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From Our Own Correspondent: 11/11/2010

11/11/2010

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, 11/11/2010

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world with Alan Johnston

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world. Presented by Alan Johnston

Every religious group in Iraq has suffered appalling violence in recent years. But just at the moment, the focus is very much on the country's ancient Christian community. It's now passing through an extraordinarily dark period. A group linked to al-Qaeda says that it regards all Christians as targets. Two Sundays ago more than 40 worshippers were killed when gunmen launched an attack on a Catholic Cathedral. And on Wednesday there was series of bomb and mortar attacks on several Christian districts in Baghdad. Jim Muir has been spending time with this frightened, grief stricken minority.

One of the great stories of our time is the rise and rise of China. Its economic strength is gathering at extraordinary speed. It's hauling its masses out of centuries of poverty. A period of great power and prosperity seems to lie ahead. But realising all China's dreams, steering it smoothly into that shining future may not be quite so easy. John Humphrys believes there could be dangers along the way.

For many Westerners, Yemen used to be one of those far away countries of which they knew almost nothing. But recently, that's changed. Bomb plots hatched by al-Qaeda in Yemen have thrust the country into the news. And now the West sees it as a source of real danger. Suddenly Yemen has a serious image problem. And Lena Sinjab found its young people deeply disturbed by the way the world now views their country.

It was on this day, the eleventh day of the eleventh month, that the madness of the killing in the World War I finally came to an end. This is an occasion when - in many parts of the world - thoughts turn to sacrifices made in that conflict, and in more recent ones. And Hamilton Wende has been talking to a World War veteran who began to reflect on what he endured in the deserts of North Africa.

Some of the greatest shows on earth are performed in the natural world. I'm thinking for example of the massing of flamingos on lakes in Africa or of the giant condor - wings outstretched - gliding through the thin, cold air of the Andes. Another of nature's shows goes on in one particular lagoon in the Maldive Islands, and Tim Ecott was lucky enough to be there when the curtain went up.

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