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Social Entrepreneurs: Taking On World Problems
11:01 pm
Mon November 21, 2011

Selling Water, Health Care In The Developing World

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Credit Soma Vatsa / for NPR
In a Healthpoint clinic in the village of Mallan in Punjab, India, lab technician Navdeep Sharma draws Suba Singh's blood sample. Part of Healthpoint's business plan is to offer cheap diagnostic tests at its clinics. Diagnosing and treating people in a single visit is one key to delivering affordable health care.
Credit Soma Vatsa / for NPR
Clinical assistant Deep Kaur weights Suba Singh as he chats with a doctor who's in a city about an hour away. The doctor tells the patient he needs to cut down on his food — fewer chapatis and more vegetables and water.
Credit Soma Vatsa / for NPR
Part of Healthpoint's business plan is to offer clean water to nearby villages. It sells 600 liters for $1.50 a month. Customers line up to fill plastic jugs.
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In rural India, deep in Punjab — about 90 minutes from the Pakistani border — getting clean drinking water is a challenge. Well water often has high levels of dangerous chemicals. Surface water is contaminated with pesticides and agricultural waste.

Getting adequate health care is equally challenging. Government hospitals are often far away, and lines are long.

Here, in places like a dusty rural town called Rajiana, a 2-year-old company called Healthpoint Services is trying to figure out how to bring clean water and health care to rural communities on a global scale.

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Your Money
11:01 pm
Mon November 21, 2011

Wal-Mart Lures Bank Customers Frustrated By Fees

Credit Blake Farmer for NPR
Linda Black of Nashville, Tenn., says she left Bank of America after repeatedly being hit by fees. She now uses the Walmart MoneyCard instead, which has a flat fee of $3 a month.
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By Blake Farmer

The Occupy Wall Street movement has directed much of its anger at giant banks, which are no strangers to customer complaints. Some of those who have been burned by high fees in recent years are now satisfying their banking needs with a giant retailer instead, as Wal-Mart surges into the financial sector with a pre-paid, reloadable debit card called the MoneyCard.

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National Security
11:01 pm
Mon November 21, 2011

Does Supercommittee Failure Imperil Pentagon?

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The congressional supercommittee's failure to act is supposed to trigger hundreds of billions of dollars of spending cuts for the Pentagon starting in 2013. But even cuts that large don't come close to cutbacks in military spending in years past.

The Pentagon already plans to cut about $500 billion from its budget over 10 years. Now, it faces another $500 billion in cuts. For the military, that's the worst case: Ten years, cut $1 trillion.

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Asia
11:01 pm
Mon November 21, 2011

In Cambodia, Aging Khmer Rouge Leaders Go On Trial

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Credit Tang Chhin Sothy / AFP/Getty Images
A Cambodian woman looks at portraits of Khmer Rouge victims at the Tuol Sleng genocide museum in the capital Phnom Penh on Nov. 17. Three senior Khmer Rouge leaders are on trial in what may be the last major legal case against the group's leaders.
Credit Mark Peters / AP
The three former Khmer Rouge leaders who went on trial Monday in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, from left to right: Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge's former chief ideologist, Ieng Sary, former foreign minister, and Khieu Samphan, former head of state.
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Originally published on Tue November 22, 2011 12:40 pm

In Cambodia this week, three elderly men are sitting in a courtroom, accused of atrocities that took place in the 1970s.

The three former leaders of the radical Khmer Rouge are on trial for their role in a regime that exterminated more than 2 million people — or roughly a quarter of the country's population.

The Khmer Rouge was forced from power more than three decades ago, its former leaders are growing old, and this may be the final trial held by the U.N.-backed tribunal.

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Election 2012
11:01 pm
Mon November 21, 2011

Would Romney's Tough China Talk Survive Election?

Credit Teh Eng Koon / AFP/Getty Images
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Within the Republican presidential field, no one has talked tougher about China than Mitt Romney. He has vowed to go after that country from his first day in office, threatening to slap tariffs on Chinese imports to make up for its artificially low currency.

"We can't just sit back and let China run all over us," Romney said. "People say, 'Well, you'll start a trade war.' There's one going on right now, folks. They're stealing our jobs. And we're going to stand up to China."

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