From Our Own Correspondent

Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories from around the world. Today: Lucy Ash is in the midst of the Republic of Macedonia's "Colourful Revolution," where it's buildings and statues that are getting a new lick of paint; Richard Lim is in Iraqi Kurdistan which may be relatively peaceful but its economy is faltering; Joe Gerlach has an odd taste in his mouth in Ecuador as he's invited to quaff a somewhat metallic concoction; James Jeffrey reflects on the Ethiopian mindset, in which any criticism is unwelcome. And, in the United States, they've waited 17 years for them but Simon Parker soon gets a mouthful of critters.

Leaving's the theme of this edition. Bridget Kendall, the BBC's Russia specialist, is hanging up her headphones but not before she talks about secret agents and considers what the past can tell us about that country's future. Past and present are on Kevin Connolly's mind too. He's off to a new BBC posting and points out that within half an hour's walk of his home in Jerusalem some of the defining dramas of the ancient world played themselves out. He also talks of the pleasures and pitfalls of Middle East reporting today. And Gabriel Gatehouse hums the theme tune from 'The Great Escape' while considering departures in his essay about the EU referendum and the Euro2016 football tournament in France

Around the world in less than half an hour. A slump in global oil prices has hit Angola hard but still, there are glimpses of wealth everywhere and abject poverty's never far away; the Iraqi city of Basra is governed by hardline Iranian-backed Islamic politicians but that doesn't stop its citizens enjoying themselves at a brand new shopping mall they call Times Square; what happens to the clothes you give away to charity shops? Many are beginning a journey which could lead to countries in Asia or Africa but first stop, we learn, might be a giant warehouse in Hungary; the quality of the air in Hong Kong has reached new lows and people are becoming ill with respiratory problems and cancers -- we're off in search of the one spot in the city that usually escapes the smog. And, in the primary schools of France they take poetry very seriously indeed. That can mean a homework nightmare. For the children -- and for parents too

Reporters with the news behind the news. In this edition: it used to be Cuba, but today Venezuela is the more troubled of the two socialist allies and the country the US president prefers to visit; there's a portrait of the city of Venice, of the quarters where the tourists don't visit, where houses are boarded up as more and more residents move away; exotic Kashgar used to be one of the key stop-overs on the ancient Silk Route. Today the modern and the ancient are coming into conflict there as China tries to bring the restive region under control; countries in southern Africa face a damaging drought after another year of insufficient rainfall - we're in landlocked Lesotho, where food supplies are now at risk; and why do we develop loyalties to one particular part of a city? In Paris, there's acute rivalry between neighbourhoods on the north and south of the River Seine. Our man in the great city climbs on his bike to sample life on the other side ...

A week in the life of correspondents around the world. In this edition, the paint flies as the race for the presidency in Peru gets colourful; a battle for control of the Iraqi city of Falluja is about to begin - it could be a long and gruelling one, the ISIS fighters dug in there have had time to prepare for the arrival of the government forces; time is running out for the German authorities to prosecute those who committed mass murder in Hitler's time - we meet a man trying to hunt them down before it's too late; a barbed wire fence may be in place but migrants are making it through the border from Bulgaria to Serbia with help from smugglers ... and some policemen. And on a visit to Asmara, the Italianate capital city of Eritrea in north east Africa, our correspondent tries to find out the truth about allegations of repression, political prisoners and torture

Correspondents look at some of the week's developments. In this edition, how the mounting industrial strife in France presents an increasingly serious challenge to President Hollande and his unpopular government. Illegal gold mining in Ghana - the authorities are worried about the amount of gold being smuggled out of the country and its effect on the nation's economy. Nature's taking over some of the Jewish cemeteries in Warsaw - we meet a group of volunteers trying to make some amends for the amnesia and oblivion about Jewish life in Poland before the war. The Swiss weren't just opening the world's longest rail tunnel this week, they were also using the occasion to try to re-negotiate their relations with the European Union. And we sail the south Atlantic on the Royal Mail ship St Helena - the scrapyard's beckoning and this is one of her final voyages

People in the news. Today, how the policeman's helping the opium farmer in Afghanistan. The president’s critics say democracy's under assault, freedom of speech is being stifled - but amongst some in Turkey, President Erdogan is more popular than ever. Young women in Malawi explain how sanitary protection is not affordable -- and that means they miss school for several days every month. The corner of Venice where one of the world's most hateful words was coined -- today the place is among the city's more fashionable neighbourhoods. And the news media may love an anniversary, but some of its senior correspondents have dates they'd sooner forget ...

Insight, analysis, description and colour. Today, death on a dusty highway in Baluchistan and what that might mean for neighbouring Afghanistan; how the people of Hiroshima, where America set off an atomic bomb in 1945, feel about the imminent visit by President Obama; the Swiss have never joined the European Union so why are they so interested in the result of the in/out referendum in Britain next month? We hear how Turkey's Kurdish population fits into the President Erdogan's plan to continue being the dominant force in the country's politics and finally there's an account of a day delightfully wasted on a slow train journey across the south-eastern tip of Australia

People in the news: it's a hundred years since the signing of the secret Sykes-Picot agreement under which the British and French agreed to divide up the Middle East, and now the President of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, says it's time for outright independence for the Iraqi Kurds. Jim Muir considers the Kurds' flight from Saddam Hussein 25-years ago and what has happened to some of the people he encountered back then. Bethany Bell is in Austria where voting could result in the country getting Europe's first far right president. The French leader Francois Hollande's again said he wants the new nuclear plant in the English county of Somerset to go ahead. It's to be built by the French. David Shukman's been to a construction site in Finland where the French are building a similar reactor - amid some controversy. Have you had a 'camelccino' yet? Hannah McNeish in Kenya tells us camel milk could be the next big thing and that could mean huge benefits for the country's economy, and it

Insight, colour and analysis. In this edition: the authorities deny IS or al-Qaeda is active in Bangladesh but others believe a spate of vicious killings there is the work of Islamist extremists; after Columbine, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook, American schools are now having to rehearse what they'll do if their place of learning comes under gun attack -- but the precautions aren't always a comfort to parents; there are now hundreds of thousands of Syrians taking shelter from the war in neighbouring Jordan - their presence is having a marked effect on the Jordanian economy and on its peoples' eating habits; we meet a man in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania who tells us how the country's new president is providing his country with inspirational leadership at last. And surely covering the Cannes Film Festival is a thoroughly pleasant experience? Only up to a point, apparently. We hear a story of status anxiety and snobbery, indignity and humiliation

The newsmakers. In this edition: a foul-mouthed despot or a man to grapple with the problems of the Philippines? Jonathan Head considers the country's controversial choice for president. A mock funeral at a migrants' camp in Greece - Theopi Skarlatos finds patience with the governments of northern Europe wearing thin. They may have put the clocks forward recently, but Paul Moss reckons time in Venezuela is actually going backwards. Andrew Hosken is in the building in Tirana which was once the headquarters of the country's feared secret police while Sara Wheeler take a look at a way of life on the South Atlantic island of St Helena which many there fear will vanish forever once the long-awaited airport finally opens for business

What's life like in North Korea? Our reporter Steve Evans gets rare access, but wonders if all is as it seems. Gabriel Gatehouse meets Hungarians once so keen to tear down barriers between them and their eastern European neighbours who now believe it's time to put up fences. Katy Watson witnesses poignant scenes on the US/Mexico border as families enjoy a brief reunion amid speculation about what a Trump presidency might mean for Mexicans. What's trash-talking got to do with playing chess? David Edmonds has been finding out on a visit to the American state of Missouri. And Emma Jane Kirby's in Istanbul learning why a gentle novel from the 1940s is striking a chord with today's young Turks

It's been a momentous week in South Sudan, where a national unity government has been formed under President Salva Kiir as his old enemy, the rebel leader Riek Machar returned to the capital Juba for the first time since the civil war broke out in December 2013. Can these men now lead their country to a much longed-for peace? Imagine being fined four years' salary for having a second child. That's what used to happen in China. We meet a rare family in Beijing with two daughters. Cuba's Fidel Castro is celebrating his 90th birthday this year. Last week he effectively said goodbye to his key supporters, but there is no sign that his fellow revolutionaries, now well into their eighties, are going to retire any time soon. If you'd suffered the kind of radioactive contamination that came with the fallout of the accident at Chernobyl, would you risk building a nuclear power plant? Ukraine's neighbour Belarus is hoping that atomic lightning won't strike twice. And if you're going on a pilgrimage to Lourdes in th

The plane where even the paper napkins sport the presidential seal, and where exclusive little boxes of chocolate sweets feature a picture of Barack Obama: it's America's presidential Air Force One, and you're only allowed on board if you're in "the bubble". In the West Bank a roundabout encapsulates what's going on, and going wrong, in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Libya has seen much chaos and suffering in the last five years. But one family now wants to embrace the future optimistically again, despite losing several of their relatives in the fighting. The beautiful trekkers’ destination with tea houses and stunning mountain landscapes that was turned into a sea of rubble. For the survivors of the Nepalese village obliterated by the earthquake a year ago, the suffering is still raw. And on a trip to China to take tea in a picturesque garden and haggle with antiques dealers, our correspondent's local guide lets slip more than she had perhaps planned.

Colouring in the spaces between the world headlines. In this edition, trouble for ladies who lead - with Brazil's President Dilma Roussef facing impeachment and a traditional chief in Malawi going into battle against child marriage. No ordinary kitchen-sink drama: we go inside the recording studio where they make a radio soap opera beamed into war-ravaged Syria. Has child protection in Norway become overzealous? And why's the subject hit a raw nerve in the former Communist countries of eastern Europe? And is it a case of wanderlust lost as Germans seemingly fall out of love with the foreign holiday?

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

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?

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

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.

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.....