Three reports on the current state of Afghanistan have come out this week. They paint a picture of a country in trouble and perhaps on the verge of becoming a failed state. Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Thomas Pickering, co-chair of the Afghanistan Study Group. It put out one of the reports.

Killed: Haji Pir Mohammed

The Taliban claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in Afghanistan's Helmand province. The blasts killed several people, including the province's deputy governor. Gregory Warner reports from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Entire program - Jan 31, 2008

Today's Global Hit features throat singer Tanya Tagaq. She's from a remote Inuit community way up in Canada's High Arctic. She's turned her tradition of throat singing into avant garde art and now performs with the likes of Bjork and the Kronos Quartet. Anchor Lisa Mullins has the story.

The answer to today's Geo Quiz is the Scottish Highlands, where "phone boxes" -- what we call public phone booths -- are in danger of becoming a thing of the past - but not without a fight. The World's David Leveille tells us how communities there are banding together to save their phone boxes.

The Lebanese film "Caramel," is a story about five women who meet regularly at a local beauty salon. It's been a number one hit in Lebanon. Now it's coming to the United States. It opens on February 1. Reporter Beth Accomando gives us a sneak peek.

Our daily geography puzzler.

East Germany's Secret Service, or Stasi, kept extensive records on its citizens during the Cold War but tried to destroy them when its government toppled in 1989. Some were shredded, some worn torn by hand. Now German computer scientists are trying to repair those documents - digitally. Anchor Lisa Mullins finds out more from Andrew Curry, who writes about the project for Wired magazine.

Reporter Derek Stoffel has the story of American war deserters in Canada. Some 150 US soldiers have moved north of the border to avoid serving in Iraq. They would like to stay in Canada, but so far they've not been granted refugee status. Now they face the prospect of returning to the United States to face desertion charges.

Anchor Lisa Mullins updates the facts reported in a previous story.