From Our Own Correspondent - 04/12/2010

The great silence that is the legacy of genocide in Cambodia. A chance to relax on the beach in war-weary Mogadishu. Living with the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico's oil spill disaster. And how to endure endless thirst in one of the hottest places on the planet. Few countries live with a darker past than Cambodia. In the late 70s, the Khmer Rouge abolished money and private property, and forced city people to labour in the fields. By the time their insane, brutal regime collapsed, more than one-and-a-half million people had died of starvation, or been worked to death, or executed... And Neil Trevithick has been trying to find out whether it'll ever be possible for Cambodians to come to terms psychologically with what they went through.... President Mubarak of Egypt promised that his country's parliamentary elections would be free and fair. But those familiar with Egyptian democracy had their doubts. And few were surprised when -- after the first round of voting -- there were reports of interference and intimidation by the security forces. One of the main opposition parties said there'd been "scandalous" vote rigging. In Cairo, John Leyne has been reflecting on the nature of politics Egyptian-style.... I was looking the other day at some old photographs of an African city. There were whitewashed mosques, and minarets, and monuments. Avenues....shaded by palm trees....ran down to a sparkling sea. And people were going about their business on peaceful, ordered streets. This was the Somali capital, Mogadishu before it descended into violence that's raged now for nearly two decades. Today it's one of the most fought-over, most battered, most dangerous cities in the world... But Andrew Harding has been spending time with Somalis who dream of....eventually.....returning Mogadishu to the gentler days of its past. For weeks back in the summer, the world looked on aghast as oil from a ruptured well gushed into the Gulf of Mexico. We watched the slick grow and grow.... and blackened seabirds flapped about in the sludge... Eventually though, the well was capped, and the world's attention drifted away. But as Paul Adams explains, for some of those who live and work on the Gulf Coast....forgetting and moving on is not so easy... Water is the stuff of life....but in more and more places people are struggling to get enough of it. The UN warns that water scarcity is one of the main problems lying in wait for many nations in the decades ahead. Some of the most acute shortages may well be endured on the Horn of Africa. And there....in the small, sun-blasted state of Djibouti....Pascale Harter has been talking to people who already know what it means to live with an almost constant, nagging thirst.....