From Our Own Correspondent

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Striving for Clarity Jan 14, 2017

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Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories from around the world. John Sudworth is doing his best to tape up the windows of his Beijing flat as he tries to protect his family from the city's dangerous smog. Thomas Fessy remembers his days in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fondly. But now the dancing in this lively city is more mechanical and there's anxiety that a full-blown insurgency may be about to break out once again. Phoebe Smith is in one of the coldest inhabited places on earth, Svalbard, where the miners have been packing up their picks but new opportunities are opening up. The battle between fact, fiction and "truth" is being fought in the American media. Robert Colls says it's increasingly difficult to tell one from the other. And we have the story of a cat called Django from Will Grant in Havana, Cuba, where being a pet owner is an expensive business; but if you don't do it, who will?

"May it Pass" Jan 07, 2017

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Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories. Today: Mark Lowen takes the increasingly well-trodden path to the mosque for another funeral in Turkey; Vin Ray visits the secretive airbase at the centre of the US's drone warfare, and he speaks to the pilots who juggle family life and fighting; Linda Pressly is in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where heightened security and fear intermingle, and meets up with an old friend and colleague; Richard Dove is in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where you can find everything - as long as you're rich; and with a deep chill in relations between the White House and the Kremlin, Deirdre Finnerty takes shelter from the Washington DC's cold wind in a Russian cafe.

Cooking up 2016 Dec 31, 2016

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By any standard, 2016 has been a momentous year, right across the world: unexpected election results, disastrous wars, huge flows of migrants and refugees, major terrorist attacks, the death of memorable people. Some of our correspondents reflect on their region. The BBC's Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, comes across - of all things - a cookbook that, for him, sums up so much of what has been lost in Syria. Carrie Gracie, the BBC's China Editor, is struck by the growing number of Chinese who seem prepared to go against the government's flow and to take the consequences. Nick Thorpe, who has reported extensively on Europe's migrant crisis, and who lives in Budapest, examines Hungary's reaction to the crisis. Karen Allen has been reporting from Africa for 12 years but she's now leaving; she describes some of the memorable changes she's seen. Cuba is one place that's seen a lot of change - and not just because of the death of Fidel Castro. Our man in Havana, Will Grant, goes fishing for what it all means to ordinary Cubans.

Hollywood Smiles and Sweet Memories Dec 24, 2016

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Kate Adie introduces correspondents stories: Mary Harper goes to the Syrian dentist bringing Hollywood smiles to Somaliland; Guy Hedgecoe travels to the highlands of Spanish Catalonia, a stronghold of calls for independence; Melissa Van der Klugt is in clouds of flour in Pune, in western India, where they can't get enough of an English biscuit; Andrew Dickson has gone to the Urals and comes across a new presidential museum asking people to re-consider Russia's wild 90s, when a red-faced Boris Yeltsin was in charge; and Joanna Robertson is in the City of Light, amid thousands of bulbs, spreading their magical fairytale twinkle across Paris.

Rwandan Echoes Dec 17, 2016

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Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories. Memories of Rwanda return to Alastair Leithead in northern Uganda as he watches refugees fleeing from South Sudan's civil war; Gideon Long tries not to lose all his money as he changes cash in Venezuela; President Obama described the new UN Secretary General as having "an extraordinary reputation." Alison Roberts, in Portugal, says he's a man who likes to talk and talk and talk. Uzbekistan has just elected only it's second president in a quarter of a century. Peter Robertson sees some signs that this autocratic country might be changing. There's a cash crisis in India too. Horatio Clare retreats to one place where you're not supposed to need money, though you do have to pay for that privilege.

Vigilantes, Strongmen and Mannequins Dec 10, 2016

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Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories. Jill McGivering investigates the cow protection squads in northern India, some of which have been accused of extreme violence against Muslims. Colin Freeman gets a Blue Feeling moment in Gambia as he explores why so many young men are leaving the country. Turkmenistan has one of the world's most repressive governments, and now the president's personality cult includes a nationwide health kick. Abdujalil Abdurasulov asks if that means everybody has to jump to it. Fifty years ago, South Africa's apartheid government razed the District Six neighbourhood of Cape Town: as a multiracial, rackety, creative hotbed it didn't fit a model of strict segregation. Lindsay Johns has personal links to the area, and considers how the evictions destroyed far more than just homes among the Coloured community. And Katie Razzall is in West Virginia, in the coal mining areas, where people voted in droves for Donald Trump. They're hoping he'll re-open the mines and bring jobs back to the area but will real life return to the bars and hotels?

Real or Fake? Dec 10, 2016

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Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories: Katerina Vittozzi is in northeastern Nigeria, where assassinations, bombings and kidnapping are now combined with starvation. But amid the bleakness she also finds ingenuity and survival. Emma Jane Kirby goes to the source of much of the fake news that swirled around social media sites during the US presidential election - and it's nowhere near America. In Nicaragua, Nick Redmayne is shown the proposed route of another huge canal, akin to the Panama canal; and he hears how the country's revolutionary fervour, as symbolized by the Sandinistas in the 1980s, is hard to find nowadays. Austrians could be about to elect the EU's first far right head of state. "I'm not a fighter, I'm a calm man," the far right candidate tells Bethany Bell. But others believe he's a wolf in expensive sheep's clothing. And in California, where anything can happen, Kieran Cooke is invited to a wedding. The catch is....he has to do the marrying.

Changing Fortunes Nov 26, 2016

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Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories. The move to bigger offices makes Mark Lowen ponder the huge changes in Turkey. In Iraq the army, Kurdish forces and various militia groups have common cause now, to oust Islamic State, but Richard Galpin asks: what happens next? Linda Pressly hurtles through the Albanian countryside and is confronted by the pungent smell of one of the biggest drugs seizures yet. Simon Broughton discusses the power of poetry and literature to encourage free thinking in Bangladesh, all the while surrounded by armed guards. In Uzbekistan, reds bleed into greens, and blues into yellows, as silk weavers revive the art of carpet making.

Neither Love Nor Money Nov 19, 2016

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Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories: Dan Isaacs is on Aleppo's frontline with the last shopkeeper of the Old City; Soutik Biswas is thwarted in his search for cash in India; Tulip Mazumdar has an uncomfortable encounter with a "cutter" and undergoes a demonstration of what really happens during FGM. A year ago four Italian banks collapsed on the same day; Ruth Sunderland hears how thousands lost their life savings and even those who didn't find little hope in the future. South Korea is a technological giant, seemingly hurtling into the future, but Steve Evans observes how old-fashioned sexism persists across society.

Neither Love Nor Money Nov 19, 2016

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