You're listening to a download from the BBC. This is from our own correspondent.

You can hear the edition of the program broadcast on the BBC World Service and presented by Alan

Johnston by going to the World Service web pages and to those of from our own

correspondent. But now here's the Radio 4 edition and it's presented by Kate

Adi. Today the US pause dollars into Afghanistan as the Taliban prepared to take a winter break from battle.

The official Middle East peace process stalls, but on the ground Jews and Arabs forge connections across their deep divide.

We eavesdrop on an argument over the use of English in India

and witness a struggle to the death between man and beast in the fields of eastern France.

There's been more violence in Afghanistan.

A large explosion near police headquarters in the city of Kandahar this morning has left a number of casualties.

And late yesterday a roadside bomb in the south of the country

killed 15 people, all civilians, some of them children.

The victims were traveling in a truck in Helmand

province when the bomb said to have been planted by the Taliban went off. It may

have been meant for an American patrol. As winter descends upon Afghanistan, the military is expecting the Taliban to withdraw their fighters

to regroup and plan their future campaign.

The BBC's Michael Buchanan, who's just back from Helmand, says for the Americans it's a time to try to extend their influence in the area.

If you visit a country for the first time, as was the case with my recent trip to Afghanistan,

then discerning what is normal can be difficult.

You can read up in advance about cultures and mannerisms and behaviors, but it's only

when you experience somewhere that it all makes sense.

One personal definition of normal that has served me well is the concept of the

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