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This week's episode of International Dateline looks at three pressing international issues:

Egypt's Climate Change

This week Sophie McNeill meets some concerned Egyptians, who are pleading to the rest of the world to take climate change seriously.

While global warming has been a hot issue in the western world, it hasn't been a high priority in the Middle East.

Studies have estimated that if the global ice caps eventually melt, sea levels could rise between fifty to 100 centimetres within the next fifty to 100 years.

Now one of Egypt's most famous landmarks – the Nile Delta – is at risk from rising sea levels.

As salty seawater leeches into low-lying agricultural areas, Egypt could face serious food shortages. Water shortages could also be on the cards, with global warming reducing the impact of rainfall that supplies water to the Nile.

ACTIVATE YOURSELF!

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America's Housing Crisis

Earlier this week, the US government took over ailing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and placed them in a "conservatorship" in a bid to avert a financial system meltdown from the housing crisis.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced the US regulator was seizing control of the government-chartered, shareholder-owned firms underpinning trillions of dollars of home loans and a global financial imprint.

The move constitutes a massive government intervention to contain the damage from the worst housing slump in decades, which has rippled through the banking system and led to multibillion-dollar losses for Fannie and Freddie.

New chief executives have been installed as part of the action that Mr Paulson said was needed in view of "the inherent conflict and flawed business model" embedded in the structures of the two companies. Departing CEOs Dan Mudd of Fannie Mae and Dick Syron of Freddie Mac "have agreed to stay on for a period to help with the transition," Mr Paulson says.

The announcement came ahead of the opening of financial markets in Asia and amid ongoing turmoil in markets in response to the housing and finance crisis.

The Rise of Anwar Ibrahim

This week Video Journalist Mark Davis reports on the latest twists and turns in the political return of Malaysia's controversial opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim.

The resurgent politician has set September 16th as the day that he’ll have the numbers to topple the 51-year-old ruling party.

Anwar's comeback has been remarkable. The former deputy PM who was beaten in police custody, jailed for corruption and sodomy and currently faces fresh sodomy charges, recently won an important by-election in a landslide.

Yet Anwar's march to power still faces major problems. Next week, his sodomy trial date will be announced. However as Davis reports, the country is reeling from the leaking of a doctor's report that says there's no evidence that Anwar sodomised his assistant, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

The explicit and confronting notes from the doctor's medical examination of Azlan were published on the internet by a well-known Malaysian dissident. The government has since closed his website down, raided his home, confiscated his computers and charged him with sedition.

As for the doctor, he's fled to Burma in fear of his life. A second doctor - this one from a government hospital - backs up the aide's claim that was sodomised.

Mark Davis speaks to Anwar Ibrahim to get his take on these latest twists and turns, and Davis also reveals the lengths to which Anwar has gone to shore up support for him and his party.

Is Anwar Ibrahim going to shake things up and change the face of Malaysian politics forever?

About International Dateline 

SBS Dateline, which began in 1984, is Australia's longest-running international current affairs program. It has a well-earned reputation for authoritative and incisive reporting. Dateline has taken the traditional way of producing TV current affairs and turned it on its head. Reporters who used to travel with a cameraperson and sound recordist now travel alone and have the responsibility of both filming and reporting their stories. The reporters became video-journalists, gaining access to people and places that the conventional camera crews cannot.