
Throughout the week BBC World Service offers a wide range of documentaries and other factual programmes. This podcast offers you the chance to access landmark series from our archive.
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Thu, 5 Nov 09
Duration:
20 mins
To mark the 50th birthday of Youssou N'Dour, Robin Denselow travels to Senegal to profile the best known African musician of recent times.
Thu, 5 Nov 09
Duration:
23 mins
Mark Doyle reports from Guinea in West Africa on the harrowing events of 28 September when government troops crushed an opposition rally in the centre of the capital, Conakry. This programme contains some graphic description of sexual violence.
Wed, 4 Nov 09
Duration:
24 mins
What keeps a billion people trapped in the most persistent poverty? Mike Wooldridge travels to Nicaragua to meet Justa who hoped for a better life after the Sandinista revolution.
Mon, 2 Nov 09
Duration:
23 mins
The extraordinary but little-known tale of Russia's three all-female regiments that flew more than 30,000 missions on the Eastern Front. At home they were celebrated as 'Stalin's Falcons' but terrified German troops called them the 'Night Witches'.
Fri, 30 Oct 09
Duration:
22 mins
Public Places, Private Lives is a series of portraits of well known places that reveal the lives and stories of those people who come to a famous spot not to gaze as tourists, but for work or for their own private reasons. The second programme is set in the Taj Mahal, where we hear the experiences of those people for whom one of the most important sites in India is part of their daily landscape.
Thu, 29 Oct 09
Duration:
23 mins
Jill McGivering travels to Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, to meet a doctor who is battling against the odds to prevent women from dying in childbirth. Listeners may find parts of this Assignment programme distressing.
Wed, 28 Oct 09
Duration:
24 mins
Nigeria is campaigning for a new image and a new reputation in an effort to attract some much needed investment. Reporter Henry Bonsu follows the many steps of this charm offensive.
Mon, 26 Oct 09
Duration:
24 mins
The head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service Sir John Scarlett, talks for the first time about the interrogation of terrorist suspects and MI6’s role in the run-up to the war in Iraq.
Fri, 23 Oct 09
Duration:
23 mins
Public Places, Private Lives is a series of portraits of well known places that reveal the lives and stories of those people who come to a famous spot not to gaze as tourists, but for work or for their own private reasons.
Thu, 22 Oct 09
Duration:
24 mins
When a 17 month-old London child died after horrific abuse by his family, it unleashed a barrage of criticism against British social services. For Assignment Catherine Miller gains rare access to the people whose job it is to protect Britain's vulnerable children.
Wed, 21 Oct 09
Duration:
24 mins
Can the home of 419 internet scams, corruption and voodoo ever transmit a positive image? Is changing Nigeria's image an impossible mission?
Mon, 19 Oct 09
Duration:
24 mins
In Programme Two, we find out what were spies really up to behind the Iron Curtain. MI6 chief John Scarlett describes his clandestine meeting with an agent, and the Russian defector Oleg Gordievsky talks about his reasons for coming over to the other side.
Thu, 15 Oct 09
Duration:
23 mins
Every two years teams from all over the world compete with one another in the Chess Olympiad. In the last two Olympiads, the winning medal has gone to a small country in the Caucasus. How has this nation done it? Gabriel Gatehouse investigates.
Thu, 15 Oct 09
Duration:
24 mins
The BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson tells the story of 20 years of post-communist life. Through personal stories, he traces the different roads that East Germany, the Czech Republic and Romania have taken since 1989.
Mon, 12 Oct 09
Duration:
24 mins
An unprecedented look inside MI6 - Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, which marks its centenary this year. Programme One - Gadgets & Green Ink explores the early years of MI6, set up by Sir Mansfield Cumming, a formidable figure known as 'C' who signed his name in green ink.
Fri, 9 Oct 09
Duration:
23 mins
Imagine that conflict and violence force you to flee your country, leaving behind all that you know and love. In the chaos and panic, you have to choose a single object to take with you - something so full of resonance that it will always remind you of the life and people that you left behind. In the second part of Memento, we meet people who have fled to Britain.
Thu, 8 Oct 09
Duration:
24 mins
A life sentence for stealing a pair of socks. In California the tough 'three strikes' law is sending people to prison for life even if their third crime is a non-violent one. Now a group of law students is trying to change things. Rob Walker reports.
Wed, 7 Oct 09
Duration:
24 mins
Yiddish was the language of the Jewish Diaspora, the language of a people on the move across Europe. It has suffered a dramatic decline over the last century. What will become of it now?
Mon, 5 Oct 09
Duration:
24 mins
The third part of the BBC's definitive series on the banking crash tells the extraordinary story of how politicians reacted, and asks what has been learnt from the entire calamity. Could it happen again?
Fri, 2 Oct 09
Duration:
23 mins
Imagine that conflict and violence force you to flee your country, leaving behind all that you know and love. In the chaos and panic, you have to choose a single object to take with you - something so full of resonance that it will always remind you of the life and people that you left behind.
Thu, 1 Oct 09
Duration:
23 mins
It's straight out of the pages of a thriller novel: a cargo ship, lost without trace; pirates working the seas at the heart of Europe; whispers of arms smuggling and the scent of international conspiracy. The mysterious disappearance of a Russian-operated cargo ship off the coast of Britain in late July sparked furious speculation that's never been resolved. For Assignment, Sarah Rainsford tries to shine a light on what really happened on board the vessel, the Arctic Sea.
Wed, 30 Sep 09
Duration:
24 mins
Presenter Jenny Cuffe sets out to find Fereinatu, a teenage girl who was trafficked for sex. She had returned to her impoverished home in Benin City, but she is missing once more and relatives fear she may have been sucked back into prostitution.
Tue, 29 Sep 09
Duration:
23 mins
This week's Assignment looks at the much-vaunted crackdown on tax havens announced by the G20 earlier this year. The drive is aimed at getting tax havens to agree to yield up information on tax cheats. But is the G-20's weapon of choice, shooting blanks? Is its approach cumbersome and ineffective in the fight to get every dollar that's owed to tax authorities? Lesley Curwen investigates.
Mon, 28 Sep 09
Duration:
24 mins
The second of this three-part series that examines the boom before the bust of 2008 looks at how our attitudes to risk and debt changed with disastrous consequences.
Fri, 25 Sep 09
Duration:
24 mins
Can we build our way out of the recession? The Empire State Building was started just weeks after the Wall Street Crash, giving Americans hope in times of depression. Jonathan Glancey, architecture correspondent for the Guardian newspaper in London, looks at the economic and social policies of the 1930s and the parallels we can find today.
Tue, 22 Sep 09
Duration:
24 mins
Two years ago, Jenny Cuffe followed the journeys of migrants trying to leave Africa and find a better life in Europe. Innocent Akibor left Nigeria to get to Spain. As exploitation greets him at almost every step of his journey, listen to find out if he made his dream come true.
Mon, 21 Sep 09
Duration:
24 mins
What were the key moments that led to financial meltdown, and what happened in the aftermath? The first of a three-part series that looks closely at the turbulent events in the autumn of 2008.
Thu, 17 Sep 09
Duration:
23 mins
If my dog is tough then I'm tough. Killer dogs give teenagers status in Chicago. For Assignment, Nina Robinson, goes right to the heart of the cruel sport of dog fighting that is attracting so many young people in the run down areas of Chicago's south side.
Thu, 17 Sep 09
Duration:
25 mins
Just weeks after the Wall Street Crash in 1929, work began on the Empire State Building. The Guardian's architecture correspondent Jonathan Glancey assesses the economics of building out of a recession.
Tue, 15 Sep 09
Duration:
24 mins
President Barack Obama has famously written of the influence exerted on him by his father in his memoir Dreams of My Father, but what of his mother, Ann Dunham? Listen to Judith Kampfner as she unveils more about this unconventional and idealistic woman.
Mon, 14 Sep 09
Duration:
24 mins
enjamin Jealous is the leader of America's oldest and largest black civil rights group. In a USA fronted by Barack Obama, what are the future battlegrounds for African American human rights?
Fri, 11 Sep 09
Duration:
24 mins
Bermeja Island is missing. This strategically important island was clearly visible on maps of the Gulf of Mexico until the middle of the 20th century but it's now gone. BBC Mundo's David Cuen goes in search.
Wed, 9 Sep 09
Duration:
24 mins
What role did the business schools play in last year's financial crisis? In this week's edition of Assignment, Ed Butler investigates whether, as the chair of Harvard's MBA programme insists, the schools were guilty only of teaching a deficient assessment of risk in the business world, or whether something more fundamental was at fault. Some inside the system tell Assignment that there had been a growing disconnect between the schools and society, with insufficient attention being paid to the ethics of the business world, and the sole focus of the programmes being on maximising shareholder value and personal enrichment.
Wed, 9 Sep 09
Duration:
24 mins
n the second episode Michael Buerk visits Cairo and experience for himself how bloggers - arguably among the most hounded anywhere in the world - are taking on the Egyptian government.
Mon, 7 Sep 09
Duration:
24 mins
Enterprise, money, innovation are all there. Is tapping into a continent's optimism the key to Africa's future? Mark Doyles looks at the solutions to solve Africa's poverty.
Fri, 4 Sep 09
Duration:
23 mins
Rachid Sekkai from the BBC's Arabic Service talks to Muslims currently serving in the Israeli Defence Force and also to former soldiers and hears about the conflicts they face, at home and on duty, and the pride that military service sometimes brings them.
Thu, 3 Sep 09
Duration:
23 mins
Colin Yu is a teacher who lives in Shanghai. He has a job but still struggles to support his parents on his modest income. Colin would like to spend more money and the Chinese government is offering incentives to people like him to go out and buy Chinese goods. They're hoping that by doing so it will help the country to survive the current global economic downturn. Average savings rates in China stand at around 30% and, as Chris Hogg discovers, most of that money is spent on healthcare. For Assignment he follows the story of Colin's family as they face difficult decisions over how to spend their money and how to match their savings to their healthcare needs.
Wed, 2 Sep 09
Duration:
24 mins
Michael Buerk analyses the potential – and the dangers – of citizen journalism. In part one, he talks to bloggers and critics from Sri Lanka, Iran, Burma, and Iraq.
Mon, 31 Aug 09
Duration:
24 mins
Accusations of tribalism, corruption and complacency have all been offered as explanations to the question of Africa's poverty. Mark Doyle looks at each of these and asks why the status quo persists.
Fri, 28 Aug 09
Duration:
23 mins
Violent footage from the Kashmir conflict has been shared almost in real-time by citizen-journalists on video sharing websites. Suvojit Bagchi tells the story of the impact of new media communication in a conflict zone.
Thu, 27 Aug 09
Duration:
24 mins
Six months ago there was a short military revolt in Bangladesh that threatened to push the country into nationwide armed conflict. But some things remain mysterious. Why was it so brutal? Who was really behind it? What did they hope to achieve? In this week’s addition of Assignment, Mark Dummett has tracked down key participants and eyewitnesses in search of some answers.
Wed, 26 Aug 09
Duration:
23 mins
Nick Rankin explores how we assess the value of gold.
Mon, 24 Aug 09
Duration:
24 mins
Mark Doyle crosses the continent of Africa and finds a place rich in natural resources and human potential, which begs the question, why is Africa poor? Outsiders have been coming to Africa for centuries for its raw materials and potential. It was an exploitative relationship that has contributed to Africa's poverty, but can foreigners now turn the fortunes of a modern Africa?
Fri, 21 Aug 09
Duration:
23 mins
Ko Ko Aung from the BBC's Burmese Service, travelled to Burma to find out why a rebel army of 100 men is taking on the 400,000 strong Burmese army.
Thu, 20 Aug 09
Duration:
24 mins
Fran Abrams is given rare access to the US base in Djibouti questioning military chiefs, local leaders and ordinary Djiboutians as she explores the role and impact of America's African outpost.
Wed, 19 Aug 09
Duration:
24 mins
Nick Rankin descends into the deepest goldmine in the world – Tau Tona in South Africa for part two of this series. Five thousand miners extract gold up to four kilometres under the surface but for every tonne of ore they take out, there is only 8 grams of gold to be found. Nick talks to miners about their lives underground and learns about the real price of gold.
Fri, 14 Aug 09
Duration:
24 mins
Mukul Devichand tells the story of the Europeans who are trying to persuade China's expanding middle class to ditch their noodles and soya in favour of pricey European fine foods.
Fri, 14 Aug 09
Duration:
24 mins
American physicist Richard Feynman fell in love with the remote Russian region Tuva through his hobby of stamp collecting. He died just before his visitor's visa arrived but his daughter Michelle went to the land of throat singers in his honour.
Thu, 13 Aug 09
Duration:
23 mins
The Afghan drugs mafia is rich, powerful and entrenched, with connections running into the heart of the Afghan state. But a new, multi-million dollar counter-narcotics justice system has started to get results and is putting senior traffickers in prison. So when people heard that the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, had pardoned five traffickers, they were stunned. This week’s Assignment looks into allegations that the pardons were part of a political deal, ahead of presidential elections on the 20th August. Kate Clark reports.
Wed, 12 Aug 09
Duration:
20 mins
Man's long-term obsession with gold and the lengths we have gone to to get it. From the ancient myth of King Midas, through Alexander The Great and the Spanish Conquistadors to the massive mines of South Africa, Nick Rankin unlocks the history and enduring fascination of the rare yellow metal that has been integral to economic exchange systems for millennia.
Mon, 10 Aug 09
Duration:
22 mins
Navid Akhtar examines the influence of Islamic design and values in the life of Victorian designer, poet, and craftsman William Morris.
Tue, 4 Aug 09
Duration:
24 mins
The World Health Organisation has warned that the worldwide spread of the so-called Swine Flu virus is now unstoppable. As cases continue to multiply, reporter Julian O'Halloran investigates the origins of the H1N1 virus and examines claims that it is linked to factory style pig farming.
Mon, 3 Aug 09
Duration:
26 mins
Iran in the post 9/11 era, a time of friction and unrest over its nuclear ambitions.
Fri, 31 Jul 09
Duration:
23 mins
A slice of life at a shabby but popular tenement in Hong Kong's teeming commercial district.
Tue, 28 Jul 09
Duration:
24 mins
Colin Grant reflects on the BBC’s role in boosting Caribbean writing in the region 60 years on from the original broadcast of Caribbean Voices.
Mon, 27 Jul 09
Duration:
26 mins
The inside story of Iran's war with Iraq, and how the US viewed the conflict - ultimately a battle for control and influcence in this most vital, but unstable, part of the world.
Fri, 24 Jul 09
Duration:
24 mins
Nick Rankin travels to Fair Isle, one of the most remote inhabited islands in the British Isles, to see how newcomers find their place in a small and tight-knit community on a rocky island which is too windy for trees to grow on.
Thu, 23 Jul 09
Duration:
23 mins
In this week's edition of Assignment, Jill McGivering travels through Pakistan, hearing the stories of some of the two million people who fled their homes as a result of the fighting between government forces and the Taliban in the country’s North West – and assesses the consequences of the humanitarian crisis for Pakistan and its people.
Wed, 22 Jul 09
Duration:
24 mins
Award-winning journalist Sorious Samura drops into the middle of an undercover investigation of a Chinese brothel in Accra, Ghana, where 16 women have been trafficked to work as prostitutes.
Tue, 21 Jul 09
Duration:
24 mins
Colin Grant reflects on the BBC’s role in boosting Caribbean writing in the region 60 years on from the original broadcast of Caribbean Voices.
Mon, 20 Jul 09
Duration:
27 mins
For the first time, the BBC tells the story of Iran's relationship with the West over the last 30 years - as seen by the key insiders on both sides.
Fri, 17 Jul 09
Duration:
24 mins
A soundscape of memory, loss, regret and hope from men who have been living with HIV for over 20 years in New Zealand.
Wed, 15 Jul 09
Duration:
24 mins
In this series, Ayisha Yahya explores climate change issues in the African desert. In the final programme, she meets Egyptian scientists experimenting with techniques to make the desert bloom.
Fri, 10 Jul 09
Duration:
24 mins
The story of four imprisoned Uyghur men transferred from Guantanamo Bay to the wealthy paradise of Bermuda.
Fri, 10 Jul 09
Duration:
24 mins
South Africa's wealthy are retreating to high-security gated communities to protect themselves from violent crime. In Islands of Security we explore why the issue of keeping people out is a sensitive one in post-Apartheid times.
Thu, 9 Jul 09
Duration:
24 mins
150,000 Cambodians are reported to be facing eviction from their land. Huge tracts of the country have been granted to private companies for large scale agriculture or other purposes. Some of those who have tried to resist say they have been attacked or threatened. Rob Walker reports for Assignment.
Wed, 8 Jul 09
Duration:
24 mins
In this three part series, Ayisha Yahya explores climate change issues in the African desert. In programme two she visits the Desert Research Station in Namibia. Can they increase the water available in arid areas such as the Namib?
Thu, 2 Jul 09
Duration:
25 mins
Teenagers on the island of Alert Bay, British Columbia, talk openly about the beauty and frustration on living in a remote place.
Thu, 2 Jul 09
Duration:
24 mins
Thembi Ngubane’s Radio Diary about living with Aids in a South African Township.
Thu, 2 Jul 09
Duration:
23 mins
It's widely regarded as one of the most secretive religious organisations in the world. It makes heavy demands on its members - and has been accused of cult-like practices. It's also an influential movement within Roman Catholicism. Opus Dei, made famous by Dan Brown's bestselling novel the Da Vinci Code, has many critics - but few have found out what life is like on the inside. The BBC's religious affairs correspondent, Christopher Landau, has been granted exclusive access to the movement's extensive headquarters in Rome. He meets both priests and lay people who devote their lives (and their money) to this movement which, though less than 100 years old, exerts powerful influence over both its members and the wider church.
Wed, 1 Jul 09
Duration:
24 mins
In this three part series, Ayisha Yahya explores climate change issues in the African desert. In programme one she asks, what are the implications for traditional nomadic desert communities?
Sat, 27 Jun 09
Duration:
24 mins
In this special edition of Assignment, John Simpson reveals how the protests, and the police reprisals that followed, are intricately linked to the rivalry inside the clique of clerics who created the Islamic state.
Fri, 26 Jun 09
Duration:
24 mins
When the dried blood of Naples' patron saint fails to liquefy, Neapolitans believe great misfortune will descend upon them. With Mount Vesuvius overdue for a major eruption, Malcolm Billings investigates if tragedy awaits this historic city.
Thu, 25 Jun 09
Duration:
24 mins
After 28 years in power, President Mubarak's promise of shepherding his country into a stable democracy has all but dissipated.
Thu, 25 Jun 09
Duration:
23 mins
In a programme first broadcast in April, Ed Butler reports from New York on how the super rich have been dealing with the impact of the financial crisis.
Wed, 24 Jun 09
Duration:
24 mins
In the final part of this series, Mike Gallagher meets a British farmer working vast landholdings in Hungary and Serbia. Does 'going global' in agriculture really offer a better future?
Mon, 22 Jun 09
Duration:
24 mins
After 28 years in power, Mubarak's promise of leading Egypt into stable democracy has dissipated. Magdi Abdelhadi reports.
Thu, 18 Jun 09
Duration:
24 mins
Listen to the story of Suzanne, a single woman in her forties who opted for a trans-racial adoption and became the mother of an African-American baby.
Thu, 18 Jun 09
Duration:
23 mins
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled from Somalia since civil war broke out there in the early 1990s. Many of them go to refugee camps in Kenya, others to Tanzania - and many have spent more than 15 years living in those camps. But one group has been more fortunate than others - the Somali Bantu, whose ancestors were taken to Somalia as slaves from southern Africa in the 19th Century. In 2001 the Somali Bantu were recognised as an especially vulnerable group by the United States and two years later 12,000 of them were airlifted out of the camps and flown to new, permanent homes in the United States. In this week's Assignment Tim Mansel visits one group of them in the western city of Boise in Idaho.
Wed, 17 Jun 09
Duration:
23 mins
In this series, Mike Gallagher meets two farmers working outside their own countries. In programme one, a young Ecuadorian visits Hawaii. What farming techniques can he take back to Ecuador?
Fri, 12 Jun 09
Duration:
24 mins
Justin Webb goes beyond his role as a journalist to explore the issue from the perspective of a parent who is desperate to know what the future holds for his child.
Fri, 12 Jun 09
Duration:
24 mins
The final programme in the My World series explores the story of Pornthip Rojanasunan, Thailand’s leading forensic scientist who has turned a straightforward autopsy into a battleground for the truth.
Wed, 10 Jun 09
Duration:
24 mins
In this series, David Goldblatt charts the rise of Twenty20 cricket. In the final programme he asks, can the Twenty20 revolution help to make cricket become a truly global game?
Mon, 8 Jun 09
Duration:
23 mins
A poetic story of survival set against the soundscape of the Mathare slums in Kenya. Meet Kades, a teenage poet who has escaped poverty.
Mon, 8 Jun 09
Duration:
24 mins
Martin Wolf, of the Financial Times, predicted that the global downturn would be much worse than anyone had reason to believe.
Thu, 4 Jun 09
Duration:
23 mins
Since the beginning of last year, pirates have succeeded in seizing more than 70 ships off the coast of Somalia. Hundreds of crew members have been held to ransom, and millions of dollars have been paid to the pirates to secure their release. For Assignment Rob Walker has gained exclusive access to the people involved in one of those hijacks – the captain, the ship owner and the mysterious middleman – the pirates negotiator.
Wed, 3 Jun 09
Duration:
24 mins
David Goldblatt charts the recent arrival and rise on the sporting scene of Twenty20 cricket. David meets those who run the game, former and current players, and seasoned commentators. Has Twenty20 changed cricket for ever?
Fri, 29 May 09
Duration:
24 mins
Tracing the profound physical and emotional toll on all those involved in the wake of a single collision on a road.
Thu, 28 May 09
Duration:
23 mins
Every year, 15 million people will suffer from a stroke, five million of them will die and a further five million will be left permanently disabled. This documentary tells the story of Dr Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist who suffered a massive stroke 13 years ago. Knowing how the brain operates, she was able to observe and understand the deterioration that followed.
Tue, 26 May 09
Duration:
23 mins
James Miles, the BBC's China correspondent in 1989, was an eye-witness to the events leading up to the Tiananmen Square protests.
Mon, 25 May 09
Duration:
24 mins
Abraham Lincoln's legacy and political influence is more powerful today than it ever was. Allan Little looks at how movements and leaders from very different political perspectives have looked up to Lincoln.
Fri, 22 May 09
Duration:
23 mins
Follow the story of Gemma Tracee Apiku, a former refugee who spent her teenage years in the camps of Sudan, as she returns to Africa to become a relief worker herself.
Thu, 21 May 09
Duration:
23 mins
Until the end of last year Bernard Madoff was a highly respected financial guru and long time advisor to America's rich and famous. Then on Thursday the twelfth December 2008 he was exposed as a major crook. His 'Ponzi' scheme is probably the largest ever pyramid fraud in US history. Amongst his victims there were not only individuals and banks but also charities. For Assignment, James Coomarasamy looks at the damage he has done to two charities in particular - The JEHT Foundation and the Picower Foundation.
Tue, 19 May 09
Duration:
24 mins
James Miles, the BBC's China correspondent in 1989, was an eye-witness to the events leading up to the Tiananmen Square protests.
Mon, 18 May 09
Duration:
23 mins
Mauritania is a country with a tradition of slavery, but in August 2007 owning slaves became a criminal act. David Gutnick visits Mauritania and finds out how entrenched the master/slave relationship still is.
Thu, 14 May 09
Duration:
23 mins
Assignment this week investigates just who was responsible for the toxic dumping in Ivory Coast, and what it was that caused one hundred thousand people to become so ill there.
Wed, 13 May 09
Duration:
24 mins
Continuing his award-winning reports for the BBC World Service, Michael Robinson looks at the increasingly desperate efforts to stave off a global economic slump and depression. He visits Europe and Asia to identify the dangers that lie ahead and investigates how the present bail-out packages devised by leaders in rich countries will hit newly emerging nations.
Tue, 12 May 09
Duration:
24 mins
Vivek Kumar runs India's number one detective agency and business - investigating marital infidelities - is booming.
Mon, 11 May 09
Duration:
24 mins
In the last of this four part series, Sorious Samura is in a fishing village near Freetown in Sierra Leone.
Fri, 8 May 09
Duration:
24 mins
Exploring the world of an extraordinary individual. This week, we travel to Colombia to experience a day in the life of Cartagena’s Martin Murrillo – mobile cart librarian and self-taught teacher.
Tue, 5 May 09
Duration:
23 mins
Continuing his award-winning reports for the BBC World Service, Michael Robinson looks at the increasingly desperate efforts to stave off a global economic slump and depression. He visits Europe and Asia to identify the dangers that lie ahead and investigates how the present bail-out packages devised by leaders in rich countries will hit newly emerging nations.
Fri, 1 May 09
Duration:
24 mins
Award-winning journalist Sorious Samura heads back to his native West Africa for a trip through his homeland of Sierra Leone and other neighbouring countries. In part three Sorious returns to Liberia to follow the journey of a 26-year old woman called ‘Black Diamond’ as she travels hundreds of miles across Liberia in search of the daughter she calls ‘Beloved’. The child was born after Diamond, then aged 15, was raped by government soldiers. During the rape her parents tried to defend her and were killed. Fuelled by anger, she joined the rebels to become one of Liberia’s most infamous child soldiers. She tells Sorious her version of the war.
Fri, 1 May 09
Duration:
23 mins
Just one year ago Wall Street bankers enjoyed widespread regard, even veneration, in American public life, respected as people who understood the world of money and finance. Twelve months on the story is very different with many of those bankers having experienced a meterioric fall from grace. So what's happened to our respect for the financial whizz-kids? And how do they now see the world, now that the world has disowned them? For Assignment, Ed Butler travels to Wall Street to hear their stories.
Wed, 29 Apr 09
Duration:
23 mins
Professor Jim Al-Khalili looks at the legacy of scientists from the Islamic world. In part three of The Secret Scientists, he talks about the work of Abu Rayhan Biruni, who calculated the Earth's circumference with an incredible degree of accuracy. Jim explores how the Christian Crusades, the invasion of the Mongols, the fall of the Abbasid dynasty and the discovery of the New World may have contributed to the decline of great scholarship in the 13th century. Finally he explores the status of science in the modern Muslim world and investigates recent developments in funding and research.
Tue, 21 Apr 09
Duration:
23 mins
Jim Al-Khalili looks at the scientists from the Islamic world who created a legacy for scientists in the European renaissance.
Mon, 20 Apr 09
Duration:
24 mins
Sorious Samura takes four journeys that explore the challenges and contradictions of life in modern West Africa. In Part One, we hear about Cletus Anaaya and his efforts to stop the widespread killing of so-called 'spirit children' in northern Ghana.
Fri, 17 Apr 09
Duration:
23 mins
Jim Al-Khalili looks at the scientists from the Islamic world who created a legacy for scientists in the European renaissance.
Fri, 17 Apr 09
Duration:
24 mins
After one of Africa's most vicious conflicts - a war that claimed the lives of more than 200 thousand people and displaced a million others - can Liberia keep its peace?
Thu, 16 Apr 09
Duration:
24 mins
The Eritrean government is turning its country into a giant prison, according to new report released by Human Rights Watch. For this week's Assignment Pascale Harter travels to Sicily, where thousands of Eritrean refugees arrive every year, to ask why they're fleeing their country.
Mon, 13 Apr 09
Duration:
32 mins
In Guatemala four years ago, 80 million documents were discovered. They contained evidence of police atrocities during Guatemala's civil war. In programme 2 of this series, Gerry Northam continues his tour of the archives.
Fri, 10 Apr 09
Duration:
24 mins
In 2003 peace was declared between the Liberian government and rebel groups.
Wed, 8 Apr 09
Duration:
23 mins
Ten years after the war in Kosovo, Michael Montgomery returns to the region for Assignment. He investigates allegations of torture, kidnap and murder by the Kosovo Liberation Army both during and after the war.
Mon, 6 Apr 09
Duration:
24 mins
In Guatemala four years ago, 80 million documents were discovered in a warehouse. They contain evidence of police atrocities during Guatemala's 36 year long civil war. Gerry Northam investigates the story of the archive’s chance discovery.
Fri, 3 Apr 09
Duration:
22 mins
Jared Thomas is an Aboriginal Australian. Born of mixed race parents. We follow his search for the nature of identity and see how it relates to a generation of young Aboriginal Australian men.
Thu, 2 Apr 09
Duration:
23 mins
For twenty five years, Turkey fought a dirty war with Kurdish separatist insurgents. Atrocities were committed on both sides but most of the 40 000 people killed were Kurds. Many thousands of deaths remain unexplained. But now a high profile trial of suspected members of an alleged ultra nationalist gang has led some Kurds to believe there may finally be a chance for justice. Sarah Rainsford reports for Assignment.
Mon, 30 Mar 09
Duration:
24 mins
Mark Urban asks if Barack Obama's presidency will see substantial reform at the Pentagon.
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Duration:
23 mins
Richard Dowden joins the greatest of all African novelists, Chinua Achebe, on his first trip back to his homeland of Nigeria for many years.
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Duration:
24 mins
What is it really like to be old? In this four part series, Jane Little meets Third Agers from four continents to find out. In the final programme Jane hears from people who have dared to think the unthinkable in managing old age.
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Duration:
24 mins
What is it really like to be old? In this four part series, Jane Little meets Third Agers from four continents to find out. In programme three, Jane explores what happens when older people become frail or ill.
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Duration:
24 mins
What has become of Yiddish and how much of the language survives today?
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Duration:
23 mins
During the cold war, more than thirty west German women were prosecuted after been tricked into handing over secrets to Romeo spies sent by the Stasi, the East German secret police. For Assignment, Angus Crawford asks if twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, they deserve to be forgiven.
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Duration:
24 mins
In the run up to the Indonesian elections in April, Anita Barraud explores how terrorism, tourism and globalisation is affecting Bali's local politics.
Mon, 16 Mar 09
Duration:
24 mins
What is it really like to be old? In this four part series, Jane Little meets Third Agers from four continents to find out. In programme three, Jane explores what happens when older people become frail or ill.
Fri, 13 Mar 09
Duration:
24 mins
Yiddish was the language of the Jewish Diaspora, the language of a people on the move across Europe. It has suffered a dramatic decline over the last century.
Tue, 10 Mar 09
Duration:
23 mins
In the run up to elections, Anita Barraud finds out why poverty and starvation are causing major problems for West Timor. Join her as she travels deep into the countryside and discovers malnutrition that rivals parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
Mon, 9 Mar 09
Duration:
24 mins
What is it really like to be old? In this four part series, Jane Little meets people from four continents to find out. In part two, she hears from older people facing financial challenges in Kenya, Brazil, the UK and the US.
Thu, 5 Mar 09
Duration:
23 mins
Who’s responsible for our current economic meltdown? Financial institutions around the globe are now sitting on mega losses – they hold assets worth a fraction of what they paid for them. But one set of organizations – credit rating agencies - gave these institutions false confidence to buy these assets. So are the Credit Rating Agencies the real villains?
Wed, 4 Mar 09
Duration:
24 mins
Trafalgar Square is a must-see destination on any tourist map of the UK. But beyond the statues and clicking cameras are the lives and stories of those for whom this space exists as an everyday environment.
Wed, 4 Mar 09
Duration:
23 mins
Anita Barraud explores how peace and democracy is working in Aceh, a region that has endured dictatorship, decades of war and the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.
Mon, 2 Mar 09
Duration:
24 mins
What is it really like to be old? In this four part series, Jane Little meets Third Agers from four continents to find out. In programme one, Jane meets some extraordinary women who’ve given old age a whole new meaning.
Thu, 26 Feb 09
Duration:
23 mins
It's a year since Kenya's political rivals signed a power-sharing agreement to end the violence which broke out after presidential elections there. In this week's Assignment Pascale Harter travels back to the scene of some of the worst violence to see if the power-sharing government really has reconciled Kenyans.
Tue, 24 Feb 09
Duration:
23 mins
In the run up to the Indonesian elections in April, Anita Barraud travels to four different regions of the country to take a closer look at its politics and democracy.
Mon, 16 Feb 09
Duration:
24 mins
Lucy Ash looks at a successful prison reform scheme in Kansas that is turning crack dealers into respectable businessmen. She also visits Italy where a maximum security jail has become Tuscany's most exclusive eatery. Join Lucy on the final stop on her global journey looking at innovative ways to cut crime.
Fri, 13 Feb 09
Duration:
21 mins
As Beatlemania swept throughout the world in 1964, it seemed unable to penetrate the Iron Curtain. However, an underground culture grew which used ingenious ways to discover the Beatles' music. Paul Gambaccini reveals the extraordinary ways the Beatles' music was listened to in the Soviet Union during the 1960s. Did the music and spirit of The Beatles help to end communism?
Fri, 6 Feb 09
Duration:
24 mins
Lucy Ash looks at why allowing prisoners to raise puppies has proved to be a successful way of bringing out their caring, and more emotive side. Join her on her global journey as she looks at innovative ways of cutting crime.
Fri, 6 Feb 09
Duration:
22 mins
Worldwide, the illegal trade in wildlife is worth up to $25 billion US a year. Australia is one of the countries counting the cost as its rare birds and reptiles are targeted by international criminal gangs. Sharon Mascall tracks this trade across Australia and speaks to investigators, customs officers and dealers, attracting the attention of smugglers along the way.
Thu, 5 Feb 09
Duration:
23 mins
Nadene Ghouri goes undercover to expose the trade in children by some charities registered in the United States and operating as businesses in Liberia.
Fri, 30 Jan 09
Duration:
23 mins
As prison numbers in Britain continue to soar, what can be done to stop criminals re-offending? In part one, Lucy Ash finds out if creativity can help to cut crime.
Fri, 30 Jan 09
Duration:
24 mins
This three-part series looks at the impact the bicycle has had on people's lives. In programme three, two newspaper deliverers in New Delhi, India take us on their daily cycle route.
Thu, 29 Jan 09
Duration:
24 mins
At the end of last year, violent clashes broke out in Jos in central Nigeria after a disputed local election. Christian and Muslim mobs took to the streets burning mosques, churches and homes. Hundreds were killed: in some of the worst incidents, children were burnt inside their schools. This is just the latest round in a cycle of sectarian violence that has killed at least ten thousand Nigerians over the past decade. Robert Walker travels to Jos, a town still under curfew, to find out what caused the clashes and to investigate why many residents believe more violence is likely.
Mon, 26 Jan 09
Duration:
24 mins
Justin Webb explores the domestic and international legacies of President George W Bush as he leaves office. In part two, he looks at how President Bush's failures paved the way for Barack Obama.
Fri, 23 Jan 09
Duration:
23 mins
This three-part series looks at the impact the bicycle has had on people's lives. Programme two visits Kampala, Uganda where the bicycle is being used as a wheelchair for disabled users.
Tue, 20 Jan 09
Duration:
24 mins
Is the UN's Human Rights Council fulfilling its role to protect the most vulnerable from human rights abuses or a cabal fixated on protecting itself?
Fri, 16 Jan 09
Duration:
23 mins
This series features three portraits of the use of the bicycle around the world. The first programme looks at a new bicycle system in Paris, France called the Velib.
Thu, 15 Jan 09
Duration:
24 mins
Justin Webb explores the domestic and international legacies of President George W Bush as he leaves office. In part one, he looks at how 9/11 changed American foreign policy and how the world viewed the US.
Tue, 13 Jan 09
Duration:
24 mins
Kwame Anthony Appiah is one of America’s leading public intellectuals. In this investigative feature he is on a mission to find out what Barack Obama is like as an intellectual.
Thu, 8 Jan 09
Duration:
24 mins
A US president has a constitutional and inalienable right to grant pardons. He usually does this just before he leaves office. It is a mysterious and controversial business - notorious past pardons include Jimmy Hoffa, Caspar Weinberger, Ford's pardon of Nixon, Patty Hearst and fugitive billionaire Marc Rich. Listen to Owen Bennett-Jones as travels to Washington to find out what the process involves and who might be getting one from President George W. Bush.
Mon, 5 Jan 09
Duration:
24 mins
On 1st January 2009, Cuba marks the 50th anniversary of its revolution. All over the world, this Caribbean nation has cultivated a name-recognition and influence much greater than its size.
Fri, 2 Jan 09
Duration:
23 mins
Peter White tells the story of Louis Braille, the founder of Braille, and the story behind his invention, in the light of new technology for the blind, which threatens to make it redundant.
Mon, 29 Dec 08
Duration:
24 mins
As leaders in Europe and America struggle to re-write the rules of international finance following the credit crunch, we investigate the roots and role of risk.
Mon, 29 Dec 08
Duration:
24 mins
In Brand Cuba, Allan Little analyses some of the factors that have kept Cuba alive in the public imagination over such a long period.
Fri, 26 Dec 08
Duration:
24 mins
Throughout much of the Christian world Christmas is the time when Santa Claus dominates – a fat jolly chap who is our friend.
Thu, 25 Dec 08
Duration:
21 mins
There are more than 10 million Palestinians living around the world, more than half of whom are stateless. In this year when Israel has been marking its 60th anniversary many Palestinians have been reflecting on the event that for them meant exile. The 'naqba', or catastrophe, is how they describe the destruction of many of their villages and towns and their own dispersal following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. For Assignment Paul Adams spoke to four Palestinians in exile.
Tue, 23 Dec 08
Duration:
24 mins
While China's economy has boomed over the past 30 years, many of its 700 million farmers have been stuck in poverty. Their only hope of a wage has been far from home in the factories and building sites of the boomtowns.
Fri, 19 Dec 08
Duration:
24 mins
Timeline is the programme where the past sheds light on recent events though use of archive material.
Fri, 19 Dec 08
Duration:
22 mins
In this four part series, using archive recordings and music from the time, Sir John Tusa examines what made 1968 such a climactic year. Programme four focuses on the Prague Spring and the subsequent Russian invasion, but also anti-communist rumblings in Poland and China.
Thu, 18 Dec 08
Duration:
23 mins
Last year our correspondent Jill McGivering reported from Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan on the constant violence and the struggle to bring development to the region. Now she's returned, one year on, to see if there's been any progress.
Wed, 17 Dec 08
Duration:
24 mins
While China's economy has boomed over the past 30 years, many of its 700 million farmers have been stuck in poverty.
Fri, 12 Dec 08
Duration:
24 mins
In this four part series, using archive recordings and music from the time, Sir John Tusa examines what made 1968 such a climactic year. Programme three looks at how race and nationalism finally came to a head in 1968.
Fri, 12 Dec 08
Duration:
24 mins
In this topical and lively series, contemporary stories and events are explored through the examination of archive material of events that have gone before.
Wed, 10 Dec 08
Duration:
23 mins
And now Assignment asks whether Bolivia is on the brink of civil war. In the run-up to next month’s crucial vote on a new constitution, Daniel Schweimler reports from the wealthy and white-dominated city of Santa Cruz, where the dispute over the policies of the country’s indigenous President Evo Morales are spilling over into racial violence.
Wed, 10 Dec 08
Duration:
24 mins
Over the past two-and-a-half years, former BBC Beijing correspondent Carrie Gracie has been witnessing the upheaval as White Horse village in rural China is turned into a city. In this series Carrie returns to find out how the residents feel about the changes. In the programme one, Carrie meets a young mother impatient for a new city life to find a way out of poverty for her children.
Fri, 5 Dec 08
Duration:
22 mins
In this four part series, using archive recordings and music from the time, Sir John Tusa examines what made 1968 such a climactic year. Programme two captures the student unrest around the world.
Thu, 4 Dec 08
Duration:
23 mins
Five years after doing a series of reports on HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean, Emma Joseph retraces her steps for Assignment to find out whether the region still has one of the highest infection rates in the world, and to meet some of the people she first encountered in 2003.
Wed, 3 Dec 08
Duration:
24 mins
In this topical and lively series, contemporary stories and events are explored through the examination of archive material of events that have gone before.
Wed, 3 Dec 08
Duration:
24 mins
Father Henri Des Roziers is a Dominican priest and human rights lawyer working in Pará, one of Brazil's most violent regions. Nick Maes is given a privileged insight into the life of this man, his faith and the cause he would give his life for.
Fri, 28 Nov 08
Duration:
22 mins
In this four part series, using archive recordings and music from the time, Sir John Tusa examines what made 1968 such a climactic year. Starting with the Vietnam War and the assasination of Bobby Kennedy, this series reflects on why 1968 was significant in world history.
Fri, 28 Nov 08
Duration:
24 mins
This series looks at the growth of street art. Programme two focuses on Sao Paulo, Brazil through the eyes of a street artist, Nunca. Can Nunca transfer his counter-cultural message to the Tate Modern gallery in London?
Tue, 25 Nov 08
Duration:
24 mins
Rupa Jha explores what ex-militants in Kashmir and their families expect from the future.
Thu, 20 Nov 08
Duration:
24 mins
This series looks at street art in two very different cities: New York and Sao Paulo. Each episode profiles a rising artist, and speaks to people on the street to discover how attitudes to graffiti and street art vary from city to city. Episode 1 looks at New York through the eyes of Elbow-Toe.
Thu, 20 Nov 08
Duration:
23 mins
The Neapolitan crime syndicate, the Camorra, has said it wants a young writer dead by Christmas, because he has exposed how they really do business. Increasingly it's brave individuals - not the Italian state - who are taking on the Camorra, by breaking the code of silence and stripping away the glamour that surrounds organised crime in Italy. For Assignment, Pascale Harter travels to southern Italy to talk to the people caught up in the deadly battle against the Camorra.
Tue, 18 Nov 08
Duration:
24 mins
Rupa Jha talks to former militants in Kashmir and their families about why they took up arms and the reasons behind giving up violence. What are the challenges of returning to normal society?
Fri, 14 Nov 08
Duration:
23 mins
You might think that copper is just another metal, but in fact it is a vital substance. Discover why, without this metal, even the evolution of life itself would be radically different.
Thu, 13 Nov 08
Duration:
24 mins
Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless when Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of the southern coast of the United States in 2005. Many survivors were rehoused by the federal government in travel trailers which they claim made them sick. For Assignment, Rob Walker travels to Mississippi to hear their story.
Wed, 12 Nov 08
Duration:
24 mins
Former Kabul correspondent Alan Johnston reflects on decades of turmoil in Afghanistan, from the Soviet invasion in 1979 to the intervention by the West.
Mon, 10 Nov 08
Duration:
27 mins
Animal Migration in a Climate of Change is a special four-part series that explores the way environmental change is affecting the natural movement of animals all around the world. In Part Four, In A Wild Goose Chase, the focus is on wild geese.
Mon, 10 Nov 08
Duration:
28 mins
Animal Migration in a Climate of Change is a special four-part series that explores the way environmental change is affecting the natural movement of animals all around the world. In Part Three, The Elephant's Journey, Brett Westwood looks at African elephant migration.
Mon, 10 Nov 08
Duration:
27 mins
Animal Migration in a Climate of Change is a special four-part series that explores the way environmental change is affecting the natural movement of animals all around the world. In Part Two, Silent Landscapes, focuses on how environmental change is affecting some popular bird species.
Fri, 7 Nov 08
Duration:
24 mins
Discover just how important cows have been civilisation, all around the world.
Wed, 5 Nov 08
Duration:
24 mins
Former Kabul correspondent Alan Johnston reflects on decades of turmoil in Afghanistan, from the Soviet invasion in 1979 to the intervention by the West.
Tue, 4 Nov 08
Duration:
27 mins
Animal Migration in a Climate of Change is a special four-part series that explores the way environmental change is affecting the natural movement of animals all around the world. In Part One, The Mexican Wave, the focus is on sustaining the Orange Monarch butterfly.
Mon, 3 Nov 08
Duration:
24 mins
The South Ossetian conflict not only sparked a military war between Russia and Georgia, but a propaganda battle. James Rodgers examines this ongoing media war between Georgia and Russia - featuring archive clips of key events and interviews.
Fri, 31 Oct 08
Duration:
25 mins
Neil McCarthy pieces together a story of rats, famine and insurrection from the 1950's to present day, in remote hills of North East India.
Wed, 29 Oct 08
Duration:
24 mins
Andrew Purcell investigates the growing homelessness crisis among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the United States. The programme looks at how these 'lost veterans' struggle to reintegrate into civilian society, and how they feel abandoned by the US military.
Mon, 27 Oct 08
Duration:
24 mins
Allan Little presents an appraisal of the man described as America's Apostle of Freedom: Thomas Jefferson, author of the founding document of the American Republic.
Fri, 24 Oct 08
Duration:
22 mins
As the global banking crisis deepens, a flood of multi-million dollar lawsuits is beginning to shed light into some of the darkest corners of international finance. The BBC's Michael Robinson investigates these cases and what they reveal about the present disaster.
Mon, 20 Oct 08
Duration:
24 mins
The Saudi Interior Ministry and the US Military in Iraq have offered al - Qaeda sympathisers and detainees therapy and job training. Owen Bennett-Jones asks if this can really prevent someone from supporting al-Qaeda.
Fri, 17 Oct 08
Duration:
24 mins
This special documentary exploring life in Chicago's inner city is based on Ghetto Life 101, an acclaimed 1993 documentary featuring LeAlan Jones and LLoyd Newman, two teenagers who brought US radio listeners face to face with life in of one of Chicago's worst housing projects. Jones has revisited the area to see how it has changed.
Thu, 16 Oct 08
Duration:
23 mins
A series of protests against Indian rule in Kashmir has left more than 30 people dead since August. Thousands of people have died in the violence there since 1989. For Assignment George Arney travels to Kashmir to speak to young people caught up in the protests and discovers that for the first time the Muslim separatist struggle is embracing non-violence.
Fri, 10 Oct 08
Duration:
24 mins
Owen Bennett-Jones tests the big promises governments have made about the financial war on terror.
Fri, 10 Oct 08
Duration:
23 mins
What is the state of health of the Italian nation today? Is Italy in crisis or undergoing a new Renaissance? Italian journalist Annalisa Piras returns home to find out.
Thu, 9 Oct 08
Duration:
23 mins
In Mexico, the government has deployed thousands of troops in an attempt to break up the powerful drug cartels operating in the country. Emilio San Pedro travels to the border city of Tijuana and profiles a community under pressure from one of Mexico's most violent gangs.
Wed, 8 Oct 08
Duration:
24 mins
In Iran, the constant drugs crisis and loss of skilled workers contrast with a lively internet scene which harbours poets, political dissidents and religious leaders.
Fri, 3 Oct 08
Duration:
23 mins
Owen Bennett-Jones looks at al Qaeda's hard power and military capabilities in its chosen key battlegrounds: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Thu, 2 Oct 08
Duration:
25 mins
The Maldives, Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Mauritius are all popular tourist destinations. Robin White tells the stories behind the tourist facades, visiting Mauritius for part four of this series.
Thu, 2 Oct 08
Duration:
24 mins
In Assignment, Robert Walker travels to East Africa to investigate a secret detention programme - involving the transfer of suspected terrorists across three countries: Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.
Wed, 1 Oct 08
Duration:
25 mins
This series explores what life offers to Iran's burgeoning young population who are trapped by conservatism and an ailing economy. In the first programme, we hear how the war with Iraq acted as a continuation of the Revolution.
Mon, 29 Sep 08
Duration:
23 mins
Seven years into the global war on terror, is al-Qaeda winning? It's a deceptively simple question, one Owen Bennett-Jones asked in Riyadh, Peshawar and Baghdad, as well as London, Brussels and Washington for this series in four parts.
Thu, 25 Sep 08
Duration:
25 mins
The Maldives, Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Mauritius are all popular tourist destinations. Robin White tells the stories behind the tourist facades, visiting the Seychelles for part three of this series.
Thu, 25 Sep 08
Duration:
23 mins
Pakistan's government is locked in an intense battle with Islamist militants for control of areas on its northern border with Afghanistan. For Assignment Owen Bennett-Jones visits the Khyber pass - the main supply route for the American and other western forces based in Afghanistan - and discovers that the insurgency has made it vulnerable.
Wed, 24 Sep 08
Duration:
24 mins
Robin Lustig travels to Phoenix, Arizona, the home of Senator John McCain, to ask two ordinary voters about their most pressing concerns in the forthcoming US presidential election.
Mon, 22 Sep 08
Duration:
24 mins
A tale of a tiny painting, set against a large canvas of war, politics and looted art in Charle's Wheeler quest to solve a 50-year mystery.
Thu, 18 Sep 08
Duration:
25 mins
The Maldives, Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Mauritius are all popular tourist destinations. Robin White tells the stories behind the tourist facades, visiting Sri Lanka for part two of this series.
Thu, 18 Sep 08
Duration:
23 mins
As the insurgency in Afghanistan grows, Kate Clark travels undercover to investigate who's arming the Taleban. Meeting commanders and arms dealers, she finds the Taleban are getting their weapons from some suprising sources.
Wed, 17 Sep 08
Duration:
25 mins
We know the two US presidential candidates and what they would do in office, but what does the electorate itself want? Robin Lustig travels to the candidates' home states to meet four Americans to find out what issues have determined their choices.
Mon, 15 Sep 08
Duration:
24 mins
How are the Marwari traders managing as India goes global? Can a business culture based on traditional values survive as India's economy changes?
Thu, 11 Sep 08
Duration:
24 mins
The Maldives, Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Mauritius are all popular tourist destinations. Robin White tells the stories behind the tourist facades, visiting the Maldives for part one of this series.
Mon, 8 Sep 08
Duration:
24 mins
Mukhul Devichand finds out how the Marwari trading caste from India's western deserts has become a major global economic and political force.
Thu, 4 Sep 08
Duration:
24 mins
Ruth Evans tells the extraordinary story of 11 women brought together on the internet by one man's sperm.
Thu, 4 Sep 08
Duration:
23 mins
Haiti, one of the very poorest countries in the world, has been hit hard by soaring food prices. Earlier this year riots led to the sacking of the prime minister. In Assignment, Orin Gordon looks at the ongoing struggle for Haitians to feed themselves.
Mon, 1 Sep 08
Duration:
23 mins
John McCain: a profile of the man who talks of honour and patriotic duty and admits having a legendary short fuse.
Fri, 29 Aug 08
Duration:
23 mins
Win Scutt finds out how the maritime treasure hunting industry has boomed in recent years.
Thu, 28 Aug 08
Duration:
23 mins
Following recent legislation in Spain the government has agreed to offer support to families wishing to find the remains of their loved ones killed during the country's brutal civil war of the 1930s. For Assignment, Mike Williams travels to Spain to visit an exhumation of bodies and asks if the government's attempt to end the political silence of that period is working.
Tue, 26 Aug 08
Duration:
24 mins
BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner talks to former allies of Osama bin Laden who are now engaged in countering the terrorist leader's agenda.
Mon, 25 Aug 08
Duration:
22 mins
Barack Obama:the profile of one of the two individuals who are the presumptive nominees in the US presidential election.
Thu, 21 Aug 08
Duration:
26 mins
International seas are largely unregulated, meaning most underwater archaeological wealth can be retrieved and sold without any obstacle. Can a new UNESCO convention bring some order?
Thu, 21 Aug 08
Duration:
23 mins
The experience of growing up in a socially deprived, inner city neighbourhood is a common one, no matter where you may live in the world. In Britain's main cities, police and politicians say a worrying trend has developed where some young people are now carrying and using both knives and guns at an ever younger age. The BBC's Nina Robinson takes a day out of the life of two youngsters in the English city of Birmingham to find out a little more about what it is that shapes their lives.
Wed, 20 Aug 08
Duration:
24 mins
BBC World Affairs correspondent Mark Doyle continues travelling from the west to the east of the DR Congo on a journey to find out why so many people have died and continue to die in that country.
Mon, 18 Aug 08
Duration:
24 mins
The extraordinary US military base at the heart of a vast shift in American military strategy, aiming for nation-building and peacekeeping.
Thu, 14 Aug 08
Duration:
23 mins
What do Freedom of Information laws actually achieve? Are they sometimes more symbolic than practical in their impact?
Thu, 14 Aug 08
Duration:
23 mins
During Argentina's Dirty War of the seventies and eighties thousands of leftists and dissidents vanished after being abducted by the security forces. Many of the women detained gave birth in detention centres before being killed and their babies were given to military families to bring up. Now, as Daniel Schweimler reports for Assignment, those babies have come of age in Argentina and some are trying to seek justice for what happened to them.
Wed, 13 Aug 08
Duration:
24 mins
BBC World Affairs Correspondent Mark Doyle explores why over five million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the past decade.
Fri, 8 Aug 08
Duration:
23 mins
Prestigious job. Exotic location. Stately home, fine food and wine, and many other perks thrown in. Yours for only $200,000. The position a US ambassadorship. Around a third of all US ambassadors are not career diplomats; they're political appointees and almost all of them are major donors, wealthy businessmen. Is this really the way for the US to run its foreign policy?
Thu, 7 Aug 08
Duration:
24 mins
Freedom of information is well on the way to being seen as an essential prerequisite for a modern democracy. But there's almost always a backlash from politicians and officials.
Thu, 7 Aug 08
Duration:
23 mins
In the United States a small but increasingly vocal group of people believe that members of the country's Muslim community are working from within to turn America into an Islamic state. This group of right wing thinkers believe this so-called 'Soft Jihad' is being carried out in schools, universities and other institutions across the country and they want to put a stop to it. In Assignment, Pascale Harter travels to America to find out how this fear is finding a foothold in public opinion there and hears from some of those accused of being the 'soft jihadists'.
Wed, 6 Aug 08
Duration:
23 mins
Will there be a return to the dreaded days of "stagflation" with weak growth and rising inflation. Can economic policymakers find a way to deal with this double danger? Or is further pain inevitable?
Fri, 1 Aug 08
Duration:
24 mins
The United States is due to have the first billion-dollar election in its history. The BBC's Steve Evans presents this two-part investigation into election spending done in collaboration with the Centre for Public Integrity in Washington DC.
Thu, 31 Jul 08
Duration:
23 mins
After the ending of apartheid in South Africa, the transfer of land from white to black was a key ANC promise - a proud calling card to correct the injustices of apartheid. But many critics argue that the reform programme has gone badly wrong. For Assignment Rosie Goldsmith reports on the struggle for South Africa's promised land, which is driving a political, economic and racist wedge down the middle of an already tense country.
Tue, 29 Jul 08
Duration:
24 mins
With the world's economy now threatened by what some believe is the most dangerous crisis since the depression of the 1930s, Michael Robinson looks at the deepening international financial turmoil.
Fri, 25 Jul 08
Duration:
23 mins
In this two-part investigation, Matt McGrath sets out to expose corruption, drug use and cover-ups at the highest levels in sport.
Wed, 23 Jul 08
Duration:
23 mins
In May violence against African immigrants exploded across South Africa. Two months on thousands are still displaced, living in camps and shelters. Robert Walker travels to one of the townships in Johannesburg where the attacks started and asks whether the violence could happen again.
Wed, 23 Jul 08
Duration:
24 mins
Jill McGivering explores whether China is doing enough to provide healthcare to 1.3 billion people and what it can learn from the struggles of the developed world.
Fri, 18 Jul 08
Duration:
24 mins
Russell Fuller follows the difficult journeys of six hopefuls from around the world in the run up to the Beijing Olympics.
Fri, 18 Jul 08
Duration:
24 mins
In this two-part investigation, Matt McGrath sets out to expose corruption, drug use and cover-ups at the highest levels in sport.
Thu, 17 Jul 08
Duration:
22 mins
An undercover BBC investigation has exposed how young African footballers are being defrauded by conmen posing as talent scouts from English Premiership clubs. Victims are duped into parting with thousands of pounds in the false belief that they are paying an official fee for a trial to play with their favourite teams. Gavin Lee reports from Nigeria for Assignment.
Tue, 15 Jul 08
Duration:
24 mins
Part One: Jill McGivering compares two very different free health systems in the developed world: the British NHS and that of the US state of Massachusetts.
Fri, 11 Jul 08
Duration:
24 mins
In the second part of this series, Kate Clark reports from those provinces where an opium ban is in force, but farmers are feeling the pressure.
Thu, 10 Jul 08
Duration:
24 mins
The dynamics of the old world and the new world are changing and the balance of economic systems is shifting. Martin Wolf of the Financial Times asks leading economists how important is the American financial cycle to the rest of the world now?
Thu, 10 Jul 08
Duration:
23 mins
In a multi billion dollar deal China has promised to rebuild DR Congo's crumbling infrastructure in exchange for a valuable slice of Congo's vast mineral wealth. What's being called the Contract of the Century was negotiated in secret and has left some people in the country wondering who stands to benefit most from the deal - for Assignment Tim Whewell travels to the DR Congo to find out.
Wed, 9 Jul 08
Duration:
24 mins
China says hosting the Olympics has accelerated national reforms, technological advances and greater freedoms overall but Gerry Northam investigates claims that life has gotten worse for China's poor.
Mon, 7 Jul 08
Duration:
24 mins
Kate Clark gains rare access to the fight against the Afghan opium trade and asks how effective attempts to control it have been.
Fri, 4 Jul 08
Duration:
24 mins
Campaigners for improving maternal health have been lobbying the G8 to get the topic on the agenda for the next meeting in Japan. In programme two of the series Health for All, Uduak Amimo asks is there enough political will to combat maternal mortality?
Wed, 2 Jul 08
Duration:
24 mins
As the world counts down to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Gerry Northam investigates China's claims of 'vigorous growth in the public practice of religion' but he discovers people are still being persecuted and oppressed for practising religion.
Fri, 27 Jun 08
Duration:
24 mins
In the third part of this series, Audrey Brown travels to Atteridgeville, a township outside the capital, Pretoria, to explore what really lay behind the recent attacks by South Africans on foreigners.
Fri, 27 Jun 08
Duration:
24 mins
Is health for all a fact or just fiction? Helen Sharp asks if the world has the will, people and money to deliver basic good health to everyone.
Thu, 26 Jun 08
Duration:
27 mins
This week's Assignment tells the story of the Burmese cyclone through the eyes and ears of the few BBC journalists who managed to get into the country after the disaster. Hear the story of the cyclone unfold told by those who witnessed it first hand. That's Reporting The Cyclone, from Assignment this week.
Wed, 25 Jun 08
Duration:
24 mins
In 1998, a truck bomb exploded outside the American embassy in Nairobi. Over 200 people died and thousands were injured. It features an extraordinary interview with the FBI agent who tracked down and questioned a suspected al-Qaeda bomber. It was Osama Bin Laden's first major strike in his jihad against America.
Mon, 23 Jun 08
Duration:
24 mins
In the second part of this series, Audrey Brown travels to South Africa to explore how privilege and access to resources is increasingly being seen as an issue of colour.
Fri, 20 Jun 08
Duration:
24 mins
Sheila Dillon reports on the work of restaurateurs, farmers, fishermen and activists to restore the culinary heritage of a devastated city.
Thu, 19 Jun 08
Duration:
23 mins
Baseball may be the United States' national sport - but this year, 2008, almost half of all its professional players come from overseas - and some 40 per cent of them from the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti. For Assignment David Goldblatt visits Haiti to report on what has become a significant export industry for this country of nine million people.
Wed, 18 Jun 08
Duration:
24 mins
In the third part of this series, Peter Taylor investigates The Paris Plot, the hijacking of a plane in Algiers on its way to Paris; a plan to use a plane as a weapon of mass destruction.
Fri, 13 Jun 08
Duration:
24 mins
Fourteen years after liberation and 60 years since the beginning of what was then 'apartheid', Audrey Brown explores and uncovers the extent to which race still plays a part in everyday life for those living in South Africa.
Thu, 12 Jun 08
Duration:
24 mins
More than 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War, Bomb Hunters, tells the stories of the people living in Xieng Khuang in Laos and how they survive in a land still littered with unexploded ordnance.
Thu, 12 Jun 08
Duration:
23 mins
The new mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno was once a so-called neo-fascist - a supporter of anti-democratic, right wing radicalism. And his election has come at a time of mounting ethnic tension in Italy. As Christian Fraser now discovers in Assignment, there are fears that Rome could be about to suffer the return of hard right, authoritarian rule.
Wed, 11 Jun 08
Duration:
24 mins
In the second part of this series, Peter Taylor investigates how two events in 1987 contributed to the beginnings of the road to peace in Northern Ireland.
Fri, 6 Jun 08
Duration:
24 mins
The powerful story of a young Iranian woman called Leila, sold into prostitution at the age of nine by her own family and sentenced to hang aged 18.
Thu, 5 Jun 08
Duration:
24 mins
Argentinian film director, writer and tango enthusiast, Edgardo Cozarinsky, talks to artists, dancers, novelists and other Argentinians about why psychotherapy and tango have such a pervasive hold on the Argentine mind and soul.
Thu, 5 Jun 08
Duration:
23 mins
The town of Auroville in southern India was built in 1968 on the basis of a utopian ideal - that a community could live in peace and harmony without having to worry about food and shelter. But forty years on there are unsettling allegations of abuse emerging from the City of Dawn. For Assignment Rachel Wright visits Auroville and tells the disturbing story of a dream gone wrong.
Wed, 4 Jun 08
Duration:
24 mins
In the first part of this series, Peter Taylor reveals how events unfolded in the 1976 hijacking of an Air France plane on a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris which ends with a bid to rescue hostages from Idi Amin's Uganda
Fri, 30 May 08
Duration:
24 mins
In Taxi To The Dark Side, American film-maker Alex Gibney reports on the use of torture by American soldiers in Afghanistan. Was the torture the work of a few rogue soldiers, or officially approved by the Pentagon?
Fri, 30 May 08
Duration:
24 mins
Dr Thomas Hargrove, an American scientist kidnapped by FARC, is reunited with the family's German neighbour, who was part of 'Team Tom' which organized the negotiations.
Thu, 29 May 08
Duration:
24 mins
Lucy Ash finds out if new trade deals and diplomatic dialogue with Libya can encourage them to abandon torture and oppression for political reform and human rights improvements.
Thu, 29 May 08
Duration:
23 mins
The Commodities Bubble: Michael Robinson investigates and reveals how the commodities markets are attracting major players now looking for somewhere to invest other than the dollar, banking or shares and how this has affected the price of food products around the world.
Tue, 27 May 08
Duration:
24 mins
In this two-part series, former BBC East Africa Correspondent Mike Wooldridge travels from the bustling capital, Nairobi, to the Rift Valley to report on the issues behind the conflict that erupted in Kenya at the turn of the year.
Fri, 23 May 08
Duration:
24 mins
For the last six decades, central bankers have run the international financial system with the aid of a powerful set of economic levers handed to them after the World War 2. Last year, these levers came off in their hands. In this two-part series Robert Peston examines how the former supermen of global financial economy became pathetic weaklings.
Fri, 23 May 08
Duration:
24 mins
Presenter Ritula Shah reunites former hostage Norman Kember - kidnapped in Iraq - with the people who were personally involved in negotiations to free him, and who put their lives on hold to get him back.
Tue, 20 May 08
Duration:
24 mins
In this two-part series, former BBC East Africa Correspondent Mike Wooldridge travels from the bustling capital, Nairobi, to the Rift Valley to report on the issues behind the conflict that erupted in Kenya at the turn of the year.
Fri, 16 May 08
Duration:
24 mins
Cyber-crime is the fastest-growing sector of global-organised crime, worth about US$100 billion a year. Misha Glenny travels to Sao Paulo to find out why Brazil is the cyber-crime capital of the world.
Thu, 15 May 08
Duration:
25 mins
Who wouldn't like to escape the relentless march of time? Find out about the routes from those who attempt to escape the tyranny of time.
Thu, 15 May 08
Duration:
23 mins
Last September, Mark Weil, the radical theatre director of the Ilkhom theatre in Uzbekistan, was stabbed to death while returning home from a rehearsal. As the regime in Tashkent hardened it's line Mark Weil continued to challenge the authorities with his work. For Assignment Natalya Antelava asks whether this radical endeavour can survive without its director in an environment that is becoming more and more repressive.
Tue, 13 May 08
Duration:
23 mins
To mark the 20th anniversary of his assassination, Nick Maes looks at the life of Chico Mendes, the highly significant green activist who helped to galvanise the race to preserve the Amazon. Nick investigates what Chico Mendes achieved and gains exclusive access to his family.
Mon, 12 May 08
Duration:
24 mins
In the third part of this series on international crime, Misha Glenny is in South Africa where since the end of Apartheid, personal security has become almost a national obsession; the number of private security firms has mushroomed.
Fri, 9 May 08
Duration:
24 mins
How have non-native creatures - from birds to bovines, reptiles to rhesus monkeys - become unlikely, but permanent, residents of Hong Kong?
Tue, 6 May 08
Duration:
29 mins
Nick Fraser looks at the intellectual revolution that spread from Paris throughout the world, particularly to America and then to Britain, in 1968.
Mon, 5 May 08
Duration:
24 mins
In the second of this series which charts the explosion of international organised crime, Misha Glenny goes to the Balkans to follow the trail of smuggled cigarettes.
Fri, 2 May 08
Duration:
23 mins
Environmental refugees seek a home somewhere in the planet where the predicted global changes can, perhaps, be weathered.
Thu, 1 May 08
Duration:
23 mins
In this week's Assignment David Goldblatt travels to Israel to meet the fans of Beitar Jerusalem football club. As you'll hear in this programme the fans pride themselves on their extreme nationalist views and anti-arab chanting at matches. Beitar fans boast that an Arab never has and never will play for the club. Now under the ownership of flamboyant Russian Billionaire Arkadi Gaydamak Beitar is top of the Israeli league, but the behaviour of its hard-core fans continues to cause trouble. Since this programme was recorded, Beitar fans have been punished for a pitch invasion, and are now banned from their own stadium for the rest of the season. Beitar remain top of the Israeli league.
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Duration:
24 mins
Forty years ago, 504 unarmed Vietnamese civilians were killed by US soldiers. It became known as ‘The My Lai Massacre' and was covered up by the army for almost a year. In the second part of ‘The My Lai Tapes’, presented by Robert Hodierne, you can hear for the first time, the taped recordings of the US Army’s internal inquiry into the massacre.
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Duration:
24 mins
As part of his investigation into global crime, Misha Glenny is in Canada, where the wholesale production of marijuana is posing a challenge to the US-led 'War on Drugs'.
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Duration:
27 mins
The BBC's Africa editor Martin Plaut sets out to examine serious new allegations of corruption and wrongdoing within the United Nations' peacekeeping operations.
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Duration:
25 mins
The resourcefulness and resilience of prisioners fighting for freedom that make Australians today proudly boast of their own inherited 'convict streak'
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Duration:
23 mins
Abandonment, abuse and neglect of the elderly by their own children and grandchildren is at record levels in India. In a society where reverence and respect towards senior citizens has been a source of pride, Tinku Ray reports for Assignment on why things have changed in India.
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Duration:
22 mins
Forty years ago in the village of My Lai in South Vietnam, a massacre took place. The victims were innocent Vietnamese civilians – 504 mainly women, old men, children and babies. They were murdered, and in many cases, raped by US soldiers. This episode of the Vietnam War became known as 'The My Lai Massacre' and proved to be a turning point in the war. In the My Lai Tapes Robert Hodierne tells the story of what happened that day in interviews with the victims and the perpetraotors.
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Duration:
23 mins
Laurie Taylor explores Marseille's unique racial geography to find out what kept the peace during 2005 and 2007 when race riots tore at the fabric of French society.
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Duration:
22 mins
Manuel Bagorro, the director of the Harare International Festival of the Arts, describes his efforts to bring a cultural highlight in the midst of the election chaos in Zimbabwe.
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Duration:
23 mins
The last few weeks have seen an increase in violence in Somalia. Insurgents have stepped up attacks on the Ethiopian army and on the Somali transitional government it's backing. Ethiopia sent it's troops into Somalia at the end of 2006, to remove an Islamist movement - the Islamic Courts - from the capital. But now Ethiopia is bogged down and anger at its presence has boosted supported for the insurgents. In Assignment, Rob Walker goes in search of a radical Islamist movement which is playing an increasingly deadly role in the conflict.
Wed, 16 Apr 08
Duration:
23 mins
Award winning poet Fred D’Aguiar is head of creative writing at Virginia Tech, the scene of a mass shooting of students and staff one year ago. He lost a student in the tragedy and had, in the past taught the shooter. In this documentary Fred reflects on the events of that day and the poetry both he and his students have written since.
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Duration:
23 mins
China is on track to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of halving Dollar-a-day poverty. But what uncertainties lie ahead now the Iron Bowl has been smashed? Mike Wooldrige reports.
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Duration:
23 mins
More than 65,000 grandparents in Canada are raising their grandchildren on their own, turning their lives upside down to raise a child for a second time.
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Duration:
22 mins
Dr Anne-Marie Brady from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand investigates how the Chinese Communist Party has adapted its propaganda methods to suit the 21st century.
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Duration:
23 mins
John Simpson meets the ladies cracking down on spitting in Beijing before the Olympics and chats to the lady everyone's calling China's Oprah Winfrey on the set of the hit TV show Win in China
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Duration:
23 mins
John Simpson meets the ladies cracking down on spitting in Beijing before the Olympics and chats to the lady everyone's calling China's Oprah Winfrey on the set of the hit TV show Win in China
Fri, 4 Apr 08
Duration:
23 mins
Why do Ghanaians dream of living a better life abroad? What must change in Ghana for more Ghanaians to want to stay?
Thu, 3 Apr 08
Duration:
24 mins
The United States has long been home to violent gangs, from the Mafia to the Bloods and Crips. But recently, US authorities have warned of the dangers of a transnational, ultra-violent gang with its origins in Central America. The FBI has now opened an office in El Salvador to deal with the threat of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. For Assignment, Maurice Walsh travelled to Washington DC's suburbs and San Salvador to take a look at MS-13, dubbed "The Most Dangerous Gang in America."
Wed, 2 Apr 08
Duration:
22 mins
For Iraqi Kurds these are the best times they have ever known. But can the desire for full independence be contained? Michael Goldfarb goes to Kirkuk disputed heart of northern Iraq's oil industry and the future source of wealth.
Fri, 28 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
Programme one: The Road From Tiananmen charts John Simpson's return to modern China 19 years after he witnessed the massacre of June 4 1989
Fri, 28 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
Shazia Khan investigates the agony of forced marriages in the UK and the risks of trying to escape it.
Thu, 27 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
Is it possible to legislate against deeply held beliefs? That's what the authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo are hoping to do. They want to make it a criminal offence to accuse a child of being a witch. Many of the hundreds of children who are sleeping rough on the streets of the capital city Kinshasa have been accused of being witches. But can such a law be enforced and can it really make a difference in a country that has been so fractured by war? For Assignment Angus Crawford spends time with the street children of Kinshasa to see if they think the new law can work.
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
John Simpson looks at the how the Iraq War has affected America's international role and reputation.
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
In the first part of the series Return to Kurdistan, Michael Goldfarb follows the upheaval of Kurdistan through the eyes of his translator Ahmad Shawkat.
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
With climate change bringing new threats of rising sea levels and increased rainfall, will luck and ingenuity continue to save the Netherlands from submersion?
Thu, 20 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
After the invasion of Iraq in 2003 hundreds of young American recruits were sent by Washington to help run the Coalition Provisional Authority, the body set up to administer Iraq. The CPA's tenure was widely criticised, as were its staff who, critics say, were simply political appointees with little or no experience relevant to the massive task they faced. Five years on Pascale Harter speaks to some of the so-called Brat Pack of US recruits to find out if they feel proud of what they achieved.
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
Nick Rankin enters cyber space to explore the world of intellectual piracy - the stealing of ideas.
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
In Programme Three, Lyse Doucet looks at how the Iraq War changed the regional balance of power.
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
In the 1980s Kathy Flower became the most famous face on Chinese television, as English teacher to millions of students long isolated from the outside world. Now she returns to a very different country as it prepares to host the Beijing Olympics.
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
According to US intelligence the Afghan president Hamid Karzai controls only 30 percent of Afghanistan, with the Taleban holding 10 percent. Most of the country is under local tribal control. But building support among the tribes is now at the core of a new American counter-insurgency strategy. The Americans believe they've now got a blueprint for winning hearts and minds. The BBC's Alastair Leithead has been following US troops and their British allies to find out how the plan is working.
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
Nick Rankin travels to Africa to find out how modern day pirates are ruling the high seas. From hijacking, kidnapping and ransoms, he finds out what is being done to combat the problem.
Mon, 10 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
Magdi Abdelhadi explores how the dream of a democratic Arab world was promoted then put in reverse as things went wrong in Iraq.
Mon, 10 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
In Programme Two Magdhi Abdulhadi looks at how the neocon dream of a democratic Arab world was promoted then put in reverse as things went wrong in Iraq.
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
Sharon Mascall investigates the Australian mining industry where many inexperienced workers are lured by high wages but face harsh conditions, poor safety standards and an uncertain future.
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
Jacob Zuma is one of the most powerful men in South Africa. He controls the ruling African National Congress and is poised to replace President Thabo Mbeki as head of state. But Jacob Zuma has a problem. Prosecutors say he's corrupt and hope to bring him to trial in August. Mr Zuma says the charges are political, designed to keep him from power. For Assignment Martin Plaut travelled to South Africa to investigate.
Mon, 3 Mar 08
Duration:
23 mins
Programme One: BBC correspondent Jim Muir evaluates how war has changed Iraq from the beginning of the invasion to the handover of power.
Fri, 29 Feb 08
Duration:
23 mins
Martin Sixsmith gets under the skin of the fastest growing and arguably most politically influential secret service in the world the "new KGB".
Thu, 28 Feb 08
Duration:
23 mins
Why are the British so scared of Islam? When the head of the Anglican church, Dr Rowan Williams, suggested that some aspects of Sharia law seemed unavoidable in parts of Britain, he prompted a storm of protest. For Assignment, Keith Adams explores what informs British public opinion about Islam.
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Duration:
22 mins
Russia has made more enemies than friends recently. Tim Whewell finds out where this new East, West confrontation is leading and why Russia is harking back to the days of the old Soviet Union.
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Duration:
23 mins
Tim Whewell investigates why a 'new' Cold War could be underway and if Russia and the US is embarking once again on a race for arms.
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Duration:
23 mins
Martin Sixsmith looks at Russia's fast growing and politically influential secret service.
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Duration:
23 mins
Soeren Kam is a former Danish SS Officer and one of the most wanted Nazi war criminals still alive. Now 86 and living in Bavaria, Kam admitted taking part in the abduction and killing of an anti-Nazi newspaper editor in Copenhagen in 1943. For Assignment Steve Rosenburg goes in search of Soeren Kam and talks to the people who know his story.
Tue, 19 Feb 08
Duration:
23 mins
Pipeline Power: Could Russia's vast energy sources possibly be the missiles of the future? Tim Whewell investigates why Russia's state energy company, Gazprom fell out with Ukraine.
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Duration:
23 mins
Nearly twenty years after the Cold War, there’s a new chill in relations between Russia and the West. Tim Whewell finds out what has happened to Russia's historic partnership with the Western Europe and the US.
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Duration:
24 mins
Owen Bennett-Jones examines the rise of Islamist militancy in Pakistan and the risk of the country being split apart.
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Duration:
24 mins
Why have so many of the hopes and aspirations of Pakistan's founders remained unfulfilled?
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Duration:
23 mins
In this second programme on Pain, Andrew North explores the strategies we use to survive pain, through expressing and suppressing it.
Mon, 11 Feb 08
Duration:
23 mins
It's been three months since cyclone Sidr struck Bangladesh. BBC reporter, Siobhann Tighe returns to speak to some of the survivors. She also talks to government advisers about the vulnerability of Bangladesh and what can be done to be better prepared.
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Duration:
23 mins
Temple prostitutes: The ancient Hindu tradition of dedicating young girls to the temple has come up against the modern horrors of AIDS.
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Duration:
23 mins
With its functioning parliament, a booming oil economy and a small but well-trained army, the Kurdish area of Iraq appears to offer a model for other areas of the country. But Kate Clark discovers growing corruption and dissatisfaction with the region's government.
Wed, 6 Feb 08
Duration:
23 mins
In this two part series, former BBC Iraq correspondent, Andrew North takes a personal journey through his own experience of pain and that of others.
Mon, 4 Feb 08
Duration:
23 mins
What would happen if the government of Pakistan, one of the world's nuclear powers, were to collapse? Would extreme Islamist militants be able to get their hands on the country's nuclear weapons?
Thu, 31 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
Georgia, considered to be the birthplace of wine, risks losing its wine industry. How are the producers coping?
Thu, 31 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
This week's Assignment reports on the post election violence in Kenya which has claimed the lives of up to 900 people. The opposition claim that the poll was rigged and the violence, which began in Western Kenya, has spread to other parts of the country. Pascale Harter travelled to the town of Eldoret in western Kenya to trace the roots of the tribal violence that has pitted neighbour against neighbour.
Tue, 29 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
In this four part series, Mike Wooldridge looks at what it's really like to have to live on one dollar a day. The third programme focuses on education in Ghana.
Thu, 24 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
The number of Moroccan story-tellers, known as halakis, is dwindling. Why is their art dying out?
Thu, 24 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
The final part of a three part series. Every year, thousands of young people from sub-Saharan Africa set off across the desert dreaming of a better life in Europe. Part two: Returning home.
Thu, 24 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
Millions of young African boys dream of following such football stars as Didier Drogba and Emmanuel Eboue to Europe to make their fortune. Only a handful succeed whilst many more fall into the hands of unscrupulous clubs and agents who exploit them. Henry Bonsu investigates the growth in what has been described as football slavery.
Tue, 22 Jan 08
Duration:
24 mins
In this four part series, Mike Wooldridge looks at what it's really like to have to live on one dollar a day. The third programme focuses on elder people in India.
Thu, 17 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
The second in a three part series. Every year, thousands of young people from sub-Saharan Africa set off across the desert dreaming of a better life in Europe. Part two: The Journey.
Thu, 17 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
Charles Wheeler is on the trail of art seized by the Soviets at the end of World War II
Thu, 17 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
Simon Cox tries to track down the criminals who plague us with spam emails offering everything from get rich schemes to products to improve our sex lives.
Tue, 15 Jan 08
Duration:
24 mins
In this four part series, Mike Wooldridge looks at what it's really like to have to live on one dollar a day. The second programme focuses on Peru.
Fri, 11 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
Every year, thousands of young men and women from sub-Saharan Africa set off across the desert dreaming of a better life in Europe. Part one: George from Cameroon starts his journey.
Thu, 10 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
At the end of World War Two, as Nazi Germany lay in ruins, millions of works of art were secrety shipped back to Russia by the Soviet Army. Charles Wheeler now investigates their fate and the political row that still surrounds them in Looted Art.
Thu, 10 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
Computer gaming has become a national obsession in South Korea but there is a dark side. Gaming, like gambling, can become an addiction that has even led to death. Julian Pettifer reports.
Tue, 8 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
In this four part series, Mike Wooldridge looks at what it's really like to have to live on one dollar a day. The first programme focuses on Kenya.
Mon, 7 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
The dangers of the present crisis turning into a full scale recession, and at the seemingly desperate attempts of bankers, regulators and politicians to prevent that happening.
Fri, 4 Jan 08
Duration:
19 mins
Bakira Hasecic is unrelenting in her pursuit of the war criminals of the Bosnian war. How does she and the members of the Association of Women Victims of War find the strength to talk about the rapes and other horrors they endured?
Thu, 3 Jan 08
Duration:
23 mins
American film-maker Alex Gibney tells the story of an Afghan taxi driver, tortured to death by American soldiers and military police in Bagram airbase. Were they rogue soldiers, or was the torture authorised at the highest levels of government?
Wed, 2 Jan 08
Duration:
24 mins
In the final part of the series Roy Greenslade profiles the head of News Corporation Rupert Murdoch.
Mon, 31 Dec 07
Duration:
23 mins
The first programme will show how rapidly the shock wave of the credit crunch is spreading and why it is now moving far beyond the sub-prime homeowners where it began.
Thu, 27 Dec 07
Duration:
23 mins
There are now as many private security contractors in Iraq as there are US soldiers. To whom are they accountable when things go wrong? Steve Evans reports on the most controversial contractor, Blackwater, which has been criticised by the Iraqi government, American politicians and its own employees.
Fri, 21 Dec 07
Duration:
24 mins
Peter Day reports on whether the US Food and Drug Administration will licence the HIV/AIDS drug Maraviroc.
Thu, 20 Dec 07
Duration:
23 mins
Allan Urry investigates links between the Pentagon, politicians and weapons manufacturers.
Wed, 19 Dec 07
Duration:
23 mins
Since the Uzbek government put down an uprising in Andijan in 2005, the country has become more and more isolated from the west. But ahead of the country’s first Presidential election since 2000, our Central Asia correspondent Natalia Antelava made a secret trip across the state, recording her impressions.
Wed, 19 Dec 07
Duration:
24 mins
Building democracy: What is the role of radio in building democracy? In Papua, a new radio station is being installed as part of Indonesia's 68H network. 68H has introduced electricity by building a dam to power the station in the village. How did 68H get around censorship under Suharto? And why is radio such a key player in building civil society?
Wed, 19 Dec 07
Duration:
24 mins
Freedom of the internet:How do the motives of mainstream news websites compare with the agendas of blogs? In part two of 'Press for Freedom', we talk to Iraqi blogger Salam Pax and others who have delivered on-the-ground viewpoints in regions where the government would have otherwise silenced them. In Kuala Lumpur, we hear from the government-owned Bernama press, who also fund Nam News Network, supposedly the only unfiltered news wire in a non-aligned world.
Mon, 17 Dec 07
Duration:
23 mins
What is the future of news, when the internet may undermine the old-fashioned paternalistic precepts? BBC's Alan Little investigates.
Wed, 12 Dec 07
Duration:
23 mins
BBC's Roy Greenslade looks at how far reporting 'the truth' can be endangered by governments, corporations and the new wave of internet publishing.
Mon, 10 Dec 07
Duration:
23 mins
The BBC and other international broadcasters boast "objective" news and impartial window onto the world, but is such a thing really possible? Alan Little investigates.
Fri, 7 Dec 07
Duration:
23 mins
Leila is a young woman in Iran, sold into prostitution by her family at the age of 9, later forced into a temporary marriage, and then sentenced to hang at the age of 18. She was finally reprieved, but what does her story tell us about Iran's ability to legally protect its own children.
Fri, 7 Dec 07
Duration:
23 mins
Africa's Cocaine Coast - Guinea-Bissau is awash with cocaine and is ranked by the United Nations as the fifth poorest country in the world. Grant Ferrett investigates.
Mon, 3 Dec 07
Duration:
23 mins
Jonathan Marcus explores the impact of these two conflicts on the american political psyche.
Thu, 29 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
Angus Stickler travels into the disputed "Red Zone" of Southern Thailand to discover the victims of a brutal and under-reported war.
Thu, 29 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
Six months ago, the radical Palestinian faction Hamas took total control of the Gaza Strip. Israel and Egypt responded by closing their borders with Gaza. Magdi Abdelhadi travelled to the Gaza Strip to see how the 1.5 million Palestinians living there are coping.
Mon, 26 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
Correspondent Jonathan Marcus compares the impact of the two conflicts on American society and politics.
Fri, 23 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
Roger Hardy follows the money trail and looks at the case of two prominent Saudi charities.
Thu, 22 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
This week on Assignment, a story of lust, deception and betrayal on the internet. It tells the extraordinary story of a middle-aged factory worker who undergoes a virtual and very real transformation after he goes online - a transformation which ends in murder.
Wed, 21 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
The final part of a four part series in which Maurice Walsh discovers why globalisation and the black market have drastically undermined governments' ability to generate revenue in the form of tax.
Tue, 20 Nov 07
Duration:
24 mins
In the third of a four part series Maurice Walsh discovers why globalisation and the black market have drastically undermined governments' ability to generate revenue in the form of tax.
Mon, 19 Nov 07
Duration:
24 mins
The BBC's UN correspondent Laura Trevelyan explores how the US could retreat from its role as the planet's biggest polluter. In the final part of the series, Laura explores the degree to which Americans are speaking out and altering their lifestyles in the face of global warming.
Fri, 16 Nov 07
Duration:
21 mins
In the second of a four part series Maurice Walsh discovers why globalisation and the black market have drastically undermined governments' ability to generate revenue in the form of tax. Maurice visits Zambia to examine what has happened to the money generated by the country's booming copper industry.
Fri, 16 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
Has Saudi Arabia fanned the flames of Muslim militancy by exporting its own puritanical form of Islam to every corner of the globe?
Thu, 15 Nov 07
Duration:
28 mins
Fifty years ago, the drug thalidomide was introduced as a treatment for pregnancy sickness. The results for unborn children were devastating. Many of those affected have been compensated - but not thalidomiders in Spain. Geoff Adams-Spink investigates why.
Mon, 12 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
The first part of a four part series in which Maurice Walsh discovers why globalisation and the black market have drastically undermined governments' ability to generate revenue in the form of tax.
Mon, 12 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
The BBC's UN correspondent Laura Trevelyan explores how the US could retreat from its role as the planet's biggest polluter. In this episode: Laura reports on General Electric. Once pilloried as a polluter (and taken to court for dumping waste in the Hudson River), the industry giant, under the leadership of Jeffrey Immelt, has gone green and sees its future prosperity tied to developing green technologies.
Fri, 9 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
In a special BBC WS One Planet debate, we bring together four people at the heart of their governments' response to climate change – from the USA, Indonesia, Brazil and the UK.
Wed, 7 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
The final part in a three part series in which Mike Williams explores the complex web of negotiations to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
Mon, 5 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
The second part in a three part series in which Mike Williams explores the complex web of negotiations to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
Mon, 5 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
The first part in a three part series in which Mike Williams explores the complex web of negotiations to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
Mon, 5 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
The BBC's UN correspondent Laura Trevelyan explores how the US could retreat from its role as the planet's biggest polluter. In this episode: Laura finds out how the US could retreat from its role as the biggest polluter on the planet.
Thu, 1 Nov 07
Duration:
23 mins
South Africa has one of the highest rates of sexual violence in the world. There are more than 54,000 reported rapes every year - and most rapes go unreported. David Goldblatt investigates what's behind this violence.
Wed, 31 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
In this part, Wole Soyinka travels back on a route he first took in 1967 at the beginning of the Biafran War, and speaks to two of the main protagonists.
Mon, 29 Oct 07
Duration:
22 mins
In Pakistan President Musharraf and the former Pakistani prime minister, Benazir Bhutto did a deal this month. She told her suppprters to support his bid for the Presidency. He in return dropped corrpution charges bought by his government against her. This paved the way to her return to Pakistan after almost a decade of self-imposed exile. In "Benazir Bhutto - The Investigation", Owen Bennett-Jones looks at the claims against her and whether she could still face corruption charges.
Mon, 29 Oct 07
Duration:
22 mins
We investigate the substance of the allegations against Benazir Bhutto and ask whether she could still face charges, despite the deal she has just struck with President Musharraf.
Wed, 24 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
Nigeria's Nobel Prize-winning author, Wole Sayinka travels back to Biafra and comes face to face with the military leader who imprisoned him 40 years ago.
Fri, 19 Oct 07
Duration:
24 mins
In the final part of this series Robin White visits Georgetown the capital of Guyana where he experiences the transport system and learns about the demise of the Amerindian culture.
Fri, 19 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
Robin White visits Maputo the capital city of Mozambique. After sixteen years of civil war how well is the city functioning?
Fri, 19 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
Robin White finds out about the disappearing Kweyol culture in St Lucia. Why is it too difficult to make Kweyol the island's official language?
Thu, 18 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
China has turned its attention to the US in its search for natural resources, even enabling the re-opening of an abandoned iron mine in Minnesota.
Wed, 17 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
Lucy Ash assesses the wider impact of China's insatiable appetite for natural resources, and focuses on the special relation with Angola and its oil.
Tue, 16 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
Maurice Walsh considers whether China might use its growing military power to reclaim Taiwan, possibly provoking a confrontation with the US.
Mon, 15 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
Maurice Walsh examines whether US government concerns about rising defence spending in China will fuel a new arms race in the Pacific.
Fri, 12 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
Local broadcaster Eunis Taumomoa guides us through Papua New Guinea, a country that has more than 700 different languages and ethnic groups.
Thu, 11 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
Afghanistan's recent history has been a long list of human rights abuses and war crimes - yet many of those accused are now beyond the reach of prosecutors because of an amnesty the warlords themselves voted in. What impact is this having on the survivors?
Wed, 10 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
Meet the doctors who are trying to introduce regulation of stem cell therapies in India, so that those vulnerable patients who can least afford to spend money on unproven therapies can have genuine grounds for hope.
Mon, 8 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
Matthew Sweet presents the extraordinary story of Finland's Nokia Millionaires, and how the mobile phone industry prevented a severe recession in the country.
Fri, 5 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
Lance Corporal Baronowski's personal recordings, made in Vietnam shortly before he was killed in 1966, paint a vivid picture of the young soldier’s life. How do his experiences compare with soldiers in today's conflicts?
Thu, 4 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
Assignment reports on the fate of thousands of migrants from eastern Europe, who come to Britain to find work. Even though they are in the UK legally, they're often exploited by gangmasters who ignore employment laws, and sometimes don't even pay their employees.
Wed, 3 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
Do stem cells really offer a miracle cure? Are the clinics offering genuine treatments at the cutting edge of science, or merely taking advantage of the vulnerable?
Mon, 1 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
The two week uprising in Burma has been ruthlessly put down by the Burmese military. The protests appear to be over. What lay behind the uprising, and why is the Burmese junta so resistant to pressure to reform?
Mon, 1 Oct 07
Duration:
23 mins
Darfur has diverted attention from Southern Sudan, now emerging from civil war. Mike Wooldridge investigates its hopes for peace.
Fri, 28 Sep 07
Duration:
23 mins
Assignment reports on the persecution of Christians in Eritrea - home to one of the oldest Christian churches in the world, dating back 1,600 years. Thousands have fled torture and arrest to take refuge in neighbouring Ethiopia.
Fri, 28 Sep 07
Duration:
1 min
Robin Denselow tells the story of the Zimbabwean band The Bhundu Boys. From their triumphs in the charts to the tragedy of losing two members to HIV/Aids.
Wed, 26 Sep 07
Duration:
23 mins
John McCarthy looks at how the Kaduna Declaration in Kaduna, Nigeria, has had some success in bringing Muslims and Christians together amidst violence.
Mon, 24 Sep 07
Duration:
23 mins
Darfur has diverted attention from Southern Sudan, now emerging from civil war. Mike Wooldridge investigates its hopes for peace.
Fri, 21 Sep 07
Duration:
21 mins
Karin Wells investigates controversial new laws in Poland that require over 35s to prove they never collaborated with Communists.
Wed, 19 Sep 07
Duration:
23 mins
Owen Bennett-Jones visits two of the world's leading educational establishments - Harvard University and Westminster School - to ask how they get such good results.
Wed, 19 Sep 07
Duration:
23 mins
Assignment reports on how a once model public housing project in Liverpool, has become terrorised by young criminal gangs - who are believed to be responsible for the murder of an 11 year old boy.
Mon, 17 Sep 07
Duration:
23 mins
Gavin Esler tells the story of Bill Clinton's controversial and colourful presidency, from epic victories to personal turmoil. The final part addresses the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Fri, 14 Sep 07
Duration:
22 mins
Many ordinary people in Iraq continue to live in extraordianry circumstances. World Affairs coresspondent, Mike Woolridge follows the story of a taxi driver whose life has been turned upside down.
Thu, 13 Sep 07
Duration:
23 mins
We report on a miscarriage of justice in Japan - a case which has opened a debate about how the police question suspects, and why more than 99 per cent of those charged with a crime are then found guilty.
Wed, 12 Sep 07
Duration:
23 mins
Education matters - Owen Bennett-Jones visits educational establishments which have been judged to be the bes. This week he visits Finland which has been judged to have the best educational system in the world.
Mon, 10 Sep 07
Duration:
23 mins
Having won a second term, Clinton found new confidence when dealing with foreign policy. But then came revelations about Monica Lewinsky. How did events unfold?
Wed, 5 Sep 07
Duration:
22 mins
Malcolm Billings explores the reconstruction projects slowly restoring the region's cultural legacy.
Mon, 3 Sep 07
Duration:
22 mins
From authorising emergency bailout during the Mexican economic collapse to balancing the budget, Clinton's strategic use of the Presidential veto would enable his White House to start working again.
Fri, 31 Aug 07
Duration:
23 mins
In August 1986 Julie Tullis became the first British woman climber to reach the summit of K2. The tapes she recorded reveal her adventure.
Wed, 29 Aug 07
Duration:
22 mins
Malcolm Billings explores the reconstruction projects slowly restoring the region's cultural legacy.
Mon, 27 Aug 07
Duration:
23 mins
When William Jefferson Clinton was elected President of the United States on 3 November 1992, hope was in the air. Though the honeymoon did not last long, it was at moments of great adversity that his political skills were at their greatest.
Fri, 24 Aug 07
Duration:
23 mins
Jane Little follows one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan" who goes back to be reunited with his mother and to marry a girl from his own Dinka tribe.
Wed, 22 Aug 07
Duration:
22 mins
Malcolm Billings explores the reconstruction projects slowly restoring the region's cultural legacy.
Fri, 17 Aug 07
Duration:
1 min
Nick Caistor investigates the causes and effects of drug violence in Mexico, which is reaching alarming proportions in parts of the country.
Thu, 16 Aug 07
Duration:
23 mins
In the second of these two programmes, Paul Bakibinga considers how Zimbabwe might become prosperous one more.
Thu, 16 Aug 07
Duration:
23 mins
Jill McGivering follows the trail of fake drugs, from the marginalised communities at risk, to the country accused of being the main source.
Tue, 14 Aug 07
Duration:
22 mins
Malcolm Billings explores the reconstruction projects slowly restoring the region's cultural legacy.
Fri, 10 Aug 07
Duration:
23 mins
It reads like a soap opera, but this is not fiction: round-the-clock confinement, crippling illness, rape, escape, suicide and murder - women who go overseas to work as maids often encounter unforeseen terror and tragedy.
Fri, 10 Aug 07
Duration:
23 mins
In the first of two programmes, Paul Bakibinga considers the causes behind the collapse of the once prosperous Zimbabwe.
Fri, 10 Aug 07
Duration:
1 min
Rappers from Freetown, Sierra Leone, perform and talk about their songs, background and dreams for their music.
Thu, 9 Aug 07
Duration:
23 mins
Gabby O'Donnell goes to Ghana to meet some convicted drugs mules, and hears how they, as much as the users, can end up being the biggest victims in the multi-billion dollar drug trade.
Wed, 8 Aug 07
Duration:
22 mins
In the second programme, Judith Kampfner looks at women who work as maids in their own countries. Children, sometimes as young as ten years old, are sent from villages to distant towns to be shut in as domestic servants.
Mon, 6 Aug 07
Duration:
22 mins
In South Africa, equality - on the basis of race, language, culture and sexual orientation - are central to the country's constitution.
Fri, 3 Aug 07
Duration:
23 mins
Owen Bennett-Jones chairs a unique debate with some of the most senior and influential military figures responsible for the planning and execution of the war in Iraq.
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