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From Our Own Correspondent: Afghanistan and Egypt

Afghanistan and Egypt

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Afghanistan and Egypt

Alan Johnston presents analysis and wit from BBC correspondents in Afghanistan and Egypt

Alan Johnston presents insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world. Today, Nadene Ghouri on midwives' work in Afghanistan and Owen Bennett Jones on a mysterious scam in Egypt.

Afghanistan hasn't only been subjected to decades of war. It's also one of the world's poorest and least developed countries. 

Life can be very hard in the country's remote mountain valleys. Even elsewhere, in many  places medical care is extremely limited - or almost non-existent. 

And so often the very young are the most vulnerable. 

Twenty percent of Afghan children die before the age of five. 

Nadene Ghouri has been getting a sense of the scale of the problems, and talking to those who are trying to ease the suffering of the mothers of Afghanistan.

Egypt

Life as a correspondent can involve a huge amount of travel. You can spend a lot of time in airports, train stations and car parks, and a lot of time talking to taxi drivers. 

Correspondents are often a bit wary of quoting their drivers in their reports. 

It can sound a little bit lazy - as if you didn't look much beyond the seat of your cab for your story. 

But Owen Bennett-Jones makes us an exception, after a memorable encounter aboard an Egyptian taxi.

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