From Our Own Correspondent

Jon Leyne in Cairo reflects on the debate about Egypt's future. Will it be dictatorship or democracy? Secular or religious? Ed Butler's been to Halabja, the town in the Kurdish region of Iraq which, almost 25 years ago, was attacked with chemical weapons. The tea industry in India is in trouble - Mark Tully says change is on the way to the tea plantations of Assam. Celeste Hicks returns to her old base in Mali and finds that the traditional history-singers have little to say about the Islamist takeover of Timbuktu. And Kieran Cooke is in Norway trying to work out the appeal of a particularly unfragrant culinary delicacy.

Despatches from reporters across the globe. Jon Donnison was in Gaza as the city came under Israeli attack and a BBC man took a distressing phone call. Gabriel Gatehouse was in Goma as rebels took the town in eastern Congo with UN peacekeepers standing by, seemingly unable to intervene. Petroc Trelawny was in a part of France which is taking a special interest in the vote in Catalonia which many feel could be a step along the road to Catalonian independence. Owen Bennett Jones has been talking to a famer in New York state who feels consultancy might be a better earner than growing onions. And cup cakes? Salsa classes? Nightclubs? Mary Harper's been seeing signs of Africa both old and new in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Reporters' despatches from around the world. Afghanistan: as pressure grows on the British prime minister to bring the troops back home early, defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt considers the legacy they'll leave behind. Russia: the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk is the country's prisons capital. Alex Preston has been to meet a former convict trying to help others, recently released, to find a toehold back in Russian society. El Salvador: the murder rate in this Latin American nation has gone down significantly thanks to a truce between two notorious gangs. Linda Pressly has been talking to some of their leaders in a high security jail. France: the infamous Sangatte asylum centre may have closed but Emma Jane Kirby has been finding out that migrants continue to flow into the port city of Calais. Germany: Steve Evans gets offered relatively frugal fare at a dinner party in Berlin. But he isn't surprised.

Burma: Jonathan Head goes to Rakhine state in Burma where bitter unrest has resulted in more than a hundred deaths and a hundred thousand displaced. Libya: Kevin Connolly visits a war graves cemetery and considers stories of loss and love, grief and anger. Japan: Rupert Wingfield-Hayes takes a boat to the islands at the centre of a bitter argument in the South China Sea. USA: As the dust settles after the election Jonny Dymond's in Indiana looking on as the real business of America gets done. and Mexico: Will Grant's in Oaxaca state where they believe in bidding farewell to the dead in a festive rather than a funereal atmosphere.

The United States of America: after the election excitement the Obama team start planning for four more years. Paul Adams. Mali: preparations well advanced for a military operation to repel Islamist rebels from the north of the country. Afua Hirsch. Oman: the Arab Spring comes calling at the Gulf state once called 'a place of wind and spiders.' Matthew Teller. Georgia: Can the new government act to restore parts of the country now effectively under Russian control? Martin Plaut. The USA: A visit to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a realisation that driving on Mars is harder than it looks. Richard Hollingham. Producer: Tony Grant

Will Ross on the bloodshed in Northern Nigeria;Theopi Skarlatos on why Golden Dawn is becoming Greece's worse nightmare;Anu Anand vents her frustrations about shambolic India - business is booming but what about power cuts and burst balloons? Also privileged Princeton - Dave Edmonds explains why so many alumnae are happy to donate billions to one of the world's richest universities. And Joanna Robertson tells us why the French Prime Minister reminds people of a small chocolate covered bear.

Gabriel Gatehouse talks to a once-loyal Alawite pilot who ran foul of Syrian intelligence and was accused of planting bombs on military planes. Syrian refugees in Jordan tell Sahkr al Makhadhi how they fled the war zone but are now desperate to return. In Moscow, a new map marking the homes of Stalin's victims gives our correspondent Daniel Sandrof uncomfortable information about his own flat. Fact-checking is always tough, but Rana Jawad says it's especially tricky in Libya, where the rumour mill is stuck on overdrive. And David Willis explains why some Californians cough up for presidential campaigns - while others rage against the gridlock when Obama visits.

Kate Adie presents despatches from: Tim Whewell in a small town in Syria in the midst of the current conflict. Andrew North on trepidation in Afghanistan as the country prepares for NATO withdrawal and elections in 2014. Rajan Datar meets members of Brazil's Valley of the Dawn cult. Tim Dinham explains why your social life really can depend on the kind of Bewab or caretaker your apartment has in Cairo. And Jon Donnison spends a day with the best Yasser Arafat lookalike on the West Bank.

Will Grant in Cuba: 50 years after the Missile Crisis, Fidel Castro still has the power to made headlines. Jill McGivering in Shenzhen sees the gulf between different generations in modern China. Kate McGeown looks at the hopes for peace in the Southern Philippines. Kim Philley experiences the art of animist 'spirit possession' in Burma. And Steve Evans explores the etiquette of cycling in Berlin.

Dispatches from reporters across the globe, presented by Kate Adie. Chris Morris in Berlin analyses Angela Merkel's increasing international confidence. Fergal Keane hears the echoes of history amidst Syrian refugees in the Turkish city of Izmir. Niall O'Gallagher takes the temperature of Catalan nationalism on the streets of Barcelona. Craig Jeffrey asks if "jugaad" - the spirit of creative and quick fixes - is really the solution to India's challenges. And Hamilton Wende in Maputo, the booming capital of Mozambique, finds corruption on the rise.

Thousands of Kenyans prepare to go to court to pursue claims against the British. Gabriel Gatehouse in Nairobi explains how they date back to the Mau Mau rebellion in the 1950s and why they are getting little publicity inside Kenya itself. The Dutch are changing their famously-liberal drugs laws. Manuela Saragosa says the decision's delighted some but infuriated others. Caspar Leighton's been observing celebrations of fifty years of Ugandan independence. He says people there are wondering whether, after their nation's shaky start, they are now suffering from too much stability. Rich and poor , young and old, if you want to strike up a conversation with an Indian, start talking about gold. Rahul Tandon is in Calcutta finding out why. Lederhosen for men. Heidi-style dresses for women. Bethany Bell has been learning why these clothes, so long the preserve of the ultra-conservatives in southern Germany and Austria, have now become highly fashionable.

Andrew Harding's in Zimbabwe where there are fears of a return to violence as the election season approaches Ian Pannell's been in the Syrian city of Aleppo where there's been fierce fighting and where foreign fighters have responded to calls from the rebels for assistance Will Grant tells us of the embarrassment suffered by the authorities in Mexico after the disappearance of the body of one of the country's most notorious drug lords Louise Redvers visits the new multi-million pound seafront development in the Angolan capital Luanda and hears suggestions that, in this poor country where many live without water and electricity, the money would have been better spent on other projects The cats in Jerusalem are tougher than the dogs in your neighbourhood! That's the view of Kevin Connolly who's trying to rub along with a feline population which believes in getting its own way.

Anu Anand in Delhi on what happens to the two hundred thousand Indian children abducted each year; a future vision for Africa -- Gabriel Gatehouse in Kenya meets a man with a radical plan; Chloe Arnold on how Algeria is desperate to escape the clutches of a violent past; how much has the Chinese rail network changed? Angus Foster has ample time for reflection on a 16-hour journey to Wuhan and Laura Trevelyan in New York gets an American style-makeover as she prepares to become an 'anchor' on American television.

Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says an early and substantial drawdown of British troops in Afghanistan is being privately considered David Willey wonders who else at the Vatican - besides the butler on trial for stealing Papal documents -- is dissatisfied with the way the church is being run Frances Harrison meets survivors from the civil war in Sri Lanka as officials there hope cricket will help restore the island's image as a holiday paradise Pascale Harter in Barcelona on the Chinese finding business opportunities amidst the recession in Spain Mattia Cabitza charts Peruvians' relationships with their cats: some revere them as furry family pets, while others think they make a tasty meal.

Unemployment's up, the tax bills are up, public cheerfulness is down. Hugh Schofield says these are gloomy times in France. Sunday's general election in Venezuela could be a close one. And already it's providing our correspondent Paul Moss with a wardrobe nightmare. The stalemate in London surrounding Wikileaks founder Julian Assange continues. Jo Fidgen says that in Sweden, where he's wanted after allegations of sexual assault, most people believe he should come back for questioning. Hundreds of thousands of Crimean Tatars have been returning to their homeland. Robin Banerji has been learning that many are finding it hard to track down their cultural heritage. And biggest, tallest, longest, most expensive? Modern China certainly deals in superlatives but Martin Patience wonders if size really does matter or if it's all a question of insecurity.

Lyse Doucet's in a Syrian suburb hearing stories about a civil war which is reaching more parts of the country every week. Damien McGuinness finds there are complaints from some Turkish women about the good times which have arrived at a resort town on Georgia's Black Sea coast. Justin Webb wonders whether ludicrous amounts of time and money are being spent trying to woo undecided voters in the US presidential election. Lucy Ash is at a monastery contemplating the growing influence on the Russian state of the Orthodox Church. And while visitors to the Philippines may have great things to say about a fascinating country, Kate McGeown says they rarely mention the food!

Justin Rowlatt visits Las Vegas and learns why America's casino capital has suffered more than most from the economic crisis. Sarah Birke, reporting from the border between Syria and Turkey, meets a rebel commander who says he'd rather write poetry than go to war. Will Ross has been investigating reports that young girls have been forced to hand over their babies for adoption in Nigeria. Daniel Nasaw's has learned how the battles of the American Civil War have helped to shape the debate in the current US presidential campaign. And Gideon Long's been to the remote island in the South Pacific which inspired Daniel Defoe's castaway classic Robinson Crusoe.

Damian Grammaticas in China on how accounts of forced abortions from around the country have fuelled a debate on a once-taboo subject: the state's One Child only policy. Paul Mason tells how Spain's third city Valencia is being buried under a mountain of debt. Now the chemists are running out of prescription drugs. Gabriel Gatehouse is in Kenya where questions are being asked about an outbreak of factional violence. Is it simply a matter of local feuding or should national politicians shoulder some of the blame? Steve Rozenberg's been to meet the hardline president of Chechnya and ask him questions about the Islamicisation of his Russian republic. And Georgia Paterson Dargham chronicles how Beirut is increasingly feeling the effects of the Syrian conflict. She tells us how some residents in the Lebanese capital are wondering: has the time now come to get out?

Andrew Harding says ending one miners dispute in South Africa does not mean the authorities' troubles are over. Judith Kampner, a new US citizen, volunteers to become an election worker -- and all does not go according to plan. Jonathan Fryer hears that while Istanbul may be one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities, Turkey does not officially approve of multiculturalism. Martin Buckley takes the slow train to Belgrade and finds a lively city keen to move on from recent Balkans history. Will Grant experiences an egg shortage in Mexico -- a country more reliant on eggs than any other.

Kevin Connolly suggests that two deaths in the Middle East, eight hundred years and several hundred miles apart, offer lessons on the wisdom of foreign intervention in Syria. Alan Johnston's been to a building in Rome they call the Palace of Shame where hundreds of migrants live with time on their hands to consider the difficulties of finding a dream life in Europe. Some of the millions who left Zimbabwe as the country fell into violence and poverty have started to make their way back. But Jenny Cuffe's been discovering that not all are being welcomed home with open arms. Nick Thorpe -- knocked off his bike in Budapest -- has had an unexpected opportunity to take a close look at the Hungarian health service. And the economic crisis may have hit Ireland hard. But Kieran Cooke, in Blacksod Bay, County Mayo, has been learning that people are still determined to have some fun.