The World Today

From the editor of the World Today, Thomas Dahlhaus:

As 2009 draws to a close, Afghanistan and Pakistan continue to be the most frequent datelines on the World Today as they have been throughout the year.

Beyond the daily news, we will continue our efforts to highlight the stories that are perhaps less likely to hit the headlines: after taking a close at mental health as a globally relevant and arguably undercovered issue in the summer, we have just had our team return from the international maternal mortality conference in Addis Ababa, where they examined why very little progress seems to have been made on a longtime millennium development goal and why the rate of women dying in childbirth remains virtually unchanged in many parts of the world.

The one health story that IS likely to hit the headlines, President Obama's efforts to push through health reform in the US, is going to make us compare and contrast the debate in the US with what is going on elsewhere in the world and how the developed and developing world grapple with the double challenges of making health care available and affordable.

Until the end of the year, many editions of the World Today will also take you back to the momentous autumn of 1989 - the fall of the Iron Curtain and the impact it had on the world - or cast your mind forward to the international climate change in Copenhagen in December.

Much as we look ahead to the events of the day to come in every edition of the programme, behind the scenes we're busy preparing for the events of the year that is ahead of us: Iraqis and Palestinians go to the polls early in the new year, and British voters will follow a few months later.

Last not least, the World Cup in South Africa is looming large, the first such event in Africa with unprecedented spotlight on the continent.

We'll be basing ourselves in the heart of Soweto, a stone's throw from the tournament's biggest venue, Soccer City, to bring you the stories that surround the tournament and to look at where success or failure for (South) Africa will lie: on or off the pitch.

Many hours of the World Today to listen to before kick-off, though. Stay tuned.