大象传媒

The monetary policy makers at the US Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee have finished the first of two days of discussion on whether to raise interest rates on Wednesday. The Fed has said its decision depends on various factors, including employment. The central bank is also under pressure from the IMF not to raise the cost of borrowing too quickly. We hear from Michelle Fleury in New York.

The Paris Air Show is the biggest aerospace event of the year. For the European maker Airbus - with its manufacturing base in the south of France - this is viewed as a very lucrative opportunity. It is already racked up billions of dollars worth of orders for its super-fuel-efficient A350. But not every aircraft in its fleet is selling quite so well. Theo Leggett is there to explain how important the show is for Airbus.

This coming Saturday will mark the sixth anniversary of the killing by Iran's security forces of Neda Agha Soltan. The 26-year-old was a bystander, watching a peaceful street protest on Kargar Street in Tehran when she was shot in the chest. Her death during the abortive Green Revolution was captured on film and spread like wildfire on the web. Her story features in a new book called Jewels of Allah: The Untold Story of Women in Iran. The author, Dr Nina Ansary, a US-based Iranian exile, came into studio to talk about the changes for women since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

We join our friends at Marketplace by sharing in the launch of their big new radio series called Weak Link. It is about America's infrastructure network - and for the first part of this mammoth jigsaw they are taking a close look at is the highway system.

Women traditionally spend more time and money on clothes, but men are catching up, and there seem to be more male fashionistas than ever. Benjie Guy went to the opening of this year's London Collections Men - the male equivalent of London Fashion Week.
We are joined by our guests Mark Miller, managing editor at Marketplace in LA and Jyoti Malhotra, senior writer on India Today in Delhi.

(Photo: US Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew (right) and chair of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen. Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)