蜜芽传媒

Owen Bennett Jones introduces wit, insight and analysis from correspondents around the world. In this edition, writer Sara Sheridan contemplates human rights at an international book fair in Sharjah, while the 蜜芽传媒's Will Ross hears a very unusual orchestra at work in Kinshasa (hint: they DON'T play the dance music which Congo is famous for).

What lies beneath

The United Arab Emirates is currently investing heavily in becoming a global centre for business - a worlwide trading hub. But with better communications and transport also come dangerous ideas about politics. These new theories might come from Westerners, and seem godless or decadent to some Emiratis; or they might emanate from radical Islamists around the region, and appear as a physical and ideological threat.

On the face of it, everything is fine and shiny but beneath the surface there are real tensions, as Sara Sheridan saw recently in Sharjah.

The smells, sights and sounds of Kinshasa

Most world news programmes give you the news from elsewhere. Who voted for whom, who's saying what, and what difference it will make. But From Our Own Correspondent does something a bit different: it tells you what it's like in the countries our contributors are in.

Will Ross recently flew in to Kinshasa to cover the elections - but was fascinated by some cultural rather than political currents. And while the city might be a good deal less gleaming than Dubai, it's still got a flavour all its own.