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Pascale Harter introduces some of the highlights of recent dispatches – and we meet some extraordinary individuals. John Laurenson goes in search of the simple life in the Lebanese mountains and encounters one of the Maronite Church’s last remaining mountain hermits; Joanna Jolly meets the mother of a young girl murdered during Nepal's bloody ten-year insurgency who’s still hoping to see punishment for punish those responsible for the thousands of killings that occurred during this period.

Paul Henley finds his ability to stay impartial stretched to the limit as he encounters homophobia in Russia. Staying in Russia, Steve Rosenberg is pleasantly surprised when he is invited to play piano for the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. And Hamilton Wende introduces us to the South African izikhotane, or 'boasters' - young people from the country's townships who have taken to displaying their status by publicly destroying their possessions.