Somalia and Nepal

Available for over a year

Alan Johnson introduces the inside stories from BBC correspondents around the world. In this edition, Peter Greste finds out why omalis are still flooding into their country's devastated capital, Mogadishu, while Joanna Jolly meets an American woman who's become Nepal's foremost expert on the annals of mountaineering. Mogadishu's music: relentless small-arms fire The world pays little attention to Somalia these days, unless there's a story about pirates to be reported. Meanwhile the other realities of daily life in the country remain bleak. Islamist militants battling to control the country - and threatening vengeance on the West; countless dead; two million people homeless; drought and starvation; refugees flooding into the capital. After 20 years of near-anarchy, Somalia's been branded a 'failed state' - and it's crying out for the world's attention. And yet, as Peter Greste explains, many in the international community choose to look the other way. The woman keeping mountaineers firmly moored to the truth There is nothing quite like the summit of Mount Everest. Many climbers have become obsessed with the idea of reaching it - braving the storms and crevasses, pushing on through what they call "the death zone", and eventually standing on the highest point on earth. Their rivalry is intense. Joanna Jolly recently met a rather unsual figure in Kathmandu who subjects all claims of success in the Himalayas to very rigorous scrutiny.