Nightline Tuesday October 14

From the Nightline e-mail alert:

TONIGHT'S SUBJECT: Two stories are grabbing our attention tonight. Only one can be the focus of our broadcast tonight, but which one? That will depend on how news events unfold later today. But both stories have one thing in common: the potential threat from two of the most complex nations on earth: Pakistan and China. Both have nuclear capabilities and both have unusual relations with the U.S. Are they threats?

Sometimes we have no choice but to show you how the sausages are made around here. This is one of those times. We have two potential stories for tonight. One is a fascinating and insightful report from Nightline correspondent Dave Marash about his most recent trip to Pakistan. More on that below. But we are also keeping an eye on China. Reporters there are anticipating that today China will launch a manned spacecraft, and be the third nation to propel a man into orbit. This would be a huge leap for the Chinese space program and, if it is successful, an enormous boost to national pride there.

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But if China doesn't launch tonight, we will focus on another complicated and potentially threatening nation: Pakistan. Nightline correspondent Dave Marash and a team of Nightline producers recently returned from Pakistan, a nation that is both an American ally in the war on terror, and a potential threat. Also a nuclear power, Pakistan is quite possibly the most dangerous place on earth.

Pakistan is the terrorism capitol of the world, with more terror attacks than anywhere else in the world and anti-American political extremism brewing in pockets of the education system. Osama bin Laden, if he is alive, is thought to be in hiding in the lawless mountains of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Nightline's Dave Marash traveled the region and illustrates the economic, cultural and political factors that make Pakistan such a complicated and troubling nation.

So will it be Pakistan or China tonight? You'll have to watch to find out. We hope you will.

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As it gets closer to show time.

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