Mongolia Losing The Eternal Blue SkyNPRMany Mongolians continue to live in traditional round tents called gers. Approximately 200,000 gers in Ulaanbaatar are heated by burning raw coal to survive the freezing winter, when temperatures can to
Mongolia Mongolia's Long Road To Mining WealthNPR - Emily KwongGulnara Dariiga has been stuck in traffic for two days in the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia. The 38-year-old mother of four eats and sleeps in a heavy-duty North Benz truck, assigned to her by her employer
Play button Mongolia's Capital Banned Coal To Fix Its Pollution Problem. Will It Work?NPR - Emily KwongWelcome to the coldest capital city on earth — Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia — where the temperature can drop to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit at night. The city's population has nearly tripled since 1989. Without
The Deadly Winters That Have Transformed Life For Herders In MongoliaNPR - Emily KwongOn a frigid morning in January 2000, Oyutan Gonchig rose at first light to check on his animals. A blanket of snow — over a foot deep — had fallen in the night. He shoveled himself out of his ger, a felt-covered
Where Camels Become Beauty Queens: Inside Mongolia's Biggest Camel FestivalNPR - Emily KwongHumps and hair. That's the scene in Bulgan Soum, a tiny Mongolian town in the middle of the Gobi Desert about 160 miles north of the Chinese border. Bactrian camels arrive in all directions on foot, bearing
For Mongolia's Ice Shooters, Warmer Winters Mean A Shorter Sports SeasonNPR - Emily KwongOn a bright Sunday afternoon in early March, the Tamir River in the steppes of Mongolia becomes a bowling alley. Two dozen Mongolian herdsmen have gathered to play musun shagai, known as "ice shooting."
Searching For The Past In The World War II Wrecks Of Papua New GuineaNPR - Durrie BouscarenLloyd Woo eases a motorboat through the clear blue waters of the Bismarck Sea in the southwestern Pacific, to the edge of a coral reef. When he sights a specific cluster of coconut palms on the shore one
For Survivors Of Domestic Abuse In Papua New Guinea, Volunteers Offer Safe HavensNPR - Durrie BouscarenCathy Umba carries a camouflage-print backpack everywhere she goes. The mother of four can't read or write, but a stack of papers inside the backpack are her shield — they're proof that she has a court
For Women In Papua New Guinea, Income From Selling Betel Nut Can Come At Heavy PriceNPR - Durrie BouscarenThe women are mostly in their early 20s. They have children at home. Selling betel nut — an addictive, natural chew — to passersby in mountain towns of Papua New Guinea is a good way to earn a living.
In Papua New Guinea's Sorcery Wars, A Peacemaker Takes On Her Toughest CaseNPR - Durrie BouscarenThings were going terribly wrong. Ato Boropi could feel it. Dozens of villagers had squeezed next to each other on the floor of a one-room church perched on a mountain in the Eastern Highlands of Papua
South Ossetia Along A Shifting Border, Georgia And Russia Maintain An Uneasy PeaceNPR - Stephanie JoyceMuch attention has been paid in recent years to Russia's annexation of Crimea. But Ukraine is not the only place where Russia has exploited ethnic conflicts and disputed territories along its borders.
Uprooted By Conflict, Stuck In Limbo, Yearning For A Place To Call HomeNPR - Stephanie JoyceDali Shonia, 57, pulled down the surgical mask covering her face to reveal a single loop of black thread piercing her upper and lower lips. "I will not un-sew my mouth until they give me an apartment,"
Refugees In Their Own Country: 'They Call Us The Lost Generation'NPRThe laptop is on its last legs, but Irakli Salakaia is determined to make it work. The rail-thin 40-year-old is crouched down at eye level with the computer, which sits on a coffee table in the middle
Numbers Lie Even More Than Usual In GreenlandNPR - Rebecca HersherEarlier this year, in response to a story about Greenland, an astute reader of this blog commented: "Goats and Soda? Greenland can hardly be thought of as a developing nation." Charles Tudor is right.
The Arctic Suicides: Your Questions AnsweredNPR - NPR StaffLast week, NPR published a special report on suicide in Native Arctic communities. Reporter Rebecca Hersher spent 10 weeks in Greenland, the Arctic country with the highest known suicide rate in the world:
Why You Probably Shouldn't Say 'Eskimo'NPR - Rebecca HersherMORE ON GREENLAND: This story is part of our special report on Greenland, whose suicide rate is among the highest in the world. Confused about the word Eskimo? It's a commonly used term referring to the
Play button An Inuit Actor Contemplates A Big Break Gone SmallNPR - Rebecca HersherWhen Orto Ignatiussen landed a part in a Hollywood blockbuster in 2011, he thought it might be his big break. At the time, he was the director of a community theater in the small town of Tasiilaq, Greenland,
The Arctic Suicides: It's Not The Dark That Kills YouNPR - Rebecca HersherThe first death was on the night of Jan. 9. It was a Saturday. Pele Kristiansen spent the morning at home, drinking beers and hanging out with his older brother, which wasn't so unusual. There wasn't lot
At Arctic Winter Games, Biathlons, Stick Pulls And Sledge JumpsNPR - Rebecca HersherIt was the first time ever that an Alaskan athlete didn't win gold in the Alaskan high kick. Earlier this week, at the Arctic Winter Games in Nuuk, Greenland, a hometown athlete named Bent Jakobsen won
In The Arctic Circle, The Sun Will Come Up After 58 TomorrowsNPR - Rebecca HersherOn Nov. 24, the sun set in the tiny Greenlandic town of Ittoqqortoormiit. When I arrived in mid-January, it had yet to rise again. Even for Greenland, Ittoqqortoormiit is isolated. It's considerably colder
An Island Wonders: Why Are The Sharks Attacking So Often?NPR - Emma JacobsThe 850,000 people who live on the island of Reunion, which lies east of Madagascar, depend on the Indian Ocean that surrounds them. Many homes are near the sea. The beaches attract tourists. But the has
As Health Crisis Looms, Cameroon Cracks Down On Illegal ClinicsNPR - Andres CaballeroWhen Kwagne Elian came down with a high fever, the young woman in Cameroon did what many of us would do in the United States: She went to a private health clinic in her neighborhood. But unlike the clinic
Pray Or Prey? Cameroon's Pentecostal Churches Face CrackdownNPR - Andrés CaballeroThere's a saying in Cameroon that you can't drive for more than 100 yards without coming across a "revival church" or "new church" — terms used to refer to Pentecostal churches. And even when you can't
Scientists May Have Solved The Mystery Of Nodding SyndromeNPR - Jon HamiltonScientists may have solved the mystery of nodding syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy that has disabled thousands of children in East Africa. The syndrome seems to be caused by the immune system's response
After Years Of War, Ugandan Children Face New Deadly ThreatNPR - Matthew KieltyThe village of Tumangu, in northern Uganda, defines remote. It's hard even to find on maps. But it shows up frequently in news stories. Grace Aber is about to show me why. She leads me down a narrow dirt
Nodding Syndrome: A Devastating Medical Mystery In UgandaNPR - Matthew KieltyIt starts with the nodding — otherwise normal children begin to nod their heads, pathologically. Then come the seizures. The children stop growing and stop talking. Ultimately, the disease wrecks the physically
Preparing For Sea Level Rise, Islanders Leave HomeNPR - Brian ReedPart 2 of a two-part series At the age of 20, Tiibea Baure had never seen a stoplight. She'd never been anywhere where she couldn't walk to the ocean in less than four minutes. She'd never slept in a before
Climate Change And Faith Collide In KiribatiNPR - Brian ReedPart 1 of a two-part series From the sky, the country of Kiribati looks like strands of yarn floating on the sea: 33 tiny islands, scattered across an area of the Pacific Ocean more than twice the size
In Southern China, A Thriving African Neighborhood : NPRNPR - Nina PorzuckiChina and Africa have become major trading partners in recent years. Chinese companies have made a big push into Africa seeking raw materials like oil. And enterprising Africans now travel to China to
