As Mali faces a humanitarian emergency, Amnesty International says the conflict-torn country is seeing the worst atrocities committed in decades. Next, we head to Sudan where people are being sent back across the border into newly independent South Sudan, as the threat of an all-out war between to the countries looms. Finally, we take a look at why people in Zambia are learning Mandarin.
Senegal gears up for a presidential election this Sunday, but the West African country is braced for more trouble after weeks of unrest. Next, we take an exclusive look at how Kenya’s army is trying to tackle al Shabab fighters in Somalia. Finally, we see how an organisation in Paris is trying to hold on to Africa’s thousands of different minority languages.
Latvian voters overwhelmingly said ‘no’ to making Russian the country’s second official language on Saturday in a referendum that has stirred ethnic tensions and provoked criticism from former imperial ruler Russia.
Croatia has been given the go-ahead to join the European Union in July 2013. President Ivo Josipovic tells Europe District what this means for his country. We also take you behind the scenes of the government’s campaign to convince eurosceptics. Plus: do you speak Croatian? The soon-to-be 24th language of the EU is the subject of heated debate over its linguistic origin.
INTERNATIONAL PAPERS, Thurs., 14/4/2011: Hugh Grant gets his revenge on the tabloids - the victim of phone-tapping, he recorded a conversation with an ex-News of the World journalist with lots of revelations on shady practices in the Murdoch-owned press over the years. Grant's scoop was so popular it crashed the New Statesman's website yesterday! Also, disquiet in Iraq and an almost dead language whose two remaining speakers...don't speak!
If you want to sell, speak the language of your clients. That's the mantra that's being passed around French businesses at the moment. Increasing numbers of French employees can now boast a decent level of English, and those who can't are keen to start learning, as bosses realise that being able to use a lingua franca will bring in foreign customers.
As Silvio Berlusconi's immunity shield is dented, prosecutors investigate whether he paid for sex with an underage Moroccan girl.
Foreign parents wrestle with the German courts who favour custody rights for their own citizens in cross-border divorces. And finally, "too old" for telly at 53, a female presenter wins her case against the broadcaster that swapped her for a younger model.
Communication is vital to our health and wellbeing but what happens when the tools we use to talk with are taken away? HEALTH meets suffers or a rare condition known as ‘foreign accent syndrome’ and finds out what happens when patients and doctors just don’t understand each other.
Rwanda has just finished taking part in its first ever Commonwealth Games. After Mozambique, it's only the second country to have joined the Commonwealth that doesn't have constitutional ties with the United Kingdom. It's just one more sign that the country is turning its back on its francophone history in favour of English - although with the French school reopening in Kigali, there are some who still have a place in their hearts for French.
In this edition our guest is Claude Hagège, linguist and professor at the Collège de France. He discusses the contemporary role of the French language, in France and abroad.
