23/01/2012

Extraordinary personal stories from around the world.

Today, Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler thought his life was over when he was kidnapped by the North African wing of al-Qaeda in Niger. He's the highest ranked UN official ever to be held captive and he tells Matthew Bannister how he survived being held for almost five months - and how he was eventually released.

Also, a young Egyptian woman on her struggle to escape violence and poverty thanks to a home for unmarried teenage mothers in Cairo.

And a colour blind artist from Spain on how a cybernetic "third eye" attached to his head allows him to "hear" colour.