From Our Own Correspondent - 28/11/2009

Kate Adie introduces BBC foreign correspondents with the stories behind the headlines. It's 25 years since a cloud of poison gas escaped from a factory in the Indian city of Bhopal. Thousands were killed and many more have suffered serious illness since. Allan Little has just been there to meet some of those who were caught up in the disaster, and continue to campaign for justice. He tells us that the direction of the wind on that December night was one of the factors which determined whether you lived or died. The continued building of Israeli settlements has become one of the most contentious issues in Middle East politics. In the week that the Israelis offered a freeze on some settlement construction, Alan Johnston has been to the West Bank to see some of the areas in question and to discuss the issue with both Israeli settlers and Palestinians. It started with a pair of football matches but before long it developed into a full-scale diplomatic row between Egypt and Algeria. There have been angry rioters on the streets of Cairo, diplomats being called in for urgent consultations and enraged media on all sides offering often inflammatory comment. Christian Fraser has been following developments and asks if Egypt's failure to qualify for the World Cup has exposed deeper frustrations inside the country. Is Josef Stalin enjoying something of a comeback? John Sweeney is in Russia discovering that a frieze lauding Stalin's achievements has reappeared on the wall of a Moscow tube station after an absence of half a century. Also, Russian schoolchildren are being offered a new history of their country complete with a reassessment of Stalin's legacy, which some believe glosses over the atrocities of his era. Christine Finn travels by rail between Singapore and Bangkok - and not for her the luxury tourist service which whisks the well-to-do across South East Asia in air conditioned comfort. She takes the lesser-known eastern route as a landscape of colonial history, rubber plantations and forest clearance unfolds outside. Throughout the journey she is offered a wide range of delicacies to eat and drink, but will she tackle the notorious durian fruit-flavoured popcorn?