From Our Own Correspondent

BBC Radio 4
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Oct 20, 2011 • 28min

20 Oct 2011

Kate Adie introduces reports from around the world. Today Jonathan Head ask what keeps the fighters in Libya going, risking their lives, when perhaps they don't really have to? Sue Lloyd Roberts experiences life trapped in your own flat, with young children, in the middle of the Syrian revolution. The Arab Spring began with Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution, in January. Now they are preparing to vote and Celeste Hicks hears of the disappointments and hopes of young people, and the confusion as people grapple with the trappings of democracy. And Jonathan Barker tells us how the Asian Tsunami has had benefits for the Orang-utans of Sumatra - but watch out for your fingers!
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Oct 15, 2011 • 28min

15 Oct 2011

Is the name of Bahrain being dragged into the mire by a string of alleged human rights abuses? Frank Gardner gives his assessment after meeting the King and the Prime Minister - and joining the riot police on patrol. Yolande Knell in Cairo says that with every month that has passed since President Mubarak was overthrown, public frustration has mounted. Katya Adler's investigating the scandal in Spain of the so-called 'ninos robados' or stolen children - sold off to 'more deserving' parents. A long way from Abidjan and a long way from Monrovia: John James is in that part of Ivory Coast close to Liberia and sometimes referred to as the 'Wild West.' It's a part of the country which was hard hit during the struggle, earlier this year, for the country's presidency. And Andrew Harding talks to Zargana, his friend the Burmese comedian, who's just been released from a 59-year prison sentence. Jeeves and Wooster, Andrew hears, were a great comfort in his cell.
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Oct 13, 2011 • 28min

13 Oct, 2011

'I'll Not Do It Again!' That's the verdict of some foreign businessmen, out of pocket after getting involved in the Indian market. Mark Dummett in Delhi examines whether this is really a difficult country in which to do business. Embarrassment for the French state: Chris Bockman on how it's having to pick up the hotel bills of radicals who were once convicted of trying to blow up the Eiffel Tower. Tamasin Ford visits the centre of the diamond trade in Sierra Leone while Michael Bristow meets the members of one of Shanghai's neighbourhood committees - the front line of Chinese government. And with two weeks to go until the Irish go to the polls, Kieran Cooke recalls early encounters with Martin McGuinness, the former IRA man who now wants to be Ireland's next president.
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Oct 8, 2011 • 28min

08 Oct 2011

Why two crumpled pieces of paper are among the most precious reminders Lyse Doucet has of her reporting trip to beleaguered Syria; Nick Danziger's been back to Kabul and wondered why the voices of Afghan women are too often ignored; Steve Evans in Berlin reflects on the row surrounding the return of twenty skulls to Namibia; building a new nation is never easy, but now Rosie Goldsmith tells us that South Sudan faces an additional challenge as it tries to introduce English as the official language; and Hugh Schofield in Paris on how new technology has breathed fresh life into the ghosts of Montparnasse cemetery.
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Oct 6, 2011 • 28min

Oct 6, 2011

A time of shifting and unexpected new relationships in Libya is explored by Allan Little. He's been meeting the Islamists, determined not only to be a part of the post-Gaddafi government but also to forge a new working relationship with the West; Chris Morris talks of the crisis in the Eurozone after visiting Greece, the Netherlands and five other European countries; it's fifty years since the people of Tristan da Cunha were evacuated as a volcano erupted on their island in the South Atlantic -- today, Chris Carneghy says their lifestyle's being challenged by developments in the modern technological world; Dany Mitzman talks of an anti-Mafia television station in Sicily which is under threat from new Italian legislation while Rajesh Mirchandani chews over the complications of South Africa's diverse history.
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Oct 1, 2011 • 28min

Oct 1, 2011

An 18-hour train ride to the end of the line brings you to the very edge of Norway. Inside the Arctic Circle. But why is it that this place has such firm connections with Italy. Christine Finn has the answer. Justin Webb examines a Japanese conundrum: the country benefits from its cultural insularity and yet, if it doesn't open up to outsiders, it faces economic decline. Mark Lowen, charting the mood in Athens as international investigators assess the creditworthiness of Greece, talks of clouds of tear gas and despair closing over a troubled country. In the Pakistani city of Karachi, the American consulate moved to a new location. Mohammed Hanif says it has meant the reopening of an historic park and armed guards being replaced by youngsters playing cricket. And you used to have to go America's Great Plains for a glimpse of the mighty bison. Not any more. Rob Cameron tells us why it can now be seen wandering around a place that used to be a training ground for the Russian Red Army.
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Sep 29, 2011 • 28min

29 Sept, 2011

They came from all over: serious men from Seville and Madrid with their fine suits and Havana cigars to see the last bullfight in the historic stadium in Barcelona. Robert Elms was also there to witness the final show. Attempts to clamp down on the highly lucrative trade in mineral smuggling in eastern Congo have not proved successful, as Conor Woodman has been finding out. North Korea might not seem to be a country with the latest in communications technology but, as Lucy Williamson tells us, the leadership there are finding ways of making it work for them. Paul Adams goes to a country music show in the US and hears how the genre has embraced the anger of a generation poleaxed by economic hardship. And Trish Flanagan joins tens of thousands who arrived in a remote corner of the Republic of Ireland to watch a game of golf.
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Sep 24, 2011 • 28min

24 September 2011

Kate Adie shares stories behind the headlines with correspondents around the world. David Loyn is at the funeral of Burhanuddin Rabbani reflecting on the return to prominence of Afghanistan's warlords. Tim Mansel looks at the intimate relationship between football and politics in Turkey. Roland Buerk explains why the residents of Tokyo are cancelling the leases on their high rise apartments. Damien McGuiness is in the disputed territory of Abkhazia and Andrew Harding has the opportunity to check out a Libyan hospital .... as a patient.
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Sep 22, 2011 • 28min

22 Sept 11

Katie Adie presents more despatches from foreign correspondents. As forces try to oust Gaddafi loyalists holding out in his home town of Sirte, our correspondent Alastair Leithead ponders the dilemmas of keeping the story in the news. In Pakistan, the monsoon season has left thousands homeless once again; Aleem Maqbool travels through Sindh, one of the worst-affected provinces, and find people feeling abandoned by their government and the world. We get up close and personal as Robin Irvine takes part in a wrestling match on the grasslands of Eastern Mongolia. In Beirut, appearances are everything, even when giving birth, as Georgia Paterson Dargham finds out. And in New England, Julian May discovers why lobster fishing is apparently helping to increase the crustacean's numbers.
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Sep 17, 2011 • 28min

Sept 17, 2011

Reprisals and revenge in a desert oasis as the battles continue against the final Gaddafi loyalists -- Justin Marozzi's been learning of the tensions in a small community in the far south of Libya. Katy Watson in Doha on how the Gulf state of Qatar was one of the first countries to declare its support for the Libyan rebels and how it is now reaping the benefits. Jonathan Head, who accompanied Turkish premier Erdogan on part of his North African tour, contends that a Turkish leader, elevated to the status of an Arab champion, is extraordinary. Claudia Hammond is in Costa Rica: tle elderly there reach a greater age than in any other nation in the Americas but the burden, she tells us, hangs heavily on the country's healthcare system. And Daniel Schweimler took some long bus trips and walked a great distance to visit a remote part of Argentina which is almost untouched by the modern world.

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