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Swiss bedbugs and Italian trotting races

Imogen Foulkes on a plague of bedbugs in Swiss barracks making some question national service and Alan Johnston is at the last of Rome's chariot races at the Tor di Valle track.

Pascale Harter introduces insight and wit from reporters, writers and correspondents around the world. In this edition, two tales from Europe. Imogen Foulkes describes the enemy advance threatening Switzerland's young soldiers: insidious, morale-sapping and near-invisible, the bedbug is on the march. In a country so proud of its national service, could the spectre of infestation put even the proudest Swiss matriarch off the tradition? Alan Johnston is at the Tor di Valle track watching the last Roman chariot race - or at least the last of its once-famous 'trotting' circuit, fallen on hard times.

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10 minutes

Last on

Fri 5 Apr 2013 18:50GMT

Broadcasts

  • Fri 5 Apr 2013 01:50GMT
  • Fri 5 Apr 2013 08:50GMT
  • Fri 5 Apr 2013 18:50GMT