Extreme world - How great are the world's divides?

Extreme World is a new season of coverage on TV, Radio and Online, examining the global differences that divide us.

Over the next few months BBC News correspondents will be exploring eight key themes that illustrate the contrasts in our extreme world.

For the first theme, Hot and Cold, BBC News correspondent Adam Mynott will visit the Russian village of Oymyakon in Siberia, officially the coldest inhabited place on Earth.

In Omyakon the average January temperature is -46C and frostbite is a constant hazard but the region is rich in gold and diamonds - and Russia is now one of the world's leading diamond producers.

The second installment is an analysis of global Corruption with Somalia and Sweden at the two extremes.

The BBC's Pascale Harter investigates whether Sweden, consistently ranked among the least corrupt countries in the world, is quite as it seems.

Further themes that will be developed over the coming months include Dying, Crime, Education, Business, then Pollution and God.

Pictures courtesy of Afp, Ap, Getty, Magnum, Panos and Reuters.

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