Reports throughout the week 

As part of the USA Direct season, a special programme presented by Zeinab Badawi looks at the United States and United Kingdom's foreign policies in the wake of the Iraq War. The discussion will feature contributions from former British Cabinet Minister, Lord Howell; former British Ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock; as well as contributions from Dame Pauline Neville-Jones formerly of the UK Joint Intelligence Committee and Sir Alan Munro, former British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. The programme will look in detail at the issues arising from the Iraq war and the implications for policy in the Middle East and the wider world.

(Duration: 30 minutes)

Saturday 4th November at 1030

Repeated: Saturday 4th November at 1730; Sunday 5th November at 0330, 1430 & 2230 

As part of the USA Direct season, Dateline comes from Washington this week.  Foreign correspondents currently posted to Washington discuss their view of events in the build up to the US midterm elections, and look at how the issues of the week are being tackled around the world by the global media. Presented by Gavin Esler, Dateline Washington will feature Abderrahim Foukara of Al Jazeera; Frederick Kempe, president and chief executive officer of The Wall Street Journal; Torsten Krauel, senior political correspondent for Die Welt and Corine Lesnes, correspondent for Le Monde.

(Duration: 30 minutes)

The Doha Debates is a public forum for dialogue and freedom of speech in Qatar.  Each month invited speakers debate the burning issues of the Arab and Islamic world in front of an audience which is encouraged to participate by asking questions. The internationally renowned broadcaster Tim Sebastian, formerly of BBC World's flagship interview programme HARDtalk chairs the debates. In this special edition of The Doha Debates, Amr Mousa (pictured), secretary-general of the Arab League, is questioned by Tim Sebastian and a group of students in Doha, about the state of the Arab world.

(Duration: 50 minutes)

Saturday 4th November at 1410

Repeated: Saturday 4th November at 2210; Sunday 5th November at 0410, 1010 & 1910

Villages On The Frontline is a new eight-part series, which visits Jordan, Niger, China, the Caribbean, India, Tanzania, Spain and Morocco to find out how ordinary people in some of the poorest communities are finding surprising ways to defeat the encroaching desert and improve their livelihoods. The first episode looks at China, which since Mao's Great Leap Forward nearly 50 years ago, has lost an area the size of Greenland to the desert. Waking up to the scale of the crisis, the government is mobilising people and resources on a mass scale. It aims to reclaim a quarter of a million square kilometres of land lost to the desert by 2020.  Presenter Jennifer Wang visits a community on the front line in Inner Mongolia to see what progress has been made but finds little has been done to stop the march of the desert.

(Duration: 30 minutes)

Friday 10th November at 2230

Repeated:  Saturday 11th November at 0830; Monday 13th November at 1230;

Tuesday 14th November at 1730 & 2130[S.As]; Wednesday 15th November at 0430~+; & 1030