Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist.

Today from London, I'm your host Jason Palmer.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Not much is certain about what goes on inside North Korea, but reports suggest that grinding

poverty is widespread.

What's crystal clear is that the country splashes out in a big way on snazzy rockets.

We investigate how all those weapons are paid for.

And for decades, a rambling English country house was the site of a tiny BBC department

that translated the world's radio broadcasts.

Often learning the news before it was news.

As that estate is sold off, we look at the history of BBC Monitoring.

We're stuck though.

Today's Bangladesh is almost unrecognizable when compared with the country of a half century

ago.

Newly independent but scarred by poverty and battered by natural disasters.

Food shortages are a thing of the past.

Child mortality rates are better than the global average.

Female literacy has nearly doubled in recent years.

Doctors and early warning systems protect the country from the ravages of cyclones.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been all too happy to take credit for Bangladesh's remarkable

progress.

But clouds are gathering over this sunny development story.

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