大象传媒

Oggi Tomic was abandoned by his mother at birth and grew up in orphanages in Bosnia. He ended up in Sarajevo at the height of the siege of the early 1990s. He was then taken in by a family in the UK where he now lives and works as a film maker. But when he set out to make a documentary about his search for his birth family - he uncovered a shocking truth. His uncle had been a member of the Serb army that were shelling the orphanage where he had been living during the siege.

Ndibulele Sobhoyisi and Estiaan Swanepoel are both 18 years old, and best friends. They're from South Africa's Eastern Cape and last week they returned from a month at a Xhosa initiation school. This is an important coming of age ritual, where boys are sent away to become men, and part of it involves being circumcised by a spear. This can be very dangerous - it's reported that around 45 boys a year die from complications following botched circumcisions - and others have lost their penises. Estiaan's decision to go with his Xhosa friend caused quite a stir, because he is white Afrikaans.

Esa Khan, the 28 year old Afghan soldier who single-handedly took on a group of Taliban militants who attempted to storm Kabul's parliament last month. He was honoured for his actions by President Ashraf Ghani and posters of him now hang in public places. However, Esa was in the news again last week after being arrested and released for his involvement in a car crash in which a man was killed. But for many Afghans, he remains a national hero - he tells Jo Fidgen about the moment the Taliban bomb exploded.

When Christine Ha began to lose her sight in her 20's due to a neurological condition, one of the things that distressed her most was the thought that she might never cook again. However, she learned to adapt and eventually entered and won the TV amateur cooking competition Masterchef in the US.

(Picture credits: Esa Khan - Getty Images / Christine Ha - Mitch Mandel, Rohale Photography Inc / Oggi Tomic - Steve Pope)