From Our Own Correspondent Folgen

Today: We hear French lessons for an American truck driver; the surprising story of why some schools in Japan are funded by the North Koreans; there are the explicit stories told to get the Aids message across to Ugandan children; and we learn how a 21st Century St. Patrick could help out with Ireland's economic woes.

Today: we hear from Aleem Maqbool in Pakistan where it's easier to blame others for your troubles than to really face up to them; we're in Berber country, in Algeria, with Jonathan Fryer, where until recently kidnappings and killings were commonplace; we visit the Liberian countryside with Chris Simpson where they are dreaming of the good ol' days when some people had a monthly salary; in Okinawa Philippa Fogarty explains how some people are determined to preserve their culture, as distinct from the Japanese one; and our correspondent Jonah Fisher is in the burning Kalahari, with his charcoal pickles.

A huge welcome -- from some at least --as the President of Iran comes to southern Lebanon, Jeremy Bowen was there watching. Humphrey Hawksley's in Kiev as Ukrainians look nostalgically back to the days when they were part of the Soviet empire; a mixed press for the Commonwealth Games but Sam Miller finds there are technological reasons to be cheerful; Joanna Jolly's in Nepal where the world's tiniest man reckons his height is a passport to financial security. And Nick Thorpe tells tales of tragedy and hope after a week spent on the road covering the story of toxic sludge leak in Hungary.