Entire program – December 8, 2009

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Today on The World: The top US commander in Afghanistan testified on Capitol Hill today that the Taliban momentum can be reversed; Also, Colombia’s president faces down a scandal where money meant for poor farmers wound up in the pockets of his supporters; and, we meet Israel’s Arab-Israeli diplomat.

General McChrystal in Afghanistan hearing

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The United States will reverse Taliban momentum within a year and accomplish its mission in Afghanistan, but it will be “undeniably difficult” and costly, the top American commander there has said. Appearing in Congress, General Stanley McChrystal warned the mission would fail without more troops and praised President Obama’s decision to deploy 30,000 additional forces. Katy Clark reports. Download MP3 (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

• BBC coverage of the conflict with the Taliban
• President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy
• Background Brief: Taliban insurgency

Assessing India’s green energy promises

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

As climate negotiators huddle in Copenhagen, India is promising to reduce its greenhouse emissions with a big boost in green energy. But as Miranda Kennedy reports, there are big question marks as to whether India can deliver. Download MP3 (AP Photo: Rafiq Maqbool)

• Miranda’s report on India’s resisting steep cuts in greenhouse emissions
• BBC coverage of the Copenhagen summit
• Impact of climate change (interactive map)
• Environment coverage on The World

Climate activists get creative

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Activists are already staging creative demonstrations at the climate change summit in Copenhagen. The World’s Marina Giovannelli looks at how different protest groups are vying for a spot on the international stage, and whether or not their efforts will sway the outcome of the negotiations. Download MP3 Photo: ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/Getty Images

• Website for Climate Justice Action
• Video performance by The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home

The voice of North Korea

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Washington’s special North Korea representative, Stephen Bosworth, is in Pyongyang trying to restart stalled denuclearization talks. It’s unlikely that the envoy will meet with reclusive leader Kim Jong-il, as former President Bill Clinton did back in August. But if he does, it is sure to be covered in official North Korean media. And as reporter Jason Strother tells us, there is one anchorwoman whose job it is to report it: Ri Chun-hee. Download MP3 Photo: Reuters

• KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY of DPRK
• BBC country profile

Chile mourns celebrated folksinger Jara

Chilean folksinger and songwriter Victor Jara was reburied in Chile on Saturday – 36 years after his death. Thousands of people joined the procession in Santiago to celebrate the life of this national icon. Jara was an activist and supporter of deposed socialist president Salvadore Allende. He was killed in 1973 following General Pinochet’s coup. His body was exhumed in an effort to piece together the details of his death.

• Click here for the Victor Jara slideshow
• Chile reburies coup victim and singer Jara

Pakistan’s role in US surge in Afghanistan

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
As more US troops arrive in Afghanistan, many expect the insurgents to slip across the border to Pakistan. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Shuja Nawaz, Director of the South Asia Center at The Atlantic Council of the United States, about what the US needs from Pakistan and what it can expect.

Former Chilean president was assassinated

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Peter Kornbluh, director of the Chile Documentation Project at George Washington University’s National Security Archive, about this week’s ruling that the death of former Chilean President Eduardo Frei 25 years ago was the result of assassination…not complications suffered from surgery.

Israel’s Arab diplomat

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Reda Mansour is Israel’s Consul General to the Southeast. Based in Atlanta. He’s a little unusual for an Israeli diplomat. He’s a published poet. And he’s an Arab. Jessica Jones of WUNC has his story.

Geo Quiz

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Our daily geography quiz.

Chrysler ad touts political heroes

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Why are images of Lech Walesa, Mikhail Gorbachev, even Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi starring in the latest ad campaign from Chrysler? Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Dan Neil, advertising and automotive columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

• Video: Chrysler ad
• Dan Neil’s column on Chrysler ad

Geo answer

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
For today’s Geo Quiz, we asked the location of Langkawi Island, which just hosted a major maritime and aerospace technology show. The answer is Malaysia.

Colombia farm scandal

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Small farmers in Colombia were supposed to get millions in farm subsidies. But much of the cash has gone to political supporters of Colombia’s president. And that’s caused a scandal that’s hurting the president. Correspondent John Otis reports.

Langkawi Island

The island that figures in today’s Geo Quiz just experienced an invasion of sorts. Langkawi Island was taken over last week by helicopters, warships, and surface-to-air missile launchers.

Music Heard on Air for December 8, 2009

Tunes Spun On The Word Between our reports for December 8, 2009. Artists featured are Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba featuring Harouna Samake, Oran Etkin, Ali Farka Toure, Ry Cooder, Kila, Jonthan Richman and The Modern Lovers.