KUOW

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This story also aired on KUOW on Oct. 26.

Like India, Pakistan has its share of call centers, offering everything from customer service and tech support to health insurance and home security systems. Jessica Partnow takes us through a night in the life of Ali Jaffri, a professional telemarketer in Lahore.

Primary education is compulsory in Pakistan, and the country has a large public school system. But many of these schools are just marginally functional. Corruption is rampant, teachers play hooky, and some schools exist only on paper. The problems are so widespread that the term "ghost school" has become a household phrase.

Jessica Partnow reports from Karachi.

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The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo is threatening to become a full scale war. Last week, rebel commanders seized an army base and the headquarters of Congo's famous Virunga National Park. The latest round of fighting has seen a dramatic rise in the number of rapes. Some 200,000 people have been displaced since August, according to the World Food Program. That's in addition to the nearly 1.5 million people already displaced since 2007. The so–called "forgotten war" isn't over. We'll look into the history of the crisis in the Congo today.