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Stories from Lebanon, Azerbaijan, the US and Italy

First came political paralysis, then the economic downfall. Once a relatively prosperous country, Lebanon is running out of food, water, electricity and also medicines. With no functioning government, people who never dreamed they would struggle, now find themselves devoting all their efforts just to stay afloat. And to help people with serious illness, Leila Molana-Allen got on a flight to Istanbul, in search of life-saving drugs.

The fighting may have finished, but deaths still mount up. The disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh was fought over last year by Armenia and Azerbaijan, and both sides seeded the area with landmines - hundreds of thousands of them. Now, civilians returning to their homes have become the victims. Colin Freeman met up with those in charge of clearing the mines, and heard how their efforts have been caught up in a row over prisoners of war.

The anniversary of the September 11th attacks can be a painful time for those who lost friends and family that day. This year’s anniversary is a particularly pointed one: it marks twenty years since the World Trade Centre and Pentagon were hit, and it comes at a time when Afghanistan is once again in the news. The Taliban hosted the instigators of the attacks, Al Qaeda, and are back in power. Laura Trevelyan talked about this with a woman whose husband was killed that day.

What’s in a name? Shakespeare’s famous question has particular resonance in Italy right now, where the issue at hand is what name should be given to streets, parks and town squares. Some recent choices have been simply novel: a Freddy Mercury Road will soon be declared open in one small town. Yet as Dany Mitzman explains, plans to use the names of famous fascists are not surprisingly proving more controversial.

(Image: Shuttered door of a closed pharmacy in Beirut, Lebanon. Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP via Getty Images)