Flag Burning Business in Pakistan

How a store owner in Pakistan beefs up business by supplying American and Israeli flags for the protesters to burn.

The Insurgency in Pakistan’s Largest Province

Pakistan is facing a brutal insurgency in the resource-rich south-west of the country.

Saving Mohammed

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While he was on active duty in Iraq, Major David Howell of the Michigan National Guard met Mohammed, then an 11-year-old boy who had suffered burn injuries in a house fire as an infant. The major arranged to have Mohammed come to Michigan for a year for medical treatment. Howell tells anchor Marco Werman how the year went. Download MP3 (Image: Michigan State U)

• Video: The story of Mohammed
• Video: Saving Mohammed
• Michigan State University: MSU Today

Still serving in Iraq

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The US Army’s 3rd Infantry Division’s 1-64 armor was the first into Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Although many of the soldiers have since moved on, some stuck around. And they have now seen an invasion, an insurgency, a civil war, a counter insurgency, and now the country’s second round of elections. Ben Gilbert talks with soldiers about what could be their last deployment to Iraq. Download MP3 (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

• BBC Iraq coverage
• The logistics of withdrawing from Iraq
• Ben Gilbert’s photos from FOB Q-West

The logistics of withdrawing from Iraq

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The US military is currently closing down operations on several forward operating bases and handing them over to the Iraqis. It’s not an easy task: the Logistics Brigade at FOB Q-West in northern Iraq is currently figuring out what to keep and what to leave behind. They’ll be the last Americans to leave the FOB this summer. Ben Gilbert reports. Download MP3 (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

• Ben Gilbert’s photos from FOB Q-West
• Ben Gilbert on joint patrols in Iraq
• The struggle for Iraq

Joint patrols in northern Iraq

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Despite this month’s parliamentary elections and the drop in violence this month in Iraq, the northern part of the country remains divided among competing ethnic groups. Ben Gilbert reports that US forces there have organized joint patrols to get the rival groups to work together. (Photo: Ben Gilbert) Download MP3

• Picture gallery
• Ben Gilbert’s election coverage from Kirkuk

Counting underway in Iraqi election

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The voter turnout in Iraq’s general elections was 62%, officials say, despite attacks that killed 38 people. Preliminary results are not expected for several days but the turnout figure is down from the 75% who voted in the 2005 general elections. Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s State of Law Coalition is widely expected to win the most seats. Ben Gilbert is reporting from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Download MP3 (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

• Ben Gilbert’s photos from Kirkuk
• Ben Gilbert’s election coverage
• BBC coverage

The Iraqi election in Kirkuk

President Barack Obama hailed a “milestone” in the history of Iraq, as it completed its second parliamentary election since the 2003 invasion. He praised the courage of voters who turned out despite bomb and mortar attacks that killed at least 35 people. Reporter Ben Gilbert has been covering the election for The World from the northern city of Kirkuk.

Kirkuk and the Iraqi election

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Nearly 1.5 million Iraqis living abroad have begun casting their votes in parliamentary elections, people in Iraq itself will vote on Sunday. The northern city of Kirkuk is ground zero for a potential conflict following the planned US withdrawal: the struggle between Arabs and Kurds over a large part of the country’s north. In his second story from Kirkuk, reporter Ben Gilbert looks at the role Kirkuk plays in the Iraq vote. Download MP3 (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

• Ben Gilbert’s first report from Kirkuk
• Iraqi voters discuss election
• The struggle for Iraq

More violence as Iraqi vote begins

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At least 14 people have been killed in Baghdad on the first day of voting in Iraq’s parliamentary elections. On Wednesday, three suicide bombers attacked police and a hospital in Baquba, killing at least 30 people. Reporter Ben Gilbert accompanied an American embasssy election observer team in Kirkuk. Download MP3 (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

• Ben Gilbert’s photos from Kirkuk
• BBC coverage
• On The World: Suicide attacks in Iraq ahead of vote (Wed)

Suicide attacks in Iraq ahead of vote

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Suicide attacks in the central Iraqi city of Baquba have killed more than 30 people and injured dozens more. The attacks come just days before parliamentary elections, the third since the US-led invasion in 2003. Marco Werman talks with Sahar Issa, a correspondent for McClatchey Newspapers in Baghdad. Download MP3

• BBC coverage
• The struggle for Iraq

Taliban insurgency

Afghan forces will begin taking control of security in some of the country’s provinces by the end of 2010, a key summit on its future has pledged. In a statement at the end of the one-day meeting in London, delegates said the process would be complete within five years. In December, President Obama announced he was sending an additional 30,000 troops to help battle the Taliban insurgency.

Baghdad rocked by deadly triple blast

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At least 36 people have died in three large explosions apparently targeting hotels in the heart of Iraq’s capital. More than 70 were injured in the Baghdad blasts, which police said were caused by suicide car bombers. The attacks came as the Iraqi government announced that Saddam Hussein’s former defense minister Ali Hassan al-Majid – also known as “Chemical Ali” – had been executed. The BBC’s Jim Muir is in Baghdad. Download MP3 (AP Photo: Khalid Mohammed)

• BBC coverage
• The struggle for Iraq
• Profile of Chemical Ali

The poet of Baghdad

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Nabeel Yasin is a highly-acclaimed Iraqi poet who was blacklisted in his country in 1978 for refusing to write poems glorifying Saddam Hussein’s regime. Now three decades later he is back in his homeland where he is running for prime minister in the elections scheduled in March. Jeb Sharp talks with Yasin. Download MP3

• ‘The Poet of Baghdad’ – BBC video about Nabeel Yasin’s life
• BBC: the struggle for Iraq

Afghan poll hints at growing optimism

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Most Afghans are increasingly optimistic about the state of their country, a poll commissioned by the BBC, ABC News and Germany’s ARD shows. Of more than 1,500 Afghans questioned, 70% said they believed Afghanistan was going in the right direction – a big jump from 40% a year ago. Jeb Sharp talks with the BBC’s Mark Dummett in Kabul. Download MP3 (Photo: Deshakalyan Chowdhury/AFP/Getty Images)

• BBC coverage
• Full survey (pdf)