Podcasts by Crossing Continents

Cyprus: The battle over songbird slaughter from 2023-12-07T11:05

Cyprus is one of the main resting stops for songbirds as they migrate between Europe, Africa and the Middle East. For centuries, Cypriots trapped and ate a small number of migrating songbirds, a...

Poland's Forest Frontier from 2023-11-30T11:05

Crossing Continents reports from Poland’s eastern frontier, where the Polish government has built a steel border wall - 186 kilometres long and five metres high, it’s meant to stop global migran...

Florida's political refugees from 2023-11-23T11:05

Americans on both sides of the political spectrum are escaping states they no longer feel comfortable in - they’re calling themselves ‘political refugees’. And the sunshine state of Florida is a...

How a war has changed a Norwegian town from 2023-09-21T10:05

Kirkenes, in the far north-east of Norway, once thrived on its close ties with neighbouring Russia. All that changed after the invasion of Ukraine. Now it’s become home to Ukrainian refugees and...

Missing in Syria from 2023-09-14T10:05

There are one hundred thousand missing Syrians, according to the UN, who’ve been detained or have disappeared since the beginning of the uprising in Syria twelve years ago and the civil war that...

Surviving Greece's migrant boat disaster from 2023-09-04T17:13

In the early hours of 14th June, a heavily overcrowded, rusty fishing trawler carrying as many as 750 migrants capsized off the coast of Greece. The passengers - men, women and children from cou...

Singing Morocco's New Identity from 2023-08-31T10:05

Gnawa music is a Moroccan spiritual musical tradition developed by descendants of enslaved people from Sub-Saharan Africa. It combines ritual poetry with traditional music and dance, and is trad...

Belize's Blue Bond from 2023-08-24T10:05

In 2020 Belize was broke. Again. This small, climate-vulnerable, Central American nation is home to the western hemisphere’s longest barrier reef. And it was about to default on a debt of over h...

Zimbabwe's worker exodus from 2023-08-17T10:05

Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans are fleeing their country, looking for work in the West, especially in the United Kingdom.

Last year Zimbabwe was the third largest source of foreign work...

When Wagner came home from 2023-08-10T10:05

Tens of thousands of Russian criminals – murderers, rapists, robbers – were recruited from prisons by the mercenary group, Wagner, to fight in Ukraine. Now, after six months on the battlefield, ...

Returning to Romania from 2023-08-03T10:05

Millions of people left Romania after it entered the EU in 2007. They were haemorrhaging doctors at such a rate they had to shut entire hospitals and losing so many builders they had to cancel m...

Botswana: Living with elephants from 2023-07-27T10:05

The battle to keep the peace between people and elephants in northern Botswana. The earth’s largest land mammal, the elephant, is an endangered species. Poaching, habitat loss and disease have d...

Ukraine: the men who don’t want to fight from 2023-06-08T10:10

For more than 15 months the Ukrainian armed forces have held out against the superior numbers of the Russian invasion force. But not every Ukrainian man subject to the draft is willing to fight....

Hard Times in the Big Easy from 2023-05-18T10:30

New Orleans is the murder capital of the United States: researchers into 2022’s crime figures say it suffered more homicides per capita than any other major city. Carjackings, armed robberies an...

Searching for my son from 2023-05-11T10:00

In the chaos following Turkey’s devastating earthquake in February, Omar was separated from his son Ahmed after both were pulled alive from the collapsed ruins of their home. Omar's wife and old...

Kenya's Free Money Experiment from 2023-05-04T10:00

Thousands of Kenyan villagers are being given free cash as part of a huge trial being run by an American non-profit, GiveDirectly. Why? Some aid organisations believe that simply giving people m...

Laos: the most bombed country on earth from 2023-04-27T10:10

50 years after the last US bombs fell on Laos, they’re still killing and maiming. In an effort to stop the march of communism, between 1964 and 1973, America dropped over two million tonnes of ...

Leaving Sri Lanka from 2023-04-20T10:10

Record numbers are fleeing the island in the wake of a brutal economic crisis – perhaps one in twenty five Sri Lankans left last year alone. Some 300,000 went for contracted positions, mostly in...

Gran Chaco - Paraguay’s vanishing forest from 2023-04-13T10:10

The Gran Chaco Forest is Latin America’s second largest ecosystem. It is a mix of hot and arid scrublands, forests and wetlands, part of the River Plata basin, so large it extends into Paraguay,...

Vienna: getting housing right from 2023-04-06T10:10

In Britain we have have failed for decades to build enough houses with good design and make living in them affordable – whether rented or bought. All this affects millions, especially young peo...

Iran Protests: Tales from the front line from 2023-01-26T11:10

Why did people take to the streets, risking arrest and a barrage of bullets? After protests turned violent and hundreds of people were killed, four Iranians tell the story of why they risked t...

A Return to Paradise from 2023-01-19T11:00

In 2018 the town of Paradise in the hills of northern California was wiped out by one of the worst wildfires in California's history. The disaster made headlines around the world - regarded as a...

Saving Children from the Mafia from 2023-01-12T11:00

Southern Italy is home to some of Europe's most powerful criminal organisations; the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra in Naples and the Ndrangheta based in Calabria. For many, crime is a family busi...

South Korea - a room with a view from 2023-01-05T11:28

“It’s like living in a cemetery.” Jung Seongno lives in a banjiha, or semi-basement apartment in the South Korean capital Seoul. Last August parts of Seoul experienced major flooding. As a resu...

Fighting 'fat-phobia' in Brazil from 2022-12-29T11:10

As in many countries, obesity in Brazil is a major issue with one in four Brazilians now classified as obese and more than half the population overweight. But rather than focusing just on tryin...

Spain's Flamenco on the Edge from 2022-12-22T11:00

To many of us, the passionate music and dance known as flamenco is an important marker of Spanish identity, and perhaps even synonymous with it. So much so, that UNESCO has recognised the art fo...

Hungary’s power dilemma from 2022-12-15T11:00

Paks, a small Hungarian town on the shore of the River Danube an hour or two south of Budapest has prospered from its nuclear power station, built by the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s. Hungary h...

California's cannabis reparations from 2022-12-08T11:10

In California, cannabis is legal for recreational use and it’s created a multi-billion dollar industry. But who’s been reaping the rewards? For decades people from Black and Latino communities ...

Cold-calling Siberia from 2022-12-01T11:10

Sasha Koltun volunteered to fight in Putin's war against Ukraine, though his mother Yelena begged him not to go. Four days later, he was dead, one of several dozen new recruits from across Russi...

Trouble in Taiwan? from 2022-11-24T11:00

China’s President Xi Jinping says that Taiwan‘s reunification with the mainland “must and will be fulfilled.” The view from democratic Taiwan is somewhat different.

It’s a threat the isl...

Bye-bye Baguette? from 2022-10-10T19:00

The bakers and farmers trying to wean Senegal off imported wheat. Trotting along on a horse and cart, over the bumpy red dirt roads, through the lush green fields of Senegal’s countryside, Oule ...

A ‘Me Too’ Moment for Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Jews? from 2022-09-22T10:00

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community is struggling to come to terms with high-profile sex abuse scandals. In the past year, two of its leading lights were accused of taking advantage of the...

The Texas Tank: A Prison Radio Station Changing Lives from 2022-09-08T10:10

The Allan B. Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas, used to be known as the Terror Dome for its high rates of inmate violence, murder and suicide. Polunsky houses all the men condemned to death in ...

Nigeria’s oil thieves from 2022-09-01T10:10

Illegal oil is big business in the Niger Delta. Oil thieves cut the pipelines, siphoning off oil, which they refine in the bush and sell on the black market. This vast underground industry is a...

Lacrosse: Reclaiming the Creator’s game from 2022-08-25T10:05

Why are Native Americans striving to ‘reclaim’ the game of lacrosse?

Lacrosse may have the reputation as a white elitist sport, played in private schools. In fact, it was originally a Nati...

Moldova - East or West? from 2022-08-18T10:05

Sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, the former Soviet Republic of Moldova has recently been awarded EU candidate status.

In an echo of what happened in Ukraine, Moldova lost a chunk of...

After the ‘Narco-President’: Rebuilding Hope in Honduras from 2022-08-11T10:30

When the president stands accused of drug trafficking, what hope is there? From 2014, for eight years Juan Orlando Hernandez ruled Honduras like his personal fiefdom. A Central American strongm...

Ukraine: Collaboration and Resistance from 2022-08-04T10:30

Ukrainian forces have launched a counteroffensive to retake Kherson, the largest city captured by Russia in this year's invasion. But the occupiers are redoubling their efforts to integrate the ...

The Return of the Tigers from 2022-07-28T10:10

Tigers are making a remarkable comeback in Nepal. The small Himalayan nation is on track to become the first country to double its wild tiger population in the last decade. A new census will b...

Love-bombing Estonia’s Russian Speakers from 2022-05-19T10:05

Can music and culture help unite Estonia? Guitar riffs lilt through the air and over the narrow river that marks the border between Estonia and Russia. It’s the first time Estonia’s annual festi...

Cambodia: Returning the Gods from 2022-05-12T10:30

While some countries fight to reclaim antiquities that were stolen centuries ago, Cambodian investigators are dealing with far more recent thefts. Many of the country’s prized treasures were tak...

Mexico: The Yaqui Fight Back from 2022-05-05T11:54

Resistance and division among Mexico’s indigenous Yaqui people. Anabela Carlon is a legal advocate for the indigenous Yaqui of Sonora – a fierce defender of her people’s land. She is no strange...

The Accordion Wars of Lesotho from 2022-04-28T10:05

A form of oral poetry accompanied on the accordion is the basis of a wildly popular form of music in Lesotho, southern Africa. But jealousy between Famo artists has triggered warfare that’s kill...

Myanmar: fighting the might of the junta from 2022-04-21T10:30

Myanmar is now in a state of civil war. What started in February 2021 as a mass protest movement against the military coup is now a nationwide armed uprising. The junta is under attack across th...

Russia's Unwelcome New Exiles from 2022-04-14T10:30

Hundreds of thousands of Russians – mainly young and well-educated - have fled abroad since their country invaded Ukraine. It’s the biggest brain drain in a short period of time in Russian hist...

Dying to hunt in France from 2022-04-07T10:05

Just before Christmas, 2021, Joel Vilard was driving his cousin home on a dual carriageway just south of Rennes in Brittany. Suddenly, a bullet flew through the window and hit the pensioner in ...

Hunting Syria's War Criminals from 2022-01-20T11:05

Imagine walking down a street in a European capital and meeting your torturer. For many Syrian refugees fleeing war and human rights abuses, Europe was meant to be a sanctuary. So it was a shock...

Montenegro’s Chinese Road from 2022-01-13T11:05

It’s been called the priciest piece of tarmac in the world. In 2014 the government of Montenegro signed a contract with a state-owned Chinese company to build part of a 170 kilometre-long highwa...

Turkey's Crazy Project from 2022-01-06T11:05

A giant new canal for the world’s biggest ships is the most ambitious engineering plan yet proposed by Turkey’s President Erdogan, whose massive infrastructure projects have already changed the ...

Peru's left behind children from 2021-12-30T11:05

Peru has been battered by Covid-19. It has the highest known death toll in the world per capita. But behind the figures there’s another hidden pandemic. By the end of April 2021 around 93,000 c...

The Runaway maids of Oman from 2021-12-23T11:05

Hundreds of young women from Sierra Leone, West Africa, have been trapped in the Arabian sultanate of Oman, desperate to get home. Promised work in shops and restaurants, they say they were tric...

Denmark's Red Van from 2021-12-16T11:05

Every weekend night in Copenhagen's red light district of Vesterbro, a group of volunteers pull up and park a red van. This is no ordinary vehicle. The interior is lit with fairy lights. Ther...

Poland’s Fractured Borderlands from 2021-12-09T11:05

Thousands of people – mostly migrants from the Middle East - are camped in freezing weather at the Poland-Belarus border. Many have spent thousands of dollars to fly into Belarus on tourist vis...

Sleepless in Seoul from 2021-12-02T11:30

Korea is one of the most stressed and tired nations on earth, a place where people work and study longer hours than anywhere else. And statistics show they are finding it increasingly difficult ...

Rotterdam and the cocaine connection from 2021-11-26T10:06

In the Port of Rotterdam they are preparing for a ‘White Xmas’ - but no one is talking about snow. Europe’s North Sea coast has overtaken the Iberian peninsula as the primary point of entry for ...

Salmon Wars from 2021-11-18T11:30

A bitter fight over fish is playing out in the American West. Sockeye salmon make one of the great migrations in the world, swimming 900 miles from the Pacific Ocean to 6,500 feet up in Idaho’s...

Libya's Unfinished Revolution from 2021-09-16T10:10

It’s ten years since Libya’s dictator Col Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown. But the country’s still not a a democracy – or even a unified functioning state. The militias that brought down the dict...

The Mystery of Havana Syndrome from 2021-09-09T10:05

Gordon Corera investigates the mysterious illness that has struck American diplomats and spies. It began after some reported hearing strange sounds in Havana 2016, but reports have since spread ...

Moria - After the Fire from 2021-09-02T10:05

The fire that destroyed the sprawling Moria asylum seekers’ camp on the Greek island of Lesvos last September made headlines around the world. For the asylum seekers who lost their makeshift hom...

Catalonia: Squatters, Eviction and Extortion from 2021-08-26T10:05

Spain has a history of squatting. After the property crash of 2008 many families were forced to occupy homes that did not belong to them because they could not pay their mortgages. Now a darke...

India’s Living Dead from 2021-08-19T11:03

What would it be like if everyone believed you were dead? Lal Bihari knows exactly what that feels like. When he was 22-years-old, the Indian farmer was told by his local government office that ...

What’s Killing Israel’s Arabs? from 2021-08-12T10:05

Israel’s Arab population is in the grip of a violent and deadly crime wave. Since the start of the year, scores of Arab citizens have lost their lives and increasingly, even women and children a...

Nigeria's Kidnapped Children from 2021-08-05T10:17

Since December, armed gangs have seized more than a thousand students and staff from schools across northern Nigeria. Parents face extortionate demands in exchange for the freedom of their sons ...

Rebuilding Beirut’s Village in a City from 2021-07-29T10:05

A year ago Johnny Khawand saw the home he grew up in ripped apart by the massive explosion in a chemical dump in the port of Beirut, Lebanon – one of the largest non-nuclear blasts in history. F...

Dangerous Liaisons in Sinaloa from 2021-07-22T10:05

The Mexican state of Sinaloa is synonymous with drug trafficking. With the profits from organised crime a driver of the local economy, the tentacles of ‘narco cultura’ extend deep into people’s...

Saving the Vaquita from 2021-05-13T10:05

Jacques Cousteau called Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, ‘the aquarium of the world’. It is home to one of the most critically endangered species on earth. The vaquita is a small porpoise facing total e...

Myanmar: The Spring Revolution from 2021-05-06T10:05

More than 750 people have been killed by the Myanmar military since they seized power in a coup three months ago. Mass protests demanding a return to democracy and the release of elected leader ...

Drug Free in Norway from 2021-04-29T10:05

Can Norwegians with psychosis benefit from radical, drug-free treatment? In a challenge to the foundations of western psychiatry, a handful of Norway’s mental health facilities are offering med...

Kenya's Unhappy Doctors and Nurses from 2021-04-22T10:05

All over the world, frontline workers have paid the ultimate price during the pandemic. But in Kenya the story of one young doctor’s heroism has made headlines for all the wrong reasons. 28-year...

Sexual Healing in the Israeli Military from 2021-04-15T10:05

Soldiers returning from the line of duty with injuries affecting sexual performance are universal to all militaries around the world, but Israeli psychologist Dr Ronit Aloni set about making her...

Denmark: goodbye to mink from 2021-04-08T10:05

Can Denmark's mink industry rise again? Denmark was the world's top producer of mink for the luxury market. Last year a coronavirus variant was found in the animals, and transmitted to people. ...

Namibia: the Price of Genocide from 2021-04-01T10:05

More than a century after its brutal colonisation of Namibia, including what it now accepts was the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples, Germany is negotiating with the country’s government ...

Europe’s Most Dangerous Capital from 2021-01-21T11:05

Bucharest, in Romania, is arguably Europe’s most dangerous capital city. It’s not the crime that’s the problem – it’s the buildings. Many of them don’t comply with basic laws and building regula...

Shipwreck from 2021-01-14T11:05

The migrant shipwreck that rose again… In April, 2015 more than a thousand refugees and migrants drowned when the old fishing boat they were travelling on sank. It was the worst shipwreck in th...

Libya's Brothers from Hell from 2021-01-07T11:50

Amid the anarchy of post-Revolution Libya, seven ruthless brothers from an obscure background gradually took over their home town near Tripoli. They're accused of murdering entire families to in...

Searching for Wisdom in Lagos from 2020-12-31T11:30

A young woman is desperately searching for her brother in Lagos. On the night of 20th October, Nigerian soldiers opened fire at a peaceful demonstration camped at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos. T...

The Mapuche - Fighting for their right to heal from 2020-12-24T11:05

The Mapuche are Chile’s largest indigenous group – a population of more than 2 million people. And, they are fighting for their right to heal. They want Chileans to value their unique approach t...

Darfur: A Precarious Peace from 2020-12-17T11:05

After 17 years of conflict costing 300,000 lives a peace agreement offers new hope to Sudan’s troubled Darfur region. It comes as UNAMID, the United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force,...

Syria's Soldiers of Fortune from 2020-12-10T11:05

The bitter war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Caucasian region of Nagorno Karabakh may have come to an end, but the business of fighting may continue for at least some of its combatants. ...

Belarusian Police – Behind the Balaclavas from 2020-12-03T11:05

Minsk, early December. A wall of masked men in black body armour, beating their truncheons on steel shields. In front of them stand women bundled in winter coats and teenagers wrapped in red an...

Sicily's Prisoner Fishermen from 2020-11-26T11:05

18 fishermen from Sicily are in jail in Benghazi, accused of fishing in Libya’s waters. And in this part of the Mediterranean rich in the highly-prized and lucrative red prawn, these kinds of a...

Martinique: The Poisoning of Paradise from 2020-11-19T11:05

“First we were enslaved. Then we were poisoned.” That’s how many on Martinique see the history of their French Caribbean island that, to tourists, means sun, rum, and palm-fringed beaches. Slave...

Poland's Gay Pride and Prejudice from 2020-09-18T10:17

A number of small towns in Poland have been campaigning against what they call 'homosexual ideology'. Local authorities in the provinces have passed resolutions against perceived threats such as...

The Trouble with Dutch Cows from 2020-09-10T10:05

The Netherlands - small and overcrowded - is facing fundamental questions about how to use its land, following a historic court judgment forcing the state to take more urgent action to limit nit...

South Africa Moonshine from 2020-09-03T10:05

Pineapple beer is the universal homebrew in South Africa and pineapple prices trebled when the government imposed a ban on the sale of alcohol and tobacco during the coronavirus pandemic. South ...

Reza's Story from 2020-08-27T10:05

A death-defying migrant's story... Said Reza Adib was a TV journalist in Afghanistan. In 2016, about to break a story about the sexual abuse of children by Afghan men in authority, he received ...

Spain: the elephant in the palace from 2020-08-20T10:05

Spain’s King Juan Carlos – a story of entitlement and dynasty… The emeritus king, Juan Carlos, has left Spain. But the man who propelled his nation from dictatorship to democracy is under intens...

The Missing Bodies of Guayaquil from 2020-08-13T10:05

In March and April, Guayaquil in Ecuador was the epicentre of the Covid pandemic in Latin America. The city’s health services began to collapse fast, so that the bodies of the dead were not coll...

Algeria's Plague Revisited from 2020-08-06T10:05

A mysterious illness appears out of nowhere. The number of cases rises exponentially, as the authorities attempt to downplay the severity of the disease. There is a shortage of medical staff, eq...

Venezuela's 'Bay of Piglets' from 2020-07-30T10:05

A failed coup in Venezuela - a story of hubris, incompetence, and treachery… At the beginning of May, the government of Nicolas Maduro announced the armed forces had repelled an attempted landin...

The Many Colours of Raqqa from 2020-07-23T10:46

The untold story of Abood Hamam, perhaps the only photojournalist to have worked under every major force in Syria's war - and lived to tell the tale. At the start of the uprising he was head of ...

Bulgaria's Children and the Norwegian Bogeyman from 2020-05-14T10:15

Thousands of Bulgarian parents pulled their children out of school in a mass panic last October, fearing they would be abducted by social workers. Many more are protesting against a draft law th...

Lithium: Argentina's 'White Gold' Rush from 2020-05-07T10:15

Are lithium-powered electric vehicles as ‘green’ as we think they are? With the advent of electric cars, manufacturers tell us we’re racing towards a clean-energy future. It’s lithium that power...

Spain’s care home nightmare from 2020-04-30T10:15

Why did so many people die in just one elderly care home in Madrid? After Covid-19 smashed its way across the globe, Spain - one of the worst-hit nations of Europe - is beginning to take stock o...

Ireland's Housing Hunger from 2020-04-23T10:15

Ireland’s government is in crisis mode dealing with the public health emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But another crisis in its housing provision has long haunted the country’s you...

Chile: An Education for All from 2020-04-21T15:22

A much anticipated referendum in Chile on a new constitution has been postponed till the autumn amid safety concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. President Sebastian Piñera had agreed to ...

Riding the 'Motel 22' from 2020-04-09T10:30

California is one of the wealthiest states in America yet it has the largest population of homeless people – more than 151,000 - in the US. In the Silicon Valley many find shelter on the bus rou...

The Man Who Died for Trees from 2020-04-02T10:30

Romania's forests are the Amazon of Europe - with large wilderness areas under constant pressure from loggers. For years, corrupt authorities turned a blind eye to illegal felling. But now a ser...

Indonesia: Not cool to date from 2020-03-26T11:15

Saying no to dating is part of a growing ultraconservative social movement in Indonesia being spread through Instagram and WhatsApp. “When I look at couples, I see my old self, how I used to be ...

Ayahuasca: Fear and Healing in the Amazon from 2020-01-16T11:53

Growing numbers of tourists are travelling to the Peruvian Amazon to drink ayahuasca, a traditional plant medicine said to bring about a higher state of consciousness. Foreigners come looking fo...

Belarus: The Wild World of Chernobyl from 2020-01-09T11:15

Ninety year old Galina is one of the last witnesses to the wild natural world that preceded the Chernobyl zone in southern Belarus. 'We lived with wolves' she says 'and moose, and elk and wild b...

Sierra Leone - The Price of Going Home from 2020-01-02T11:15

Fatmata, Jamilatu and Alimamy all see themselves as failures. They’re young Sierra Leoneans who risked everything for the sake of a better life in Europe. Along the way, they were imprisoned and...

Iceland: The Great Thaw from 2019-12-26T11:30

Iceland's glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate, with scientists predicting that they could all be gone 200 years from now.

How is this affecting the lives of local people, and th...

Finland's Race to Go Carbon Neutral from 2019-12-19T12:12

How do you achieve net-zero carbon emissions in just fifteen years? In Finland, a fisherman-turned-climate scientist believes he has part of the answer: re-wilding the country’s peat fields. Ga...

A Fight for Light in Lebanon from 2019-12-12T11:30

Life in Lebanon is a daily battle to beat the power cuts caused by the country's chronic electricity shortage. If you live in a block of flats, you have to time when you go in and out to avoid g...

Sri Lanka: The New Climate of Fear from 2019-12-05T12:52

There’s a new climate of fear in Sri Lanka. This time it’s the Muslim community who are fearful of the future. The Easter bomb attacks in Sri Lanka - targeting churches and international hotel...

The Man Who Laughed at al-Qaeda from 2019-11-28T11:15

Raed Fares, founder of Syria's legendary Radio Fresh FM, was mowed down by unknown gunmen as he left his studios in rebel-held Idlib in November 2018. The death of the man who fought hatred with...

Russian Women Fight Back from 2019-11-21T11:15

Domestic abuse in Russia is endemic with hundreds maybe thousands of women dying at the hands of their partners every year. Despite this a controversial law was passed in 2017, which scrapped pr...

The Bitter Song of the Hazelnut from 2019-09-19T10:15

Every August tens of thousands of Kurdish migrant workers, including children, toil long hours for a pittance in the mountains of northern Turkey picking hazelnuts for the spreads and chocolate ...

Colombia’s Kamikaze Cyclists from 2019-09-12T10:35

Precipitous mountain roads, specially modified bikes, and deadly consequences. Simon Maybin spends time with the young men who race down the steep roads of Colombia’s second city Medellin. Marl...

Marawi: the story of the Philippines’ Lost City from 2019-09-05T10:30

Marawi in the southern Philippines is a ghost town. In 2017, it was taken under siege for five months by supporters of Islamic State who wanted to establish a caliphate in the predominantly Musl...

Kazakhstan: Port in the Desert from 2019-08-29T11:31

China’s New Silk Road reaches across all parts of the globe; building roads, bridges and towering cities where before there were none. In Kazakhstan, China’s neighbour to the west, this vast pro...

Romania's killer roads from 2019-08-22T10:30

Everybody in Romania knows someone who has died in a road accident. The country has the highest road death rate in the European Union – twice the EU average and more than three times that in the...

Barbuda: Storms, Recovery and ‘Land Grabs’ from 2019-08-15T10:47

Who will shape the future of the hurricane-hit, tropical isle of Barbuda? In 2017, category-5 hurricane Irma devastated much of Barbuda's 'paradise' landscape, and its infrastructure. The nati...

Genoa's Broken Bridge from 2019-08-08T10:30

An icon of Italian design; a centrepiece of a community; a tragedy waiting to happen? When the Morandi bridge opened in 1967, it was one of the longest concrete bridges in the world, connecting...

America's Hospital Emergency from 2019-08-01T10:30

A small town goes on life-support after its lone hospital closes. The story of Jamestown, Tennessee, recorded in the emotional hours and days after its 85-bed facility shut. Rural hospitals are ...

The Undercover Migrant from 2019-07-25T10:15

When Azeteng, a young man from rural Ghana, heard stories on the radio of West African migrants dying on their way to Europe, he felt compelled to act. He took what little savings he had and bou...

Bolivia's Mennonites, Justice and Renewal from 2019-05-16T10:30

In 2009, Mennonite women in a far-flung Bolivian colony reported mass rape. Now leaders of this insular Christian community with its roots in Europe are campaigning to free the convicted men. ...

Abandoned in the Amazon from 2019-05-09T10:30

The dangers of flying in the great wilderness of the Brazilian rainforest. When a light aircraft carrying two families from a local Indian tribe disappeared over the Amazon in December, relative...

Empty Spain and the Caravans of Love from 2019-05-02T10:15

How does a lonely, Spanish shepherd find love when single women have left for the city? Antonio Cerrada lives north of Madrid, in the heart of what’s been nicknamed the, ‘Lapland of Spain’ beca...

Bangladesh versus Yaba from 2019-04-25T10:15

Thousands of Bangladeshi addicts are hooked on Yaba - a mix of methamphetamine and caffeine. It's a powerful drug that gives big bangs for small bucks. The Yaba epidemic has ripped through the...

Restoring Brazil's National Treasure from 2019-04-18T10:15

Brazilians wept when their 200-year-old National Museum went up in flames last September. Twenty million items, many of them irreplaceable, were thought to have been reduced to ash when it was g...

Poland's Partisan Ghosts from 2019-04-11T10:15

For some in Poland the Cursed Soldiers are national heroes; for others they are murderers. A march in celebration of a group of Polish partisans fighting the Soviets has become the focus of tens...

Nepal Fights Foreign Paedophiles from 2019-04-04T10:15

Hunting western paedophiles is a priority for a new police unit tasked with safeguarding children in Nepal. Mired in poverty and still recovering from a devastating earthquake in 2015, Nepal is ...

Unrest in Ukraine’s Little Hungary from 2019-03-28T15:34

Eastern Ukraine has been under assault from Russian backed rebel forces for the past five years, but few have heard of a smaller conflict, which could be brewing in the west of the country, betw...

Japan's Elderly Crime Wave from 2019-01-17T11:45

Elderly pensioners in Japan are committing petty crimes so that they can be sent to prison. One in five of all prisoners in Japan are now over 65. The number has quadrupled in the last two deca...

Balkan Border Wars - Serbia and Kosovo from 2019-01-10T11:15

Old enemies Serbia and Kosovo discuss what for some is unthinkable - an ethnic land swap. This dramatic proposal is one of those being talked about as a means of normalising relations between th...

The Brazilian Footballer Who Never Was from 2019-01-03T11:45

At 12, Douglas Braga arrived in Rio de Janeiro, a wide-eyed boy, ready to live out the Brazilian dream and become a professional footballer. At 18, he was signed by one of the country’s top team...

Armenia: Return to a Town That Died from 2018-12-27T11:45

Thirty years on from the 1988 earthquake in Armenia, what’s happened to the devastated town of Spitak? Rescuers from all over the world came to help search for survivors – among them a team of B...

DNA, Me and the Family Tree from 2018-12-20T15:31

Where do you come from? Tracing your ancestry in the USA is one of the most popular hobbies along with gardening and golf. TV is awash with advertising for the do-it-yourself genetic testing kit...

China's Hidden Camps from 2018-12-13T11:15

China is accused of locking up as many as a million Uighur Muslims without trial across its western region of Xinjiang. The government denies the claims, saying people willingly attend special "...

Inside Burundi’s Killing Machine from 2018-12-06T11:44

An investigation into the 'killing machine' of one of Africa's most repressive and secretive countries. Three years ago there was widespread unrest in the East African country of Burundi when th...

A Stark Choice for Cambodia's Surrogates from 2018-11-29T13:11

In a Cambodian hospital, a group of terrified new mothers nurse tiny babies under the watch of police guards. They're surrogates, desperately poor women promised $10,000 to bear children for par...

Nigeria's Patient 'Prisoners' from 2018-11-22T11:41

Nigerian patients held in hospital because they can’t pay their medical bills.

In March 2016, a young woman went into labour. She was rushed to a local, private hospital in south-east Nig...

Generation Identity from 2018-09-20T10:30

Simon Cox is in Austria where the authorities have launched an unprecedented operation against a new far right youth organisation, Generation Identity. They prosecuted members of the group inclu...

Chile - Sexual Abuse, Secrets and Lies from 2018-09-13T10:30

The dark secrets of Chile's Catholic Church. El Bosque is the wealthy Santiago parish where Fernando Karadima, a charismatic priest, attracted hundreds of young men to the priesthood. In 2010, h...

Nevada's Brothels Face the Axe from 2018-09-06T10:30

In parts of Nevada, prostitution is legal - the only such state in the US. The 'live and let live mentality' is a hangover from the gold rush days and in certain counties, brothels have been off...

Uganda's Prison Farms from 2018-08-30T17:04

'He was using prisoners like oxen for ploughing for his own gain'. An ex-convict recalls the prison officer in charge of the prison farm he worked on in Uganda. The country has one of the most o...

'Gone to Foreign' from Jamaica from 2018-08-23T12:32

When someone in Jamaica emigrates to the UK, it is said they have 'gone to foreign'. Over the past 70 years several hundred thousand Jamaicans have done this, following in the footsteps of the s...

Seaweed, Sex and Liberation in Zanzibar from 2018-08-16T10:30

Seaweed is liberating women in a conservative corner of east Africa. Thousands of women have gained more control over their lives thanks to Zanzibar's seaweed farms. In a traditional island vill...

Euthanasia - Aurelia's Story from 2018-08-09T10:15

In January, Aurelia Brouwers - a 29 year old Dutch woman, with a history of severe mental illness - lay down on her bed to die. She had been declared eligible for euthanasia a month earlier - Du...

Norway's Silent Scandal from 2018-08-02T10:38

The conviction of a prominent expert in Norway's troubled child protection system - for downloading images of child sex abuse - has put the organisation under scrutiny once again. In April this ...

Not Making Babies in South Korea from 2018-07-26T10:05

Why does South Korea have the lowest fertility rate in the world? The average South Korean woman is expected to have 1.05 children in her life - exactly half the rate needed to maintain a popula...

Shades of Jewish in Israel from 2018-05-17T10:20

Israel gives all Jews the right to citizenship - but has it become less welcoming to African Jews?

Since its founding in 1948, after the horrors of the Holocaust, Israel has seen itself as...

China's World Cup Dreams from 2018-05-10T10:20

China's football-loving President Xi Jinping says he wants his country to qualify for, to host and to win the football World Cup by 2050. The men's national team has recently been defeated 6-0 b...

The Belarus Tractor Factory from 2018-05-03T10:15

One in ten tractors in the world is made in Belarus. You can find them ploughing furrows and shifting snow in the US, Canada, Pakistan, Thailand...and on the farms of Somerset...At the heart of ...

Corruption Incorporated: The Odebrecht Story from 2018-04-26T10:15

Corruption Incorporated - the Odebrecht Story Odebrecht was one of Brazil's premier companies - the largest construction firm in Latin America. But some of its success in securing multi-million ...

The Mystery of Russia's Lost Jihadi Brides from 2018-04-19T10:15

Thousands of young Russian Muslim men were lured to join so-called Islamic State - taking their wives and children with them. But since the "caliphate" fell last year, those families have vanish...

The Child Saver of Mosul from 2018-04-12T10:20

A one-woman whirlwind of passion and energy, Sukayna Muhammad Younes is a unique phenomenon in Iraq. A council official in the half-destroyed city of Mosul, former stronghold of so-called Islami...

Greece's Haven Hotel from 2018-04-05T10:20

In a rundown neighbourhood in Athens there is a hotel with 4,000 people on its waiting list for rooms. But the roof leaks and the lifts are permanently out of action. None of the guests pay a pe...

Digging Up the Past in Catalonia from 2018-03-29T10:20

Why is troubled Catalonia now opening up civil war mass graves?

Spain has the second largest amount of mass graves in the world after Cambodia. Over 100,000 people disappeared during the ...

Sweden's Child Migrant Mystery from 2018-01-18T11:30

For nearly two decades, Swedish health professionals have been treating asylum-seeking children who fall into a deeply listless state. They withdraw from the world, refuse to speak, walk and eat...

Ukraine's Frontline Bakery from 2018-01-11T11:00

Lucy Ash meets the staff and customers of a bakery which is the one bright spot in war-torn east Ukraine. The war there between Russian-backed rebels and the Ukrainian army has dropped out of th...

Black and Proud in Brazil from 2018-01-04T11:20

For decades, Brazil has presented itself as a colour-blind nation in which most citizens are, at least to some extent, racially mixed. But a controversial education law is encouraging black Braz...

Taming the Pilcomayo from 2017-12-28T11:35

A journey up the 'suicidal' Pilcomayo river that separates Paraguay from Argentina... The Pilcomayo is the life-force of one of Latin America's most arid regions. But it is also one of the most ...

33 Ways to Dispel a Chinese Mistress from 2017-12-22T10:37

There are 33 ways to dispel a mistress according to one of China's top love detectives. An unusual new industry has taken hold in some of the country's top cities. It's called "mistress-dispelli...

Daphne and the Two Maltas from 2017-12-14T11:18

The brutal, unsolved murder of Malta's most outspoken blogger has blackened the image of the Mediterranean holiday island. Since Daphne Caruana Galizia was blown up by a car bomb in October, her...

The Lost Children of Isis from 2017-12-07T11:00

As they retreat from Northern Iraq so-called Islamic State has left thousands of women and children behind. Some are the abandoned families of IS fighters, others are being held as prisoners or ...

Pride, Passion and Palestinian Horses from 2017-11-30T11:00

In the West Bank hundreds of families share a passion for breeding horses. Amid the narrow streets and cramped apartment buildings small stables can be found with owners grooming beautiful Arabi...

The Tula Toli Massacre from 2017-11-28T14:52

The chilling story of a massacre of Rohingya muslims in a small village in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. On 30 August government soldiers swept through the village setting fire to homes, rap...

Panama's Vanishing Islands from 2017-09-21T10:00

Panama's idyllic islands are threatened by a rising sea, but one community has a plan... The Guna Yala archipelago is made up of dozens of tiny, tropical, low-lying islands off the Caribbean coa...

Starting from Scratch in Uganda from 2017-09-14T10:00

Uganda has now taken in more than a million refugees who have fled civil war in neighbouring South Sudan. And more are coming every day. It's said that Uganda has the most generous refugee polic...

Bulgaria on a Cliff Edge from 2017-09-07T10:00

What's it like to live in the country with the fastest-shrinking population in the world? In the mountain village of Kalotinsi in western Bulgaria, there is no shop, no school, no bus service. U...

Abdi in America from 2017-08-31T10:30

A young Somali refugee struggles to live the American dream in the USA's whitest state, during the rise of Donald Trump. Is the dream still possible?

In December 2014, in 'Abdi and the Go...

The Sailors of Sevastopol from 2017-08-24T10:00

Tim Whewell meets the sailors of Sevastopol. The Crimean coast of the Black Sea has such an allure that Russia risked the world's censure by seizing it from Ukraine in 2014. Home of the Black Se...

Abkhazia - a Land Forgotten from 2017-08-17T10:00

It's a state that most of the world says doesn't exist. But remote Abkhazia, on the far north-east shore of the Black Sea, has had the trappings of independence for a generation, since it broke ...

Romania's Webcam Boom from 2017-08-10T10:00

Inside Romania's live, web-camming world - the engine of the online sex industry... Crossing Continents explores the fastest growing sector of so-called, 'adult' entertainment. Locally, it's kno...

Last Call from Aleppo from 2017-08-03T10:00

On December the 14th last year the BBC's Mike Thomson awoke to a desperate voicemail message. It came from a frightened mother of three in besieged East Aleppo. Head teacher, Om Modar, who had b...

Inside Transgender Pakistan from 2017-07-27T10:00

Pakistan is at a crossroads when it comes to gender identity. Kami calls herself Pakistan's first transgender supermodel. She's championing a new transgender identity in a country where there's ...

Banishing America's 'Bad Hombres' from 2017-05-19T09:34

President Donald Trump has pledged to chase what he called the 'bad hombres' out of America. One of the organisations the President is targeting is the notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, better kn...

Elephants, Politics and Sri Lanka from 2017-05-11T11:45

Every year elephants kill dozens of people in Sri Lanka. Hundreds of these huge mammals are slaughtered too - often by farmers attempting to protect their land. For Crossing Continents, Linda Pr...

Living with the Dead from 2017-05-04T10:00

Since the beginning of time, man has lived in awe and fear of death, and every culture has faced its mystery through intricate and often ancient rituals. Few, however, are as extreme as those of...

Wives Wanted in the Faroes from 2017-04-27T10:00

Men in the Faroe Islands are having to look far beyond their shores for marriage. The remote, windswept archipelago between Norway and Iceland, with close ties to Denmark, has seen an influx of ...

Cuba's Cancer Revolution from 2017-04-20T10:00

Lung cancer is America's biggest cancer killer. But there is hope: the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has sanctioned trials of CimaVax - a treatment created in Cuba that has extended the liv...

Coming Out of the Shadows in Kenya from 2017-04-13T10:00

For generations those who, for biological reasons, don't fit the usual male/female categories have faced violence and stigma in Kenya. Intersex people - as they are commonly known in Kenya - wer...

Hong Kong's Secret Dwellings from 2017-04-06T10:00

Last summer the emergency services rescued two children from an out-of-control fire in an old industrial building in the commercial area of Hong Kong. It was discovered that a number of people w...

Brazil's modern-day Captains of the Sands from 2017-03-31T14:43

Eighty years ago, the Brazilian writer Jorge Amado published Captains of the Sands, a powerfully moving novel about the lives of a gang of orphaned children living on the streets of Salvador. Th...

Russia's Extreme Selfie Daredevils from 2017-03-23T11:00

Young Russians have gained a reputation on social media for taking the most extreme selfies, often involving death-defying stunts on top of skyscrapers, all for the sake of internet fame.

Siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery from 2017-01-12T11:20

On the night of the 1st July 2016, five young Bangladeshi Islamist militants stormed a Dhaka restaurant popular with foreign residents and visitors. The siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery was an ...

Poland: Behind the Black Protests from 2017-01-05T11:15

Thousands of women - and men - took to the streets in Poland recently in protest against attempts to ban all abortions-and the issue seems to have crystallised a growing unease with the country'...

Mexico - The Town That Said, 'No!' from 2016-12-29T12:24

The Mexican state of Michoacan was the birth place of the Mexican drug war. The town of Cheran is much like other mainly indigenous communities, but it is unique - Cheran has no mayor, no police...

Punk Art and Protest in Malaysia from 2016-12-22T12:19

Malaysia's government is mired in scandal. Billions of dollars have been looted from a state investment fund. The Prime Minister is accused of receiving $681 million into his personal bank accou...

India's Silent Terror from 2016-12-15T11:20

Protecting cows has now become the focus of armed Hindu vigilante groups intent on asserting Hindu radicalism under India's Hindu nationalist government.

Cricket, Colour and Quotas in South Africa from 2016-12-08T11:20

Black sporting talent is still struggling to break through into South Africa's top teams.

Albania's Cannabis Boom from 2016-12-01T11:20

Linda Pressly and Albana Kasapi investigate the 'Green Gold' rush in this Balkan nation

Checkmate for the King of Chess? from 2016-11-24T11:20

The bizarre and extraordinary story of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the eccentric Russian tycoon and president of FIDE, the international chess governing body. His twenty years in office have been dogged...

Cleansing Turkey from 2016-11-17T11:15

Public employee one day, enemy of the state the next. The post coup reality in Turkey for thousands of state employees accused of being associated with the Gulen movement.

Fixing India's Car Crash Capital from 2016-09-15T10:30

India has some of the world's most dangerous roads. The government says almost 150,000 people died on them last year. Nowhere saw more crashes than the booming city of Mumbai. The carnage is rel...

Torah and Tech in Israel from 2016-09-08T10:30

Can you learn to code if you've spent your life studying religious texts? Can you be part of the fast-paced, secular world of technology and startups if you're from a conservative religious comm...

Addicted in Suburbia from 2016-09-01T10:30

The United States is in the throes of a heroin and opiate epidemic. For Crossing Continents, India Rakusen travels to Lorain County, in the state of Ohio, where addiction has become part of ever...

Protesting in Putin's Russia from 2016-08-25T10:30

After the last elections in Russia, mass protests against vote-rigging led to clashes in the centre of Moscow. The events on Bolotnaya Square were the biggest challenge President Putin has ever ...

Colombia's Forgotten Exodus from 2016-08-18T10:30

In the Colombian capital of Bogota, Lucy Ash meets two people who fear they will never be able to return to their homes. They both come from Choco, which is one of the poorest provinces and most...

Poland's Amateur Defenders from 2016-08-11T10:30

Playing war-games in the woods has become an ever-more popular pastime in Poland as thousands of young people join paramilitary groups to defend their country against possible invasion. Others -...

Going Hungry in Venezuela from 2016-08-04T10:30

Oil-rich Venezuela is struggling to feed its own people as a result of a spiralling economic and political crisis which has brought the country to its knees. Vladimir Hernandez returns to his ho...

Syria's Secret Library from 2016-07-28T10:30

Away from the sound of bombs and bullets, in the basement of a crumbling house in the besieged Syrian town of Darayya, is a secret library. It's home to thousands of books rescued from bombed-ou...

Stealing Innocence in Malawi from 2016-07-21T10:30

Ed Butler explores the secretive and shocking world of Malawi's "hyenas". These are the men hired to sexually initiate or cleanse adolescent and pre-adolescent girls - some said to be 12 years o...

'Islamic State's' Most Wanted from 2016-05-27T11:36

Chloe Hadjimatheou tells the astonishing story of a group of young men from Raqqa in Syria who chose to resist the so-called Islamic State, which occupied their city in 2014 and made it the capi...

Checkmate Me in St Louis from 2016-05-12T10:30

Dave Edmonds travels to the mid-western city of St Louis (location for the musical 'Meet Me In St Louis', starring Judy Garland) for the US chess championships. The city has become a world centr...

China's Family Planning Army from 2016-05-05T10:30

Now that China has ended its One Child policy, one group of state employees may soon be out of a job - the country's hated population police. Hundreds of thousands of officers used to hunt down ...

Forgetting Igbo from 2016-04-28T10:30

Nkem Ifejika cant speak the language of his forefathers. Nkem is British of Nigerian descent and comes from one of Nigeria's biggest ethnic groups the Igbo. He's one of the millions of Nigerians...

Norway: Parents Against the State from 2016-04-14T10:30

Norway's widely regarded as one of the world's most progressive societies, yet it's at the centre of an international storm over its child protection policies. Campaigners accuse its social work...

Born Free, Killed by Hate in South Africa from 2016-04-07T10:30

In 1994 apartheid ended in South Africa and Nelson Mandela was elected president. He promised in his inauguration speech to "build a society in which all South Africans will be able to walk tall...

Thai Buddhism - Monks, Mercs and Women from 2016-03-31T10:30

An unholy spat is stirring the Sangha, Thailand's top Buddhist authority - who will become the next Supreme Patriarch, Thailand's most senior monk? Meanwhile, allegations of 'cheque-book Buddhis...

Romania: The Shepherds Revolt from 2016-03-24T11:15

Lucy Ash asks why thousands of angry Romanian shepherds recently stormed the parliament in Bucharest. Sparked by an amendment to Romania's hunting law, the unprecedented protest was over plans t...

Molenbeek, Through the Looking Glass from 2016-01-14T11:25

After the terror attacks in Paris, the world's attention turned to an inner-city district of the Belgian capital, Brussels, where several of the attackers came from. Molenbeek has been notorious...

Brazil Versus Sleaze from 2016-01-07T11:15

Brazil is in crisis. Confronted with a massive downturn in the economy, its currency has crashed, while its political class sinks in a quagmire of corruption allegations linked to the state oil ...

The Battered Champions of Aleppo from 2015-12-31T11:15

A fuzzy team photo from the 1980s sends Tim Whewell on a journey to track down football players from a small town in northern Syria who were once the champions of Aleppo province. In the last fo...

Saving India's Parsis from 2015-12-24T11:15

India's Parsis are one of the subcontinent's most successful communities. But their future looks precarious because their numbers have fallen dramatically. Some Parsis believe the answer could b...

Cambodia: Trust Me, I'm not a Doctor from 2015-12-17T11:15

The Cambodian government has recently announced a clampdown on unlicensed doctors. This comes after a mass infection of HIV in a rural village, blamed on an unlicensed doctor re-using syringes. ...

Malaysia's Runaway Children from 2015-12-14T14:14

The deaths of five school children in Malaysia have provoked an anguished debate about education and what it means to be Malay. The children ran away from their boarding school in Kelantan State...

Albania: Shadows of the Past from 2015-12-03T11:15

Maria Margaronis explores the debris of Albania's painful past-the prison labour camps, concrete bunkers and secret police headquarters--as archives are unlocked and new monuments put up in an e...

Greece: No Place to Die from 2015-11-27T16:42

They say you can't take it with you but if you live in Greece how much money you have at the end of your life makes a big difference. Permanent plots in the country's packed cemeteries can cost ...

The Drugs Mules of the Andes from 2015-11-19T11:15

Peru is the world's largest producer of cocaine. A staggering one-third of it travels on foot, on the backs of young men like Daniel. He is 18, full of bravado, and claims he does this work so h...

Norway and Russia: An Arctic Friendship Under Threat from 2015-11-13T16:41

In Norway, the sacking of a newspaper editor, allegedly after pressure from Russia, has caused a political storm over media freedom, and raised questions over what price the country should pay f...

Paraguay's Schoolgirl Mothers from 2015-09-10T10:15

In April, the case of a 10 year old girl who became pregnant after her step-father raped her became front-page news in Paraguay, and across Latin America. Abortion is legal in this small South A...

Hodei - The Man Who Vanished from 2015-09-03T10:15

The last time anyone saw Hodei Egiluz, a 23-year-old computer engineer from Spain, was on a night out in the Belgian port of Antwerp in October 2013. Hodei is one of roughly 10,000 people who di...

Losing Louisiana from 2015-08-27T10:15

Ten years ago Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, leaving over 1800 people dead and causing billions of dollars of damage. It was dramatic and destructive - but Katrina has been described ...

The Harragas of Algeria from 2015-08-20T10:15

Why are so many young people leaving Algeria? Unlike Syria or Libya, Algeria is supposedly a beacon of stability in a troubled region and it enjoys vast wealth from its oil and gas resources. Ye...

Cuba on the Move from 2015-08-13T10:15

Will Grant takes a ride in Cuba to discover how people get around and whether the thaw in relations with the United States will make any difference to their lives. The country is known the world...

China's Ketamine Fortress from 2015-08-06T10:00

Celia Hatton goes undercover to The Fortress, the Chinese village at the centre of the world's illicit ketamine problem. She hears how China is a top maker and taker of the drug. Celia visits ka...

South Africa Unplugged from 2015-07-30T14:14

South Africa is in crisis as the national electricity generator, Eskom, struggles to provide an adequate power supply and rolling blackouts hit the country on a regular basis. As Neal Razzell re...

A Mediterranean Rescue from 2015-07-30T13:58

In one of the largest operations of its kind, thousands of migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, were pulled off cramped, unseaworthy boats in the Mediterranean in June. Gabriel Gatehouse ha...

Peru's Wildlife for Sale from 2015-05-14T10:15

The global trade in wildlife is worth an estimated US$20 billion a year. Peru is one of the most biodiverse nations on the planet. But its government estimates 400 species of fauna and flora are...

Georgia: Orthodoxy in the Classroom from 2015-05-07T10:15

Natalia Antelava asks if the creeping influence of the Orthodox Church in Georgia's schools is turning them into a breeding ground for radical Christianity. Georgia's liberal politicians say onl...

Wrestling out of Poverty from 2015-04-30T10:15

In rural India, wrestling often attracts larger crowds than cricket. And for poor, farming communities in Maharashtra, a wrestler in the family can also mean a ticket out of poverty. For Crossin...

'Police State' Portugal from 2015-04-23T10:15

Does Portugal have a problem with police brutality and racism? In February a group of young black men from the Lisbon suburb of Cova da Moura allege they were beaten and racially abused at a pol...

Who's Afraid of Teatr Doc? from 2015-04-16T10:15

Teatr doc was founded 12 years ago by playwrights who couldn't find a venue willing to stage their documentary-style plays that often challenge the status quo. In December the theatre was raided...

The Bizarre Workings of St Louis County, Missouri from 2015-04-09T10:15

Are excessive traffic fines and debtors' jails fuelling community tensions in suburban Missouri? Claire Bolderson reports on a network of ninety separate cities in St Louis County, most of which...

Escaping Tanzania's Cutting Season from 2015-04-02T10:15

In northern Tanzania there is a tradition of FGM - female genital mutilation. The 'cutting season' lasts for six weeks. Afterwards, the adolescent victims are often expected to marry. But girls ...

Saving Gaza's Grand Piano from 2015-03-26T11:45

It has been hidden away in a dusty corner of an abandoned theatre, unplayed and almost forgotten - a magnificent instrument allowed to moulder away in a territory whose Islamist rulers banned pu...

Greece: The Rubber Glove Rebellion from 2015-01-15T11:15

The cleaners whose protest has captured the imagination of those opposed to the harsh austerity programme in Greece. Mostly middle-aged or nearing retirement, they have refused to go quietly. Th...

Should Comics Be Crimes? from 2015-01-08T11:15

In Japan, manga and anime are huge cultural industries. These comics and cartoons are read and watched by young and old, men and women, geeks and office workers. Their fans stretch around the wo...

Colombia - Where the Truth Lies Buried from 2015-01-01T11:15

In Comuna 13, one of Medellin's poorest and most violent districts, there is a giant rubbish dump - la escombrera. Local people say it's where the truth lies buried. They're talking about the di...

Abdi and the Golden Ticket from 2014-12-29T20:45

Each year, the US government does a strange and slightly surprising thing: it gives away 50,000 green cards (permanent resident visas) to people chosen at random via a lottery.

But becomi...

The Knights of New Russia from 2014-12-18T11:15

Russian support for the separatists in eastern Ukraine doesn't all come directly from the Kremlin. The rebellion there may be stoked, and armed, by Vladimir Putin - but it's also become a person...

Washington Redskins from 2014-12-11T02:32

Fans of the Washington Redskins, one of the most popular American football teams in the country, are fiercely proud of their dark crimson Indian head logo. They say it is a sign of respect and t...

Yemen's Swap Marriages from 2014-12-04T11:15

'I'll marry your sister if you marry mine. And if you divorce my sister, I'll divorce yours.' That is Yemen's 'Shegar', or swap marriage, an agreement between two men to marry each other's siste...

Searching for Annie in Liberia from 2014-11-27T11:15

Gabriel Gatehouse reports from the Liberian capital Monrovia on the devastating impact of Ebola upon its people. In one case, a patient called Annie, 38, was discovered in her crowded shared hou...

Hunting the Taliban from 2014-11-20T11:15

Mobeen Azhar reports from Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, where police are at war with the Taliban. Given rare access to the work of the police by a Senior Superintendent in Karachi's Criminal...

Ivory Coast's School for Husbands from 2014-09-18T10:15

In one remote district in Ivory Coast, men are going back to school. Their studies are part of a UN-backed project dubbed 'the school for husbands' and designed to save the lives of women and ch...

Thailand's Slave Fishermen from 2014-09-11T10:15

It has one of the largest fishing fleets in the world and much of the catch from Thailand's fishing boats ends up on Japanese, European and American plates. Yet the industry stands accused of pr...

A Song for Spanish Miners from 2014-09-04T10:15

In the Spanish mining town of Turon a male choir meets once a week for rehearsals. They often sing to the patron saint of miners Santa Bárbara Bendita. Since 1934 miners have been singing this b...

Guatemala's Addicts Behind Bars from 2014-08-28T10:15

The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in cocaine trafficking through Guatemala en route north, to the United States. Part of the fallout locally, has been a rise in addiction. As a result...

Goodbye Ireland; Goodbye Gaelic Football from 2014-08-21T10:15

Gaelic Football is Ireland's most popular sport - there are clubs in every parish of the country. The game is very much part of the Irish identity. But it is losing its lifeblood. And all becaus...

Chasing China's Doomsday Cult from 2014-08-14T10:15

Almighty God vs the Red Dragon: It sounds like a fantasy action film but it is in fact a real and disturbing struggle in China. The most vivid case involves a group of people who beat a stranger...

Crimea: Paradise Regained from 2014-08-07T10:15

Europe and the US have imposed the toughest sanctions on Russia since the Cold War amid anger over the Kremlin's support for east Ukrainian separatists who stand accused of shooting down a Malay...

Fearless Women in Turkish Kurdistan from 2014-07-31T10:15

For decades, Turkey's Kurds have been struggling against a state that used to deny their very existence as a separate people. In the low level war between the Turkish military and the militant K...

Tornado Hide and Seek from 2014-07-24T10:15

When a twisting funnel drops from the sky with tearing winds of up to 500 km/h, what do you do? In Oklahoma, people thought they knew the answer. The state is in the heart of tornado alley in th...

The Reykjavik Confessions from 2014-05-15T10:15

In 1974, police launched one of the biggest murder investigations Iceland has ever seen. The case was eventually solved when six people confessed to their parts in the murders of two men whose b...

Argentina: GM's New Frontline from 2014-05-08T10:15

The transgenic revolution in agricultural production turned Argentina into one of the world's largest producers and exporters of genetically modified soybean and corn. But there is unease across...

Arizona: The Missing Migrants from 2014-05-01T10:15

Each year, thousands of illegal migrants try to enter the United States via a treacherous journey across the Arizona desert. Some succeed, while others are captured by US border patrols and are ...

Central African Republic: A Road Through Hatred from 2014-04-10T10:15

How do you restore peace to a country now being torn apart by a vicious campaign of ethnic and religious cleansing? Two men in the Central African Republic believe they have the answer - friends...

Ukraine: The Paper Trail to Corruption from 2014-04-03T10:50

When the former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych jumped into a helicopter and flew into hiding in mid-February, the Kiev protest movement that had opposed him flung open the gates of his ab...

Syria: The Silent Enemy from 2014-03-27T11:15

There's a silent enemy at work in the civil war in Syria and it's threatening the lives of young children. The war has placed the country's health system under intense pressure and in certain ar...

Uzbekistan: Searching for Googoosha from 2014-01-16T11:15

Natalia Antelava goes in search of Gulnara Karimova - pop star, philanthropist, socialite, intellectual - oh, and incidentally (according to leaked US Embassy cables) the most hated woman in Uzb...

Russia: Digging up the Dead from 2014-01-09T11:15

Of the estimated 70 million deaths attributed to World War two, 30 million died on the Russian front. Of those, as many as 4 million Soviet soldiers are still "missing in action". These men - mo...

Greenland: To dig or not to dig? from 2014-01-02T11:15

Could Greenland become the world's next resource hotspot? The government there hopes so - they've been travelling the world touting the country's vast reserves of oil and gas, and huge deposits ...

Brazil: Fighting Slavery from 2013-12-26T11:15

Brazil's anti-slavery hit-squads are unique. Since 1995, these committed bands of labour inspectors, accompanied by heavily armed police, have rescued 46,000 people deemed to be working as slave...

Bangladesh: Trials of Strength from 2013-12-19T11:15

Farhana Haider investigates the prosecution of alleged war criminals and asks if the trials are being used to target the opposition.

There were numerous reports of atrocities during the br...

Indonesia's humungous healthcare plan from 2013-12-12T11:15

On 1 January 2014 Indonesia will launch the largest public health insurance scheme in the world. It will unite a bewildering array of current schemes to cover the entire population, with the poo...

India: Resisting Rape from 2013-12-05T11:15

One year on from the horrific attack in Delhi, Joanna Jolly hears from three women who've chosen to report a rape in a country that is at last waking up to the problem. The authorities have intr...

Mexico: Exorcising Evil from 2013-11-28T11:15

Vladimir Hernandez follows the Mexican priests who believe they can fight the evil of drug trafficking through the ancient Catholic practice of exorcism.

It is estimated that 60,000 people...

Moldova - Sour Grapes from 2013-11-21T11:15

Wine making in Moldova is a source of national pride - they have been growing vines for centuries. During Soviet times the country was encouraged to become one of the USSR's major wine suppliers...

Indonesia's Mercury Menace from 2013-09-19T10:15

Up to 20% of the world's gold is produced by informal mining, with millions of people in the developing world relying on it for a living. The quickest and easiest way for them to extract gold is...

Matchmaking in Modern China from 2013-09-12T10:15

According to a recent study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 24 million Chinese men will be unable to find wives by 2020 because of the country's gender imbalance. Before the mass migr...

Venezuela - Out of Stock from 2013-09-05T10:30

Despite its massive natural oil wealth, Venezuela is a country sliding into recession, and has one of the highest inflation rates in the world. With prices of some products rising as much as 50%...

Inside Gay Pakistan from 2013-08-29T10:30

Mobeen Azhar investigates gay life in urban Pakistan and despite the country's religious conservatism and homosexuality being a crime there, he finds a vibrant gay scene, all aided by social med...

Turkey's New Opposition from 2013-08-22T10:30

Change is in the air in Turkey following anti-government protests centred on a park in Istanbul - but where will it end? Emre Azizlerli of the BBC Turkish Service explores the strange new allian...

Kazakhstan's Living Gulags from 2013-08-15T10:30

The Kazakh steppe was once home to the infamous Soviet forced labour camps which formed part of the Gulag. Today, the Gulag system is said to live on in Kazakhstan's jails where a growing prison...

Romania, Religion and Riches from 2013-08-08T10:30

Since the fall of Ceaucescu's dictatorship, the Romanian Orthodox Church has flourished. It has built thousands of new churches across the country and is now constructing a huge new cathedral in...

Kermit Gosnell: Doctor and Murderer from 2013-08-05T20:00

Dr Kermit Gosnell had a reputation as the 'abortion doctor of last resort' along the East Coast of the United States - until his arrest in 2010. He regularly performed abortions well past the le...

Spain: Operation FGM from 2013-07-25T10:30

In Barcelona, a doctor offers reconstructive surgery to women who had female genital mutilation when they were children. Recorded over 6 months, Linda Pressly hears the stories of Rosa and Wenku...

Sweden from 2013-05-24T08:30

Writer Andrew Brown tries to find out if the rural heart of Sweden still lives on in the modern age. In an entertaining and unpredictable journey he goes in search of wolves, egg-tossing merryma...

Romario Tackles Brazil from 2013-05-16T10:30

Brazil is getting ready to host the 2014 World Cup. But the preparations have become marred in controversy. And leading the charge against over-budget stadiums, vested interests and corruption i...

Return to Ghana's Oil City from 2013-05-09T10:30

Two and a half years ago, oil started flowing from Ghana's first commercial offshore oilfield. Shortly after the taps were turned on, Rob Walker visited the hub for the new industry: the once sl...

Hazaras, Hatred and Pakistan from 2013-05-02T10:15

Mobeen Azhar travels to the Pakistani city of Quetta to investigate how it has become the scene of violent and indiscriminate attacks by Sunni militants against the local ethnic Hazara community...

Belarus's university in exile from 2013-04-25T10:30

Belarus has been described as the last dictatorship in Europe. Few dare speak out against President Alexander Lukashenko and his ruling elite. But the opposition has found a way of making its vo...

Mexico's Village Vigilantes from 2013-04-18T10:30

Insecurity dominates the lives of millions of Mexicans, who are caught between the murderous drug cartels and absent or corrupt law enforcement. So, communities have begun to take the law into t...

Ukraine's HIV battle from 2013-04-11T10:30

Twelve years ago Lucy Ash investigated Ukraine's fight against HIV infection, which was mainly caused by injecting drug users. After the Orange Revolution in late 2004, the government promised t...

Nepal: Getting Away with Murder from 2013-04-04T10:30

The fate of hundreds of people who went missing during Nepal's brutal civil war is threatening to undermine the country's fragile democracy. Around 100,000 people were displaced during the blood...

Mongolia's Mining Boom from 2013-03-28T11:15

The Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia's freezing Gobi Desert is one of the the world's biggest - extracting a vast seam of copper, gold and silver the size of Manhattan. It's turned this country of ca...

Trafficking girls in India from 2013-01-10T11:15

In a major investigation, Natalia Antelava reports on the abduction of tens of thousands of young girls in India for forced marriages. Thousands more are sold as prostitutes and domestic servant...

Forced Confessions in Japan from 2013-01-03T11:00

Mariko Oi investigates forced confessions of suspects in the Japanese criminal justice system. She asks if the use of prolonged questioning and other dubious tactics by police and prosecutors mi...

Burma from 2012-12-27T11:30

Lucy Ash asks what the explosion in popular protest over a Chinese-backed copper mine says about changes in Burma and asks if this is a test case for the government's commitment to democratic re...

Poland's New Immigrants from 2012-12-20T11:30

For decades, Poland has been a country of emigrants travelling to build new lives abroad, not least in the UK. But could things be about to change? Paul Henley travels to the country at the east...

Libya: Life after the Revolution from 2012-12-13T11:30

The city of Misrata arguably suffered the most during the Libyan conflict as missiles rained on it for months on end. By the end of the revolution though, fighters from Misrata had exacted their...

Sexual Abuse in US Prisons from 2012-12-06T11:30

Linda Pressly investigates why rape and sexual abuse is so common in America's huge prison system - and asks if new measures to fight it will succeed. Producer: Helen Grady.

The Mystery of South Africa's Missing Textbooks from 2012-11-29T11:30

Many schoolchildren in South Africa's northern Limpopo province have gone for months without school textbooks. There was money to buy them. There was also a contract to deliver the books. Yet th...

El Salvador's Gang Truce from 2012-11-22T11:30

In one of the most violent countries on earth, peace has broken out. In March, a truce was brokered between El Salvador's two most violent street gangs; they agreed to stop killing each other. <...

The Mayor of Mogadishu from 2012-11-15T11:30

Andrew Harding meets the Mayor with the job of running Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. Can the man nicknamed "Tarzan" tackle mass corruption and the physical and psychological impact of years of b...

Israel's New Front Line from 2012-09-06T10:30

When Israel was established, its tiny community of ultra-Orthodox Jews were, uniquely, exempted from the normal requirement of service in the Israeli Defence Force. They were seen as keepers of ...

Gold and Governance in Romania from 2012-08-30T10:30

Tessa Dunlop travels to Romania to investigate why a proposed open-cast gold mine has caused the longest-lasting political storm in the country since the end of Communism.

The mine, in th...

Bulgaria's Criminal Football from 2012-08-23T10:30

No fewer than 15 football club bosses have been murdered in Bulgaria's top football league in the last decade alone. In this edition of Crossing Continents Margot Dunne investigates reports that...

Korea Host Bars from 2012-08-16T10:30

South Korean women, tradition says, are hard-working, respectful to family, and know their place in Korea's Confucian hierarchies. But the country's rapid economic development has meant some sta...

Cold Turkey in Karachi from 2012-08-09T10:30

Karachi is facing a drugs epidemic. Pakistan's sprawling port city has an estimated half a million chronic heroin addicts. The drug is cheap and easily available as it comes across the Pakistan/...

Rwanda Cycling from 2012-08-02T10:30

Rwanda is a nation of bicycles; large cumbersome machines, piled high with sacks of coffee or potatoes, so heavy they can only be pushed up the steep winding roads in this "land of a thousand hi...

Spain's White Elephants from 2012-07-26T10:30

The state-of-the-art Aeropuerto Don Quijote in Ciudad Real opened for business at the end of 2008. The vision was to create an air hub in the heart of Spain, and its backers believed it would br...

China Tweeting from 2012-07-19T10:30

In just three years China's main microblogging site, Sina Weibo, has surpassed Twitter's entire global membership. More than 300 million Chinese are now tweeting, with millions more joining the ...

Some Promised Land from 2012-07-12T10:30

Writer and broadcaster Maria Margaronis follows the route taken by migrants fleeing war or poverty who are risking their lives to reach the Europe Union. It is estimated that around 75 thousand ...

China: Too Old to Get Rich? from 2012-05-17T10:25

In this week's Crossing Continents, Mukul Devichand tells the stories of Shanghai's rapidly ageing population. China's natural ageing process has been accelerated by the One Child Policy. Mukul...

Russia's New Energy Frontier from 2012-05-10T10:25

Lucy Ash visits Russia's new energy frontier in the Arctic Yamal region and explores the impact oil and gas extraction is having on the indigenous people there.

Gradually but inexorably, ...

A Death in Honduras from 2012-05-03T10:25

Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world. The People's Funeral Service deals daily with the fall-out from these extreme levels of violence. Set up by the Mayor of Tegucigalpa, the capit...

The Marriage Breakers of Bangladesh from 2012-04-26T10:25

In Bangladesh, twenty percent of girls are married before their fifteenth birthday. Jemy is likely to be one of them. She is thirteen years old and due to marry a cousin in three days time. Meanwh...

The Pink Certificate from 2012-04-19T10:25

There's a Turkish saying that every man is born a soldier; and in Turkey every man is conscripted for military service of up to 15 months. There is no alternative to this; Turkey does not recognise...

Forced Sterilisation in Uzbekistan from 2012-04-12T10:25

Natalia Antelava reports on Uzbekistan where women have become the new target of one of the most repressive regimes on earth. She uncovers evidence that women are being sterilised,often without the...

The Angola 2 from 2012-04-05T10:25

Tim Franks looks at the case of two US inmates who have been held in solitary confinement in Louisiana for what will be 40 years this month. It's believed to be the longest period of time in US pen...

Canada's prescription drug crisis from 2012-03-29T10:30

Canada's First Nations communities are in crisis. Addiction to prescription pain-killers is rife, and it's devastating the fragile communities of northern Ontario. OxyContin - an opioid drug capa...

What happened to the Kurdish spring? from 2012-01-12T11:25

Twenty years ago, the Kurdish region in Northern Iraq achieved effective autonomy after the first Gulf War, establishing a liberal constitution and a democratic assembly. The region is booming econ...

Saving the Brazilian Amazon from 2012-01-05T11:25

The Amazon rainforest is perhaps the world's greatest single environmental asset. For years the accepted wisdom has been that the remorseless tide of destruction there is unstoppable. Justin Rowlat...

Frank Wild's last journey from 2011-12-29T11:25

Sir Ernest Shackleton has a heroic place in the annals of Antarctic exploration, famously for his expedition on the aptly-named Endurance in 1914. He intended to cross over the Antarctic landmass. ...

The Graves of Kashmir from 2011-12-22T11:25

Jill McGivering, the BBC World Service South Asia editor, investigates the discovery of thousands of bodies in mass graves in Indian Kashmir. Human rights groups suspect they are just some of the v...

China's Migrant Worker Mega-City from 2011-12-15T11:25

The world economy has pinned its hopes on China's economy, which depends on over 150 million migrant workers and their labour. The system of internal migration, based on the idea that workers do no...

Exposing Bali's Orphanages from 2011-12-08T11:29

Ed Butler reports on a cycle of abuse in the orphanages of Bali. Some seventy orphanages now populate the island, housing thousands of children, many recruited from poor families, on the promise of...

Farming Zimbabwe from 2011-12-01T11:25

In 2000, President Robert Mugabe introduced "fast-track land reform" to Zimbabwe in a wave of often violent takeovers of mainly white-owned farms. Led by veterans of the second Chimurenga - the Zi...

Roubles and Radicals in Dagestan from 2011-11-24T11:25

The main focus of the violence in the North Caucasus these days is in Dagestan, Chechnya's neighbour. Shoot-outs between police and Islamist militants occur almost daily, and suicide bombings and a...

India's Whistleblowers from 2011-11-17T11:28

Rupa Jha investigates how local-level campaigners against corruption in India face threats and violence - despite promises that the government will stamp out graft. She tells the stories of two whi...

Zimbabwe's child migrants from 2011-09-08T10:29

Mukul Devichand goes on the road with young children travelling alone on a journey of desperation, danger and hope - south from Zimbabwe and across the border to South Africa. Producer: Judy Fladm...

9/11 - Toxic Ash from 2011-09-01T10:29

David Shukman reports on the thousands who have become ill from the toxic dust that blanketed Lower Manhattan after the Twin Towers collapsed on Sept 11th. The buildings released a cocktail of dead...

The Mystery of Dirar Abu Sisi from 2011-08-25T10:30

On the 18th of February 2011 a Palestinian engineer by the name of Dirar Abu Sisi boarded a train in eastern Ukraine. He was travelling to Kiev, where he hoped to apply for Ukrainian citizenship. B...

Takoradi, Ghana's Oil City from 2011-08-18T10:30

In December, Ghana turned on the taps and began pumping its first commercial oil. Production will top 100,000 barrels a day this year -- enough the government believes to more than double the count...

Murder, migration and Mexico from 2011-08-11T10:30

Every year, hundreds of thousands of Central Americans leave home and travel north overland, hoping to make a new life in the United States. This has always been a difficult journey. Now it is per...

The Mourides of Senegal from 2011-08-04T10:30

Tim Judah travels to Senegal to report on the Mourides, an increasingly powerful Senegalese Muslim movement that stresses the importance of hard work Many of the African street sellers in cities l...

Escape from North Korea from 2011-07-28T10:30

Lucy Williamson reports from Seoul on the dangerous trade of the people brokers, smuggling desperate people out of North Korea to the safety of the South. She investigates the way the South Korean ...

Libyan refugees from 2011-07-21T10:30

Crossing Continents joins a British doctor volunteering to help women and children stranded in Tunisian refugee camps while the men fight Gaddafi's forces in the mountains south of Tripoli. Produce...

On the road with Hillary Clinton from 2011-07-14T10:30

The BBC's Kim Ghattas has gained exclusive, behind the scenes access to the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during one of her recent overseas visits. Code named "Special Air Mission 883", t...

Searching for an Alzheimer's Cure in Colombia from 2011-05-19T10:15

Early-onset Alzheimer's has stalked a poor extended family in Medellin, Colombia. The family carries a dominant gene that means that half are at risk. The disease strikes family members as young as...

The Pakistan Connection from 2011-05-12T10:30

Following the discovery that Osama Bin Laden was living close to the heart of Pakistan's military establishment in Abbotabad, Owen Bennett-Jones investigates the ties between elements of Pakistan's...

South Africa: Aurora Mine Controversy from 2011-05-05T10:28

In South Africa a mining company whose owners include the grandson of Nelson Mandela and the nephew of President Jacob Zuma has left thousands of its employees without work and, they claim, without...

What happened next? from 2011-04-28T10:28

Lucy Ash revisits some of the significant stories covered in recent years and discovers what has changed since our initial reports. In some instances, there have been attempts to bring suspects to...

Germany from 2011-04-21T10:28

David Goldblatt looks at whether Berlin's alternative culture is under threat from commercial pressures. Or do developers and artists need each other to exist? Berlin has long been a magnet for ar...

Egypt: Sisters of the Revolution from 2011-04-14T10:28

Three years ago Bill Law travelled to Egypt for Crossing Continents to meet five extraordinary women who were fighting for human rights and equal pay for women in Egypt. For this programme, Bill re...

Ecuador from 2011-04-07T10:25

The Ecuadorian Amazon region is one of the most bio-diverse on the planet. In one area, nearly 600 bird species, 80 kinds of bat and 150 varieties of amphibian have been recorded. And it's possible...

Uganda from 2011-03-31T10:25

Anna Cavell investigates the human trafficking of Ugandan women to Iraq. They were lured there by promises of well-paid jobs - but instead found themselves effectively in slavery, beaten and in som...

Baghdad Airport from 2011-03-24T11:25

Gabriel Gatehouse hears the extraordinary tales of the people coming into and out of Iraq - and paints a portrait of a still troubled country through its international gateway. It's not been the s...

Cambodia: Country for Sale from 2011-01-13T11:15

The paddy fields of impoverished Cambodia have suddenly become a prime slice of global real estate. But will the rural poor pay the price? This tiny Asian nation has just begun to recover after dic...

Palliative Care in India from 2011-01-06T11:25

It's estimated that nearly one million Indians with conditions like cancer die in acute, unnecessary pain because of the lack of palliative care. Restrictions on morphine prescription are being lif...

Syrian corruption from 2010-12-30T11:15

Corruption in Syria is commonplace. You can see it almost everywhere you go: from a small tip for a government worker to process paperwork, to customs officials requiring payments to allow goods in...

Senegal from 2010-12-23T11:25

It is called "Laamb" or "La Lutte Sénégalaise". Originating in the countryside as a test of strength for farmers and fishermen, Senegalese wresting moved to the city with the migrants. It took on p...

The Two Faces of Bahrain from 2010-12-16T11:25

Bahrain projects itself towards the world as an Arab state that is open to investment, progressive about change and moving confidently toward democracy. But there is another Bahrain where dissent i...

Nichi Vendola from 2010-12-09T11:25

Rosie Goldsmith profiles Nichi Vendola, the governor of Puglia and the hope for the Italian left. Can this gay, Catholic poet and environmentalist challenge Silvio Berlusconi? Producer: Helen Grady.

Georgian fir cones from 2010-12-02T11:42

The Christmas tree industry is worth almost a billion pounds a year in Europe alone. Most of the ones around us now, covered in baubles and tinsel didn't start life in the UK or even Scandinavia, b...

The Primorsky Partisans from 2010-11-25T11:28

Russia's police are out of control. They are often referred to as "werewolves in epaulettes" because so many officers prey on the public rather than protect them. Even Prime Minister Vladimir Putin...

Road Kill from 2010-11-18T11:25

Millions of people die on our roads each year. Hundreds of children are killed as they try to get to school each day. Road deaths threaten to overtake malaria and HIV in how many lives they take ar...

Delhi from 2010-09-09T10:30

This year's Commonwealth Games will be held in October in the Indian capital Delhi, the largest sporting event ever to be held there. No expense is being spared to build the appropriate facilities ...

The Church in China from 2010-09-02T10:25

Christopher Landau explores the explosive growth of christianity in China, with millions flocking to the official Protestant and Catholic churches. The country has the world's largest bible printin...