Original version

BBC World Service Online

From Our Own Correspondent

News

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers.

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.

From Our Own Correspondent: DR Congo and Ireland

DR Congo and Ireland

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, DR Congo and Ireland

Tony Grant presents personal insight from correspondents Conor Woodman and Trish Flanagan.

Tony Grant with personal stories from correspondents abroad. Conor Woodman visits the Congo mines fueling an illicit minerals trade; Trish Flanagan joins the crowds at the Solheim Cup golf tournament.

Tony Grant introduces wit, insight and analysis from correspondents around the world. In this edition, Conor Woodman visits the Congo cassiterite mines now fueling an illicit minerals trade, while Trish Flanagan joins the enthusiastic crowds attending the Solheim Cup golf tournament. 

From warzone to cellphone
Attempts by the authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo to get tough on smugglers in the east of the country seem to have had little effect. A huge trade in valuable minerals, many of them sought by Western electronics companies, continues to burgeon. Rebel militia groups are heavily involved in the business, and their activities have terrorised people across a wide area for some years. 

Conor Woodman went to the region - and down the mines - to see for himself how transporting the minerals to neighbouring Rwanda is one way the smugglers have found to get around the export rules.

Stars on the greens
Life in Ireland's rural County Meath is usually rather quiet. But not last weekend, tens of thousands of people poured in from around the world to watch the Solheim Cup, the golf tournament which pits the cream of Europe’s women golfers against their counterparts from the United States. 

Our Trish Flanagan was there to see the Europeans notch up an historic victory, in idyllic surroundings.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

From Our Own Correspondent

DR Congo and Ireland

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service