New Anti-Corruption Ruling in India

India’s Supreme Court has canceled 122 telecommunications licenses awarded to companies in 2008. The ruling is the latest chapter in a long-running corruption drama in India.

How Spiritual Gurus Exert Political Influence in India

High-profile spiritual leaders exert broad political influence in India, most recently in driving a widespread anti-corruption protest. The World’s Alex Gallafent reports.

Author John Burdett’s Perspective on the Thai Floods

Anchor Marco Werman talks to British crime novelist and Bangkok resident, John Burdett, about his perspective on the recent flooding in the Thai capital.

Podcast: The US Government’s Metaphor Program

In this week’s World in Words podcast, new Scrabble words and spying on foreign metaphors.

The multilingual census, and why Thais win at Scrabble

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In this week’s podcast, the U.S.Census Bureau is firing on all linguistic cylinders to ensure that non-English speakers are counted in this year’s census. Things don’t always go smoothly: in Vietnamese, the word “census” got translated into something closer to “investigation”. Also, how to pronounce that unpronounceable Icelandic volcano, Scrabble obsession beyond the English-speaking world, and five unique Japanese expressions.
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Oil spill logistics

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An oil well off the Louisiana coast is still leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico after a rig blew up last week. A similar incident occurred last year off the northern coast of Australia. To find out what happened there and what might happen here, anchor Marco Werman speaks with Louisa Rebgetz of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Tribal tradition, an oral language and the Bible

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In 1973 Sue and Peter Westrum and their baby went to live among an indigenous tribe, the Berik, in Indonesian New Guinea. Their aim was to learn the oral Berik language, develop a script for it, and then translate the Bible into Berik. They spent more than 20 years there. It was a time of great transformation for the Berik people, their beliefs and their language.
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World Books Review: ‘The Changeling’

At its best, the Japanese Nobel Laureate’s latest novel dwells on the odd intricacy of a long-running traumatized relationship, which is equal parts love, jealousy, and sexual tension.

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• Bill Marx’s Arts Fuse blog

Swearing in Irish, storytelling in Scots, rapping in Khmer

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Two takes on the Irish language: one from Patrick’s dad, who was a schoolboy in the early years of Ireland’s independence, when studying Irish was an exercise in nation-building. Then, an interview with Manchan Magan who made a TV series about traveling around Ireland speaking only Irish. Next, we hear from Alexander McCall Smith: his latest offering in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series is a children’s book in the Scots language. Finally, hip-hop artist Boomer Da Sharpshooter who grew up speaking English but now raps in Cambodia’s main language, Khmer. Download MP3

World Books Review: Perils of the Pansexual

This novel about a young woman who wakes up to find that her big toe has become a penis was a major bestseller in Japan, and it’s easy to see why. The book is titillating, disturbing without being disgusting, and reads like a self-help guide on the subjects of sex and love.

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• Bill Marx’s Arts Fuse blog

Hebrew’s revival, Turkey’s banned letters, and Q

Hebrew is most successful attempt ever at language revival. We find out why. Also, Malaysians are rioting after a court rules that a Catholic newspaper can use the word Allah. Then, two reports on alphabet letters: in Sweden, parents win the right to name their newborn Q; and in Turkey, using the Kurdish-associated letters Q, W or X can land you in jail. And, a two-nations-divided-by-one-language examination of the word grit.

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World Books: International Reads for the Holidays

“Your Face Tomorrow, Volume Three: Poison, Shadow, and Farewell”: the final volume in Javier Marías’s trio of spy novels extraordinaire is part of World Book’s idiosyncratic round-up of first-rate international literary stocking stuffers.

Raising Bangladesh

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Some of the countries most at risk from climate change are low-lying nations. And chief among them is the South Asian country of Bangladesh. Rising seas threaten to inundate this already disaster-prone land. But Bangladesh is experimenting with new ways to protect itself. One possible solution uses floods to prevent floods. Reporter Daniel Grossman has our story. Download MP3 (Photo: Dan Grossman)

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Surviving the Sumatra quake

Indonesian officials in West Sumatra say some villages engulfed by landslides after last week’s earthquake will be left as mass graves. A spokesman said money would be better spent on the living than on retrieving about 400 bodies believed to be buried under the mud and rocks. Some semblance of normal life is returning to the provincial capital, Padang. Reporter Ann Dornfeld visited a village near Padang.

Indonesia rescue effort

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International rescue teams are heading to Indonesia in a last-ditch effort to free trapped earthquake survivors. More than 1,000 people are already known to have died after the 7.6-magnitude quake two days ago, the UN says. Rescue efforts are focused on the city of Padang but aid workers and reporters said that in rural areas thousands more buildings had been destroyed and whole villages flattened. Marco Werman gets an update from the BBC’s Rachel Harvey in Padang. Download MP3

• BBC coverage
• In pictures: Indonesia rescue effort