Evan Wright turned the articles he wrote as an embedded journalist in Iraq for Rolling Stone into the award winning book “Generation Kill." Wright sold the rights to HBO, who promised to re-create the book with the same grittiness and harsh realism that Wright captured in his book. The result is “Generation Kill,” the miniseries.

Guest: Hugh Sykes, BBC

Renegade filmmaker Zhang Yimou ("Hero," "The Road Home," "Shanghai Triad," "To Live," "Ju Dou") is the mastermind behind Beijing’s Opening Night’s ceremonies. His films, which often showcased China’s ugly side to the outside world, were banned by the Chinese government and seldom seen by his fellow countrymen. Tonight’s ceremonies symbolize the conversion of Mr. Zhang, from a censored filmmaker to one of China’s most celebrated artists.

Samir Jassem teaches diving to orphans in Baghdad.

Thurayya Hashem is a veterinarian at Baghdad zoo.

Dhikra Sarsam is an artist who kept on painting through good times and bad.

Ali Ta'ayyib is a musician who plays at weddings.

Hassan Ali studied philosophy at Baghdad University. But for the past four years, he's worked as a municipal garbage collector.

Audio credit: Jim Muir, BBC

Pakistan's coalition legislature has divided over the issue but says it's looking to impeach President Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf has said he'd rather resign than face impeachment. Though he gave up control of the military last year, he still has the power to dissolve the government.

While the defense says that the trial didn’t follow the American rule of law, prosecutors seem generally pleased with the verdict in the case of Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Hamdan. Army Col. Lawrence Morris, the chief prosecutor, discusses the case and its implications.

Stopping in Thailand on his way to Beijing for the Olympic Games, President Bush gave a speech on religious freedoms and human rights which some people found surprisingly firm. The official Chinese response was… no comment.

Guest: Jonathan Mahler, author and New York Times contributing writer. Mahler wrote the book "The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight over Presidential Power."

Before the 1980s, the only music you heard during the Olympics was the ceremonial sounds of a marching band. Nowadays, there are at least a dozen pop songs associated with each year’s games. The Takeaway looks at the origin of Olympic "anthems” from Strauss to Freddie Mercury to Jackie Chan.

Osama bin Laden’s former driver, Salim Hamdan, was found guilty of war crimes, but acquitted on conspiracy charges Wednesday.

Guest: Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times, in Bangkok, Thailand, traveling with President Bush

Guest: James Read, BBC World Service Africa Desk

As part of an ongoing conversation on the U.S. role in Iraq, Michael O'Hanlon, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, tells The Takeaway what America needs to do to say, with confidence, “Mission Accomplished.”

Guest: Eric Schmitt, New York Times Reporter

In the wake of violent protests involving the Olympic torch and the murder of 16 policemen in Xinjiang province, Olympics organizers and participants fear more civic disturbances. Ironically, author Charles Cumming's new book "Typhoon" is a thriller about terrorist attacks on the eve of the Olympics, launched by citizens from Xinjiang. Is the work of fiction that far-fetched?

A new report by a Rwandan commission has accused former French presidents, prime Ministers and the French military of actively participating in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. The report accuses French troops of direct involvement in killings and rapes and of training the Hutu soldiers responsible for wiping out 800,000 Rwandans in 100 days.

It's not just the oil companies reaping the benefits of oil prices gone wild. A new report from the Government Accountability Office estimates Iraqi oil profits from 2005 to the end of this year to be at least $156 billion. The government's budget surplus could stand at $79 billion by the end of 2008.

The Olympic Flame arrived in Beijing on Wednesday (Tuesday night in the United States) after a long, strange 130-day trip that began in Olympia back in March. View a map of the torch route.

Guest: Javier Blas, Financial Times

Western journalists will be swarming Beijing later this week. Meanwhile, BBC correspondent Hugh Sykes has been on quite a different path through China.