麻豆约拍

Stories of new fears and old routines from around the world - introduced by Pascale Harter.

The world has been shocked by recent terror attacks in Paris, Beirut and Bamako - and in the skies over Egypt. Joanna Robertson finds Parisians wondering about their safety and what their government will do to "protect the French way of life" after the killings in their city.

Steve Evans visits a place out of time: a government ministry in Seoul still tasked with "administering" North Korea - even though it's another country and "no one here foresees reunification any time soon". So how do the bureaucrats in this building spend their days?

Emma Jane Kirby is on the island of Lampedusa, far off Italy's southern coastline, for a meal with one man who can never forget the life-and-death choices being made on the Mediterranean. He's an optician who, on witnessing a migrant boat shipwreck, became a rescuer - and is still haunted by the sights and sounds of this desperate dilemma.

And Mark Tully rides the (narrow) rails in Madhya Pradesh state in central India, mixing with the cast of passengers who'd still rather take the "toy train" than faster services or ride a bus. The Satpura network of small-gauge trains may soon stop running - but it will be sorely missed.

Photo: A girl lights a candle in front of a broken window of 'Le carillon' restaurant in the 10th district of Paris, one site of the attacks mounted on November 15, 2015 in the city (LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty Images)