From Our Own Correspondent

Reporters' despatches from around the world, introduced by Kate Adie. Today, Will Grant on the astonishing prevalence of guns in Central America: Josh Spero in Jerusalem asks how best to teach Israeli children about the Holocaust without traumatising them: Jake Wallis Simons witnesses friendship across the Muslim-Christian divide in Sierra Leone: Lina Sinjab returns to her home city of Damascus, w...

As athletes turn up to the winter Olympic games, what might they find? The Thai fishing industry is accused of using slave labour; Syrians can only look across the border from Turkey at their old homes and hope to return one day; an Italian priest takes on militia groups in the Central African Republic to save Muslims and Christians alike; and we hear of one of Britain's worst military defeats whi...

Story telling: Kerouac the runaway dog returns from his adventures in Mali and the police present their bill; our camera crew in Cairo set out to film a poster which the military authorities strongly disapprove of; violence against women is on the rise in Afghanistan as the withdrawal of western troops gathers pace; there's despondency in the world's newest nation, South Sudan, as foreign troops j...

A secret city, melted cheese, female freedom fighters, buried treasure, an emperor's magnificent lifestyle, songs by the camp fire, Kalashnikovs and puppies, Kazakh carpenters and Tajik tilers

Foreign correspondents: James Copnall meets the men now controlling the opposing forces in the battle for South Sudan; Nick Meo hears the concerns surrounding the huge project designed to cover over the radiation threat from the old Chernobyl plant in Ukraine; Humphrey Hawksley examines the working conditions of the brick makers helping to construct India's economic miracle; Matthew Teller relives...

Over the past year, BBC correspondents have reported on upheaval in Egypt, war in Syria, a government shutdown in America, a new pope and a royal baby. But this special edition of From Our Own Correspondent avoids the major headlines and the big breaking stories in favour of a ground-level view of the last 12 months. So, in this programme: Rajan Datar takes a ride with a polyphonic choir in Georgi...

Good to see you again! Mark Doyle is reunited with his spectacles, which were lost on a battlefield, and gets to see some of the lesser reported glories of Somalia. The Greek central bank forecasts an end to six years of recession and Mark Lowen, in Athens, talks of the resilience of the Greek people and their love of life. Reasons to be cheerful in the eastern German city of Leipzig too: Chris Bo...

Correspondents with stories from around the world: in this edition, Jonathan Head on how an argument over democracy lies at the heart of the current political turmoil in Thailand; Lucy Williamson's in the Chinese city closest to North Korea where a brutal leadership purge was underway; Katy Watson meets a man in the United States who a thousand women a year turn to for help after having breast can...

Nelson Mandela: five correspondents who'll never forget how their own stories came to coincide with that of the great South African leader, who died on Thursday. Fergal Keane was our man in Johannesburg as Mr Mandela fought to keep his country back from the brink of civil war; John Simpson on the day he met a man who had 'become perhaps the most revered person on earth.' Milton Nkosi recalls the r...

Correspondents with stories from the news. Today, Steve Rosenberg on how Ukraine's caught in a tug-of-war between Russia and the European Union; a huge refugee camp by the Sahara Desert is hit by drought - Chris Terrill says it's difficult for the inmates and the aid agencies trying to help them. But it's a boon for the Islamic militant groups looking for recruits; freak weather has killed thirty...

Reporters' despatches: already this year more than seven thousand people have been killed in the upsurge of violence in Iraq. Andrew Hosken explores a country full of widows, orphans and frightened people mourning the loss of loved ones. In America, two significant anniversaries - Allan Little has been to the locations involved, Gettysburg and Dallas, and uncovers surprising revelations about the...

The noise and devastation of Hurricane Haiyan: Andrew Harding on the first town in the Philippines to feel the force of the storm; Charles Haviland on how the furore surrounding the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka has pushed the Tamil north of the country into the news spotlight; Nicholas Wade travels to Jerusalem to hear people's views about the latest attempts to reach a Mi...

Correspondents' despatches: Jeremy Bowen on the talks, restarting in Geneva next week, about Iran's nuclear ambitions; the Colombian authorities are trying to rehabilitate child soldiers who have fought for leftist armed groups like the FARC - Tom Esslemont's been along to take a look; Steve Vickers finds out why people no longer want to live among the thousands of islands off the coast of Sweden;...

Correspondents worldwide: Kevin Connolly talks of unfinished business in the Middle East finally being attended to after one hundred years. Historical and continuing allegations of rape and torture in Sri Lanka are investigated by Frances Harrison. For India, its mission to Mars is an opportunity to come out top of a new Asian space race -- Justin Rowlatt examines the question: couldn't the cash i...

Reporters worldwide: while refugees continue to stream out of Syria in their thousands, there are people who need to go INTO the country. Nigel Wilson's been talking to a group of them at the bus station in the Jordanian capital, Amman. Lyse Doucet, meanwhile, is in the Syrian capital Damascus where life for some, but not others, is becoming increasingly hard. Thomas Fessy talks of the shock in Fr...

Correspondents' stories: Jeremy Bowen on the effect in Egypt of the upcoming trials of senior figures from the Muslim Brotherhood; you could write the history of the South Pacific as a succession of arrivals of powerful, foreign vessels in palm-fringed lagoons, according to John Pickford in Tonga; the Sudanese capital Khartoum 'changed forever' after the recent riots in the capital - that's what J...

Correspondents' stories: once the cradle of the Arab Spring, Tunisia's now battling an Islamist insurgency and an huge influx of refugees from neighbouring Libya - Andrew Hosken has been investigating; Andreas Gebauer finds parallels between Israel's security barrier and the Berlin wall which he first saw as a young boy; Emilie Filou is in the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean meeting people des...

The financial crash has devastated the historic centre of Rome - Joanna Robertson talks of a favourite city now drained of community life; the perils of newsgathering in Sri Lanka: Fergal Keane meets journalists there determined to carry on reporting despite the risk of intimidation, assault and even murder. Jon Donnison's in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales where the wildfires are still ragi...

As one of the last heroes of the Vietnam War is laid to rest, Rajan Datar hears young people there keen to move on from those years of conflict, to celebrate instead a land rich in culture and economic opportunity; Jonah Fisher talks of the debate in swiftly-changing Myanmar about what exactly makes a detainee a political prisoner; as Greece continues its punishing austerity programme, Alexa Dvors...

The Via Roma in the Italian island of Lampedusa -- Alan Johnston says that for the migrants who make it in from the sea, this is the road which may take them to better lives in a richer world. Owen Bennett Jones studies the contrast between the lives of the women who present programmes on Pakistani TV with those who live in distant villages. There's a heated debate in France about what they should...

The traditional sad songs of Portugal have become sadder still as the government in Lisbon announces another tough, cost-cutting budget -- Andrew Hosken has been noting the reaction in Lisbon. The Indian authorities launch an inquiry into a stampede at a temple which killed more than a hundred people -- Andrew North says only days before they were being praised for the measures they'd taken as a c...

Correspondents' stories: the Champs d'Elysees is an icon of Paris, a majestic piece of town planning. So why does our man in Paris Hugh Schofield suggest, rather forcefully, that visitors should avoid it? The news caravan may have moved on from Libya, but Tim Whewell's been finding out that the country's still in the midst of a revolution. Joanna Jolly has been to Uttar Pradesh in India to report...

Looking behind the news. In this programme: David Loyn examines the claim that NATO has achieved nothing but suffering in Afghanistan; Louisa Loveluck on controversy surrounding the Egyptian military offensive in Sinai; there's a book boom going on in Iceland and Rosie Goldsmith has been finding out why; gun-toting gangsters on the streets of Acapulco as Mexico tries to deal with the aftermath of...

Colour and analysis from around the world: Kevin Connolly says as much as a quarter of the population of Lebanon is now Syrian - and the cost of hosting so many refugees is soaring; Mark Lowen in Athens on the reaction of Greek men and women to the authorities' campaign against members of the far-right Golden Dawn party; there's been an economic revolution in The Seychelles and Tim Ecott's been fi...

Correspondents with colour and analysis from around the world: Theopi Skarlatos in Thessaloniki on the authorities' crackdown on the far right; Alex Preston is in what he calls one of Africa's most expensive and charmless capitals, Abuja in Nigeria; distant La Reunion, in the Indian Ocean, is a popular destination for well off French tourists -- Robin Denselow's been learning that's causing resent...