The series of personalised reports from BBC journalists located in countries around the world.

The French Foreign Legion has long conjured up a romantic yet brutal image. But what is its role in the modern world? BBC Paris correspondent Kevin Connolly seeks some answers when he goes on patrol with the Legion at its base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. He talks to the Legionnaires, many of whom now hail from Eastern Europe, and discovers their reasons for abandoning their native countries and pledging their lives to the Legion. He also witnesses their occasionally tense relationship with the local people.

The programme also reports from Manila in the Philippines which has acquired a name as the kidnap capital of Asia, and meets a family whose child was abducted and murdered. Asia correspondent Fergal Keane challenges the police on the reputation they have for being involved in more than half of the 700 kidnappings that have occurred in the last three years.