BBC News:書(shū)信會(huì)消失嗎?

I'm Jonathan Savage with a selection of highlights from across BBC World Service News today.

Coming up: "cinq, quatre, trois, deux, un!" A giant telescope is launched into the earth orbit and we'll hear why scientists believe it's one of the most ambitious events in the history of space exploration.

Two Muslim radicals are found guilty of the brutal murder of a British soldier on a London street. Also in our podcast, an Iraki Shi'a man tells us why he's been to neighboring Syria to take part in the civil war there.

"I went to Syria to defend a holy Shi'a shrine but also because I want to defend Shi'a who have been victimized by al Qida."

And we'll hear how the conflict in Syria is fueling the worsening sectarian violence within Iraq. Controversial world boxing champion Mike Tyson describes his present day life. And we ask — is the art of letter writing dying out and should it be preserved?

Is social media killing off the art of letter writing? Nearly half of the 12 to 17 year-olds interviewed for a new British survey claim they've never sent a personal letter. And many describe the process as how dated, slow, inconvenient and expensive. So is letter writing a skill that we need to preserve? Simon Garfield is the author of To The Letter: A Journey Through a Vanishing World. Dan Damen asked him if he believes that letter writing is indeed dying out among young people like the ones we just heard.

"Yeah, I mean if you grow up not writing letters you can not think why should you spend 60 pence in the UK to write a letter. And you've got to sit down and you've got to spend half an hour gathering your thoughts. "

"Is it damaging the use of grammar because this is a critical area of literary inefficiency. Text messages never follow rules for better writing techniques. There's no grammar being adhered to the choice of words. "

"Yeah, I don't mind so much personally. I think you know, if you look at the history communication, we've always developed new words and new ways of communication and short form. You think, in the letter, you know, we still write a SWALK on the back of envelope — Sealed With A Loving Kiss. "

"We would have kind of shorter forms. So I don't think we could complain about it. And everyone writes in their own way. So I don't think that such a difficulty."