麻豆社

The 麻豆社's Paul Adams returns to the country he roamed 35 years ago - and it's much changed. Kate Adie introduces this and other stories from around the world.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, there's plenty of grief to go around, and it's important to show your emotions at funerals - so much so that one entrepreneur is setting up an agency for paid mourners to cry on demand, and give the deceased a proper send-off. Olivia Acland met him and one of the hopeful applicants for the job.

The ash cloud following the eruption of Eyjafjallaj枚kull in 2010 showed that Iceland's volcanoes have the power to disrupt the entire world's air traffic - as well as to put Icelanders' lives and communities at risk. Andy Jones saw how the village of Vik is making contingency plans in case its own volcano, Katla - already well overdue to blow - causes even more disturbance.

In South Africa, Lindsay Johns explores the fault lines between Cape Town's long-established Coloured (mixed-race) community and the increasing number of immigrants from other African countries.

And Jane Wakefield reveals what the 'death' of a robot hitch-hiker, whose journeys through Canada and the USA came to an abrupt end at human hands, reveals about the complicated relationship between man and machine.