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Alexander Murphy recalls visiting a Guatemala museum some years ago and gazing up at a huge relief map of the country. Something about the borders struck the University of Oregon geography professor as out of place.

"And then I realized, 'Wait, all of Belize is shown as part of Guatemala,' " Murphy says. That's when he remembered a decades-old territorial dispute between the two Central American neighbors.

Maps, like statistics, can lie — or at least tell only one side of the story. As often as not, they can belie the level of actual governmental control or the ethnic and social realities on the ground. And competing views over "who owns what" invariably fuel nationalistic fervor.

Enlarge He Yuan/EPA/Landov

A map in China's new passports shows disputed islands and territorial waters as belonging to China, which has angered several of its neighbors.

One of the most well-known American women in China is someone many Americans have never heard of. Jessica Beinecke is host of Voice of America's OMG! Meiyu, an English-language learning web show that teaches American slang expressions to Chinese students.

Beinecke's fun, offbeat videos have racked up more than 15 million views over the last year — on Youtube and other Chinese sites.

She has become a breakout star in China and even has a fan club based in Beijing. Each week, Beinecke asks her viewers what words or expressions they would like to learn. Their responses have led to her explanations of expressions like "eye gunk," "big mouth" and "buttering up."

Beinecke talks with NPR's Neal Conan about explaining American English to Chinese students.

Hewlett Packard says it is doing an "intense internal investigation" into its disastrous acquisition of the British software company Autonomy. HP claims it was deceived by Autonomy about the health of the firm's finances. The deal is causing HP to take an $8.8 billion charge against earnings. Autonomy's former CEO has challenged HP to spell out any improprieties it's found.

Just a few years ago, Cyprus was considered a wealthy country, though that referred mostly to the Greek Cypriots on the southern part of the divided island. When Cyprus entered the eurozone in 2008, analysts were wondering what would become of the much poorer north, which has been occupied by Turkey since a 1974 war.

Now, the Turks in northern Cyprus have the booming economy, while Greek Cypriots, crippled by exposure to ailing Greek banks, are waiting for final approval on what will be the fourth sovereign bailout of a eurozone country.

After Turkey invaded Cyprus nearly four decades ago, Greek Cypriot families in the north fled their homes and relocated in the south — which is now an independent nation in the European Union.

Turkish Cypriots went to the north, which Turkey continues to occupy. Because of embargoes and isolation, Turkish Cypriots were cut off from the rest of the world and became dependent on aid from Turkey.

Enlarge Joanna Kakissis/NPR

Fikri Toros, a Turkish Cypriot businessman, says his family's company struggled for years because of embargoes and a weak Turkish lira. But its fortunes have improved with Turkey's economy.