We will go live to Tripoli in Libya to start the show today. Our Nic Robertson will join us to talk about Libya's response to accusations the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi was contingent on oil deals with the United Kingdom.

On that subject, take part in today's Idesk poll on Megrahi's release.

We will then run a portion of Sara Sidner's exclusive interview with the Dalai Lama on the day the spiritual leader visited typhoon-ravaged regions of Taiwan. The visit has angered China, that is accusing the Buddhist leader of making the trip for political reasons.

From Baghdad, we will discuss an Amnesty International report due to be published later today on the death sentence in Iraq and what human rights organizations say is unaccaeptable secrecy surrounding executions.

Since the reinstatements of the death penalty in Iraq – which by the way can be imposed for very vague charges like "compromising the internal security of the state" – human rights groups have sounded the alarm on the way death penalty cases are handled in post-Saddam Iraq. Old habits seems to die hard, there.

Also today, we will chat with the mayor of one of the most violent cities in the world: Juarez, Mexico. Murders there happen there in broad daylight and beheaded bodies are found on the outskirts of the city. Sounds like the Baghdad of 2006/2007. But this isn't sectarian strife but about who controls the money-making drug trade in Mexico.

Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz will join us at the IDesk. Will he be his country's Eliot Ness or the man known for having lost the drug war?

Plus all the latest news, business and sports stories, as always, at the International Desk.

See you on TV,

Hala

Posted by: CNN Anchor, Hala Gorani
Filed under: Today At The I-Desk