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Acts of Striking Bravado

Trying to meet the strongman who controls Benghazi, witnessing Greece's rougher side, exploring Liberia's modern ruins and talking your way into Abkhazia

Pascale Harter presents stories of courage and persistence from correspondents, reporters and writers around the world.

Stephen Sackur was excited to receive an invitation from Libyan general Khalifa Haftar - the man now effectively in charge of the city of Benghazi and huge swathes of the country - to come and hear how order could be re-imposed on a nation in pieces. But what happened next?

Heidi Fuller Love felt some trepidation at going on a 'homeless tour' of Athens - a walking route designed to introduce visitors to the visible signs of the Greek economic crisis, from street sleepers to pavements covered in drug vials.

Ignoring the dire warnings about squalid hospitals and bribe-seeking officials, Olivia Acland left her base in Sierra Leone to cross over into Liberia - a nation still very much enamoured of its "big brother" the USA.

And Tim Whewell's knowledge of British constitutional arrangements was recently put to the test - by a very, very detailed grilling from a Russian border guard, on the frontiers of Abkhazia in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains. How would he answer the questions about Brexit?

Photo: Members of the self-styled Libyan National Army, loyal to the country's east strongman Khalifa Haftar, in the eastern city of Benghazi in July 2017 (ABDULLAH DOMA/AFP/Getty Images)

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23 minutes

Last on

Sun 13 Aug 2017 09:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 12 Aug 2017 02:06GMT
  • Sat 12 Aug 2017 21:06GMT
  • Sun 13 Aug 2017 02:06GMT
  • Sun 13 Aug 2017 09:06GMT