World Books Review: African ‘Dreams in a Time of War’

A compelling African memoir whose unblinking candor about human behavior suggests the iconoclastic, unsentimental approach of such authors as Czesław Miłosz and I.B. Singer, writers whose recreation of a vanished world is tough-minded rather than sentimental.

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Global Political Cartoons: March 6-12, 2010

The World’s Carol Hills presents political cartoons from around the globe. This week: settlements unsettle Vice President Biden’s visit to Israel, guns for sale in Congo, and the gal behind the Oscar-winning guy film: The Hurt Locker.

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Entire program – March 11, 2010

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Today on The World: Today on The World: Strong aftershocks hit Chile as a new president takes office; Canadian lawmakers go to lunch to support seal hunters; And LA band Dengue Fever looks to Cambodia’s past for its newest album.

New Chile quake as next president is inaugurated

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Sebastián Piñera has been sworn in as president of Chile, minutes after it was hit by the largest aftershock since last month’s devastating earthquake. The National Congress building was evacuated shortly afterwards and a tsunami alert issued for coastal areas. Piñera’s presidency ends two decades of left-wing rule in Chile. The BBC’s Gideon Long is in Chile’s capital, Santiago. Download MP3

• BBC coverage
• On The World: US teen helps after Chile quake
• BBC Mundo (en españiol)

UN chief establishes climate panel review

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UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appointed an independent panel to review the operations of the IPCC, the UN’s climate science panel. The organization won the Nobel Peace Prize for its work, but critics have identified a number of small errors in its reports. The World’s Katy Clark reports. Download MP3

• BBC coverage
• Environment stories on The World
• IPCC

Iron Curtain becomes green belt

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Twenty years ago today the Iron Curtain began to unravel. It was on March 11, 1990 that Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare its independence. The Soviet grip on Eastern Europe had begun to loosen with the fall of the Berlin Wall a few months earlier. Now, 20 years later, the fortified east-west border is also just a memory. But not all vestiges of the Iron Curtain have vanished from the landscape. Ashley Ahearn reports, in some places the former no-man’s land is being preserved… as a green belt. Download MP3(Photo: Ashley Ahearn)

• Downriver Productions

Greece’s crisis and the generational divide

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Greece saw another day of nationwide strikes today. Tens of thousands went out to protest drastic wage cuts and pension freezes. Those government cuts are aimed at pulling Greece out of a debt crisis that’s threatening other countries in the Eurozone. But the Greek public says the plan is threatening Greece’s middle class. And as Joanna Kakissis reports from Athens it’s leaving a bleak future for young Greeks. Download MP3

• BBC coverage
• Global Economy podcast: The Financial Problems With Greece
• Joanna Kakissis’s website

Greek islands

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For today’s Geo Quiz, we’re looking for a group of Greek islands. They have names like Corfu, Paxos and Ithaca… Download MP3

Canadian lawmakers eat seal

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Canadian lawmakers sat down to eat seal meat as a show of support for Canada’s seal hunters in the face of a European ban on seal products. Anchor David Baron speaks with the Canadian senator who organized the lunch, Celine Hervieux-Payette of the Liberal Party.

Israeli TV ad plays on Dubai killing

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Anchor David Baron has details on a commercial for an Israeli supermarket chain that seems to play on the recent killing of a senior Hamas commander in Dubai.

Massacre in Nigeria

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Details about a massacre outside the Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday are still sketchy. Authorities arrested dozens of Muslim men after the attacks. The BBC’s Komla Dumor visited one of the villages where the massacres took place and speaks with one of the survivors.

Massacre’s revenge factor

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Revenge may have played a role in the Sunday massacre in central Nigeria. Anchor David Baron speaks with Michele Gelfand of the University of Maryland about her research into the cultural factors behind revenge.

Carlos Slim and billionaire philanthropy

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Forbes announced today that Mexico’s telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim has become the world’s richest man, the first from a developing nation. In the US, there’s a long tradition of billionaire philanthropy, but in developing nations, it’s another matter. Anchor David Baron speaks with Musa Okwonga, Director for Press at the Institute for Philanthropy in London, about what some of the wealthiest people in developing nations do with their fortunes.

Geo Quiz

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Our daily geography quiz.

Geo answer

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Our Geo Quiz today sent us searching for a group of Greek islands in the Ionian Sea. The answer is the Ionian Islands. One of those islands recently went up for sale. Anchor David Baron speaks with Chris Krolow, CEO of Private Islands Online.