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The Babylon Brigade Apr 09, 2016

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In this edition: a greyish sticky dough called fufu from the Democratic Republic of Congo; pesto Genovese from Italy, made as it used to be, with a pestle and mortar; there's a dish of smoked puffin from Iceland and some of the finest cannabis lollipops in the American west. All this culinary exotica comes as part of this weekly insight, analysis, colour and description served up by reporters covering some of the week’s big news stories around the world

Even the Dead Can’t Escape Politics Apr 02, 2016

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Insight, colour, analysis. Steve Evans visits a cemetery which poignantly illuminates present day politics in the troubled Korean peninsula; Owen Bennett Jones has the story of a young Pakistani man who left home to see a film and ended up with the Taliban in Afghanistan; Jonah Fisher in Myanmar explains how Aung San Suu Kyi has turned the tables on the generals and taken for herself a string of top government jobs; Rachel Wright has been in Colombia where they're preparing a case for the UN saying the war on drugs isn't working and it's time for a radical change and Neal Razzell's been talking to cowboys out in the canyonlands of eastern Oregon. There's a plan to turn huge tracts of them into a national park. So why are the ranchers far from keen?

Memories of Murder Mar 26, 2016

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The lives behind the headlines. In this edition: forty years in prison for the former Bosnian Serb Leader Radovan Karadzic, found guilty of war crimes. Does it send a signal to those in positions of power that they will, ultimately, be held accountable? Brussels -- not just a city of Eurocrats, but one where people and families live and grow up and where's there's been a phlegmatic response to Tuesday's bomb attacks there; Mexicans are increasingly angry about the level of corruption in their country - organised crime's now said to be deeply embedded in the country's legal and political establishment and the police can't be trusted either; the nine hundred-plus clumps of rock which make up the Solomon Islands may now be independent but, we find, old ties with Britain have not been entirely severed. And while some might regard Cantonese cooking as a little old hat, our correspondent says it is in fact one of China's most exquisite cuisines, with many of its delights unknown to outsiders

Dancing in Damascus Mar 19, 2016

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There's dancing in a nightclub in Damascus, though some remain seated during the songs played in honour of the leaders of Syria and Hezbollah. And not much dancing in the suburbs. How are locals coping after five years of war? He started out as a caring psychiatrist, and before his capture he lived as an alternative healer. Yes, it's the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. who may be convicted of genocide next week. Playing chess with God - or rather, in a stunning part of Ethiopia called the Chess pieces of God, is it check mate for some very rare animals, or the local mountain people? In Romania, shepherds cloaked in sheep skins are on the war path, and we sail past the remotest island in the world, Bouvetoya. It is only inhabited by penguins, but has its own internet domain.

No way to Macedonia Mar 17, 2016

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Refugees stuck in Greece keep trying to cross into Macedonia even though the border is now closed. One man has got through the fence, and then been taken back, fourteen times. In the meantime, new Syrian refugees keep arriving at the other end of Greece, on the island of Lesbos. We hear about hopes that a Basque pro-independence leader newly released from prison can bring about real peace in his region, and not just a permanent ceasefire. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and in drought-stricken eastern Kenya, cattle herders feel they have no option but to let their animals graze in game reserves. Who says Americans haven't been able to go to Cuba legally? In Florida's Key West, we hear how despite the embargo, some US citizens have been doing it for decades, without breaking the law. And if you fall for a money-making scam of a boy begging near the rock-carved churches of Lalibela in northern Ethiopia, don't feel too bad.....

Stuck in Turkey. Mar 12, 2016

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Turkey and the EU are hammering out a deal that would turn Turkey into the gatekeeper of Europe, to stop undocumented migrants from reaching the West. But will the refugees agree to stay in Turkey, or try to reach the EU by any means possible?

They have lost limbs, parents, homes, and favourite dolls. But not their bravery and spirit. We meet the children who have been affected by the five years of war in Syria. If you're an American, your annual tax return form 1040 has an instruction booklet that's over 100 pages long. Luckily, help is at hand, not just from accountants, but also from specially trained volunteers, like our correspondent. We go on a pilgrimage to the holy city of the Mourides brotherhood in Senegal, where offering hospitality is such an honour, that some believers ask people at the bus stop if they'd come and be their guest. And Paris fashion - for those with no interest in sartorial trends. Was it the universe that pushed our correspondent to brush up on his 'overcast shell hems', and 'poodle cloth'?

China's corruption clampdown Mar 10, 2016

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In China, customers are staying away from the pearl and jewellery shops, but lingerie sales are soaring. The strange effects that the clampdown on corruption is having on the country's economy.

Fighting elephant poachers can a dangerous business in the Democratic Republic of Congo where part of who you're up against appears to be a neighbouring country's army. We travel on the ancient Via Egnatia that used to join two great empires. Though on the modern Greek version of the route, you don't get quite as far as you hope. Though it's nothing to do with closed borders. And, with the zika virus outbreak in Brazil, would you want to try for a baby there now? What if you're at an age where you can't afford to wait too much longer?

Donald Trump 2.0 Mar 05, 2016

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They are coiffed, lacquered, expensively attired and perfumed - and that's just the men in a Donald Trump audience in Florida. And while our North America editor expects the unexpected from Donald Trump, he is surprised to find him in a conciliatory mood.

Spending four months on a single page of A4 - the art of calligraphy and other skills are being revived in Kabul, and now exhibited in Washington. They're both in their nineties, and now the former Auschwitz guard comes face to face with an Auschwitz survivor in a German courtroom. Germany confronts its past just as violent anti-migrant attacks are on the rise. In Pakistan, thousands turn out at a funeral to mourn their hero, a killer. He was executed for murdering a provincial governor who had wanted to reform the harsh blasphemy laws. And the road to Mandalay - in a right-hand drive taxi, on a left-hand drive road. So what were the passengers talking about?

Trapped in a dead end Mar 03, 2016

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Having reached Greece after often perilous journeys, many migrants now find that their hoped-for route north is blocked. Danny Savage meets some of those who have to live in tents in Athens, and on the Greek-Macedonian border with little hope of reaching their final destinations. Many refugees have come from Syria, where neighbourhoods in some cities have been reduced to rubble. Warda al-Jawahiry visits Homs, parts of which have been completely bombed out. Yet there are those who still live there, and bear emotional scars that are as real as the physical destruction. In the Ethiopian capital Addis Abeba, James Jeffrey goes for his early morning run, and finds he's not alone. For early dawn is the time when hyenas finish their night time scavenging in the city. Chris Bockman is in the Spanish enclave of Llivia - a small town completely surrounded by France, but with surprisingly few French speakers. And in Mongolia many young people are giving up the outdoor life of herding sheep on the steppe, and reading novels by candlelight in a yurt at night, for that of a polluted city. Anthony Denselow meets some of them.

Opting to go lower caste Mar 02, 2016

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The human stories behind the headlines. In this edition, we hear from India, where protests deprived ten million Delhi residents of their water. Members of the Jat caste want to force the government to reclassify them as lower-caste, so they can get quotas for government jobs and study places. Used Field Marshall for sale - the things you find on eBay in Egypt, when locals take the president at his word. What happens when a Trump supporter meets a young Muslim refugee for brunch in Alabama? Our Moscow correspondent gets a distinctly chilly welcome in Siberia, and no, it's nothing to do with the weather. And arriving at the airport in Havana, it's an event in itself.

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