The Wikileaks files and government transparency

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.

New details, including reports on Osama Bin Laden dating from 2006, have emerged from 90,000 US military files leaked to the Wikileaks website. The details come as the Pentagon investigates who leaked the classified documents, in an act the White House says could harm national security.The World’s Alex Gallafent examines how the release of US military documents by Wikileaks raises questions about government transparency, security and responsibility. Download MP3

• Noah Schacthman’s Danger Room blog
• BBC coverage
• Washington condemns Afghanistan leaks
• New York Times: ‘The War Logs’

Fred Pearce on population and the environment

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.

Many environmentalists say the source of the world’s environmental ills is the planet’s booming human population. But in a new book, journalist Fred Pearce argues population growth is not a problem and that focusing on it is distracting people from the earth’s real ills. Rhitu Chatterjee spoke to Pearce and brings some clips to the show. Download MP3

• Join the discussion at The World’s Science Forum
• The World’s Science Podcast with Rhitu Chatterjee
• The Price of Altruism

Australian robot interacts with humans

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.

Researchers in Australia are developing a robot to provide home care for the elderly. And they’ve enlisted the help of a performance artist to make the robot seem more human. Where in Australia? Check out our Geo Quiz. (Photo: Univ. of Technology Sydney)Download MP3

• Univ. of West Sydney release
• Marcs Auditory Laboratory research page
• Sydney performance artist Stelarc’s website

Mideast security cooperation

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 Israeli Defense Forces have been working with Palestinian security forces in the occupied West Bank. Cooperation has been good, in fact, the World’s Matthew Bell reports that Israel may soon allow its Jewish citizens to visit the territory. Download MP3

• Multimedia: See a slideshow of Matthew Bell’s photos

A leap in leaking information

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 World’s Technology correspondent Clark Boyd looks at the way technology has changed the way sensitive military information is collected, and leaked.

• Noah Schachtman’s Danger Room blog

Secret US unit targets Taliban

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
One of the more explosive charges in the WikiLeaks documents has to do with the existence of an elite military unit charged with tracking down and assassinating a list of enemies in Afghanistan. Anchor Marco Werman finds out more from Sarah Knuckey, Senior Advisor to the U-N Special Rapporteur.

A piece of Poland in Turkey

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
Correspondent Julia Rooke reports on a small village north of Istanbul in Turkey that’s famous for preserving the Polish culture of the first settlers more than 160 years ago.

Donkey traffic

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
Correspondent Matthew Brunwasser sends a snapshot of life on the Kenyan island of Lamu, where the donkey is still the main mode of transportation.

• Multimedia: See Matthew Brunwasser’s slideshow from Lamu, Kenya
• The Donkey Sanctuary
• Eco-Islam in Africa

Why Brits use less energy than Americans

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 and the United Kingdom are very similar in their standards of living, but Britain uses 40 percent less energy. The World’s Laura Lynch looks at why.

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.

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
The answer to today’s Geo Quiz is Sydney, Australia, where researchers are developing a robot that they hope will one day provide home care for the elderly. They’ve enlisted the help of a Sydney performance artist to make the robot seem more human. Correspondent Phil Mercer has the story.

• Geo Quiz Archive

Rachid Taha

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
Algerian singer Rachid Taha says his latest CD was the result of a mid-life crisis. Taha says he chose to work with a new producer and that he wanted to branch out musically. He also says his dream is to duet with Dolly Parton. Anchor Marco Werman tells us more.

• Rachid Taha on MySpace
• Global Hit archive
• Global Hit on Facebook

Music Heard on Air for July 27, 2010

Tunes Spun On The World Between Our Reports For July 27, 2010. Artists featured are Mongo Santamaria, Moriba Koita, Steve Dyer, Steve Dyer, Ensemble FizFuz, Global Village.

World Books Podcast: Sefi Atta

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.

In Africa and Europe, Nigerian writer Sefi Atta’s reputation is stellar. Her novel “Everything Good Will Come” won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature. And her recently published collection of short stories. “News From Home,” garnered the 2009 NOMA Award for Publishing. But she has yet to garner the critical attention she deserves in America, though she has lived in Mississippi for over a decade. Bill Marx spoke to Atta about what roles religion and feminism play in her fiction and why her complex vision of Africa defies popular expectations. Download MP3

• Subscribe to the World Books podcast via iTunes
• Bill Marx’s Arts Fuse magazine

Entire program – July 26, 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 release of thousands of secret US military documents on the Afghanistan war is reverberating around the globe today; Also, in Cambodia, the first former Khmer Rouge official to go on trial is convicted of war crimes; And why government officials in Liberia speak in proverbs.