Molten is a veteran traveler who trained as a PE teacher.

In her youth Naomi wanted to explore the world and spent 18 years hitchhiking around the globe.

She recalls her adventures as a young woman in the 1950s traveling mainly on her own to many countries including New Zealand, Australia, India and Pakistan, Afghanistan and the North West Frontier.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague says Syria's president heads a "doomed regime as well as a murdering regime" (Photo: BBC)

The two countries, that are permanent members of the Security Council, see any such resolution as a potential violation of Syria’s sovereignty.

They were the receiving-end of a lot of criticism.

US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton responded, “What more do we need to know to act decisively in the Security Council?”

The BBC Russian service invited comments from listeners about Russia’s stand on Syria. These are some of the comments the service received. We’ve voiced the comments.

Syrian troops are deployed in a Damascus suburb as tension mounts.

Egyptians celebrate the first anniversary of January 25 popular uprising after a momentous year of change.

Nigel Fisher, Deputy Special Representative for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, describes the ongoing reconstruction effort in quake-ravaged Haiti.

Patrick Cox’s 2007 series on obesity

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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Marco Werman:  Obesity is not just a problem in the U.S.; globally, people are getting fatter.  New figures published today show that worldwide, the percentage of adults who are obese has approximately doubled in the past thirty years.  Professor Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London, led the international team of researchers that examined health data from 199 countries and territories.  No big surprise that American adults were the most overweight among all high-income countries, but many less wealthy regions of the world are also seeing high rates of obesity.  Which regions, and why?

Professor Majid Ezzati:  The countries that came out as having some of the highest levels of overweight and obesity were some of the Pacific Islands, some of the countries in North Africa and the Middle East, some of the Caribbean countries, and, and…  And possibly surprising, actually in the Southern Africa region they had some of the highest levels of obesity in the world.  And as you mentioned, among the high income countries, the United States was by far the single highest one.

Werman:  I mean, a lot of people immediately turn to the spread of fast food around the world, people sitting more in front of TV…  I mean, are those factors?  Sedentary lives and fast foods?

Ezzati:  It doesn’t have to be eating a different type of food, fast food.  It could be eating more of the same, but as long as it is eating more of either the same or different foods and being less active…  And less activity may not be sitting in front of TV, but it may be the fact that people who are active in farming and fetching water and wood for their homes are doing less of that.  Now some of those are good things for life, but there seems to be no replacement for those activities that may be going away with urbanization and some conveniences of life.

Werman:  Is some of the variation in obesity rates from country to country due to genetics?  Maybe there are different ethnic groups prone to different body types.  I’m just wondering, is it safe to use a single definition of obesity, worldwide?

Ezzati:  Research has at least indicated, if not shown, that genes may affect weight gain, but remember that people in these countries had the same genes three or four decades ago.  So what genes cannot explain is the massive rise that has happened in any one country over three or four decades.  It may tell us something about the geographical differences, but clearly there is something else happening in the background to be acting on top of these genes to increase obesity.

Werman:  Do you have any sense of what that thing happening in the background is?

Ezzati:  Well, I mean I think…  I think, you know, different hypotheses have been used.  One of them is that it is just easier to eat these days than it was a few decades ago.  A few decades ago, if you wanted a particular food, you actually had to go and make it.  In many places in the world, it’s actually easy to just get it and eat it.  So not just the cost of it, but the convenience of eating has become more.  We probably use systems of transportation, and in our occupation, things that use less energy, so all of these are on top of it.  But remember, we don’t have to go and reverse everything that has changed to be able to reduce obesity.  What we want to do at this point is not necessarily get rid of cars—that’s going to be quite difficult—but to figure out what are the actions that, as societies, as nations, we can take today that would lead to either curbing and ideally reversing the increase that has happened.  And we should be going after those actions.  It could be putting lots of taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages.  It could be making bike lanes that are really good and safe.  Whatever they are, as possibly extreme as they may sound, they should be pursued if we believe that the health effects of this rise in obesity are large.

Werman:  Fascinating research, indeed.  Professor Majid Ezzati is the Chair in global environmental health at Imperial College, London.  His studies of obesity, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels worldwide, have just been published online by the medical journal, The Lancet.  Professor, thank you very much.

Ezzati:  Thank you.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

By Matthew Bell

For Israeli officials, it’s all about questions…

And I’ll get to that in a moment.

Travelers at Ben Gurion International Airport might not be aware of it.

But by the time they get to the metal detectors and x-ray machines, they’ve already been through several layers of security.

There’s a checkpoint at the entrance to the airport…

Where licenses plate are scanned and checked against a data base of suspicious vehicles.

Sometimes, you’re questioned there.

When you get to the main terminal a college-aged kid approaches, asks to see some ID and a boarding pass…

…And starts asking a list of seemingly innocuous questions.

The Israel Airport Authority relies on technology, of course, including a huge network of closed circuit cameras.

But profiling is an important component of airport security in Israel.

Passengers are observed and questioned by security personnel to determine if they fit the kind of profile that authorities view as high risk.

I’ve been asked if I speak Hebrew.

Do I have family in Israel?

What kind of reporting I do.

The questions are designed to detect anything out of the ordinary.

And in my case, it doesn’t take very long… usually.

On one flight out of Israel, I was pulled aside and questioned for over an hour.

Where exactly did you travel?

Who have you been talking to?

And what was your translator’s name again?

I didn’t have to take off my shoes or belt.

And there wasn’t a single pat-down.

It did leave an impression, though, about how seriously Israelis take airport security.
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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Lisa Mullins: As we just heard, German airports are stepping up security.  We’re going to be hearing how airports in the Netherlands, India and Israel  handle security screening, but first some American airports have been rolling our full body scanners that leave very little to the imagination.  If you refuse to go through the scanner you have to submit to a thorough pat down, and some people have been complaining loudly about that.  They say it’s a total invasion of privacy.  US officials have been scrambling this week to defend the machines, but those scanners are not new.  The BBC’s Geraldine Kaufflin says that at Schipol airport in the Netherlands, they started using them earlier this year.  That followed the foiled bombing attempt by a Nigerian who flew out of that airport.

Geraldine Coughlin: Since then they have introduced a lot more scanners.  The airport now has sixty scanners; they aim to use at least 75.

Mullins: Does there seem to be just a different mindset regarding personal privacy and how far they can go in security?

Coughlin: Yes indeed.  But there is scepticism in the debate here, and the Dutch view now is that well scanners could have helped foil terrorism attempt, but there is never 100 percent guarantee, and also there’s concern over cost and privacy as well which have held back the use of scanners until now.  And what’s happened in Schipol airport is that they’ve added screening technology known as “millimeter wave technology” and they’re calling it security scanners rather than body scanners because the images are analyzed by computer, not an operator.  They’re still experimental, but there are some protests as well because parts of the public are saying that it violates privacy and there are concerns over people with medical conditions, the elderly and pregnant women.

Mullins: Is this still very much an issue there?

Coughlin: Yes, it’s still much an issue here.  There’s criticism from the business community and within the parliament about the models that are now being used at Schipol airport because some experts say that they can detect weapons and metal but no liquid or powder explosives, so this is the tone of the debate.  The thing is, the installation of scanners at Schipol airport doesn’t just come under Dutch law but European law and regulations as well, so the debate extends to the European parliament, and until now, the European Union has not approved the routine use of the scanners at European airports.

Mullins: Geraldine Coughlin of the BBC, thank you.

Coughlin: OK.

Mullins:  From Europe to India now, here’s the BBC’s Jyostna Singh in New Delhi.

Singh:  There are no full body scanners here at airports or anywhere in the country at the moment, but the plan is to have them installed here very soon across the country on important government installations, as well as the airport.  But people here in India are pretty used to great detailed security checks.  For years now, more than a decade, complete frisking, people here are quite used to being patted down.   The security here has been fairly intense, even before 26-11 attacks in Mumbai, particularly because, even before the world woke up to the dangers of terrorism, India has known these things for very long, the militancy in Kashmir.  There have been several attacks in the country, in trains, in shopping malls, on Indian parliament, even before 9-11, so across the country there’s very detailed security.  In ?, the capital of Indian administered Kashmir, there are several layers of security.  There is a security check post that’s been created a few kilometers from the airport.  You have to go through the same drill of being frisked, your baggage is x-rayed, you have to take everything out of the taxi.  Then, before you enter the airport there is another round of checking and then inside the airport you have once again to go through the same exercise.  It’s fairly long, detailed, but people generally are very, very cooperative; people go through that without ever asking any questions.  I’m Jyostna Singh in New Delhi.

Matthew Bell: For Israeli officials, it’s all about questions.  I’m Matthew Bell in Jerusalem and I’ll get to that in a minute.  Travelers at Ben-Gurion airport might not be aware of it, but by the time they get to the metal detectors and x-ray machines, they’ve already been through several layers of security.  There’s a check point at the entrance to the airport where license plates are scanned and checked against a database of suspicious vehicles, sometimes you’re questioned there.  When you get to the main terminal, a college-age kid approaches, asks to see some ID and a boarding pass, and starts to ask a seemingly innocuous list of questions.  The Israel airport relies on technology, of course, including a huge network of closed circuit cameras, but profiling is an important component of airport security in Israel.  Passengers are observed and questioned by security personnel to determine if they fit the kind of profile that authorities view as “high risk”.  I’ve been asked if I speak Hebrew?  Do I have family in Israel?  The questions are designed to detect anything out of the ordinary, and in my case, they don’t take very long usually.  On one flight out of Israel, I was pulled aside and questioned for over an hour.  Where exactly did you travel?  Who have you been talking to, and what was the name of your translator again?  There wasn’t a single pat down but it did leave an impression though about how seriously Israelis take airport security. For the World, I’m Matthew Bell.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

A rectangular structure sits on the mountaintop, where a Mongolian team believes Genghis Khan is buried. (Photo by Zagd Batsaikhan, courtesy EurasiaNet.org)

It spanned large parts of Central Asia and China. As for Genghis himself… he’s kind of a mixed bag:

He’s remembered both as a brutal tyrant and an enlightened ruler. And strangely enough, no one seems to know for sure where he was buried. So we’re putting the question to you.

What’s the name of the mountain range that’s believed to be Genghis Khan’s final resting place?

“The area where he’s most likely buried is about 100 miles from Ulan Batar the capital of Mongolia near the Russian border. I got about 50 miles away which is the farthest the road goes.”

Stick around for the answer…

Josuha Kucera has written about the search for Genghis Kahn in the Khentii Mountains in Mongolia, the answer to our Geo Quiz.

The Search for Genghis Khan

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World.  The World Health Organization today gave a mixed assessment of where things stand with the global swine flu pandemic.  On the positive side, agency officials said there’s no evidence that the virus has mutated.  That means the H1N1 vaccines slowly making their way to the public should confer good protection.  On the negative side, the virus is spreading quickly in the northern hemisphere and that spread could accelerate as winter approaches.  WHO flu expert, Keiji Fukuda.

KEIJI FUKUDA:  We remain quite concerned about the patterns that we are seeing, particularly again because a sizeable number of people do develop serious complications and death.

WERMAN:  Nations continue to take new measures to deal with the pandemic.  Today, Norway made the flu medicines, Tamiflu and Relenza available without a prescription.  Russia has ordered its border guards to wear face masks and rubber gloves.  In a few minutes, we’ll hear how Venezuela is trying to protect a remote Amazonian tribe, but first we go to Ukraine.  The Eastern European country has responded aggressively to swine flu but as Brigid McCarthy reports, that response may say more about Ukraine’s politics and culture than about the nature of the epidemic there.

BRIGID MCCARTHY:  The government of Ukraine has imposed some of the Draconian measures of any country in response to the swine flu.  Prime Minster Yulia Tymoshenko has closed all schools for three weeks and banned public gatherings.  This after the country’s health minister announced an unusual spike in acute respiratory illnesses in Western Ukraine. People across the country have emptied pharmacies of pills, vitamins and surgical masks.  When the country ran out of masks, Prime Minister Tymoshenko urged people to make their own out of gauze bandages.  Ukranians have also been stocking up on garlic and vodka.  Sergei Lyemets, a reporter for Ukrainska Pravda, says people are panicking.

SERGEI LYEMETS:  Fear, fear, fear.

MCCARTHY:  And their fear is being stoked by saturation media coverage.

LYEMETS:  From the TV, from newspapers, from internet.

MCCARTHY:  Especially the internet.  Rumors have been spreading faster than the virus.  Some bloggers worn people to keep their windows shut because government helicopters were spraying disinfectants.  Others warned that this was in fact something even more terrifying and lethal, pneumonic plague.  In fact, the World Health Organization said there’s no evidence Ukraine’s swine flu outbreak is especially severe so why the extreme response?  Prime Minster Tymoshenko launched her presidential campaign less than two weeks ago.  Reporter Sergei Lyemets says swine flu gave her the perfect opportunity to look decisive.  He says it’s unfortunate but if he were in her position, he too, would make every effort to portray the flu outbreak as especially dangerous.

LYEMETS:  So I could tell that I was the person who took the challenge of this horrible disease and I was the one who won the disease, won the fight.

MCCARTHY:  Even so, you might think working parents would be up in arms after the Prime Minister cancelled all schools for three weeks but not in Ukraine.  Khrystyna Pavaroznyk is a teacher at public school 92 in downtown Kiev.

KHRYSTYNA PAVAROZYNK:  We have no problems with it because the flu is very dangerous.

MCCARTHY:  And because closing schools is nothing new for Ukraine.  Almost every year government officials close schools for a week or two when there’s an outbreak of flu or other contagious diseases but three teenage girls wandering around Kiev’s mostly empty Dream Town Shopping Mall said they’ve never had school cancelled for three weeks.

SPEAKER: [RUSSIAN] they say they’re kind of afraid because you know, they think it’s a serious illness if they do catch it.  But so far, they don’t know anyone in their class or in their school who has been sick.

MCCARTHY:  Two teenage boys walked by.  One of them was clutching his three year old sister’s hand and looking morose.

SPEAKER:  [RUSSIAN] he said he’d rather be in school than have to babysit his little sister for three weeks.

MCCARTHY:  This boy wasn’t worried about the swine flu.  Neither was a college student killing time at the mall.  She was furious that her university was closed and blamed it on politics.

SPEAKER:  [RUSSIAN] because in Russia, even though there are more cases, confirmed cases of swine flu, nobody’s closing down schools everywhere because they don’t have an election coming up.

MCCARTHY:  Ukrainska Pravda reporter Sergei Lyemets says shutting down schools and offices is a sure fire way for politicians to win voters’ hearts.  He says half the population works for the government and Ukranians are, in their soul, still more Soviet than European.

LYEMETS:  They have a deep, deep memory from the times of USSR.  People here like not to work.

MCCARTHY:  But they love their soccer, which is probably why the government’s ban on all public gatherings didn’t extent to last night’s European champion’s league showdown between Kiev’s top professional team and a team from Milan.  Swine flu or no swine flu epidemic.  By the way, Milan won.  For The World, I’m Brigid McCarthy in Kiev.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman.  This is the World.  If you live in Berlin and like stadium rock, well today could be your lucky day.  That’s Irish supergroup, U2.  The band is performing a free concert in Berlin tonight to mark twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.  The anniversary is Monday.  Ten thousand Berliners and tourists snapped up free tickets for the concert, organized by MTV.  U2 will play in front of the Brandenburg Gate.  It’s a famous landmark visible from different parts of the city, only it won’t be so visible tonight.  The concert organizers are blocking off the view for those without tickets and their method is time tested.  They put up a temporary twelve foot high wall.  I know, weird.  I wish I were kidding.  There will be plenty of other parties in Berlin this weekend, presumably with greater access than that one at the Brandenburg Gate.  But for many living in what was once the Eastern Bloc, this anniversary isn’t much cause for celebration.  The last twenty years brought some welcomed freedoms, but they’ve also brought hardship and uncertainty, especially for young people growing up after Communism.  The World’s Laura Lynch begins our story in a high school in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: One other piece of news out of Pakistan. It’s currently Pakistan Fashion Week.  Surprising right?  Well the four day event is billed as a chance for Pakistan’s top fashion designers to show off their wares.  It’s also an opportunity for the country to promote an image that doesn’t include violence and militant extremism.  You can see that alternative image of Pakistan on the runway in Karachi.  Models strutted in short or backless dresses.  Others showed bare midriffs.  Ayesha Tammy Haq is Chief Executive of the fashion week.  She says that the event is necessary to boost business.

AYESHA TAMMY HAQ:  These people who are here, all of them employ hundreds and thousands of people so we need jobs to continue, we need that job market to grow.  You know, we kick start this economy.  Fashion is a big thing, let’s make it bigger.

WERMAN:  Pakistan’s fashion week was twice delayed over security concerns and one of the models taking part, Nadia Hussain, says she was a little scared as she got ready to take to the runway.  But Hussain says life has to go on.

NADIA HUSSAIN:  I think fashion has also made it a point that fashion will continue as well.

WERMAN:  Still, not everyone feels that way it seems. Journalists from major international fashion magazines were expected to attend, but in the end, few showed up.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.