You're about to hear from our own correspondent. We do two versions of the programme, one for the BBC World Service, and this one's a download of the latest edition from BBC Radio 4.

It's introduced by Kate Aide.

Hello, today the Spectres of Afghanistan, down from the mountains and threatening more years

of blood and battle. How the future of Libya depends upon a scruffy port

squeezed between the Sahara and the Mediterranean. The poet, a thorn in the

side of Iran's ruling clerics 600 years after his death. in the

side of Iran's ruling clerics 600 years after his death, and the woman who walked naked around the house in Paris

where today the British Ambassador takes afternoon tea.

Afghanistan finally has a new president and the months of wrangling which preceded the swearing in of Ashraf-Garni have done nothing to reduce the size of his

to-do list. He needs to breathe new life into a stagnant economy

and tackle the widespread corruption in his country.

Soon, most of the NATO troops have been leading the battle against the Taliban will withdraw.

Mr. Garni says he plans to resolve the conflict through peaceful means, but it's not clear

whether he'll inject fresh urgency into talks with the insurgents which so far have got nowhere.

Fergalkeen and Kabul says these are formidable challenges for the new leader.

It was I calculated 19 years ago precisely since I last set foot in the city.

It was October 1995. There was the same as your sky, the dry air that chapped the lips, the wind starting to turn cold and whipping dust into

funnels that raced across the bombed out suburbs.

Driving out the Darlemun Road back in 1995 I wrote the following lines for this

program. On either side of us was a wasteland of demolished buildings and

rusting vehicles. On those few houses still standing we could see the deranged artwork of the AK-47, its brute

patterns sprayed across the walls like a cave painting of some doomed civilization.

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