PBS NewsHour

As residents of southern Sudan vote on a referendum to secede from the north, dozens have been killed in new violence.

Sudanese in the US have been given the opportunity to vote on the referendum for southern secession. They share their hopes and dreams for a new southern Sudan.

Sudan begins voting Sunday on a referendum that will decide whether the South will secede from the North.

Five months after floodwaters washed away homes and villages in Pakistan, some parts of the country are still underwater. 

Poet and writer Kwame Dawes offers a unique lens on the struggles, and resilience, of Haitians nearly one year after the devestating earthquake. An interview with Jeffrey Brown for PBS NewsHour.

In New Delhi, a rising population is straining water resources, making having enough of the basic resource anything but guaranteed.

Groundwater reserves are dwindling due to economic growth, and subsidies to farmers make water cheap, exacerbating the problem.

This piece is part of a reporting collaboration on population issues between PBS NewsHour, National Geographic, and the Pulitzer Center.

A change to the Dominican Republic's constitution has left many residents of Haitian descent lacking citizenship and in a state of legal limbo.

In Ethiopia, farms backed by foreign investors are growing with abundance, while native farmers subsist on food aid. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports about the unlikely abundance in a land known for famine.

Click here to watch the video.

On Wednesday, April 14, PBS NewsHour aired Fred de Sam Lazaro's latest story from Kenya: a report on social entrepreneur and Acumen Fund founder Jacqueline Novogratz. She's developed a new idea called "patient capital", that is funding innovative approaches in tackling some of the worlds most entrenched social problems. Also, a look at one man's vision for cleaner and greener public toilets in Kenya. It's part one of a two part series.

As Sudan gears up for Sunday's national elections, another landmark vote is on the horizon -- a referendum in January that will determine whether the south splits from the north.

Like the elections, the referendum is a key requirement of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, intended to give southerners a chance to decide if they will remain in a unity government with the north, or become an independent country.

But several major related issues are still up in the air, including where the north-south border actually is.

The village of Abyei had a population of about 30,000 when, in May 2008, violence broke out between government forces from the north and soldiers from the south, leveling the town and forcing the residents to flee to surrounding areas.

In the months since, the residents have been gradually moving back and rebuilding their lives. We spoke with some of the villagers and recorded their thoughts in the following Flipcam videos.

In May 2008, long-simmering tensions between the Sudan People's Liberation Army of the south and government forces from the north boiled over into violent clashes in the town of Abyei, causing an estimated 25,000 people to flee their homes.

They are gradually moving back to Abyei, located along the north-south border of Sudan. And efforts are underway to rebuild the town, including repairing roads and replacing the mud and thatched roof homes, known as tukuls. But still there are large swaths of barren land.