Hi there, you've downloaded the BBC Radio programme from our own correspondent.

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Good morning. Today the exodus of Iraq's Christians gathers pace amid a fresh wave of bombings and mortar attacks.

The great gamble for the communist rulers in Beijing, can they ensure future prosperity for China without ripping their country apart?

On armistice day, a South African who fought for king and country remembers the horrors of war in the western desert.

And in the limpid waters of the Indian Ocean, we go swimming with a peaceful giant.

Iraqi leaders are gathering at the Parliament building in Baghdad this morning

amid reports that their deeply divided political factions have reached a deal on the shape of a new government.

It comes more than eight months after a general election took place.

Meanwhile, bombs continue to go off.

Every religious community in Iraq has suffered appalling violence in recent years,

and yesterday the series of explosions in Baghdad was targeting Christian areas.

This follows an attack on the Roman Catholic Cathedral in the capital two Sundays ago,

in which more than 40 worshippers were killed.

There have been Christians in Iraq for nearly 2,000 years,

but Jim Muir says their numbers are dwindling fast. More and more of them are leaving

the country every day. We were in one of the churches near where we live in central Baghdad,

and they were preparing to bury some of the dead from the disaster in the cathedral just a stone's

throw away. There was already a row of coffins draped in the Iraqi flag, lined up in front of the

altar. Every so often, the doors would open, and more coffins would be carried in one after the

other, bringing fresh waves of sobs and applause from the grieving congregation. On her knees slumped

...