Best of Today

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Recent episodes (10)

• Jan Morris's 'glimpses of people'

  Sat, 7 Nov 09

  Duration:
  5 mins

  Travel writer Jan Morris has changed tack for her latest book, by writing about people instead of the places she visits. Miss Morris comments on her latest travels.

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• UK 'is real frontline' in terrorism fight

  Sat, 7 Nov 09

  Duration:
  7 mins

  Britain's presence in Afghanistan has been seriously questioned this week following the deaths of seven army personnel, and calls from former junior Foreign Office minister Kim Howells MP to withdraw all troops from the country. Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday defended Britain's continued presence, saying that troops there are "our first line of defence" against terrorist attacks on British streets. Shadow security minister Baroness Pauline Neville Jones and the chairman of the Royal United Services Institute, Sir Paul Lever, debate the government's Afghan policy and whether the fight against Islamic extremism should be concentrated at home or abroad.

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• Today:'Rude, whimsical and late'

  Fri, 6 Nov 09

  Duration:
  5 mins

  A selection of unpublished letters sent to the Telegraph is being released. Am I Alone in thinking? is a collection of some of the letters sent the the newspaper that were not appropriate for publication. Deputy head of the Telegraph letters page, Iain Hollingshead, and author Robert Popper, comment on the letters.

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• RBS recovery 'a marathon not a sprint'

  Fri, 6 Nov 09

  Duration:
  9 mins

  RBS has made a loss in the last quarter, despite the government pumping billions of pounds into the failing bank. Profitable parts of the bank will have to be sold off under news measures imposed by EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes. RBS chief executive Stephen Hester discusses the bank's future.

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• 'Nerves miraculously disappear'

  Fri, 6 Nov 09

  Duration:
  4 mins

  What is it like for the soldiers on the front line in Afghanistan? Major Richard Streatfeild has been keeping a diary for the Today programme as he leads his troops in the Sangin Valley, which has seen some of the heaviest fighting in the war. The latest instalment describes how his first patrol was hit by an roadside bomb.

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• Afghan police are 'undisciplined, badly trained and corrupt'

  Thu, 5 Nov 09

  Duration:
  13 mins

  The killing of five British soldiers in Afghanistan by a police officer has raised questions over security progress in the country. The British army has been training Afghan security and police forces to enforce the rule of law for the long-term future of the country. Mark Grant-Jones, padre with 2 Rifles Battle Group, and Mark Christian a padre serving with British soldiers in Helmand, comment on the implications of the killings on the British cause in Afghanistan, and Afghan journalist Nadene Ghouri discusses the Afghan reaction to the incident.

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• Russia's admiration for Stalin

  Thu, 5 Nov 09

  Duration:
  5 mins

  Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev has made an unusually outspoken condemnation of attempts to rehabilitate the reputation of Joseph Stalin. In a message posted on his blog President Medvedev called on people to remember the "millions who died because of Stalin's terror". Last year, in a nation wide television poll to name the greatest Russian ever, Joseph Stalin came third. Moscow correspondent Rupert Wingfield Hayes reports on how Russians view their former leader.

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• Five British troops die in 'rogue' attack

  Wed, 4 Nov 09

  Duration:
  7 mins

  Five British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan after a policeman they were training opened gunfire. Defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt reports on the latest in the incident.

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• Is Obama losing his charm

  Wed, 4 Nov 09

  Duration:
  4 mins

  It is the first anniversary of Barack Obama's victory in the US presidential elections. But in the intervening year, the Democrats have lost gubernatorial seats in both Virginia and New Jersey to the Republicans. The Republican's chairman, Michael Steele, says the results are a rejection of President Obama's reckless spending, and what he calls "the far-left policies that are hurting our nation." North America editor Mark Mardell examines President Obama's popularity a year after his election.

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• Does the US still want Obama?

  Tue, 3 Nov 09

  Duration:
  5 mins

  The first anniversary of President Obama's election takes place tomorrow. A year after his election, Washington correspondent Kevin Connolly went to Colorado to talk to some of President Obama's supporters, to see if they are happy with his presidency.

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