Weekend Edition 22 Jun 2013: The Surreal and the Supernatural

Available for over a year

Pascale Harter introduces the pick of recent dispatches from correspondents around the world. In this edition, surreal and supernatural scenes from around the world - and some answers to the big questions of life. Phil Goodwin, a camera operator who's been in Syria to cover the ongoing conflict, reflects on the strange mix of hospitality and brutality he witnessed there - and explains why government forces and their Hezbollah allies sometimes prefer to be heard, but not filmed. Aleem Maqbool analyses a more peaceful culture of protest in Egypt - where these days you can easily attend a demo a day for a week. It turns out that the demonstrators are out agitating for a dizzying range of causes. Across the fronter in the neighbouring Gaza Strip, Yolande Knell meets some of the young Palestinians inventing their way over, under or through the numerous barriers to their success. Hugh Schofield ponders the deepest enigmas of existence - or at least his daughter does, as she studies for France's demanding Bac Litteraire, with philosophy at the very heart of the course. But why DO the French take philosophical questions so seriously? And Jane Dyson learns why spirit possession is still spooking villagers in the Himalayan hills of nothern India.