11/02/2012

Available for over a year

A fresh look at the week's global news from across the World Service's 27 language sections, with David Amanor. STORIES FROM THE FRONTLINE "I grew up in Beirut. I have a very good background in surviving war… without that, I don't think I'd be alive today." BBC Arabic's Mohammed Ballout is no stranger to bangs and bullets having reported from several battle-fronts, including the Balkans, Rwanda, Lebanon, DR Congo and more recently Libya - where the conflict almost claimed his life. Listen to his personal perspective of war-reporting. LETTER FROM DELHI: "PORNGATE" SCANDAL BBC Urdu reporter Suhail Haleem on the latest indiscretions of Indian ministers. BE MY VALENTINE? For the Uzbek Service Ibrat Safo reports on how Tashkent has turned its back on Valentines Day. ONLINE GREATEST HITS Internet guru Falko Mortiboys gives the rundown on the big-hitting stories across the World Service language sites this week. BEFORE I WAS A JOURNALIST… And the former lives of World Service journalists - how does someone go from doing body massage to making news programmes on the BBC? As the head of the Nepali Service Rabindra Mishra makes his feature film acting debut at the Berlinale, we scout around Bush House to find out about the jobs that people did before they became journalists… (Image: A street in Beirut, during Lebanon's 15 year civil war. Credit: Getty)