This year armies from India and China clashed along the disputed border between Indian-administered Kashmir and China. A recent funeral with full military honours on the Indian side revealed an intriguing story. Nayima Tanzin was a Tibetan refugee, who his family say was serving with a covert Indian regiment, the Special Frontier Force, a force never acknowledged by Indian authorities. The BBC’s Aamir Peerzada travelled to Ladakh to find out more.

Flights to nowhere

Hotels of Pyongyang

Image: Funeral with full military honours of Tibetan refugee Nayima Tenzin in Ladakh

As fighting flares again over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, we ask why it's so hard to resolve this conflict, and why a chunk of Armenian-controlled territory came to be inside Azerbaijan in the first place. BBC Russian editor Famil Ismailov is originally from Azerbaijan, and has followed this story for decades.

Pot plants and plant influencers in Indonesia

The fund-raising campaigns to free captured IS families

Picture: Elderly woman in Nagorno Karabakh

This week, the World Service marked World Alzheimer's Day with a BBC Music and Memory project, exploring the power of music to reach sufferers with the disease. It launched a website of global tracks to trigger memories, compiled with the help of the BBC's language services. Behzad Bolour compiled BBC Persian's list, his father suffered from dementia, but still sang with him. He also explores Iran’s complex relationship with music.

But what tracks does the rest of the world dance and remember to? We hear from BBC Arabic's Nahed Najjar, Adedayo Owolabi of BBC Yoruba, Kateryna Khinkulova of BBC Russian and Partha Prasad from the Indian languages hub in Delhi about some of the tracks they contributed to the world music database, and why.

Image: Elderly Indian lady listening on headphones looking at smartphone

A video showing the repeated tazering of a Colombian lawyer Javier Ordóñez by police as he begged for mercy, and his subsequent death from internal injuries, triggered riots in which several people died. BBC Mundo's Daniel Pardo is based in Bogota, and explains what this story reveals about Colombians relationship with law enforcement.

My Hometown: Hanoi

Ghana Nigeria sibling rivalry

Image: Colombian protests after death of Javier Ordóñez

Surat in Gujarat is the world's diamond polishing hub, cutting and polishing 70% of all diamonds. But lockdown brought that industry to a halt, with many losing their jobs. BBC Indian languages journalist Nitin Srivastava spoke to some of those affected.

Ethiopians in Yemen

Image: Alpesh, diamond polisher in Surat, one of many who lost jobs during lockdown.

It's been three years since violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people to flee to Bangladesh. Since then home has been the crowded Cox’s Bazar refugee camp. BBC Bangla’s Shahnewaj Rocky has revisited the camp and met some of the children living there.

My Hometown: Samut Prakan

Spain’s royal soap opera

Image: Nayeem, born in Cox's Bazar

Last week Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was taken seriously ill on a flight to Moscow. Poisoning is suspected, and he remains in a coma in Germany undergoing treatment. But who is Navalny and what does he stand for? We speak to BBC Russian editor Famil Ismailov to get a closer look at Putin's biggest political rival.

In praise of mariachi

Image: Alexei Navalny's face is green after an attack with antiseptic dye

The taboo of domestic violence in Iran is being tackled by a podcaster who calls herself Maryam. She tells the story of her own abusive marriage, and is joined in each podcast by other women who share their experiences. Nooshin of BBC Monitoring explains why this taboo persists in her home country.

From the streets of Belarus to Franco’s Spain: the story of a song

Picture: Iranian women in Tehran

Last week's catastrophic explosion in Beirut devastated the port area and left at least 170 dead, thousands injured, and many more homeless. It's a painful time for our journalists who come from Beirut - in both BBC Arabic and BBC Monitoring. We hear the reflections of Nahed Najjar, Nisrine Hatoum, Hesham Shawish, Nidale Abou Mrad and Julien Hajj.

The dream of Gran Colombia

A teenage Afghan girl was recently celebrated as a hero, and photos of her holding an AK47 widely circulated, after she killed two Taliban fighters who attacked her home. But Firuz Rahimi of BBC Uzbek – himself from Afghanistan – shares the story behind the story, revealing the complexity of Afghan life and loyalties.

Unmasking the masks

When monuments say more than ministries

Image: Qamar Gul, Afghan girl holding AK47