2011 Holiday Recommendations

Books and Music recommendations from The World.

Mystery Kidney Disease in Central America

Across Central America, large numbers of men are dying from kidney disease. The cause is unknown, but a growing body of evidence suggests that hard manual labor — especially in the region’s sugarcane fields — is partly to blame.

2011 Durban Climate Change Conference

At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, the nations of the world are struggling to address a problem that’s racing far ahead of our response so far.  The UN process remains gridlocked on the big issue of hard commitments from major polluters like the US and China to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
But incremental progress may yet be made in Durban.
This week The World presents on-the-ground coverage of the conference as well as updates on some of the latest climate science and a special report from the Maldives, one of the countries most imminently threatened by rising sea levels.

Stories from Egypt

Tens of thousands of protesters have packed into central Cairo’s Tahrir Square to demand that Egypt’s military rulers step aside. The demonstrators want the postponement of elections due to start on Monday.

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.

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

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.
Download the entire series as a podcast:

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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.