Russia was shocked when the snow didn't show two years ago: now it looks like the warmest winter ever wasn't a freak event but a sign of an unprecedented change in the climate. This year, Moscow had record high temperatures in the first half of December. And it's not just the human beings who don't understand what's happening as the BBC's Moscow correspondent James Rodgers reports.

The bomb blast at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad in September killed 58 people and sparked a crisis of confidence in Pakistan. It further weakened an already depressed economy as foreigners fled the country. Now the Marriott is being rebuilt and is set to open within a few days. But in a region where luxury hotels have been targeted, will guests return? BBC correspondent Barbara Plett went back to assess its chances of success.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice played piano for Britain's Queen Elizabeth last night. As Her Majesty reigned in a wayward royal pooch, Buckingham Palace reverberated to the sound of Brahms' Op. 34. Ms Rice was accompanied on violin by the wife of the UK's Foreign Secretary - who himself accompanied the Queen to the recital.

Roosevelt in 1932: Associated PressPresident-elect Barack Obama faces a daunting set of economic challenges, including a banking crisis, failing businesses and rising unemployment. That's not unlike Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s. And Obama has apparently been studying what lessons can be drawn from FDR's presidency in that regard. Jonathan Freedland and his guests compare past and present on BBC's 'The Long View'.

The guests are:
Tony Badger, Professor of American History at Cambridge University and author of ‘FDR The First Hundred Days.
DD Guttenplan, historian and London Correspondent of The Nation
Philip Booth, Economist from the Institute of Economic Affairs
Janet Daley, of The Daily Telegraph

Urban dwellers in China are three times more prosperous than their country cousins. Perhaps that's why 150 million farmers have moved to the cities. The Chinese leadership has now declared that it's essential to bring fast growth to the countryside however difficult. Since 2006, the BBC's Newsnight program has visited the village of White Horse charting its attempted transformation from rural outpost to city of opportunity. It's been a journey fraught with frustration and disappointment for both planners and residents.

The Peruvian government is threatening to sue Yale University over thousands of Incan relics from Machu Picchu that are being held at the University. Dan Collyns reports for the BBC from Lima.

The BBC collects comments from around the world on Barack Obama's presidency.

Alex Ingrams was so enthused by the U.S. election he gave up his job, 3000 miles away in London, to volunteer with the Obama campaign in Virginia. Fred Galucci didn't have quite so far to travel: but he still relocated from Texas to Ohio to help the McCain campaign. The BBC's World News America program talked with them both.

Driving to work during rush hour is not a mundane affair if the city you're trying to cross is the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Concern about getting to work on time makes way for worry about suicide bombers, drive-by shooters and car bombs. The anxiety many in the Iraqi capital feel on a daily basis is dubbed Baghdadophobia by one Iraqi working for the BBC. He describes his ordeal in gripping detail.

"Some Venezuelans - the wannabe Yankees - are praying for a continued drop in oil prices." So said Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez recently, acknowledging his government's dependence on oil revenues. So could the falling cost of oil threaten Chávez's political future, and boost the prospects of his opponents? The BBC's Latin America Analyst, James Painter, has sifted the evidence.