President Barack Obama has unveiled a $50 billion spending plan to jump-start job creation in America - but a former US labour secretary tells us it's too little, too late. And - how to deal with a bank crisis when your customers wield guns.

As the public sector strike in South Africa enters its fourth week, are the unions on the verge of accepting a pay offer? And a World Service poll says a majority of the British public wants a budget deficit cut.

The Brazilian energy company Petrobras has confirmed ambitious plans to transform the country into one of the world's biggest oil producers. And... investing in Africa: Is it philanthropy, or is it business?

The head of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke says banks must never again be allowed to become "too big to fail". Appearing before a US Congressional inquiry Mr Bernanke said new financial reforms would make government bailouts less likely in future. However, Doug Elliott, of the Brookings Institution think tank says there will always be times when taxpayers have to bail out banks.

The former chief executive of the Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers, Dick Fuld, has blamed the US authorities for his company's collapse. We ask how likely it is that failing banks will be bailed out in future. Plus, we look at the economic impact on Mexico as the country's drug-related violence flares once again.

After a slew of poor economic news, the latest US housing market figures are actually quite good. Economist Roger Bootle says we might have now passed the bottom of the market. And, has the "Skeptical Enviromentalist" Bjorn Lomborg, really had a change of heart? We ask him why he's urging governments to back a $100bn climate change fund. Plus, why organic food is starting to take off in China.