麻豆约拍

A series of surprising - even incongruous - impressions, as correspondents run into unexpected sights, characters and stories around the world. Pascale Harter introduces dispatches from:

James Jeffrey, meeting just a few of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who've found a safe haven in Ethiopia at a centre in Addis Ababa - but how long will they be stuck there?

Petroc Trelawny, sneaking a look inside the long-closed doors of Harrods in Buenos Aires. Once this department store was an upmarket retail paradise - but its grand building and swanky surroundings are much less elegant today than they used to be.

Martin Patience breaks one of the first rules of the journalist's trade - to talk about taxi drivers - and even quote them. It might not be popular with news editors, but he insists that in Nigeria, time spent talking to chauffeurs is never wasted, and often teaches plenty about the world of work.

and Carolyn Browne reveals one of the more startling rules of the road in France: that you're still allowed to drive one of the tiny, low-powered runabouts known as VSPs, or vehicules sans permis, without any kind of licence or formal training at all.

Photo: the fa莽ade of Harrods in Calle Florida, Buenos Aires, Argentina, shows its decline. (c) Petroc Trelawny