Program makers at the BBC are required to follow strict editorial guidelines on fairness and impartiality - but not everybody is always convinced that they actually do so. BBC Radio 4's Feedback program airs listeners comments and critcisms - on the latest edition the Editor of Radio 4's The World Tonight responded to listeners' criticisms that the BBC's coverage of the Russia-Georgia conflict was biased against Russia. The conversation between host Roger Bolton and editor Alister Burnett offers some insight into the internal debates about BBC reporting.

James Naughtie

The race for the White House is rapidly moving into the hot phase and both presidential candidates have been promising change - but what does that mean for average Americans? In his series, American Dreams, the BBC's James Naughtie explores the America not often seen by foreigners. In the first installment he travels to Michigan, where he finds a collapsing automotive industry and an economy in decline.

In July 1518 a terrifying and mysterious plague struck the French city of Strasbourg. Hundreds of men and women danced wildly, day after day, in the punishing summer heat. Some of them even died. In his book A Time to Dance, A Time To Die, John Waller a British historian of medicine based at Michigan State University has uncovered fresh evidence into why this so called "dancing plague" took place. Evan Davis from Radio 4's Today program talked with Waller.

The BBC begins its epic bus journey across the United States with journalists from around the world. From coast to coast, they'll be trying to get to the heart of the issues that will decide the 2008 Presidential election.BBC Bus Tour

"Um" - is a sound that BBC radio producers often have to remove when they edit interviews. But what are we doing when we say "um" and "ah", and what effect do these sounds have on people listening to us? Michael RosenRadio 4's 'Word of Mouth' host Michel Rosen started his investigation into 'speech disfluency' by speaking to linguist Martin Corley. When Rosen asked if there were any benefits of the pesky "um", Corely was keen to point out its usefulness.

Are these people climate change 'early adopters'? Some scientists think so. Residents of one low-lying Filipino village have lived with permanent flood waters for the last four years. As the BBC's Michael Barker says at the top of his TV report, the images of their daily lives are reminiscent of the movie Waterworld...

The BBC World Service 's Ben Sutherland blogged from London as the curtain came down on the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

You can hardly escape John McCain and Barack Obama
at the moment. Mostly you'll be hearing about their public performances. But what about their private performances? The BBC's Radio 4 heard from Ian Manners - a British guy who married Barack Obama's half-sister, Auma, back in the mid-nineties. In this interview, Ian remembers what it was like to have Barack Obama at his wedding in the UK and at his bachelor party, known to Brits as a "stag night". The interviewer is Peter Curran.

Barack Obama at Ian Manning's wedding

Pervez Kambaksh

There's nothing particulary shocking about downloading an article from the internet on the role of women in Islam. But when Afghan journalism student Pervez Kambaksh did just that, authorities charged him with blasphemy. For the past seven months he's been in jail. There is growing pressure from the international community on Afghan president Hamid Karzai, to have him pardoned. But there's also pressure from conservative mullahs to have him hanged. The BBC's Alastair Leithead has more.

Dmitry Medvedev

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree to recognize the breakaway regions of Georgia, - Abkhazia and South Ossetia - as independent states. In an exclusive interview with the BBC's Bridget Kendall at his residency in the Russian city of Sochi on the border with Abkhazia, Medvedev was asked why Russia had signed the decree in the face of international opposition.