China’s economy is the stuff of suspense novels

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NEED TO KNOW:

China just devalued its currency for a second straight day. As a result, global markets are doing what they do best: reacting. Stocks fell sharply around the world.

China's economy is the stuff of suspense novels. Since it began market-based reforms in the late '70s, its economy has grown exponentially, making it one of the world's great economic powerhouses. China has been the largest contributor to global growth in the last decade.

But today its economy is slowing down, and that's making everyone nervous. In a massive, panic-driven sell-off in July, China's stock market — the Shanghai Composite Index — lost nearly 15 percent of its value. And today, the country's government released a whole slew of new economic numbers that were pretty disappointing. All this bad news is why it decided to devalue its currency.

China's decision to artificially devalue its currency came almost immediately after it promised to allow the free market to determine its value. Those are two opposite things. And now no one is really sure what China will do. Most of the world, and especially the United States, has been calling on China to stop interfering so much with the value of its currency for a long time. The back-to-back devaluations risk inflaming tensions with the United States a month before Chinese President Xi Jingping heads to Washington.

Perhaps wary of this, the United States has remained relatively quiet on the issue. But in the past, American officials have publicly accused the Chinese of trying to gain a trade advantage. An undervalued currency is attractive for many companies who are able to move production overseas. Critics argue that, in turn, this hurts American workers.

WANT TO KNOW:

It's not exactly a tourist paradise. But Mogadishu, Somalia is not what it once was.

Mogadishu used to be synonymous with terror, conflict and corruption. Somalia was the world's most famous failed state. But while problems remain, it's all getting better. And for residents of Mogadishu, these days life is good.

Streetlights illuminate the city's main streets. Kids play, running through rows of busy food stalls. Record stores play music. Local banks are all open. Pharmacies, butchers, restaurants, grocery stores and mobile phone shops are everywhere. Traders who have trekked into the city from the countryside carry baggage filled with goods to sell at street markets. Everywhere, new buildings are under construction. The city is almost unrecognizable from just a few years ago.

Somalia’s central government collapsed in the early 1990s, sparking a prolonged civil war. In 2006, the Al Qaeda-affiliated militant group Al Shabaab arrived on the scene, seizing cities throughout the country and occupying neighborhoods in the capital. A famine struck in 2010 that lasted for two years. That all began to change in 2011, when Somali and African Union troops pushed Al Shabaab out of Mogadishu.

“The government is building and renovating houses and other structures across Mogadishu,” one life-long resident told GlobalPost. “It’s going to be a developed city, because Mogadishu is now a peaceful place.”

STRANGE BUT TRUE:

The British Library is stumped and needs your help. It has this double-edged sword (like, literally) that dates back to between 1250 and 1330 A.D. The library says the sword is typical of those that would have been wielded by European knights in the 13th century. It was found in Lincolnshire, a town in England.

What the library doesn't know is what the inscription on the side of the sword means. And so it posted a picture of it online and asked if anyone could help. The photo soon went viral and the comments section of the blog post was inundated with responses. That comments section is now closed, but the library still hasn't solved the mystery.

Maybe you can figure it out. Does “+NDXOXCHWDRGHDXORVI+” mean anything to you?