

From Our Own Correspondent
BBC Radio 4
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers telling stories beyond the news headlines. Presented by Kate Adie.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 30, 2012 • 28min
Roman Austerity
Churches and mosques are being targetted by the Boko Haram militant group in Nigeria. Will Ross has been to the northern city of Jos, a city he says feels like it's under seige.
The Europe-wide debt crisis is increasingly being felt in Italy, where both prices and unemployment are soaring. Alan Johnston's in a suburb of Rome, hearing that people have begun to feel the pinch.
It's fifty years now since Algerians won their battle for independence from France. Chloe Arnold in Algiers has been meeting a woman who feels she did her bit to liberate the country.
Jim Carey's in Jordan, a kingdom which prefers hospitality to headlines and has a policy of being nice to everybody.
And is conformism really a feature of the French psyche? It's a question which has been troubling Hugh Schofield on his morning runs around the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.

Jun 28, 2012 • 28min
Bombs + Kebabs
Ian Pannell tells us how the story of Robin Hood is proving popular with one of the Syrian rebel groups fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
Will Grant, on the campaign trail ahead of Sunday's election in Mexico, finds himself in what he describes as 'the most dangerous place I've ever been.'
Hampi in India may once have been the heart of one of the biggest empires in Asia, but Anthony Denselow says it's increasingly drained of daily life.
Damien McGuinness has been learning that pagan traditions emerge from the past - and the forest - when Latvians go out to celebrate midsummer.
And Dany Mitzman reveals that at an Italian wedding food is more important than speeches - and confetti isn't something you throw, it's something you eat!

Jun 23, 2012 • 28min
Folly of Empire
Rumours and conspiracy theories swirl around Egypt; the Greeks fed up with being criticised for attitudes towards Europe; businessmen and environmentalists squabble over the River Danube in Croatia; how love, trolls and goblins help the Swedish government balance its books and musings on the folly of empire from half way up a volcano in Indonesia.

Jun 21, 2012 • 28min
Life Support
Kevin Connolly has the latest from Cairo, awash with conspiracy theories after the authorities delayed the results of Egypt's presidential election.
Jill McGivering's travelling across northern India investigating a growing water crisis. Major rivers are contaminated by pollution and wells are running dry.
As delegates at the Rio conference study papers on future energy sources, Jonny Dymond's been to Kentucky where livelihoods built around coal mining are now in doubt.
There's a building boom going on in the central African state of Chad but Celeste Hicks tells us it's still blighted by violence, poverty and disease.
South Koreans are being urged to dress down now that high summer's arrived. But Lucy Williamson's been finding out they won't listen to entreaties that they should slip into something something cooler.

Jun 16, 2012 • 28min
The Stone Breakers
All of Europe is watching the Greek elections. Chris Morris says they could have a profound effect on the Euro and on the future of the European Union.
The child stone breakers of Madagascar. They toil all day every day. It earns them just a few coins. And, as Luke Freeman finds out, there's no question of them ever going to school.
He was one of Cuba's revolutionary heroes. The funeral of boxer Teofilo Stevenson has just taken place in Havana. Sarah Rainsford was there and later talked to some of the Cuban athletes trying to emulate his Olympic success at this year's Games in London.
Jackie Bird has been to Korea with some of the Britons who fought in the war there sixty years ago. It's a conflict which few in Britain commemmorate. But there, the soldiers were applauded and thanked.
Fuchsia Dunlop dons her dancing shoes and heads out into Shanghai to get a glimpse of what this Chinese city must have been like during the glittering, decadent pre-war years.

Jun 14, 2012 • 28min
Burmese Bling
Paul Mason meets protesters in Spain finding new ways to signal their worries and anger about how their government's tackling the financial crisis.
Lucy Hooker declines to join the stampede of foreign customers in the gem markets of Rangoon in Burma.
Rana Jawad contends that while Libya's in a state of 'civilised anarchy', its people believe near-anarchy now might be the price to pay for the tyranny of the Gaddafi years.
As some European footballers have been taken to visit the site of Auschwitz in Poland, David Shukman has retraced his own family history in a nearby vilage.
And Anu Anand went a good deal further than the Internet to delve into the roots of her family tree. Finding out about ten generations of Anands involved a trip to the River Ganges, special priests and a search for an ancient banyan tree.

Jun 9, 2012 • 28min
Catholic Olympics
From Mogadishu -- Gabriel Gatehouse on how the al-Shabab militants have managed to lose friends and influence among the population of Somalia and given a boost to the African peacekeepers there
Andy Martin's talking of a rift in the Irish church as Dublin prepares to welcome tens of thousands of Catholic visitors to the capital for an event some have called the 'Catholic Olympics.'
A shaded graveyard in Kabul: Andrew North says the memorials there tell a story about Afghanistan's strategic value and the many times foreign soldiers have marched onto its soil
Chancellor Merkel of Germany likes straight talking, Steve Evans in Berlin believes. During the visit to Berlin of prime minister Cameron, she used vocabulary British politicians would hesitate to voice in public.
And the repressive policies of the apartheid era may be long gone but colour remains a preoccupation in South Africa as new mother, Tara Neill, has been finding out

Jun 7, 2012 • 28min
Destruction + Regeneration
Alan Johnston's been to the Italian towns shaken by a series of earthquakes and aftershocks.
In Pakistan, monsoon season is approaching again: Aleem Maqbool meets victims of last year's disastrous flooding amid concerns it could happen again.
Hamilton Wende, a longterm resident of Johannesburg, believes it's shaking off a reputation for violence and urban decay.
James McConnachie is in Nepal, where Chinese influence is bringing new road-building projects to the world's most dramatic mountain landscapes.
And Roland Buerk is in Tokyo, where pets are pampered like nowhere else on earth.

Jun 2, 2012 • 28min
Love Commandos
Fergal Keane meets exiled Syrians in Istanbul and finds little agreement among them about the way forward for their troubled country.
Gabriel Gatehouse is in eastern Congo where politics, history and nature have conspired to create instability and danger.
David Willey talks of unrest and dismay at the Vatican as Cardinals plot and the Pope speaks of betrayal.
Anu Anand's been meeting The Love Commandos in Delhi -- they help young couples who dare to get together without parental approval.
And just ten miles from Wall Street and you're bathing in the Atlantic Ocean! Reggie Nadelson's in Brighton Beach, New York's most interesting ethnic enclave.

May 26, 2012 • 28min
Seaside Disappointment
Jeremy Bowen in Beirut says the Middle East is certainly changing. But the dominoes aren't tumbling as quickly as some thought last year. Instead, the way ahead will be long and hard.
Will Ross in Lagos on the fuel subsidy scandal and why for Nigerians the price of petrol is a constant preoccupation.
Jonny Dymond takes to the skies over Arizona with a man determined to do his bit to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants into the US.
The campest show of them all, Eurovision, has come to Baku in Azerbaijan. And Steve Rosenberg, who's there, says it's attended by awkward questions about human rights.
And she was invited to a seaside tasting of some of Italy's finest fare. So what could possibly go wrong for Dany Mitzman?


