North Korea discussed in US-China talks

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
Secretary Hillary Clinton wrapped up two days of talks in Beijing today. Topping the agenda was the trouble between North and South Korea over the sinking of a South Korean navy ship two months ago. Evidence suggests that North Korea torpedoed the vessel. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad tells anchor Marco Werman that the US is pressing China to use its influence with North Korea to keep the peace on the Korean peninsula.

Capitalizing on a down euro

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
A weak euro means European exports become more attractive, so there’s an upside to the economic decline for some European entrepreneurs. But The World’s Gerry Hadden explains why business owners in Spain may not be able to seize the moment.

Euro’s fall could help African economies

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
The African Economic Outlook report out this week says the upside to a weak Euro is that it’s making countries in Africa more attractive to investors. Anchor Marco Werman finds out more from Léonce Ndikumana, Director of Development Research at the African Development Bank, the organization that helped put together the report.

China trials

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
China sentenced two high-profile citizens to prison terms this week. Anchor Marco Werman has this update.

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 puzzler.

Violence erupts in Jamaica

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
Jamaica’s underworld of drugs and gangs collided with government security forces in the capital Kingston today. Heavily armed police and soldiers are battling gangsters loyal to an alleged local drug lord. Anchor Marco Werman gets the latest from the BBC’s Nick Davis in Kingston.

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 were looking for the name of the country that lies directly north of Afghanistan and may soon be linked to it by a new 50-mile railway. The answer is Uzbekistan.

Life in Southern Africa

Laura Lynch recently traveled to Zimbabwe and South Africa to document life in the region. It was her first trip back to Zimbabwe since the controversial elections in 2008 when she was one of a handful of Western journalists allowed in the country to cover what became a gripping story of the struggle for power inside the troubled country. From South Africa Laura reported on the state of the nation just weeks before it is about to play host to the world’s greatest sports event, the soccer World Cup.

• Listen to Laura’s stories

Entire program – May 24, 2010

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 US tries to get China to ramp up the pressure on North Korea; Amateurs track down an unmanned spacecraft that blasted off from Florida; And, how traditional and Western-style treatments of mental illness converge in Sudan.

Clinton urges China on 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.

Download MP3The Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the US is working hard to avoid an escalation after a report blamed North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship. After talks in China, Clinton urged countries in the region to contain “the highly precarious situation created by North Korea”. China is the only country with any real leverage over North Korea and so far Beijing has refrained from criticizing its neighbor. Marco Werman talks with The World’s Mary Kay Magistad in Beijing. Download MP3

• BBC coverage
• North Korea – secretive state
• South Korean official blames North Korea

US visa laws lightened for Cuban artists

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 Obama administration is easing restrictions on visas issued to Cuban artists who refuse to defect or renounce their loyalty to the Cuban Revolution. The World’s Lorne Matalon profiles two artists who’ve come to the US from Cuba because of this opening. (Painting: “Cada quien a lo suyo” (To each his own) 2010; Photo: Lorne Matalon) Download MP3

• See photos of Orestes Gaulhiac’s artwork
• Galería Cubana in Boston
• Lorne’s Mexico stories

Lessons from global oil spills

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 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is pushing at least 12 miles into the marshes of Louisiana. And oil continues to spew into the Gulf. Oil spills are, sadly, a global phenomenon. And we may be able to learn from previous spills and from the efforts to clean them up. Marco Werman talks with Jay Holcomb of the International Bird Rescue Research Center. (image: NASA) Download MP3

• BBC coverage of the oil spill
• Canada rethinks deep sea oil drilling
• Oil spill in maps and graphicssome other website
• NOAA response to Deepwater Horizon incident

Mad Heads XL

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.

Mad Heads XL is one of the most popular rock bands in Ukraine. It’s also among the few Ukrainian bands with a sizable international following. Mad Heads started out performing in English. But a few years ago, the band decided to switch to Ukrainian. And when they did, things started happening to their music. Brigid McCarthy reports from Kiev. Download MP3

• Mad Heads XL’s website
• Mad Heads XL on MySpace
• Wikipedia: Mad Heads XL

US support of South 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.

Download MP3
The United States is committed by treaty to support South Korea in the event of a conflict. President Obama today ordered the US armed forces “to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression” in the Korean peninsula. But just what does that mean? Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Thomas Henriksen, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.

Tracking a secret space plane

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
Last month, an unmanned spacecraft blasted off from Florida on its debut mission. It’s not clear what it’s for, but it is now clear where it’s orbiting. The Pentagon didn’t release that information. An informal network of amateur satellite observers figured it out. The World’s Alex Gallafent has more.