From Our Own Correspondent

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spaceships in the desert Mar 06, 2014

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Stories from correspondents around the world, introduced by Kate Adie. In this programme Mark Urban hears an Iraqi policeman let rip about his own government and there are predictions of mayhem. In Afghanistan Chris Terrill visits a school that's daring to teach boys and girls together. Niger has joined the club of oil producers and Celeste Hicks describes how the arrival of a spaceship of sorts in the desert is affecting people's lives - but they need to read the small print. James Rodgers visits a World War 1 cemetery near Jerusalem and ponders how events there 100 years ago influenced the region and still do. And Justin Marozzi has been given a nickname - in Somalia. It's not flattering but it's better than the last one.

Revolutions are Unpredictable Mar 01, 2014

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'When change happens, it can happen very, very fast,' Steve Rosenberg in Ukraine. Revolutions: no-one can be quite sure how they'll turn out, Kevin Connolly in Egypt. Bush fires in Australia: Jim Carey on what can be learned from the Aborigines, who spent tens of thousands of years controlling the land. The modern world is closing in on the Amish communities of the US, but Beth McLeod says they're not dying out. They are, in fact, thriving. And a conflict zone is not a place where the mentally ill thrive, as Mary Harper's been learning at a hospital in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Here for Eternity? Feb 27, 2014

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Correspondents with tales to tell. In this edition: Gabriel Gatehouse watching the unfolding revolution in Ukraine; Abigail Fielding-Smith in the Lebanese capital Beirut as the war in Syria creeps ever closer; Will Grant on the latest chapter in the extraordinary story of drugs baron Joaquin 'Shorty' Guzman; Rachel McCormack gets a taste of the heated argument in Spain over the possibility of Catalan independence and 12 hours across the Karakum desert: Jonathan Fryer has time on the train to consider the ripples of revolution and who, if anyone, might be here for eternity.

The Hyenas Come to Town Feb 22, 2014

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London may be infested by urban foxes and Delhi beseiged by urban monkeys but Addis Ababa, as Martin Fletcher's been seeing for himself, is plagued by urban hyenas -- and they're ugly-looking creatures! David Stern's been living in Kiev, Ukraine, for five years -- and has had to get used to living with a revolution on his doorstep. A quarter of a million people, some estimate, have been detained in Syria by either the authorities or the rebels; Lyse Doucet's been talking to two men who know a lot about detainees. The long-serving leader of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, is ninety years old and Kim Chakanetsa has been finding out what people there think of their president, who's been in power nearly 34-years. And Neal Razzell's been making a programme with two reporters, one from China, the other from Japan. The programme's about the strained relationship between those two countries. But how did the reporting team get on?

Saddam Hussein Lives! Feb 20, 2014

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Stories from foreign correspondents. In this edition: Prashant Rao meets an Iraqi called Saddam Hussein and hears how difficult it is being named after the brutal and hated dictator; Lynne O'Donnell visits the famous 'laneways' of Melbourne in Australia and wonders whether this precious example of architectural heritage is being properly looked after by the local council; Jane Beresford finds her preconceptions shattered when she visits the Beirut suburb associated with the Hezbollah movement; Tamasin Ford journeys to a remote corner of Madagascar where an illegal trade in a rare wood is worth billions and Alan Johnston in Rome considers the man most likely to be Italy's next prime minister and suggests his strength may actually lie in his inexperience.

Marauding Baboons Feb 15, 2014

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'No wonder everyone is looting now. The elites here have been doing it for years,' our correspondent Andrew Harding is told in the troubled Central African Republic.' As Brazil awaits further demonstrations against a proposed ten per cent hike in public transport costs, Wyre Davies takes a cameraman to hospital who was fatally injured in clashes between protestors and police. Gabriel Gatehouse in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa talks about atheism and jazz with a man who warns him that an army of Allah will rise up out of the desert. Mariko Oi, herself a reporter from Japan, talks about the difficulties of making a programme about the often troubled relations between her country and China. And Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, may be best known these days for its American military base, but Frank Gardner gets away from that and learns a little more about life, and the baboons, in the country's tranquil Rift Valley.

Come to Sunny Gaza! Feb 13, 2014

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Why is Bosnia seeing its most serious unrest since the country was at war in the 1990s? How difficult is it getting America back to work? Is there public support in Nigeria for the authorities' new law against homosexuals? What evidence is there of the links between Soviet East Germany and the exotic spice island of Zanzibar? And why might our man visiting the Gaza Strip be considering going back there, with his family, for a holiday? They are all questions addressed in this latest edition of From Our Own Correspondent.

The Robots Come Out at Night Feb 08, 2014

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Robots are doing the cleaning up in an old people's home in Denmark. Are they popular? Jake Wallis Simons has been finding out. A journalist in Sri Lanka is stabbed to death in her home. Charles Haviland says colleagues are now talking of a society brutalised by years of violence, where the value of life has been eroded. What do Judaism and Confucianism have in common? Quite a lot apparently, as Michael Goldfarb's been discovering in the Chinese city of Jinan. American schoolchildren are now being taught what to do should a gunman start shooting in their school. Laura Trevelyan in New York's been talking to children and to parents about it. And as a corruption scandal swirls around the Spanish royal family, Tom Burridge goes to two royal palaces to try to learn how the Spanish royals can win back their popularity.

Tiny Boats at Sea Feb 06, 2014

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Spain crawls painfully out of recession but Pascale Harter, in Barcelona, says so much damage has already been done to Spanish families; in America, six million manufacturing jobs have gone but there are still some things Made in the USA, as Mike Wendling's been discovering in New York State; one territory full of natural resources is Inner Mongolia, which is part of China. But, as Martin Patience has been learning, there are concerns that development's coming at a heavy cost to tradition and heritage; Edward Lewis climbs aboard the train to Luxor to ask passengers what they make of Egypt's military leader Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and Simon Atkinson, in the deserts of Abu Dhabi, learns what exactly it is that makes a camel beautiful.

Don't Call it a Drone! Feb 01, 2014

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Reporters worldwide. In this edition: Britain and France are to co-operate on a new unmanned combat aircraft but all involved agree - let's not call it a drone! The first round of the Syrian peace talks have come to an end in Geneva. You might think little's been achieved, but that's not necessarily the case. We go to meet the former warlord with links to Osama bin Laden who wants to be the next president of Afghanistan and to Work Street in Athens where, despite some upbeat government forecasts, the workers reckon there are more hard times ahead. And in Delhi, arguably the world's noisiest city, we visit the car horn bazaar to find the loudest hooter of them all.

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