Iraq

Some of the loveliest cities hug great rivers: Cairo on the Nile, Paris on the Seine. Baghdad's lifeblood is the Tigris. After years of war, commuter boats and even a rowing club ply its waters again.

"I believe in diplomacy, I believe in dialogue, I believe in engagement," the president says of Iran and other regimes perceived as U.S. enemies. But he says restoring relations is a gradual process.

Three years after the U.S. military officially withdrew from Iraq, 2,000 U.S. troops are back restoring the old buildings they'd left behind and renewing former contacts with Iraqi officers.

By the summer of 2014, a third of Iraq was under the control of the self-proclaimed Islamic State or ISIS, and people worried the capital might be next. Six months on, that's changed.

"We like Iraq, but Iraq doesn't like us," says a displaced Christian man. He's just one of example of religious minorities who have been dislodged from parts of Iraq where they have ancient roots.

Pittsburgh is the latest Rust Belt city hoping to lure high-skilled immigrants into its labor force by helping refugees and other immigrants land the kind of jobs they held back home.