Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Canadian journalist Jan Wong about her new book, "A Comrade Lost and Found." In the early 1970s, Wong was one of only two Western exchange students at China's Beijing University. At one point Wong was approached by a Chinese student who wanted to go to the U.S. Wong, who supported Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution, reported the student to her teacher. Years later, a conscience-stricken Wong returned to China to try to trace the student and learn her fate. Along the way, she revisited many of the characters she knew in her youth and her book chronicles the changes which have taken place in China over the past three decades.

The Bush administration resisted efforts for an international agreement to control mercury pollution. But the Obama administration has taken a different position. And that's made way for a new agreement among environmental officials around the world. The World's Environmental Editor Peter Thomson has the story.

A key element of the proposed budget President Obama unveiled today is a plan to make renewable energy more profitable. Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Mark Hertsgaard who writes about the environment for The Nation and Vanity Fair.

Simon Johnson

Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with MIT economist Simon Johnson about what's in President Obama's proposed budget -- and what it says to the world about U.S. priorities.

Global economic crisis

Today on The World: What President Obama's budget says to the globe about U.S. priorities; Also, tensions between rival tribes in Kenya continue, a year after the country's leaders sought to end tribal violence; And a Canadian journalist compares the China she experienced as an exchange student in the 1970's to the China she sees today.

For today's Geo Quiz, we were looking for an area in the west of Ireland marked by the Twelve Bens. The answer is Connemara, home of our featured Global Hit artist, singer Bridgit Fitzgerald.

The World's Aaron Schachter reports that Lebanon's world of fashion is gaining clout on the international stage.

Our daily geography puzzler.

It's the Arab world's American Idol. But it's not about music. It's all about poetry. Television producer Mona Al Ruwaini tells anchor Lisa Mullins about a wildly popular TV poetry contest that has raised eyebrows throughout the Gulf region.

Correspondent Tina Antolini reports on some Iraqis who've made their new home in Worcester, Massachusetts. They're members of the Mandaean religion - a sect that predates Islam. Since 2003 religious persecution in Iraq has caused most of the Mandaean population there to flee - scattering around the globe.