West Bank Mosque Vandalized

A mosque outside the Palestinian city of Ramallah was vandalized last night. It was the latest in a series of attacks by suspected Jewish extremists. The Israeli government has announced new legal measures to crack down on those responsible.

Israeli Settlers Threatening Israelis

Israeli settlers are increasingly threatening and outright attacking Israelis they consider traitors. The actions are the “price tag” for supporting Palestinian, anti-settler causes. Matthew Bell reports.

Abundant Microbial Life and Fresh Water Springs

For today’s Geo Quiz we’re searching for one of the lowest points on the surface of the earth. If you were to stand on the shore of this inland sea, you’d be at 1400 feet below sea level. And this body of water is salty – nearly 10 times saltier than ocean water, so it’s sometimes called the Salt Sea.

Slipping in out of foreign tongues with Sherard Cowper-Coles and Yang Ying

Should diplomats learn the languages of the countries they’re assigned to? And how easy is it to learn a foreign musical language?

Iran Powers Up Bushehr Nuclear Plant

The Iranian nuclear plant of Bushehr is being launched Monday after years of delays.

Syrian Forces Continue Crackdown on Latakia

Activists and human rights organizations in Syria say more than two dozen people have been killed and many others wounded in Latakia.

What’s Assyrian for Canuck?

One of the world’s first written languages gets a new 21-volume dictionary.

English-only in the US, translating tweets in Japan and satire in Egypt

The English Only movement in the United States is always active during times of high immigration. Now, the movement has got a shot in the arm from the Tea Party. It may help convince lawmakers and voters in the 19 remaining states that don’t yet have a law on their books declaring English to be the official language [...]

The vocoder, the linguistic robot and the Dead Rabbit

In this week’s World in Words, writer Dave Tompkins on how the sound-distorting vocoder morphed from a wartime security device into one of Hip Hop’s favorite toys. Also, English teachers in South Korea don’t come cheap. One Korean school is trying an alternative: a robot. Plus, new limits for foreign reporters in China, and the man who brought Jägermeister out of the forests of Saxony onto campus parties everywhere [...]

Language-learning in Europe, and free speech in Tunisia

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In this week’s World in Words podcast: The French government is proposing that children start learning English at age three. Good idea, say some French intellectuals, but why English? In Ireland, the incoming government wants to end mandatory Irish learning in schools. And Anglo-Middle Eastern singer Natacha Atlas is singing about free speech in Egypt and beyond. Download MP3

World Books Review: Adonis’s Selected Poems — A Giant of Arabic Verse

Syrian poet Adonis has has been compared to both Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot in his modernist sensibility and influence — perhaps both in one person makes a better comparison.

Pharaohs, Cantonese and the Gang of Four

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In this week’s World in Words podcast: why did British band Gang of Four name themselves after China’s notorious cultural revolutionaries? Also, was Hosni Mubarak Egypt’s last pharaoh? Or is that just a cute turn of phrase? And is Cantonese, once the lingua franca of Chinatowns around the world., imperiled by the steady march of Mandarin?

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Teach yourself Ancient Babylonian

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In this week’s World in Words podcast, the man behind a Teach Yourself book on ancient Babylonian. Also, lost medieval songs sung by Louisiana-based descendents of immigrants from the Canary Islands. Plus, the Squamish for a Vancouver park…and the Ashes: a story of cricket, Twitter, and babysitting.

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Middle East peace talks stalled

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The much-vaunted peace process between Israelis and Palestinians has stalled, despite intense lobbying by Washington.At issue is whether or not Palestinians will quit the bargaining table, and whether Israel’s cabinet will agree to extend a freeze on settlement construction.The World’s Middle East Correspondent Matthew Bell reports. Download MP3

Supermarket French, Chanson French, and Lyrical Arabic

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In this week’s World in Words podcast, the French of Anna Sam and that of Juliette Greco could hardly be more different. Sam records the mendacious and the mundane that she overhears at the supermarket checkout. The French of Greco is moody and melodramatic, as befits this veteran chanteuse. Also, what got lost in translation in one of the UN Security Council’s most famous resolutions. And we hear from the founders of Meena, an Arabic-English bilingual poetry journal.
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