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

For the last 38 years Cambodia 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.

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.

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, but wiping out 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. Damien McGuinness carefully wades into the debate.

00:45 Cambodia's new leader
06:33 Pakistan's missing migrants
11:43 Romania's booming economy
17:06 New Zealand's war on rats
22:19 Germany's grammar culture war

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

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