wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Nuala McGovern, radio presenter at the BBC's World Have Your Say, talks about the latest on the London riots--and the various theories about the root causes of the unrest.

Listeners: Do you have ties to people in the London area? What have you been hearing from your friends and family there? Let us know. Comment here!

With the recent announcement that the administration may repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," there has been much talk about issues of equality when it comes to the military. But another another group is also struggling for equal military opportunities: women. The current policy held by the Department of Defense does not allow women in ground units where they might engage in direct combat.

Air travelers from any of 14 countries specified by the Obama administration will be subjected to extra security procedures if they wish to fly into the U.S. This measure is a direct response to the alleged Christmas Day almost-bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who failed in his attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. The countries on the list: Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen. Washington correspondent for The New York Times Eric Lipton has been following these developments and he says that many of the countries are accusing the United States of racial and ethnic profiling and calling it unfair. Nuala McGovern, host of the BBC's "World Have Your Say," posed the question– "Can profiling stop terrorism?" – to people from countries on the list, and the responses she got were overwhelming.