Some people will have had trouble accessing the BBC website in the past few hours. We've had a network failure that has resulted in access to the site being slow and at some points inaccessible. Our network provider's engineers are working on restoring normal service as soon as possible. We're sorry for the inconvenience.
Update, 11:07: I'm pleased to say the problems should now be fixed - we're not aware of any remaining issues.
Steve Herrmann is editor of the BBC News website.
If you're a user of Twitter, you may have spotted the quiet arrival of the BBC's new website called Democracy Live at the end of last week.
The site is officially launched today but for technical reasons, we lifted the barriers to the outside world on Thursday evening. Although we didn't announce its availability, such is the power of social media that people were quick to find us and start tweeting about the site.
Total Politics even reviewed Democracy Live on Friday and concluded by saying: "It brings a decidedly 21st century edge to watching parliamentary discussion."
"DL", as it's become known in the BBC, is the result of about 18 months of development work.
It brings together for the first time in the BBC, live and on demand video coverage of proceedings in our national political institutions and the European Parliament. Democracy Live builds on previously available content in the form of video streams, guides and biographies.
But the real magic lies in the site's search function, which is unlike anything the BBC has done before.
Read the rest of this post and leave your comments on the About the BBC blog.
The attacks in Kabul this morning on the Serena Hotel and a guesthouse used by the UN underscores the dangers facing journalists in Afghanistan.
Earlier this month, David Rohde of the New York Times wrote about his experiences during the seven months and 10 days he was kidnapped by the Taliban before he escaped earlier this year.
His colleague, Sultan Munadi was not so fortunate: he was killed during a mission to free the British reporter Stephen Farrell last month.
This morning's attacks give people like me pause for thought. The BBC is the only British broadcaster to have a permanent bureau in Kabul.
We were there during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, and remained throughout the US led assault on the country in 2001.
It would be so much easier to simply report that troubled country from behind the wire of the British base at Camp Bastion or position ourselves alongside the Canadian media pool at the ISAF base in Kandahar.
But we have a responsibility to tell all sides of the story - not simply report Afghanistan as it looks from inside the perimeter of an army base.
That we're able to do so is a tribute to the bravery of my colleagues in Kabul - not just those you read online or see and hear on air such as Ian Pannell and Martin Patience, but those behind the scenes who help them tell the story. The risks as we have seen this morning are all too real.
Jon Williams is the BBC World News Editor.
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