The rebels gained control after military leaders upset with the government's handling of the crisis overthrew the president in a bloodless coup in late March. International pressure forced a transition to a civilian president, but he has very limited political muscle and the central government is now rather dysfunctional. Neighboring countries in alliance with France and the government of Mali have began a ground offensive and airstrikes as of January 2013. At the moment this offensive is taking place North of Mopti but the situation is likely to remain extremely volatile and may change at any second. All of this comes as Mali experiences a mild famine and locust infestation, and food is in short supply. 
   Due to the extremists controlling the north, French airstrikes, an ongoing ground offensive, unstable government and famine, travel to Mali is highly discouraged for the time being and anyone planning travel to Mali in the next year or so needs to monitor events closely and consult the advice of your embassy.   Info from U.S. Dept. of State (Updated September 2012)Mali [1] is a landlocked country in the Sahel, bordered by Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Senegal, and Mauritania. Mali is a developing nation, and remains one of the poorest countries in the world. However, it has some incredible sights, including four UNESCO World-Heritage sites, and the historic city of Timbuktu.
  "
  Myanmar,"Like most of Southeast Asia's countries, Myanmar's people and history is a glorious mishmash of settlers and invaders from all fronts. The Mon and the Pyu are thought to have come from India, while the now dominant Bamar (Burmese) migrated through Tibet and, by 849, had founded a powerful kingdom centred on Bagan. For the next millennium, the Burmese empire grew through conquests of Thailand (Ayutthaya) and India (Manipur), and shrank under attacks from China and internal rebellions.
   Eventually, Britain conquered Burma over a period of 62 years (1824-1886) and incorporated it into its Indian Empire. It was administered as a province of India until 1937 when it became a separate self-governing colony. During the Second World War, Burma was a major battleground as the Allies fought the Japanese for dominance over Asia. The Burma Road was built to get supplies to China. The Thailand-Burma railroad (the so-called ""Death Railway"") from Kanchanaburi in Thailand over the River Kwai to Burma was built by the Japanese using forced labour — Allied prisoners-of-war, indentured Thai labourers, and Burmese people. They had to work in appalling conditions and a great number of them died (estimated at 80,000) during construction of the railway. Large parts of Western Burma, particularly the hilly areas bordering India and the city of Mandalay were severely damaged during the war. 
  
negative.code: Since 1989, Sudan has been under the authoritarian rule of Omar Hassan Al-Bashir.
   Sudan is as geographically diverse as it is culturally; in the north, the Nile cuts through the eastern edge of the Sahara: the Nubian desert, the sites of the ancient kingdoms of Kush and Meroe, and the land of the Seti. Here, agriculture drives the economy. Staple crops include ful (fava beans), dates, tomato, and onion. The East and West are mountainous regions, and much of the rest of the country comprises of savannahs typical of much of central sub-Saharan Africa.
  "
  Uganda,"Uganda [1] is a country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the southwest by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. Famously called the Pearl of Africa by Winston Churchill, it is home to one of the most diverse and concentrated ranges of African fauna including the highly endangered mountain gorilla and the endangered common chimpanzee. 
   Uganda is accessible and affordable, but not up to the high tourism standards of more mature destinations such as Kenya or Tanzania, much less South Africa. This gives it more edge, more authenticity and less predictability. This does not mean danger (but see Stay Safe section below), rather greater opportunities for delight -- and frustration. This is real Africa, the dirty urban bustle of Kampala bursting at the seams then giving way to lush subsistence farming and small villages. Roads are rough, people are friendly, everything seems to have a smell all its own, and not everything moves according to schedule or to plan. 
  "
  Austria,"Today's Austria is what was once the German speaking core and centre of power for the large multiethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire with its imperial capital in Vienna. This empire stretched eastwards from present-day Austria through much of east-central and south-central Europe. It included the entire territories of modern day Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and portions of Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, Poland and Italy. While Prussia united the German states to the north by force into one ""Germany"" in the latter part of the 19th Century, Austria remained oriented eastwards towards its diverse empire. However, from the start of the 20th century, the political history of Austria has been closely linked to the misfortunes and disasters of modern German history, mainly the First and Second World Wars and their terrible aftermath.
  