“Remember, this is still Africa,” warned a friend of Tesfaye Negussie, an American journalist whose parents emigrated from Ethiopia. Last month, Tesfaye traveled to Ethiopia to visit family and friends and shares a story about the restrictions on press freedoms that excuse those in power and propel social injustices.

Worldfocus presents highlights from our weekly radio show, which covers underreported stories. From entrepreneurship in Ethiopia and Sri Lanka's bloody civil war to reverse brain drain in China and Baha'is in modern Iran, listen to the shows that were most popular with listeners in 2009.

The violent, separatist conflict in southeastern Ethiopia has claimed thousands of lives over the last 15 years. Former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia David H. Shinn answers questions about the roots of this under reported conflict and whether it could be the next Darfur.

While in Ethiopia reporting on a series of signature stories from Ethiopia, correspondent Martin Seemungal encountered an unusual tradition - locals who feed hyenas by hand. The tradition supposedly began as a way to protect children from the wild animals.

Producer Gary Strieker reports from Ethiopia's Amhara region where 60 percent of children suffer from Trachoma, a bacterial eye infection that is the world's leading preventable cause of blindness. A new study finds that antibiotics administered for Trachoma is actually treating other ailments and reducing Ethiopia's high rates of child mortality.