From Our Own Correspondent - 16/10/2010

An Iranian Presidential visit exposes Lebanon's old divisions. How the harsh realities of life in Ukraine took the shine off democracy. One man's bizarre, record breaking quest to escape poverty in Nepal. And tales of despair and survival from the Hungarian village that drowned in a torrent of sludge. Some world leader's generate very much more interest than others....and President Ahmedinajad of Iran is certainly one of them. His visit to Lebanon was always going to be closely watched. He's an implacable enemy of Israel, and in the hills of south Lebanon he'd almost be within touching distance of Israeli territory.... But how did the coming of Mr Ahmedinajad play out among the Lebanese themselves...? Jeremy Bowen has been guaging the mood in Beirut... Ukraine straddles a major cultural and political faultline. Not long ago it seemed to be leaning westwards -- towards the European Union, and a more open, democratic style. But now things are different. There's a sense that Ukraine is increasingly being drawn to the east, and the Russian way of doing things... Our Humphrey Hawksley has been finding out what lies behind this significant shift... India's pride took a battering just recently as Delhi prepared to host the Commonwealth Games. There was an embarrassing scramble to get ready in time.... But the coming of the Games did help to speed up the building of one of the world's most impressive urban railway systems. And nobody's been more delighted by this than my colleague..and railway nut.Sam Miller. Take a wander through the lists of world record holders, and you find yourself in the strangest company. There's the "most tattooed man on earth", for example....and the chap in Texas who decided to sit in a bath with eighty rattlesnakes.... Around the world people clamour to have the oddest stunts, and peculiarities officially recognised as record-breaking. And as Joanna Jolly explains...in a place like Nepal, some people are after more than just a mad moment of fame... It'll be a long time before anything like normal life returns to a place called Kolontar, in Hungary. It was one of those villages engulfed in a raging, rust-red tide of sludge. Eight people....including two little girls....drowned in the poisonous torrent that burst out of a reservoir at a nearby chemical plant... It was a major disaster, and the grimmest sort of event to cover. But Nick Thorpe says that despite everything, even this story had its lighter moments...