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Muqtada al-Sadr and his armed group, the al-Mahdi army, have been America's most intractable opponents in Iraq, the only major Shia party to make the demand for US troops to withdraw.

For five years, they have controlled large sections of the country, they have also defied attempts to marginalise them politically, and have fought pitched battles with US Marines. Despite all this, al-Sadr's al-Mahdi army has only grown in size and influence.

After two years of campaigning, the US Presidential race enters its final week, and for the most of those two years, Iraq looked like an unwinnable war.

The so-called surge strategy adopted by George Bush, the outgoing president, deployed 30,000 additional US troops to Iraq in 2007 and has dominated, much of the debate about the war.

Both this year's presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, have praised it as a huge success.

McCain even cites his early support of the surge as his most important foreign policy credential.

Muqtada al-Sadr and his armed group, the al-Mahdi army, have been America's most intractable opponents in Iraq, the only major Shia party to make the demand for US troops to withdraw.

For five years, they have controlled large sections of the country, they have also defied attempts to marginalise them politically, and have fought pitched battles with US Marines. Despite all this, al-Sadr's al-Mahdi army has only grown in size and influence.

After two years of campaigning, the US Presidential race enters its final week, and for the most of those two years, Iraq looked like an unwinnable war.

The so-called surge strategy adopted by George Bush, the outgoing president, deployed 30,000 additional US troops to Iraq in 2007 and has dominated, much of the debate about the war.

Both this year's presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, have praised it as a huge success.

McCain even cites his early support of the surge as his most important foreign policy credential.

UN peacekeeping commander resigns after escalated violence in eastern Congo.

As the recent war between Russia and Georgia shows, the aftershocks of the collapse of the Soviet Union are still being felt today. 15 years ago, trouble started when two parts of Georgia, itself newly independent, tried to break away. War followed and entire communities were uprooted. Today over 200,000 refugees live in political limbo, unable to forget the place they once called home.

Aired the week of October 24 on Foreign Exchange.

Produced by Kira Kay, Jason Maloney and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

A disabled Afghan refugee returns to Afghanistan to advocate for greater services for the country's disabled population. Produced by Elsa Butler of the New York Times.

See the video at New York Times.com.

A NewsHour poetry segment on poet and writer Kwame Dawes aired on Tuesday October, 7 on PBS. Kwame is a Pulitzer Center grantee whose work with the Pulitzer Center culminated in the project HOPE: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica and the interactive site www.livehopelove.com. Kwame recently read at Busboys and Poets in Washington D.C. with a NewsHour crew on hand.

The coca plant, used in indigenous cultural rituals and traditional medicines, is also the main ingredient for cocaine. Bolivia is the third largest producer of coca and cocaine after Peru and Colombia. Despite pressure to cut back on coca farming, many Bolivians see few alternatives.

Aired on Foreign Exchange with Daljit Dhaliwal the week of September 19, 2008.

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Youths in Kabul have turned an empty swimming pool -- built during the Soviet occupation -- into a skateboarding park.

See the video at Time

Chevron is accused of having dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic waste in Ecuador’s Amazonian rainforest, and local residents are determined to hold them accountable.