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  • 1968: The year that changed the world?

    In this four part series Sir John Tusa traces what made 1968 such a climactic year.

  • 24 Hours in Tulsa

    Visit the tough underworld of Tulsa, Oklahoma through the eyes of police officers Jay Chiarito Mazzarella and Will Dalsing, otherwise known as the podcasting policemen.

  • The 66 Club

    Ruth Evans tells the extraordinary story of 11 women brought together on the internet by one man's sperm.

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  • A Dollar a Day

    Justa is destitute, surviving on the meagre remittences that her daughter can send her. What keeps a billion people trapped in the most persistent poverty?

  • A Quiet Revolution in the Concert Hall

    The Venezuelan sistema - an intensive orchestral training for children - does more for young people than give them music.

  • Afghan Bloggers

    Najieh Ghulami looks at bloggers in Afghanistan and how increased internet penetration will help the country's development.

  • Africa Kicks

    Farayi Mungazi, the voice of African Sport on BBC World Service’s Fast Track, crosses the continent to tell the story of football.

  • Africa's Forgotten Soldiers

    In this documentary we hear first hand from the African troops who participated in the war – and who played a critical part in freeing the world from the threat of fascism. Martin Plaut reports.

  • After the KGB

    Martin Sixsmith gets under the skin of Russia's secret service, the fastest growing and arguably most politically influential secret service in the world.

  • Age of Terror

    The 1976 hijacking of an Air France plane on a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris.

  • Al-Qaeda's Internal Debate

    BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner talks to former allies of Osama bin Laden who are now engaged in countering the terrorist leader's agenda.

  • Alert Bay

    Alert Bay - My Life So Far, is the first of the Global Perspective series which features six documentaries from around the world, giving a local perspective on a shared chosen theme. The theme for 2009 is Islands.

  • America's first principles

    Allan Little presents an appraisal of Thomas Jefferson that will consider some of the key "Jeffersonian principles" and look at what they show us how his vision continues to define the continent of America and its relationship with the world today.

  • Anatomy of a Car Crash

    Tracing the profound physical and emotional toll on all those involved in the wake of a single collision on a road.

  • Animal Migration in a Climate of Change

    Brett Westwood presents four special programmes looking at how environmental change is affecting the movement of animals. In the first programme, he explores how sustainable forestry can help to preserve the Orange Monarch butterfly.

  • Animals & Us

    One Planet hears a very personal view of how humans exploit other species.

  • The Apostle's Workshop

    Apostle Asafo guides us around his remarkable workshops in Accra, where teenagers can learn trades. Is it really sustainable?

  • Argentina - Dancing To The Music Of The Mind

    Argentinian film director, writer and tango enthusiast, Edgardo Cozarinsky, talks to artists, dancers and novelists about why psychotherapy and tango have such a pervasive hold on the Argentine mind and soul.

  • The Art of War

    An ancient Chinese treatise on military and intelligence strategy that is as influential today to both traditional armies and guerrilla fighters as it was 2,500 years ago.

  • The Atrocity Archives

    Evidence of police atrocities - kidnappings, forced disappearances, and extra-judicial killings - during Guatemala’s 36 year-long civil war.

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  • Back to the Estate

    Nina Robinson returns to Hackney, east London, to see how progress is coming along as the local residents gear up for the Olympic Games. How will London 2012 change the lives of some of London's poorest families?

  • The Bad Samaritan

    Bernard Madoff’s 'Ponzi' scheme is probably the largest ever pyramid fraud in US history. Amongst his many victims were charities.

  • Baghdad Boy

    Seven years after an American rocket attack destroyed his home, killed 16 members of his family, and left him without arms - Ali Abbas returns to Baghdad.

  • Bangladesh Floods

    It's been three months since cyclone Sidr struck Bangladesh. Siobhann Tighe returns to the region to trace those she spoke to and photographed. She finds out how their lives have changed after the worst cyclone to hit Bangladesh since 1991.

  • The Battle for Hearts and Lungs

    Sue Armstrong investigates the growing pressure on developing countries as tobacco companies battle for markets of new smokers.

  • The Battle of King Salmon - part one

    In this two-part documentary Nick Rankin reports from Alaska during the greatest wild salmon run in the world and joins commercial and subsistence fishermen who live off this natural resource.

  • Beatles in the USSR

    This documentary, presented by Paul Gambaccini, reveals the extraordinary ways that the Beatles' music was listened to in the Soviet Union during the 1960s and asks whether 'Beatles On Bones' caused the end of communism.

  • Beijing Calling

    Russell Fuller and BBC World Service Sport look at the difficult journeys of six hopefuls from around the world in the run up to the Beijing Olympics.

  • Benjamin Jealous - the future of the NAACP?

    Benjamin 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?

  • The Bicycle Diaries

    Three portraits of the use of the bicycle around the world. With more than a billion models worldwide, the bicycle has found a place in every society.

  • The Billion Dollar Election

    The United States is due to have the first billion-dollar election in its history. The BBC’s Steve Evans presents a two-part investigation into election spending done in collaboration with the Centre for Public Integrity in Washington DC.

  • Blind Man Roams the Globe

    Peter White is blind, but travels all over the world for his job. By listening to the sounds of his surroundings, he gets to know a place. What does he discover about the cities of Istanbul and San Francisco?

  • Blood and Lava

    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, does tragedy await the city?

  • Bomb Hunters

    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 UXO.

  • Boom or Bust

    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.

  • Brand Cuba

    Allan Little analyses some of the factors that have kept Cuba alive in the public imagination over such a long period.

  • Brazil: Lula's Legacy

    As President Lula leaves office, Paulo Cabral assesses the economic record of one of the most popular politicians in Brazilian history.

  • The Brotherhood

    Despite an official ban and regular crackdowns the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has gone from strength to strength. The BBC investigates the secret of its endurance and its global reach.

  • Building Better Health

    Jill McGivering compares two very different free health systems in the developed world: the British NHS and that of the US state of Massachusetts.

  • Building out of the Recession

    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.

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  • Can China Go Green?

    Part one of Jonathon Porritt's look into China's efforts to tackle climate change

  • Caribbean Voices

    Colin Grant recalls the part the BBC’s Caribbean Voices played in shaping Caribbean literature.

  • Children of the Revolution

    How has the war with Iraq acted as a continuation of the Revolution in Iran? What does life has to offer the country's young population trapped by conservatism and an ailing economy?

  • China's Forgotten Admiral

    Zheng He ranks among the world's greatest seafarers

  • China: Shaking the World

    Michael Robinson examines the political, economic and cultural mechanisms of China's growing global influence.

  • Chinua Achebe: A Hero Returns

    The greatest of all African novelists, Chinua Achebe, takes his first trip for many years back to his homeland of Nigeria.

  • Chungking Mansions

    What is the future of this shabby tenement building in need of redevelopment in Hong Kong’s teeming commercial district?

  • Citizen journalism

    Michael Buerk analyses the potential and the dangers of citizen journalism.

  • The City That Sacked its Staff

    "We got nine days' notice." Maywood - a small working class city in California - sacked all of its city workers. Why? And what are the implications for democracy and accountability?

  • The Conversation of Your Life

    How would you like to leave a record of your life for your great-great-great-grandchildren? That's the future for participants of StoryCorps, an American oral history project. What do people choose to talk about?

  • Countdown to the Olympics

    China claims there is 'vigorous growth in the public practice of religion' but Gerry Northam discovers that religious persecution is still taking place.

  • Cracking the Code

    The BBC's Security Correspondent Gordon Corera gains exclusive access to Britain’s ultra secret listening station where super computers monitor the world's communications traffic.

  • Cracking the Code

    The BBC's Security Correspondent Gordon Corera gains exclusive access to Britain’s ultra secret listening station where super computers monitor the world's communications traffic.

  • The Crash

    An account of the extraordinary events that have shaken the world's financial and political systems over the last two years.

  • The Crescent and the Cross

    The Crescent and the Cross, a four-part series, presented by Owen Bennett-Jones, examines several turning points in the relationship between Christianity and Islam covering Muslim Spain, the Crusades, the Ottoman Empire and the struggle for Africa.

  • The Cricket Revolution

    Has Twenty20, Indian commercial interests and sponsorship changed cricket for ever? David Goldblatt examines how the game has been turned on its head in just six years.

  • Culture Not Colour

    Aboriginal Australian Jared Thomas goes in search of the nature of identity and what it means to his world.

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  • Dear Birth Mother

    Listen to the story of Suzanne, a single woman in her forties who chose to adopt an African-American baby.

  • Death Diminishes Me

    HIV in New Zealand

  • Debt Threat: Credit Monster

    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.

  • Defining the Decade

    Edward Stourton tries to make sense of the past decade, in which history has been put on fast forward. What does it all mean for the way we live as we head into 2010?

  • The Desert Capitalists

    The Marwari trading caste from India has become a major global economic and political force. Explore their journey from the desert to building their global empire.

  • Desperate Dreams

    Two years ago the BBC followed the journeys of migrants trying to leave Africa and find a better life in Europe. Find out how the journeys of two of them have progressed.

  • Diabetes - The Silent Killer

    Type-1 diabetes currently affects nearly 3 million people in the US, 250,000 people in the UK and 20 million globally.

  • Dreams From My Mother

    The role Barack Obama's mother Ann Dunham played in his formative years and how that influenced his political rise.

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  • The Economy on the Edge

    Martin Wolf, of the Financial Times, predicted that the global downturn would be much worse than anyone had reason to believe.

  • El Sistema Goes Global

    Juan Carlos Jaramillo looks at the two projects aimed at social improvement through music: Big Noise and New York's Harmony

  • Elegy for the Tech

    Poet, author and Virginia Tech lecturer Fred D'Aguiar lost a close colleague and a student during the tragic shooting one year ago. This programme follows D'Aguiar as he reflects on 12 months of both his own and his students' work.

  • The Empire's Last Officers

    Tim Whewell explores the legacy of British rule in the company of the archetypal figure of the colonial system - a District Officer.

  • Every Picture Tells A Story

    "A good photograph has an emotional component, the iconic photos hit you right away and they stay with you, and you just can't forget it." Razia Iqbal investigates the power of modern images and their ability to appeal to our imagination.

  • Extreme World: Oiling the Machine

    Steve Edwards takes to the mean streets of his hometown Chicago, asking why the Windy City is such a hotbed of corruption.

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  • Fading Traditions

    In Marrakech, old men sit in the square telling stories to anyone who will gather around. They are known as halakis and their art is dying out.

  • Failure at the Central Bank

    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.

  • Failure or fraud

    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. Michael Robinson investigates these cases and what they reveal about the present disaster.

  • Farm Swap

    The BBC meets two farmers who are working outside their own countries. What do they learn and what challenges do they face?

  • Feeding the Spirit of New Orleans

    Feeding the Spirit of New Orleans: restoring the culinary heritage of a devastated city.

  • The Foods that Make Billions

    How have advertisers and brand specialists convinced us to buy a commodity that is sold for a great deal more than it costs to produce? Louise Hidalgo looks at the exponential growth - and the cost - of the bottled water industry.

  • Freedom From Fear

    Aung San Suu Kyi leads the pro-democracy movement in Burma. She has been under house arrest for 17 years. Who is the woman behind the political icon?

  • Freedom from Slavery in Mauritania

    David Gutnick visits Mauritania - that has has a history of slavery going back 800 - and finds out how entrenched the master/slave relationship still is.

  • Fresh Start

    As prison numbers in Britain continue to soar, this three part series asks what can be done to stop criminals re-offending?

  • From Guantanamo to Paradise

    No country was willing to take four Uyghur men apart from their homeland China, where they feared they would be tortured - until they were transferred from Guantanamo Bay to the wealthy paradise of Bermuda.

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  • Generation Jihad

    Peter Taylor investigates the terrorist threat from young Muslim extremists radicalised on the internet.

  • Global Account

    A visit to the disputed Thai "Red Zone" and victims of an under-reported war.

  • Global Perspective

    With climate change bringing new threats of rising sea levels and increased rainfall, will luck and ingenuity continue to save the Netherlands from submersion?

  • Global Perspective: At the Edge in Soweto

    Unemployment in Soweto is well above the national average for South Africa. How are young people like Anza, Freddy and Sibusiso coping with long-term unemployment and the daily temptations to make a fast - rather than an honest - buck?

  • Living in Limbo

    In the UK, failed asylum seekers like Collen have no rights to accommodation or benefits. They cannot work. And yet it could be dangerous for him to return to Zimbabwe. What is it like for him and others like him to be living in limbo?

  • Middle C

    A year-long transition from woman to man, chronicled by Tristan Whiston through the change in his singing voice.

  • Gold

    The BBC tells the story of gold, from the myth of King Midas to the mines of South Africa.

  • Great Expectations, part one

    The world may be coming to East London in 2012, but the world is already represented and residing in Hackney, East London.

  • The Great Palace of Verse

    Narguess Farzad explores the legacy of one of the world’s great literary epics: Iran's 1000 year-old 'Book of Kings' or Shahnameh.

  • The Greening of the Deserts

    In this three part series, Ayisha Yahya explores climate change issues in the African desert. She visits arid areas in Mali, Namibia and Egypt. As the climate changes, could these regions experience more rainfall and become greener?

  • Growing Old

    What is it really like to be old? In this four part series, Jane Little meets Third Agers from four continents to find out.

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  8 Items

  • Harare Festival

    The diary of the man behind Zimbabwe's Harare International Festival of the Arts, as he attempts to stage his event amidst the election drama in the country.

  • Hard lessons from Afghanistan

    Former Kabul correspondent, Alan Johnston, reflects on decades of turmoil in Afghanistan.

  • Health For All

    Uduak Amimo asks if the world has the will, people and money to deliver basic good health to everyone.

  • Health of a Nation

    Michael Goldfarb looks inside the workings of America's legislative process on the road to president Obama's mission to reform America's healthcare system.

  • Home from Home

    How does one's family history alter one's sense of self? Nihal Arthanayake - a successful London DJ - travels to Sri Lanka to find out more about his maternal grandfather, a lawyer and politician who was murdered in 1940.

  • How Iraq's War Shaped our World

    Jim Muir looks at the beginning of the invasion and the handover of power to the Iraqis

  • How crime took on the world

    Misha Glenny has been investigating criminal networks in our newly globalised world. He begins his journey in Canada, where the wholesale production of marijuana is posing a challenge to the US-led 'War on Drugs'.

  • Human Rights and Wrongs at the UN

    The United Nations spent 2008 celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We investigate whether the UN's Human Rights Council is fulfilling its role to protect the most vulnerable from human rights abuses.

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  • The Impossible Life of Jacques Cousteau

    In the centenary of Costeau's birth, friends, colleagues and family members talk about this often difficult but always inspiring man.

  • In the Shadow of the Stadium

    What is the mood of South Africa ahead of the 2010 World Cup?

  • Indonesian journeys

    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.

  • Inside the IMF

    Is the IMF up to the job of fixing the global economy? Stephanie Flanders reports.

  • Internet Cafe Hobo

    Nick Baker is on a mission to connect people, stories and places via internet cafe. He finds online gamers in virtual worlds and business hubs in Ghana. What is his next stop?

  • Iran and the West: After 9/11

    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.

  • Is al-Qaeda winning?

    Owen Bennett-Jones presents this series that explores the success or otherwise of the global war on terror after seven years of fighting.

  • The Italian patient

    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.

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  • John Simpson Returns to 1989

    The BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson tells the story of 20 years of post-communist life.

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  • Keeping the Peace

    In 2003, peace was declared between the Liberian government and rebels. After the bloodshed of one of Africa's most vicious conflicts, can Liberia keep its peace?

  • Kidnapped

    Ritula Shah reunites former hostage Norman Kember with the people personally involved in negotiations to free them.

  • Korea's Lost Children

    Since the 1950s, more than 200,000 Korean children have been adopted by Westerners, but what has been the impact on the children?

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  • The Legacy of George W Bush

    President George W Bush’s legacy was always going to be controversial. Justin Webb, presents this two-part series looking into how he will be remembered.

  • The Legal World

    An insider's view of legal battles being fought around the world.

  • Leila's Story

    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.

  • Lincoln and the World

    The USA's 16th presiden, Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated in 1865. So what is it about him that makes world leaders refer to him and his legacy?

  • Listening Post

    Listening Post lets people tell their personal stories in their own words. Belfast-born Philip McTaggart is a man who lives in the shadow of his son's suicide. Mary Thida Lun tells a family story from the killing fields of Cambodia.

  • Living With Chico Mendes

    To mark the 20th anniversary of his assassination in December 1988, this programme marks the life of Chico Mendes, the highly significant green activist who helped to galvanise the race to preserve the Amazon.

  • Living with Tourists

    Ros Atkins looks at attitudes to tourism in Cornwall, England and the Caribbean nations of Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas.

  • The Lonely Funeral

    A civil servant and a poet come together in their shared determination that those who die without people to mourn them have a respectful and personal funeral.

  • Looking for Jaballah Matar

    Libyan dissident Jaballah Matar disappeared 20 years ago, and his son Hisham is investigating his fate. Razia Iqbal reports.

  • Looted Art

    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.

  • The Lost Voices of Tiananmen

    James Miles, the BBC's China correspondent in 1989, was an eye-witness to the events leading up to the Tiananmen Square protests. He looks at the rise of the pro-democracy movement and asks why the crackdown was so brutal?

  • The lost veterans

    Andrew Purcell has been speaking to 'lost veterans' - like Phil - trying to get back on track, hearing about their struggles reintegrating into civilian society and how they feel abandoned by the military.

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  • MI6 - A Century in the Shadows

    An unprecedented look inside Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6.

  • The Magic Carpet Flight Manual

    Cathy FitzGerald explores the past, present, and very real future of the magic carpet and wonders what our desire to defy gravity tells us about ourselves.

  • Mandela: In His Own Words

    A two-part documentary exploring Nelson Mandela's extraordinary life through his personal diaries, speeches, notebooks and letters.

  • Manny Pacquiao: His life story from poverty to prosperity

    In this exclusive two-part documentary, Mike Costello travels to the Philippines to meet boxing legend, record-breaking eight times world champion, politician and national hero, Manny Pacquiao.

  • Marching into History

    Tracing the history of the march as a force for change

  • Marching into History

    In this two-part documentary, Michael Goldfarb examines the protest march as a force for change.

  • Memento

    The poignant objects people take as they flee their homes and come to Britain.

  • Memory Wars

    In this two-part documentary, Alan Dein asks if oral history can challenge or alter the official past of a nation still coming to terms with its history?

  • Message from China

    Dr Anne Marie Brady investigates why the communist party in China has decided to modernise its propaganda system.

  • Mexico's Missing Island

    In the middle of the Gulf of Mexico an island has gone missing and nobody knows where it is. BBC Mundo's David Cuen is in search.

  • The Mossad

    The BBC's Security Correspondent Gordon Corera talks to the world's most feared and fabled security services.

  • The Mossad

    The BBC's Security Correspondent Gordon Corera talks to the world's most feared and fabled security services.

  • Mubarak's Egypt

    After 28 years in power, President Mubarak's promise of shepherding his country into a stable democracy has all but dissipated. Is this stable, undemocratic, but functioning Egypt a good enough legacy?

  • Musical Migrants

    Musical Migrants traces journeys across borders, driven by a passion for the music of a foreign land.

  • Muslim Superstar

    Can Muslim singer Sami Yusuf navigate a path to celebrity in the West, without compromising his religious convictions?

  • Mutiny in Bangladesh

    Mark Dummett asks the questions behind the military revolt in Bangladesh six months ago that threatened the country's stability

  • My Lai Tapes

    Robert Hodierne reveals the truth about the infamous My Lai massacre of 16th March 1968, based on the audio testimony made during a Pentagon inquiry.

  • My Senator, My Vote

    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.

  • My World: A Different Kind of Stroke

    The story of Dr Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist who suffered a massive stroke 13 years ago.

  • My World: Kades

    The story of Kades, who has only ever seen one way to escape from the Majengo slums of Nairobi, through his poetry.

  • My World: Thailand's 'Dr Death'

    The extraordinary story of Thailand's leading forensic scientist.

  • My World: The Homecoming

    Gemma Tracee Apiku a former refugee who spent her teenage years in the camps of Sudan, returns to Africa to become a relief worker.

  • My World: The Infidelity Agency

    Vivek Kumar, a man sustaining a successful business out of marital strife - runs India's number one detective agency from a small office in Mumbai.

  • My World: The Library Cart

    The Library Cart focuses on a day in the life of Cartegena's Martin Murrillo, a mobile cart librarian and self-taught teacher.

  • The Mysteries of the Brain

    Barry Smith looks at the mysteries of human consciousness.

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  • Netrimony: Online dating in India

    India has the world's biggest online matchmaking industry. It's revolutionised finding a life partner for Indians.

  • New York's Catholics

    Maurice Walsh reports on the changing face of religion in New York, as Hispanics are taking over from Irish Americans.

  • Night Witches

    The extraordinary but little known tale of Russia’s three all-female regiments that flew many missions on the Eastern Front.

  • Nightingales and Roses

    How has the Persian passion for poetry has shaped Iranian identity?

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  • Obama's America

    Simon Schama examines some of the daunting challenges facing Barack Obama, both on the world stage and at home.

  • Obama's Pentagon

    Will Obama's presidency see substantial reform at the Pentagon?

  • Obama: Professor President

    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.

  • On the Brink

    In this two-part series, Michael Robinson looks at the increasingly desperate efforts to stave off a global economic slump and depression.

  • Only One Bakira

    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?

  • Opposing Obama

    Author and journalist Gary Younge tells the story of the other side of the Obama phenomenon, meeting people who think his presidency is nothing but bad news.

  • Orphans of 89

    Quentin Peel looks at communist regimes orphaned by the collapse of the governments of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe.

  • The Other Guantanamo

    Polly Evans goes in search of the other Guantanamo, talking to local people about their home and how they feel about it becoming synonymous with what Amnesty International called "the gulag of our times".

  • The Other Internet – Beyond China’s Great Firewall

    China patrols its cyberspace carefully. The government there closes down hundreds of websites each year and blocks access to many international websites.How do Chinese citizens get round the great firewall of China?

  • Out of the Ghetto

    Two Chicgao tell the story of life in inner city Chicago 15 years after their popular documentary Ghetto Life 101 aired in the USA.

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  • Pain: body, mind, culture

    Experiencing pain is an elemental part of what makes us who we are. It lies at the intersection between body, mind and culture. In this two part series, BBC Iraq correspondent, Andrew North, takes a personal journey through pain.

  • The Pardon Game

    Owen Bennett-Jones investigates the constitutional right of US presidents to grant pardons.

  • Pirates

    From pirates to piracy, in this three part series, Nick Rankin finds out how they have adapted to changing times. He takes a journey through history looking at pirates past, present and future.

  • Playing Castro's Tune

    On January 1, 1959 General Batista's regime in Cuba was overthrown by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement.

  • Poetry from the Front Line

    BBC War correspondent Jonathan Charles discovers the poetry being written as a result of the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

  • Policing the Poppy Fields

    Kate Clark, who's had rare access to the fight against the Afghan opium trade over the past year, asks how effective attempts to control it can be.

  • Policing the UN

    As part of a special investigation, the BBC's Africa editor Martin Plaut sets out to examine serious new allegations of corruption and wrongdoing within the United Nations' peacekeeping operations.

  • Power and the Judges

    Why are judges so important in today's world - and how much power should they really have?

  • The Power and the Passion

    With the 2010 World Cup underway many fans will be avidly debating and agonising over the fate of their nations in the tournament. David Goldblatt embarks on an assortment of adventures into the meaning and madness of the game.

  • The Presidential Contenders

    Barack Obama: a profile of the first black person ever nominated to run for president on behalf of a mainstream party in the USA.

  • Press For Freedom

    Roy Greenslade presents this four-part documentary series on the freedom of the press. In part one Roy looks at the effects of government control and the risks that journalists take to pursue the truth.

  • The Price of Bio Fuels

    Gerry Northam investigates claims that bio fuels - once believed to be the answer to global warming and dwindling oil stocks - are instead leading to heightened pollution, environmental havoc, deforestation, and worsening poverty and hunger.

  • The Priest of Pará

    Father Henri Des Roziers, a Dominican priest and human rights lawyer working in Pará, talks about his life, his faith and the cause he would give his life for.

  • Public Places, Private Lives

    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.

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  • Queenan's Crime Scenes

    Joe Queenan's passion for crime fiction sees him heading to two different locations to find out about the nature of the crime.

  • Quest for a cure

    Peter Day reports on whether the US Food and Drug Administration will licence the HIV/AIDS drug Maraviroc.

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  • Race and Reconciliation

    In this three part series, Audrey Brown travels to South Africa to find out how recent racial incidents have revealed cracks in what was dubbed the miracle of 'the rainbow nation'.

  • Rat attack

    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.

  • Rebranding Nigeria

    Can the home of 419 internet scams, corruption and voodoo ever transmit a positive image? Nigeria is campaigning for a new image and a new reputation in an effort to attract some much needed investment. How successful will it be?

  • Rehearsing for War

    The extraordinary US military base at the heart of a vast shift in American military strategy, aiming for nation-building and peacekeeping.

  • Return to Kurdistan

    Michael Goldfarb returns to visit the people of Kurdistan and in particular the Shawkat family, with whom he became close during the Iraq War

  • Return to Trebizond

    In 1923 hundreds of thousands of Christian and Muslims moved between what is now modern Greece and Turkey. What do these communities share after years of political division?

  • Return to White Horse

    "We took the decision to build a new city ten years ago - we had four objectives civilised, hygienic and scenic - with a focus on eco-tourism." Carrie Gracie returns to White Horse Village to see how the urbanisation of China is progressing.

  • The Right to Know

    Freedom of information is well on the way to being seen as an essential for a modern democracy. But there's almost always a backlash from politicians and officials.

  • Road Kill

    Sheena McDonald asks why millions of people die on our roads each year.

  • Road to Rwanda

    Sorious Samura follows Vestine, a Hutu refugee as she returns home to Rwanda after the genocide.

  • The Rules of Risk

    As Europe and America struggle to re-write the rules of international finance following the credit crunch, Claire Bolderson investigates the roots and role of risk. Is bad risk management to blame for the economic crisis?

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  • The Secret Scientists

    Jim Al-Khalili looks at scientists from the Islamic world who created a legacy for their counter parts in the European renaissance.

  • Secrets in the Blood

    In this two-part investigation, Matt McGrath sets out to expose corruption, drug use and cover-ups at the highest levels in sport.

  • Securing Pakistan's bomb

    If the government of Pakistan collapsed, could extremists acquire the country's nuclear weapons? Gordon Corera reports.

  • See Iraq, Think Vietnam?

    Jonathan Marcus assesses the impact of the two conflicts on American society.

  • Seeking the Endgame

    Simon Terrington assesses how computer technology has affected chess at the highest level and what this means for its future.

  • Selling Cheese to the Chinese

    The Europeans who are trying to persuade China's middle class to buy European fine foods.

  • Shed Men

    Australian men are typically defined as confident and unassailable characters, but this stereotype is outdated, and has made it difficult for today's generation to open up when times are tough. How can community sheds help?

  • Short Changing the Planet

    A deep level of mistrust has built up among developing nations about financial pledges made by rich countries,

  • Should God be allowed on the pitch?

    Fifa argues that religion should be kept out of the stadium. Richard Coles explores the role faith plays in football and asks how realistic - and desirable - it is to expect football to be secular.

  • Simpson Returns to China

    John Simpson returns to Tiananmen Square where he witnessed the massacre of student demonstrators in June 1989.

  • Soft Power: China

    The ability to get what you want by attracting and persuading others to adopt your goals is known as soft power. Philip Dodd examines the areas where this art of persuasion is being used.

  • Sound of Snow and Ice

    The Jyväskylä School for the Visually Impaired in Finland has one important aim: discouraging blind children from relying on high tech and expensive navigational aids. Find out how they help.

  • South Africa's Path to Freedom

    Wole Soyinka explores the past and present of the rainbow nation through the eyes of its finest writers.

  • Spanning the World

    Bridges can symbolize man's desire to span the world, to bring people closer together and to access further territories. This series looks at the significance of bridges as icons, as a means of connecting communities - or delineating separateness.

  • Greatest Hits Of The World

    Ben E King says of his song Stand By Me "It tends to fall in place for someone who needs it." What are the other factors that come into play for a song to endure across boundaries and generations?

  • State Secrets

    To what extent did communist regimes intrude into the lives of ordinary people? Oana Lungescu goes in search of secret service files.

  • The Story of Braille

    Braille has been adapted into almost every known language. It's used on bank notes in Canada and Mexico, and in published parliament acts in India. It's been a revolution for the blind but is it under threat today?

  • Strangers in Marseille

    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 France.

  • Street art

    Can street art survive its own success?

  • The Summer That Changed London

    The summer of July 2005 was one that brought Londoners both joy and pain. Kirsten Lass explores what effects these major events had on the city and its people.

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  • Tales from the Commonwealth

    The Maldives, Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Mauritius are popular holiday destinations for wealthy tourists. In this four part series, Robin White visits these island nations to find out what life is really like for people who live there.

  • Taxi to the Dark Side

    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?

  • Teacher Flower

    Kathy Flower revisits China 25 years after she became famous as an English teacher on Chinese television.

  • Terra Madre

    Sheila Dillon looks at disappearing food tribes and finds out why efforts are underway to preserve indigenous food cultures.

  • Textbook Diplomacy

    Mark Whitaker looks at South Africa’s struggle to produce school history textbooks that are adequate and appropriate for the post-apartheid country.

  • Thank You For My Freedom

    "To my shame, I didn't think even to write to the guy and thank him for this phenomenal effort." Former Beirut hostage John McCarthy finally meets the man who negotiated his release from captivity.

  • Thembi’s story

    Thembi’s Story is a tribute to the courage of a young woman who highlighted the issues of living with Aids in a South Africa.

  • Tiger v Dragon

    India and China will dominate the 21st century. Will the Asian giants co-operate or clash?

  • Timeline

    A topical and fast moving look back into the archives at stories which have special resonance today

  • Tired of Terror

    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?

  • Too Many Santas

    Throughout much of the Christian world there are many different versions of Santa. Most are jolly, many look familiar and some are a little strange.

  • The Torturers' Tale

    What is it like to be a torturer?

  • Tracing the Strain

    With the swine flu pandemic continuing to spread, Julian O'Halloran investigates claims that the virus is linked to factory style pig farming.

  • Traffic Islands

    Traffic Islands: lives drawn to the public traffic grid, for research, by economic necessity or by grief.

  • The Travelling Electric Chair

    In 1951, a black man named Willie McGee was executed in Mississippi's travelling electric chair - the only one of its kind in the US. His granddaughter explores this lost episode in civil rights history.

  • The Trouble with Money

    Michael Robinson sees trouble ahead. Is the world's economy now threatened by what some believe is the most dangerous crisis since the depression of the 1930s?

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  • Uncovering Pakistan

    Why have so many of the hopes and aspirations of Pakistan's founders remained unfulfilled?

  • Useful Idiots

    John Sweeney takes a look at the intellectuals - or Lenin's ‘useful idiots’ - who have praised tyrants, and rewritten history.

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  • The Virtual Revolution: The Great Levelling?

    A four-part series examining how in 20 years of its existence the world wide web has reshaped out lives.

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  • Waiting for Omar - The Rescue of A Chilean Miner

    Piers Scholfield follows the fate of Chilean miner Omar Reygadas and his family.

  • Wedge Island

    Wedge Island is located in a secluded spot on the rugged, windswept Indian Ocean coastline off Australia. It is occupied by squatters who will be evicted when a new highway arrives. How are the people there dealing with this change in fortune?

  • West African Journeys

    Sorious Samura goes to his homeland Sierra Leone as a starting point for a trip through four neighbouring countries in West Africa.

  • What Lies Beneath

    International seas are largely unregulated, meaning most underwater archaeological wealth can be retrieved and sold without any obstacle.

  • What next for Kenya?

    In a two-part series, former BBC East Africa Correspondent Mike Wooldridge journeys from the bustling capital, Nairobi, to wary communities in the Rift Valley to report on the issues behind the conflict that erupted in Kenya at the turn of the year.

  • What’s cooking

    The Kitchen Sisters – Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson – are a town mouse, country mouse team. They have created inventive and insightful features on American Public Radio for the past three decades.

  • 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? Mark Doyle investigates.

  • Why they're dying in the Congo

    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.

  • Wikipedia at 10

    On the eve of its 10th birthday, the BBC goes inside Wikipedia to find out what makes it one of the world’s most popular websites.

  • The Wildlife Smugglers

    The global illegal trade in wildlife is worth up to $25 billion a year. With lower fines and shorter prison terms compared to drugs or weapons smuggling it's attracting organised criminals, looking for big money and low risk.

  • William Morris and the Muslims

    Navid Akhtar examines the influence of Islamic design and values in the life of Victorian designer, poet, and craftsman William Morris.

  • The Wireless World of Gerry Wells

    Guru, boffin, eccentric and genius - Gerry Wells is obsessed with radio - tinkering with, building and repairing them. It is a fixation that has got him into trouble with the law, but ultimately radio has been his saviour.

  • World Stories

    The series World Stories tell tales told from a local point of view - made by the BBC's international journalists: The Rollercoaster of Life in Kabul; A Widow's Journey; Afghanistan's Dancing Boys; The Children of Pedro Pan; and Revolution in Iran.

  • World Stories: Muslims Fighting For Israel

    Muslim soldiers in Israel talk about the conflicts they face, at home and on duty, and pride in their military service.

  • The World's Shifting Balance

    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?

  • Would You Kill the Big Guy?

    Steve Evans explores the tram puzzles - to see what it tells us about what kind of moral creatures humans are.

  • The world without...cows

    Discover just how important cows have been to civilisation, all around the world.

  • The writ of habeas corpus

    Frances Fyfield discovers how the ancient legal principle of habeas corpus is one of our most fundamental rights.

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  • Yiddish - A Struggle for Survival

    Yiddish was the language of the Jewish Diaspora, the language of a people on the move across Europe. It has suffered a dramatic decline, but who is helping it to survive?

  • Youssou N’Dour at 50

    To mark the 50th birthday of Youssou N'Dour, Robin Denselow travels to Senegal to profile the best known African musician of recent times.

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  • Zainab’s Story

    Zainab Bangura, Sierra Leone’s foreign minister tells her own remarkable story, revealing her personal motivations and how she represents one of the world’s poorest countries.