From Our Own Correspondent Folgen

Despatches from around the world: Kevin Connolly on how Western policy makers, trying to respond to developments in the Middle East, are grappling with difficulties created by their own predecessors. As American warships prepared to fire missiles at targets in Syria, out in the Pacific Ocean two US carrier battle groups were carrying out the biggest live fire exercise in years. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes wondered if they had a target in mind. Iona Craig on a revolution in Yemen and how the nation was surprised when a previously marginalised militia group swiftly seized control of the capital, Sana'a. The economic news just gets gloomier and gloomier in France. Hugh Schofield says one area everyone agrees should be confronted is the so-called regulated professions. And the mushrooms, aided by a long wet summer, have been bursting out in the woods in Hungary. Nick Thorpe has been out to pick them. But which ones will lift his dinner to gastronomic heights and which ones might kill?

Few French restaurants offer a menu without meat, so John Laurenson's been finding out why one of the country's top chefs has decided to do just that. Paul Adams explains why the government in the Ukrainian capital Kiev might have given up trying to seize back control of rebel-held eastern parts of the country. Misha Glenny talks of plans to establish a global parliament of city mayors taking powers away from 'tired old nation states'. One of Europe's most wanted men is thought to be hiding out in the mountains of central Greece - Jeff Maysh has been talking to people about this fugitive with a Robin Hood reputation and Antonia Quirke talks of Sicily where there's widespread exasperation about the corruption still pervasive in Italian society and where the Mafia continues to wield influence.

The kissing's had to stop in west Africa - a despatch from Mark Doyle about the Ebola crisis, which is now having a profound effect on people's lifestyles throughout the region. The United States Senate has approved President Obama's plan to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels to fight Islamic State militants - Jeremy Bowen, in Damascus, tells us this means a wide range of forces is lining up to combat the jihadists. Shabnam Mahmood's been to a society wedding in Pakistan - it was an opportunity to note some of the details of that country's social hierarchy. The controversial mayor of Toronto is in hospital battling cancer - Lee Carter says this latest chapter in Rob Ford's colourful life has brought a rare show of unity to a city Mr Ford was accused of dividing. And Will Grant tells us a story from the Latin American capital where the streets are clogged with vehicles yet many of the drivers haven't even taken a driving test!