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Justin Webb will be joining ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 4's flagship current affairs programme Today on Thursday 27 August.

Justin will present the programme alongside current regulars Sarah Montague, James Naughtie, Evan Davis, as well as John Humphrys who will be co-presenting Justin's first show on Thursday.

Justin joins the Today team from Washington where he has been the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's North America Editor since December 2007. He has been an occasional presenter on the Today programme in the past, as well as having presented Broadcasting House on Radio 4.

Justin said: "I am delighted to be joining Today. It has been a part of my life for many years and the chance to join the presenting team is a thrill and an honour."

Editor of the Today programme, Ceri Thomas, said: "Presenting Today is absolutely one of the biggest jobs in ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News, but Justin's got the talent and the experience to make a huge success of it. He'll be a wonderful addition to the team."

As announced in December, although Ed Stourton will be moving on from his Today presenter role he will continue to work for the programme. He will report regularly on foreign stories, and his first piece exploring the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty will be broadcast in September.

As one of Radio 4's most respected journalists, Ed will be joining the presenting teams of World At One and The World This Weekend.

His Radio 4 projects include a live debate series, Iconoclasts, a three-part series on the Jordan titled A River Runs Through It, as well as a series, Defining The Decade, on the Noughties.

Ed will also work on the Analysis, Profile and Crossing Continents strands and continue to present the Sunday programme on Radio 4.

Ed said: "I am sad to lose my Today seat but I am delighted that I shall have a continuing role on the programme and excited about trying new things on The World This Weekend and World at One."

More about Justin

Prior to his role as North America Editor, Justin was the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Chief Washington Correspondent.

Before moving to Washington he spent three years as the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's Europe Correspondent, based in Brussels, Belgium.

For three years he was the main anchor of Breakfast News and also presented the Six O'Clock News.

His previous career included stints as a roving foreign correspondent during which he reported from the first Gulf War, the war in Bosnia, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the first democratic elections in South Africa, and a coup in the Maldive Islands.

Justin's first job in the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ was for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Ulster, based in Belfast.

He was educated at Friends' School, Sidcot and the London School of Economics, from which he graduated in 1983 with an honours degree in Economics.

More about Ed

Ed Stourton was born in Lagos, Nigeria in November 1957.

Educated first at Ampleforth College and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, he took a degree in English Literature before joining ITN as a graduate trainee in 1979.

He was a founder member of Channel 4 News in 1982 and in 1986 he was appointed Channel 4's Washington Correspondent.

In 1988 he joined the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ as Paris Correspondent.

In 1990 he returned to ITN as Diplomatic Editor, and three years later returned to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ to the One O'Clock News.

Ed joined the Today team in 1999. He has also presented editions of Correspondent, Assignment and Panorama, and the phone-in programme Call Ed Stourton on Radio 4.

He has also presented a series on important religious figures for Radio 4: In The Footsteps Of St Paul, In The Footsteps Of Moses and In The Footsteps Of Mohammed.

Ed has also written and presented several foreign affairs series for Radio 4 and the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service.

Notes to Editors

Today is Radio 4's most popular programme and over the last 12 months has reached an average of just over six million listeners every week.

Ed Stourton's last day of presenting Today will be 11 September 2009.

Mark Mardell was appointed in May to the post of North America Editor at the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ following Justin's departure to join Today.

LZ