Oman

Iranian officials told Reuters on Friday that Tehran had received a message from US President Donald Trump warning that a US attack on Iran was imminent but saying he was against war and wanted talks on a range of issues.

Diplomacy is often awkward, stymied by translators, late nights and unsecured yurt communication (yes, that really happened). But diplomacy can also stop a war, as years of secret and not-so-secret negotiations between the US and Iran proved when the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was reached in 2015.

Are you obsessing over Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding? Well, to help you get your royal fix, here's some other information about other royal families.

In 1498, Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama made history by becoming the first European to reach Asia by sea, ushering in the world's first episode of globalization. Naval archaeologists have just published their findings into one of his lost ships, providing insights into the earliest days of European imperialism.

What is the appeal of this desert sand? "This is the one place that I had desperately wanted to discover as a young girl," writes a former New York Times correspondent during her dusty journey. "It had only taken me 40 years to get here."

The Sultanate of Oman has always been different than its neighbors in the Persian Gulf. It’s known as a calm, tranquil oasis, and frequent host to high-level secret talks between heads of opposing nations. But the most visible difference is an emphasis on local culture over glitz and glam.

With Halloween coming, there's a great deal of hand-wringing over potentially offensive and racist Halloween costumes. This "Sexy Ebola Nurse' outfit isn't racist, but it probably is offensive. Meanwhile, in China, the country considers dropping counterfeiting from the long list of crimes subject to the death penalty, and a burglar runs into his victim at the bank. Those stories and more in today's Global Scan.

The Canadian dollar has been about equal with the US dollar in recent years. But as the US Fed moves to ease up on its stimulus, the loonie is falling. In Russia, 50 years of work still hasn't fully domesticated the wild fox. And an Indian comic takes on the country's widespread use of skin lightening creams, in today's Global Scan.

What are you to do when you encounter a cave so large it can hardly be called a cave, so large it could swallow on the pyramids of Egypt? Why, climb it, of course.

Qatar and its neighbors in the Arabian Gulf aren't getting along too well. Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, recalled its ambassador recently — just one move in a series of diplomatic measures designed to get the small, but wealthy Gulf country to step in line.