PRI's The World

The dispute over whether the oil rich area of Abyei belongs to the north or south could reignite the Sudanese civil war.

For the first time in decades, scientists from Cuba and the US are officially collaborating on Gulf of Mexico research. Lygia Navarro reports from Sarasota, Florida.

Ecuador is working on a deal to lock up 1/5 of its oil reserves in exchange for $3.5B. The deal would also preserve some of the most bio-diverse forest on earth.

A generation ago, the African nation of Nigeria launched a plan to embrace modern farming. But today the country is more dependent than ever on imported food. To find out what went wrong with these agricultural efforts, reporter David Hecht travels to a Nigerian village he first visited in the 1980s.

Linda Matchan and Michele McDonald's project "Nunavut, Canada: Hope on Ice" was featured on the Geo Quiz segment of PRI's The World on Nov. 19.

Listen to the segment.

See a slideshow of images from Nunavut featured on The World.

Mr. Bigg's is the largest fast food chain in Africa's most populous country. This Nigerian chain, loosely modeled on McDonald's, offers hamburgers and French fries as well as local fare. But running a fast food operation is no easy feat in a country beset by mismanagement, corruption, and a lack of infrastructure. David Hecht reports.

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. It’s an idea that was forced on the government in a revolt by desperate farmers. Reporter Daniel Grossman has our story.

Famines often occur during times of drought, but their causes go much deeper than a lack of rain. With East Africa now facing widespread hunger, we look back at a major food crisis that struck the Western African nation of Niger in 2005. Reporter David Hecht examines the roots of that crisis and finds some of them stretching across Niger’s border, to the neighboring country of Nigeria.

Listen to this report

Droughts and floods can cause food crises. But so can politics and economics. Reporter David Hecht examines the roots of the 2005 food crisis in the West African nation of Niger and why so many children starved to death despite an adequate harvest.

Listen to this report.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a country again in turmoil. The latest violence involves a rebel general named Laurent Nkunda. Nkunda's managed to take over large swathes of eastern Congo with a small band of well-trained soldiers. Reporter Michael Kavanagh takes a look at the renegade general.

Reporter Michael Kavanagh has the latest from eastern Congo, where fighting between pro-government forces and Tutsi rebels has displaced more than a quarter million people.

Intense diplomatic efforts are underway to try to find a solution to the latest conflict in eastern Congo.