China And Africa Learn To Do Business

China’s rise and its global outreach for resources is one of the epic stories of our time. And nowhere has that story had more drama and a steeper learning curve than in Africa, where China has invested heavily over the past eight years, and has hit a few bumps along the way. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad tracks examples of Chinese commercial and cultural enterprises in Africa, and gauges their impact.

20 Years After the Soviet Collapse

Twenty years ago, residents of Moscow awoke to the sound of tanks in the streets. There was a coup in the USSR.

Tomorrow’s Manufacturing: China or the US?

The US has steadily been bleeding manufacturing jobs to China for 15 years. China builds toys and electronics bound for American shelves. Now China is poised to expand its manufacturing dominance into new areas such as renewable energy and large-scale infrastructure projects like bridges and rail. But some American companies and business analysts are saying: Not so fast.

Libya After Gaddafi

The bodies of 53 Gaddafi loyalists have been found at a hotel in the Libyan city of Sirte after apparently being executed, a human rights group says. Human Rights Watch said the victims – some of whom had their hands bound – died about a week ago. It is the latest accusation of atrocities in Libya committed by both sides during the eight-month conflict.

Norway Attacks

77 people, most of them teenagers, were killed in Oslo and on nearby Utøya island by Anders Behring Breivik on July 22.

Phone-Hacking Scandal

The extent of phone hacking at the British newspaper News of the World has led to the closure of the paper after 168 years. Allegations of phone hacking first emerged in 2005, but police now say there could be up to 4,000 victims including celebrities, sport stars, politicians and victims of crime. The scandal has prompted wider questions about press regulation, media ownership, the police, and relationships between politicians and journalists.

Toilet Tales: Water and Waste

The humble flush toilet is a technological wonder that carries our waste safely away from our homes and workplaces. Yet roughly 2.5 billion people don’t have access to decent sanitation. And even for those who do, the toilet is an imperfect solution that often creates problems of its own. The World’s special five-part series “Toilet Tales” examines efforts to solve those problems around the world, from China to India to Haiti to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Boom Times in Australia

Economic downturn? What economic downturn? By most traditional economic indicators, Australia breezed right through the global financial crisis. In fact, Australia was the first G20 nation to actually raise interest rates, an effort to cool down a simmering economy. The World’s Jason Margolis spent two weeks in Australia to look at how the nation has gone 19 years without suffering a recession, and to hear some voices behind that prosperity.

Views from Egypt: life on hold

How is the ongoing unrest in Egypt affecting the day-to-day lives of Egyptians and how do they see the future of their country? BBC Arabic speaks to a number of Egyptians to find out.

The Wikileaks revelations

Starting in November 2010, the website WikiLeaks and five major newspapers published confidential documents of detailed correspondences between the U.S. State Department and its diplomatic missions around the world. The contents of the cables describe international affairs from 274 embassies dated from 1966–2010, containing diplomatic analysis of world leaders, an assessment of host countries, and a discussion about international and domestic issues. >>> coverage on The World:

Reporter’s notebook: the air in China

The air in many Chinese cities can be fairly aggressive on the lungs on a regular basis. Mary Kay Magistad explains how people in China deal with the smog and the air pollution.

Reporter’s notebook: China’s coal future

No one needs to sell China on coal. It’s the stuff that fuels 70 percent of this country’s energy, and 80 percent of its electricity. And yet, at an international coal industry conference in Beijing this autumn, an American coal executive spoke with almost evangelical zeal.

China’s coal habit

China’s booming economy is powered mostly by coal. And the explosive growth in coal pollution is causing major problems both within China and for the planet. In a special four-part series on The World, Asia correspondent Mary Kay Magistad examines the impacts and some possible solutions to China’s addiction to dirty coal.
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Reporter’s notebook: inside a Chinese coal mine

Going down a coal mine may not be at the top of your list of fun touristy things to do, but for anyone planning a trip to China, who can handle at least a day in one of China’s sootier cities, in exchange for an insight into how it feels down there in the dark, you could do a lot worse than the tour offered by the Jin Hua Gong coal mine, part of the Datong Coal Mine Group in Datong.

Learning in two languages

Most American children don’t learn foreign languages, and the opportunities are decreasing. Schools are cutting back on language programs, especially French and German. But immigration and globalization are creating new circumstances for language learning, along with new challenges. >>>In our four-part series, we hear about some of them.