bbc World Service podcasts

Stephen Green is the chairman of one of the world's largest banks -- HSBC. He is also an ordained minister in the Anglican church. He tells Carrie Gracie how he reconciles the world of money with more spiritual life goals.

Usually it takes a major global event like the outbreak of war to move the price of oil by more than two dollars within the space of an hour. But that's exactly what happened this week - not because of war, but because of the actions of a rogue trader... we hear how much power financial speculators now have to inflate the cost of our energy.

As India decriminalising homosexuality, should all countries be able to keep it illegal if most people in that country are against gay relationship?

As the African Union summit ends in Sirte, Libya, when are we to see a new African Union Authority? Niger's President Tandja continues his bid for a third term by inaugurating a new constitutional court. A new deal is signed that would see gas from Nigeria in European homes and industries.

We're focussing on two different forms of past perfect... Will Mika from Japan be able to hear the difference?

A new El Nino? A new warming in the Pacific Ocean revealed - what does it mean? Microscratches on dinosaur teeth reveal eating secrets; Baboon & Human DNA parallel evolution against disease; Summer Science

Sun, sea and NO taxes - what's not to like? But the Cayman Islands has been attacked for being a centre of tax evasion. Business Daily talks to the head of its financial industry who argues it's been unfairly targeted. Also, the yoghurt factory in Bangladesh that's not intended to make a profit. Find out why

America's rocky road to recovery - employers in the United States are still cutting hundreds of thousands of jobs, at a much faster rate than expected. We ask a former economic adviser to President Bill Clinton, how bad will things get? And will South America be able to carry on defying the global slowdown?

Is it unfair that Muslims should be allowed to dress how they want in Europe and America, but Westerners can't dress how they want in many Islamic countries.

Guinea Bissau's presidential elections are set for a run off after the first round ends in deadlock. AU leaders discuss a recommendation to withdraw co-operation with the International Criminal Court in all cases involving Africans. What's in a name as Nigeria and Russia's Gazprom combine to form the N word. And, the challenge of delivering healthcare to pregnant women in South Sudan.

Teenagers on the island of Alert Bay, British Columbia, talk openly about the beauty and frustration on living in a remote place.

Thembi Ngubane’s Radio Diary about living with Aids in a South African Township.

Dima and Kate discuss a report from Germany where one company plans to install hundreds of gold dispensers at stations, airports and shopping malls. But why?

Mike Williams debates the US climate change bill, meets a polar explorer and discovers wetlands - at home and abroad.

It's widely regarded as one of the most secretive religious organisations in the world. It makes heavy demands on its members - and has been accused of cult-like practices. It's also an influential movement within Roman Catholicism. Opus Dei, made famous by Dan Brown's bestselling novel the Da Vinci Code, has many critics - but few have found out what life is like on the inside. The BBC's religious affairs correspondent, Christopher Landau, has been granted exclusive access to the movement's extensive headquarters in Rome. He meets both priests and lay people who devote their lives (and their money) to this movement which, though less than 100 years old, exerts powerful influence over both its members and the wider church.

Business Daily casts an eye over German banks. Are they as safe and prudent as they seem? We hear how one bank based in the north of the country, went global, got into all sorts of exotic credit instruments and, subsequently, got into trouble. Lesley Curwen talks to the man who refused to sign over taxpayers' money for a bailout of the bank.

The governor of California has declared a financial emergency as the state's budget crisis deepens. We'll hear how the former Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger faces his toughest battle yet as he struggles to raise new cash. And, 15 years after the fall of apartheid, the brewer SAB Miller gives black people more control over the company.

The French President Nicholas Sarkozy says that burqa has no place in France and called on a ban of the face-cover was he right?

African leaders open the AU Summit in Libya. A new political party in Zimbabwe - led by a former finance minister. And Guantanamo Bay's youngest detainee, now in Chad, recalls his incarceration.

In this three part series, Ayisha Yahya explores climate change issues in the African desert. In programme one she asks, what are the implications for traditional nomadic desert communities?