Cambodia's strongman bows out - a podcast by BBC Radio 4

Kate Adie introduces stories about Cambodia's outgoing Prime Minister, and from Pakistan, Romania, New Zealand and Germany.

Cambodia has suffered more tragedy than most, including civil wars, American bombing, and the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. For the last 38 years, the country has been ruled by one, increasingly autocratic man, Prime Minister Hun Sen. He is now handing power to a new Prime Minister next week – his own son. Jonathan Head has just been to Cambodia, and reflects on Hun Sen’s remarkable longevity in office.

Three hundred young Pakistani men are still missing, feared drowned, in the Mediterranean after the Greek shipping disaster in June. Why did they want to leave their country, at the mercy of people smugglers? Caroline Davies has been finding out, and asks what the police are doing to stop the human trafficking. She also meets a family whose teenage sons died in the Greek shipwreck.

In Romania on the other hand, the economy is booming, and people are moving to it, rather than away from it. That includes many Romanian emigrants who are now returning home, armed with new skills and attracted back by improved salaries. Tessa Dunlop detects a new confidence in the country. She also finds that this new Romanian tiger, has teeth, and claws.

New Zealand is trying to eradicate all rats, possums and stoats. These are not native to New Zealand but were brought there by humans in recent centuries. They have been decimating the local wildlife, like flightless and ground-nesting birds that evolved without those predators. Killing all individuals of several species across a whole country is a tall order however. And what about ethical qualms? Henri Astier joins a rat-catching expedition in Wellington to find out more.

Culture wars are raging in many countries, about different issues. In Germany, it's sausages, motorway speeds, and grammar. German is a gendered language, with male and female forms of nouns that denote people, like actor/actress. In German however, the -ess applies to everything. Doctoress. Prime Ministeress. But in the plural, the male form is used no matter the gender of the individuals. This makes some feel that women don't count. The answer? Doctor*esses or Prime Minister:esses, using * or : to indicate that a group does or could include both genders. Damien McGuinness carefully wades into the debate.

Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Editor: Bridget Harney
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar

(Image: Outgoing Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. Credit: Kith Serey/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Further episodes of From Our Own Correspondent Podcast

Further podcasts by BBC Radio 4

Website of BBC Radio 4