Hello from the from our own correspondent studios at Broadcasting House in London.

You've downloaded the latest edition of the programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

It's introduced by Kate Aide.

Today no response to an international appeal for aid for millions of Syrians displaced

in the coldest winter in decades.

New enemies and new friends, as French troops carry their fight to the Islamist rebels in West Africa.

The Hungarian economies on its knees, but it's boom time for the secondhand shops of Budapest and why are the French drinking half the

wine they used to? We're off to a country bistro to find out.

It's been another bloody week in Syria with government and opposition forces fighting in towns and cities across the country.

The UN believes at least 60,000 people have been killed in two years of violence there.

Millions have fled their homes.

Many have sought shelter in neighboring countries,

but Lees Duset says those still in Syria of finding it harder than ever to survive.

Drive around Damascus, you see the vestiges of times past.

Dip-dip cafe, mocha and More, luxury clothing shops, which change their gleaming window displays

with every new season of fashion.

If you can afford it, you can still sit in wrought iron chairs and order steaming cappuccino with sprinkles of chocolate

in a stylish Italian cup, or still sit in elegant parks where young Syrian couples flirt

and savour the sweet smell of Jasmine.

This is graceful Damascus, Damascus of old.

This is the Syria that two years ago prided itself on being an Arab state sufficient in food and fuel, a middle-income

country with soaring highways and decent health care. No more. I'd never thought I'd see this, lamented a Syrian woman working with an international agency.

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