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 four years of war their hometown, Mare'a, has become a war zone – bombed by the Assad regime, besieged by Islamic State, subject even to a mustard gas attack. And the civil war has torn through what was once a band of friends – some now pro-rebel, some pro-regime. They’re scattered across Syria and beyond, some fighting near Mare'a, some in refugee camps abroad. What have they gone through since they won that cup? And do they think they can ever be reunited? Shabnam Grewal producing.

The Dhnie family find themselves sleeping rough, getting caught up in riots and being detained as they try to reach Europe after their flight from Syria.

Shahidha traces the story of the sari, explores how it feels to wear one and asks what it meant for women like her mother. She discovers the unexpected ways in which clothing can be imprinted with feelings of nostalgia, love and loss.

Twenty three of Libya's finest technology graduates plan to rebuild their country

Meet the Dhnie family in Turkey as they prepare to make the journey to Greece, along with thousands of others, from Syria.

Marc Almond travels to Moscow in search of the marvelous Russian tenor Vadim Kozin, tango-singer and superstar. The darling of the Soviet Union, Kozin melted hearts by the tens of millions in the 1940s, playing to packed concert halls and rallying Red Army troops in World War Two. But he vanished one day in 1944 when the secret police arrested him and sent him to the Gulag for homosexuality

This year, the number of migrants reaching Europe has reached unprecedented levels. It is a crisis with roots in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, with many people heading from sub-Saharan Africa, Eritrea, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan to European shores. Paul Adams takes a look back at some of the key moments of 2015 that have shaped the situation facing Europe today. Produced by Nina Robinson

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 and died of starvation in the jungle. They were afraid of harsh punishment from their teachers. Two girls survived eating grass and wild fruits but were found emaciated and close to death 47 days later. The children came from the Orang Asli community, one of the poorest and most marginalised in the country. For Assignment, Lucy Ash travels to the remote region where the children came from and talks to their bereaved parents. Many families are now refusing to send their children to school and campaigners accuse the government of not doing enough to protect rights of the Orang Asli community. Jane Beresford producing. Produced by Jane Beresford

Amidst the slums of Kampala, MLISADA (Music, life skills and arts for destitution alleviation) is a success story. It is a children's home giving street kids a chance of a musical future. Sarah Taylor visits this remarkable children's home in Kampala, Uganda, to speak to teachers, former pupils and international brass players that help support it.

Shopping in India is traditionally an intensely hands-on experience, but many are now embracing the online shopping revolution. From motorbike delivery couriers to Amazon India, and bringing online shopping to rural towns, Mukti Jain Campion discovers how Indian businesses are innovating to meet the new challenges.

This summer, as Greece and its creditors argued over the terms of a bailout, the fate of nations – and perhaps the whole European project – was held in the hands of just a few people. This original drama, tells the inside story of those extraordinary months.

Why war in space is not just Hollywood fantasy but a fast-approaching threat

A recent health scandal in Cambodia has prompted the government to clamp down on unlicensed doctors. But these 'doctors' are often the preferred option for many in the countryside

How dance during the Cold War was designed to challenge America's military image with The Martha Graham Dance Company’s US State Department tour of South East Asia, 1974.

Akwasi Sarpong visits Uganda’s thriving coding scene, to find out if home-grown, technology-based solutions can help tackle some of the country’s big development challenges.

European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is back on Earth after 200 days in space. She tells the full story of the International Space Station, in orbit 400 km above our planet.

Ben Hammersley meets creators and fans to investigate how extended fictional universes, from Star Wars and Harry Potter to Game of Thrones, took over global culture.

Aleem Maqbool investigates New Orleans’ justice system to find out how Robert Jones spent 23 years in jail for crimes another man had already been convicted of.

The world of in-game betting where gamblers test their skill and luck almost as the action happens is growing fast as the lucrative new frontier for the betting world, and is particularly popular in the huge Asian market. Does it pose a threat to the integrity of some our most popular sports?

Bola Mosuro travels to Ghana to meet the women who are making their mark in the male dominated world of technology, and inspiring young girls to follow in their footsteps.

Maria Margaronis explores the debris of Albania's past —the prisons, concrete bunkers and secret police headquarters - as the country attempts to deal with its troubled history.

James Fletcher travels to one of America’s poorest cities to meet a passionate group of people working hard to get young, black women into technology and tech jobs.

So often climate conferences have ended in chaos and dispute but in the run up to Paris there has been something alien to climate talks - hope. A remarkable number of governments have agreed plans to cut emissions. China and the USA appear to be walking hand in hand. But will they arrive at an agreement?

Greek cemeteries have run out of space so the dead are exhumed after just three years. In the only EU country without a crematorium the cash strapped population has few options.

Roger Harrabin looks at the solutions to the emissions problem. He travels to Malawi, one of the world’s poorest nations, where the energy crisis is about access to energy. He looks at the solar revolution being driven by the falling costs of photovoltaic panels, and visits a huge power plant at the cutting edge of solar technology in Morocco.

The story of Peru's drug 'mules' - the youngsters who hike cocaine from a tropical valley up to highland towns in the Andes, and out towards the border with Brazil.

Roger Harrabin examines the science behind climate change. Predicting the future climate is a pretty tricky business and over the last 25 years or so it has had a chequered history. Roger talks to the scientists about their models and asks if they are accurate enough or should they just be consigned to the dustbin.

Pope Francis has brought together nearly 300 bishops from all over the world for a special Synod on the Family. He has asked them to speak frankly and with courage about his Church’s most divisive teachings – those that affect the sex lives of more than billion people. Liberal Catholics would like Rome to relax its teachings on homosexuality, birth control and divorce and remarriage but in Africa many believers want their bishops to uphold tradition and doctrine.

Aasmah Mir hosts an intimate and revealing discussion between three women from the Bangladeshi diaspora in east London about the changes within their community.

Aasmah Mir hosts an intimate and revealing discussion between three women from the Bangladeshi diaspora in east London.

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 for good relations with its powerful eastern neighbour. Thomas Nilsen is a veteran environmental activist who edited a paper in the far north of Norway, in a region which has enjoyed a unique cross-border relationship with Russia. Now that’s threatened by rising tension between Russia and NATO. And relations have been further strained by the flow of refugees, now coming through Russia into the far north of Norway. Tim Whewell reports on what it means for the Norwegian outpost of Kirkenes, where Norwegians and Russians work closely together in the oil and fishing business and where cooperation and friendship go back decades. Produced by John Murphy (Photo: Norwegian Lion and a Russian Bear - A delicate Dance)

Why are children hooked on the game Minecraft? Even when they are not playing the game themselves, millions of children enjoy watching other people playing in YouTube videos. Parents worry that their children find the Minecraft universe so rewarding that they are losing interest in the real world, in face-to-face contact, or in non-screen-based play. Rather than having a moral panic about it, should we be harnessing children's enthusiasm and taking Minecraft into schools, as some educationalists propose?

Known by many simply as 'The Lady', Aung San Suu Kyi has become one of the world's most famous politicians. And yet she has never exercised any power in her country Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Under the current constitution, she is forbidden from becoming president. But will she find a way of ruling the country if, as is expected, her party The National League for Democracy has won this weekend's elections?

Lyse Doucet visits Cairo’s presidential palace for an exclusive interview with Egypt’s new strongman, President Abd-al-Fattah al-Sisi.

The US Commonwealth of Puerto Rico could be slipping into an economic “death spiral”, according to its Governor. Ten years of recession have led to deep cuts in services and more are on the way, as the government accepts it can’t pay its massive debts. Unemployment and poverty are spiralling, and younger citizens on this Caribbean island of 3.5 million are leaving in their droves, seeking jobs in New York or Miami. We meet some of them literally as they head to the airport, and meet some of the super-rich Americans coming the other way. Randy and Laura are two new arrivals, taking advantages of newly introduced tax breaks for those earning more than $200,000. Ed Butler looks at the contrasting life-styles of these two worlds, hears from property developers cashing in, and one man who may have lost all his savings investing in the island’s debt. And he examines the curious polarisation that’s developing as thousands of ordinary, working age employees head for the exit. Produced and presented by Ed Butler (Photo: Yachts in Palmas Del Mar Marina in Puerto Rico)

Musician Philip Glass revisits his parallel lives in 1970s New York - as a taxi driver and an emerging composer in Manhattan's arts scene.

Pope Francis has opened up debate about his Church’s most controversial teachings - on sex and the family. He’s raised hope among those who’d like the Roman Catholic Church to change its stance on issues like homosexuality, divorce and birth control. But can he meet their expectations? In the first of a three-part series, Helen Grady reports from Austria, where priests and ordinary Catholics are already pushing the boundaries of doctrine. In Vienna, she meets Clemens Moser and Charlotte Leeb, a young couple who, although devout Catholics, are breaking Church rules by living together as an unmarried couple. And Wolfgang, a gay man who spent six years training to be a Roman Catholic priest, tells Helen about his decision to leave the Church he loves because of its opposition to homosexual relationships. In the village of Bad Mittendorf, deep in traditionally-conservative Alpine Austria, Helen meets parish priest Fr Michael Unger, who’s proud of his most famous parishioner, the openly-gay performer Thomas Neuwirth - better known to millions as Conchita Wurst, who won the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest sporting a glamorous evening gown - and a beard. And another of Fr Michael’s parishioners, Andrea Strimizer, explains how her decision to divorce and remarry means that she’s officially barred from receiving Holy Communion, the central rite of the Catholic faith. Back in Vienna, Helen visits the city’s seminary, where trainee priest Johannes Eibensteiner explains how he’s preparing to minister to Austria’s largely liberal flock with gentleness and pragmatism. And she meets the city’s Archbishop, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn. A charismatic and influential figure, seen by many as a future Pope, Cardinal Schonborn has developed a special ministry for divorced and remarried Catholics. He says the Church must not lose faith in the traditional Catholic family, but meet people where they are and help them to inch gradually closer towards doctrinal ideals.

Stories of the pioneers who came to post war Britain from the Indian subcontinent. By the early 1970s the numbers from the Indian subcontinent had increased with family reunions and people fleeing Bangladesh following the war of Independence in 1971. Racist abuse became commonplace as immigration became a charged political issue

Tim Franks travels to South Sudan to find out why the world's youngest nation has failed to deliver on the hopes placed in it at independence.

During the conflict in Syria, it seems incredible that there are still writers expressing their experiences through poetry. News journalist Mike Embley meets and speaks to Syrian poets, writers and academics about how their work has reflected the emotions and humanity in a seemingly impossible situation.

Forty Five percent of the population of Myanmar is 25 or under. This gives young adults a key role in the country’s first open election in 25 years, to be held on 8 November. Nomia Iqbal finds out how youth radio is helping to shape Myanmar's shift from military rule by spending time with producers at youth radio programme Lin Lat Kyair Sin or Bright Young Stars.

From workaholics to submissive women and bizarre crazes, Dr Christopher Harding explores Western media representations of Japan and asks if these stereotypes have led to the country being misunderstood in West.

Lucy Ash reports on the controversial mayor in charge of Beziers, the largest French city controlled by the Far-Right. Is Robert Menard a pioneer or a provocateur?

Virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie explores the story of the Hang - the tuned metal pan that's become a global success.

Homosexuality in Namibia and the LGBT community's struggle for social acceptance

In the aftermath of 9/11, the United States approved ‘enhanced’ interrogation methods that have been condemned as torture. The most notorious was controlled drowning, known as waterboarding. For Assignment, Hilary Andersson hears from those who approved, ran and suffered the programme in secret CIA prisons around the world. And she experiences some of the techniques herself. Does harsh interrogation yield reliable intelligence in the fight against terror? And what impact has the interrogation programme had on on-going conflicts – did it fuel support for ISIS? Produced by Linda Pressly (Photo: A man sits in a prison cell. Credit: Shutterstock)

Nearly 40 years ago, French polymath Jacques Attali wrote a book called Noise which predicted a "crisis of proliferation" for recorded music – in which its value would plummet. As music sales went into freefall at the turn of the century, his prediction seemed eerily resonant. Singer-songwriter Sam York, now struggling to earn a living as a musician, visits Attali to help get an insight into his own future, and learns that music itself may hold clues to what is about to happen in the wider world.

In 2005 a plan was launched to improve education, health, housing and jobs for the Roma – Europe’s poorest minority. But did it succeed? Ten years later Delia Radu travels across Eastern Europe to find the Roma she spoke to when the plan was launched, to see if it has delivered its promise.

Why Edward Snowden exposed the mass surveillance by American and British intelligence

Two pioneers in AI discuss their work and describe the way in which machine led intelligence is set to remake our world. Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research and Cynthia Breazeal, chief scientist of the Robotics firm Jibo join the BBC’s Rory Cellan Jones to discuss the rewards and challenges of AI with an audience in Silicon Valley.

India Rakusen travels to the city of Hamburg to find out why Germany has become the destination of choice for so many of the thousands of refugees heading across Europe.

Should a city owing $18 billion sell its prestigious art collection? The Detroit Institute of Arts' collection is world famous, and includes the first Van Gogh to be owned by an American arts museum, dazzling works by Matisse and Rembrandt, a distinguished selection of German Expressionist paintings, African Art, Native American Art, art from Asia and the Islamic world. Is art still relevant even when you are broke?

The story of how Eleanor Roosevelt transformed the place of women in American politics. Naomi Grimley looks at how life’s disappointments shaped Mrs. Roosevelt and how she learnt to cope with the scrutiny and fascination of the mass media.

Spain's national bullfighting association has warned that the tradition is in crisis. Neal Razzell reports.

Gwendolyn Brooks was an African American poet whose imagination, conscience and passion for words made her the first black poet to win the Pulitzer Prize, in 1950. Narrated by her daughter Nora Brooks Blakely, this is a portrait of her life through the voices of friends and fellow poets - including Sonia Sanchez, Haki Madhubuti and Sharon Olds.

The invisible cultural and mental divide between former East Germans and West Germans. Comedian Henning Wehn finds out if the cultural divisions can ever be broken down.

How the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s affected the lives of those caught up in it, and how it has cast its shadow over the region to this day

Jane Deith reports from India on conditions for tea workers picking for some of the UK's best known brands.

Portraits of eminent Indians by Professor Sunil Khilnani. The life of Guru Nanak who founded the Sikh religion in the 15th Century, mystic and poet Mirabai, one of India's most revered saints, Mughal Empire ruler Akbar and Ethipian slave turned king maker Malik Akbar.

More than 2000 civilians have been killed since a coalition led by Saudi Arabia began bombing Yemen. The UN is warning of war crimes on both sides and a humanitarian crisis.

In the West we are used to stand-up comics but in Japan they have sit-down comedy. Chie Kobayashi introduces the ancient story-telling art of Rakugo which dates back to the 18th Century and has changed little over the centuries.

Hugh Sykes travels to Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous archepelago in Tanzania, to investigate the religious tensions at play. In South Africa he finds schools still overcrowded and under-equipped - a lingering shadow of the Apartheid education system. He meets the growing business elite with a taste for fine wines, and reports on the increasing influence of China on the region.

Profiles of the Buddha; Mahavira Jain; Ashoka and Aryabhata. Rupa Jha introduces four portraits of eminent Indians by Professor Sunil Khilnani.

In Paraguay, two girls under 14 give birth every day. It’s been called an epidemic. So why are Paraguayan children so vulnerable to abuse?

Stories of change from Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa. Hugh Sykes meets those bringing positive change in the fields of education, health, woman's rights and the media.

A young man vanishes on a night out in Antwerp. His disappearance triggers a massive campaign to find him yet, two years on, no-one knows whether he's alive or dead.

Hip hop, since its inception has been seen by many as the musical voice of modern revolutions. In the Middle East, Arab hip hop became a voice of protest as young Arabic people took to the mic and used this vocal art form as a way of expressing their discontent with incumbent governments. Jackson Allers explores the effect of hip hop on the Arab Spring.

Coastal erosion is washing away a football field of land every hour. Meet one community facing the reality of losing their past and their future.

Could recent developments in 3D printing benefit the natural world or bring extinct species back to life?

Britain’s former mould-breaking ambassador to Lebanon, Tom Fletcher., Tom Fletcher. Appointed at only 36 at the height of the Arab uprisings in 2011, Fletcher calls himself the ‘Naked Diplomat’ – a title that suggests a new brand of 21st-century statecraft: flexible, transparent, engaged with the public as much as with political decision-makers.

Lucy Ash meets the Harragas of Algeria - the young people who burn their identity papers and head north across the Mediterranean leaving family, friends and stability behind.

Trista Goldberg looks at the story of Vietnamese Amerasians - children fathered by American servicemen during the Vietnam War.

An interview with one of Iran's vice presidents, Masoumeh Ebtekar, in Tehran. Tehran is a modern city of 12 million people, a study in contrast between bazaars and shopping malls, between hardline clerics and millennial hipsters. Iran’s Vice President first became famous, in 1979 as the spokesperson for the students holding the hostages at the American Embassy. 36 years later Iran has signed a nuclear deal with six world powers but really it’s all about Iran and the United States. How does Masoumeh Ebtekar feel about the relationship between the two countries?

In early 2002, following the fall of the Talban, Osama Bin Laden's abandoned compound in the Afghan city of Kandahar was ransacked. Among the finds was a collection of more than 1500 audio cassettes featuring sermons, speeches, songs and candid recordings of Arab-Afghan fighters, recorded between the 1960s up until the 9/11 attacks.The collection served as an audio library for those who gathered under Bin Laden's roof between 1997 and 2001 – a key era in Al Qaeda's development and growth. BBC Security correspondent Gordon Corera speaks to Prof Flagg Miller from the University of California-Davis, who has spent more than a decade translating and analysing the tapes.Through pain-staking detective work Prof Miller has sought to understand what the tapes say about the evolution of Bin Laden, presenting his findings in the book 'The Audacious Ascetic: What the Bin Laden Tapes Reveal about Al-Qaeda'. The collection features over 200 speakers, with around 20 tapes featuring Bin Laden himself – among them some rarely-heard speeches. While the cassette tape is undoubtedly an instrument for proselytising and propaganda, this collection reveals that the people making recordings seemed to find extraordinary pleasure in capturing the ordinary sounds of life – conversations over breakfast; sounds from the battlefield; wedding celebrations and militants singing Islamic anthems. As diverse as the recordings in the collection are, they offer exceptional insight into Bin Laden's broad intellectual interests in the years leading up to the September 11 attacks in the United States. Presenter: Gordon Corera Producer: Richard Fenton-Smith (Photo: A cassette tape found in Osama Bin Laden's former compound. Credit: Flagg Miller)

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 gun attack on the beach resort of Sousse that killed 38 tourists, deterred many holiday-makers from travelling to Tunisia. But not journalist, Frances Stonor Saunders. She packed her bags, no flak jacket in sight, and set off for an all-inclusive package deal to Hammamet, a nearby seaside resort. What did she find? As well as deserted beaches and eerily empty hotels, Frances has a chance meeting with a man who helped foil a previous terror attack on a popular tourist site; and she finds out why Tunisians are refusing to go to local hotels, despite desperate pleas from hotel owners.

Peter Oborne investigates why bank accounts of some British Muslims were closed.

China has become a top maker and taker of underground ketamine. Celia Hatton sees the impact of the drug and explores The Fortress - the drug village at the centre of the trade.

Farkhunda, a 28-year-old Afghan woman and religious scholar, was beaten to death in the streets of Kabul in March this year. She had reportedly been arguing with a Mullah about the practice of selling charms in front of a mosque. He accused her of burning the Koran.

Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died in a London hospital in 2006, after drinking tea poisoned with the highly radioactive material - polonium. But who wanted him dead, and why? And where did his killers get the polonium from?

Gabriel Gatehouse follows the journeys of two African migrants, from their dramatic rescue in the Mediterranean, to their attempts to find a new home in Europe.

Snow White is one of the darkest fairytales in the canon – a story of witchcraft, cannibalism and murderous rage. It describes the fury of an ageing woman, who looks into her mirror to discover her beauty has been surpassed. Writer Cathy FitzGerald explores if there are more productive ways of dealing with ugly attitudes to ageing.

The tiny libraries dotting the New Zealand countryside providing books for local readers

The ordinary Italians coping with the Mediterranean migrant crisis

President Obama talks about his hopes for US-Africa relations, his concerns about Britain leaving the EU and frustrations over US gun laws.

South Africa is suffering rolling blackouts that are expected to continue for years. Neal Razzell reports on a crisis that some fear could threaten the country’s very stability.

Steph McGovern turns her attention to salt's role in our diet. She begins in Wales at the Halen Mon sea salt company, learning how they produce their salt from the waters of the Menai Straits, then moves on to learn more about the wide variety of artisan salts that have become so popular in recent years - from French Fleur du Sel to the beautiful pink Himalayan Rock Salt. She goes on to address the issue of salt and health.

The strangely-named investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) system is built into thousands of treaties between countries around the world. It is a key part of negotiations for a new trade and investment treaty between the US and the EU. Michael Robinson digs into the ISDS mechanism to find out these little-known lawsuits are threatening the democratic process.

India’s Parsi population is in steep decline. Now the government’s funding fertility treatment and advocacy to encourage the community to make more Parsi babies.

Steph McGovern sets out to explain the role of Salt in our history. She hears how it has taken root in our language, visits a chemistry class to find out about how it is produced and its importance to our physical well being. She talks to history professor Peter Wallenstein about the unexpected importance of salt in military strategy right up until the 20th Century.

In 1931, during the Depression, an unknown young black woman took her new-born son to a Pittsburgh orphanage. And so began jazz pianist Horace Parlan´s life. At the age of five, he was struck by polio and lost the use of three fingers on his right hand, yet somehow, against the odds, he managed a long career as a professional musician.

In Ukraine, whilst she reported on MH17, a miner gave the ID of a passenger to Natalia Antelava. A year on, she meets the passenger’s sister, and tries to find the miner.

Izzat Majeed could have retired quietly, but instead he formed the Sachal Jazz Ensemble.

Kuba Nowak lives in London’s East End, a fast-changing part of the city. He loves his street and his neighbours, many of whom have lived there most of their lives. Together they celebrate their community by planting trees, sharing produce from their gardens and holding regular street parties with food, music and dancing. Now rising property prices and new development mean the neighbourhood is changing so rapidly that residents scarcely recognise the place they live.

Denmark’s second city has been attracting attention for its project to prevent its young people from going to Syria to fight for Islamic State. Is the Aarhus Model working?

Headhunters deal in high-value, high-profile appointments, charging an equally high fee. But few companies or individuals like to openly acknowledge their work. Why would a company need outside consultants to search its own backyard, as some do? Jolyon Jenkins follows academic headhunter Helen Yallop as she searches for a Master for an Oxbridge college, and gains a a fascinating insight into a hidden world.

David Stern examines the causes and consequences of Ukraine’s other crisis – its demographic timebomb. The country’s population once stood at over 50 million but it has fallen sharply and some projections put it at only 32 million by 2050. Few if any countries have gone through such precipitous population loss. Will demography, rather than war, mean the death of Ukraine?

Neal Razzell reports from the Estonian city of Narva, which is in NATO but almost entirely Russian. Could this be the west’s weak spot? Here, the Estonian government says, Moscow is trying to destabilise it by exploiting local grievances – just as NATO says it did in Ukraine. So Estonia is mounting an urgent campaign to win hearts and minds among its Russian population. Ethnic Russians account for a quarter of all Estonians, and most say their economic prospects are best served by living in the west. But many are also profoundly ambivalent about their identity, culturally and linguistically at odds with the majority, and asking questions about what it means to be an Estonian. Produced by Michael Gallagher

German comedian Henning Wehn explores the growing use of ELF – English as a lingua franca. He talks to academics and consultants in the fast-growing field of ELF and learns that it is rapidly developing a grammar and structure of its own – often not understood by those who have grown up speaking English.

Interpol is the world's biggest and most powerful international policing organisation. Spanning almost every existing country - with the notable exception of North Korea - it carries out vital work in combatting worldwide organised crime. Increasingly important in our globalised era, but lacking in accountability and surrounded with an aura of mystery, it has to cope with new scrutiny. In this age of accountability and transparency, how long can it withstand demands for change?

How did World War One change the face of the Middle East? And, how did this seismic and controversial period shape the century to follow? Lyse Doucet presents a public debate from Amman in Jordan, with panel of experts.

Tim Whewell investigates how a billion dollars has mysteriously disappeared from banks in Moldova – equivalent to more than an eighth of the country’s GDP.

Poet Thabiso Mohare travels to Cape Town to meet a new generation of writers, poets and playwrights and look at the theme of place and contested space in their work and the history of the city. He talks to Lauren Beukes, whose sci-fi visions of South African cities are internationally successful, playwright and novelist Nadia Davids about the undealt-with legacy of slavery in the city, and Thando Mgqolozana whose novels deal with a range of social issues.

Vladimir Putin, then a KGB agent, was caught up in dramatic events as East Germany collapsed. He saw crowds take control as communist power collapsed, and had to defend his KGB office in Dresden as demonstrators tried to break in. Chris Bowlby explores how this experience shaped Putin's career and behaviour today - his determination to restore Russian power, his fear of demonstrations, his sense of the power of nationalism.

Sixty years ago John Ford travelled to Monument Valley to make his greatest Western, The Searchers. Based on Alan LeMay’s novel, it is still a powerful tale of race, violence and redemption as Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) searches for his niece Debbie, abducted by a Comanche raiding party on the Texas frontier. But, as Mark Burman discovers, The Searchers is a gateway to the real and powerful story of the forging of Texas statehood and the rise and fall of the Comanche empire.

Wyre Davies investigates the mysterious death of Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor who had accused Argentina’s government of trying to cover up the deadliest terror attack in the country’s history. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Buenos Aires, demanding to know how and why he died. The issue is dominating President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s final year in office. Nisman was found dead, with a gun by his body, the night before he was due to testify about the alleged cover-up in Congress. Was it suicide or was it murder? Produced by Sarah Robbins and Arlene Gregorius (Photo: Demonstrators hold up images of late Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman in front of the Justice Palace in Buenos Aires, March 18, 2015. Credit to: REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci)

Poet Thabiso Mohare looks at the challenges, tensions and solutions facing South African writers. He talks to publishers, writers and poets about the issue of a small book-reading culture being exacerbated by the high cost of books in the country, and looks at how the spoken word scene has grown in the past 20 years to provide an outlet for new voices.

For centuries, students of medicine have dissected the dead. But the idea of wilfully donating one’s body to medicine is somewhat new. People donating their bodies to science has sufficed the medical demand for cadavers until recently. Now the burgeoning demand for bodies and body parts has created a strange new industry in America.

Turkey goes to the polls on Sunday in a critical general election. Many of the voters opposed to the ruling party of President Erdogan are putting their hopes in the HDP, which has its roots in Kurdish nationalism. If it gets the 10% of the vote it needed to enter parliament, it could block Erdogan’s plans to give the presidency more power. Maria Margaronis visited a run-down area of Istanbul - one of the HDP’s strongholds. (Photo: Children in Tarlabaşı, Istanbul, stronghold of the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party. BBC Copyright)

Poet Thabiso Mohare talks to Johannesburg-based writers and poets about the changing cityscape and how the past impacts on the present in their work. He speaks to Ivan Vladislavic, who has documented the city in his novels and non-fiction work Portrait with Keys, to the prominent poet Lebo Mashile who talks about the emergence of the black female voice in the past 20 years, and the legacy of the past. And, he meets Niq Mhlongo, whose most recent book Way Back Home, looks critically at the struggle against apartheid, and how those who went into exile to fight for the movement are haunted by their experiences.

With the Fifa Women’s World Cup kicking off in Canada on 6 June, we join the Tibetan women’s soccer team, the Snow Lionesses, as they begin the match of their lives, including trying to achieve international recognition in the face of Chinese opposition, entrenched sexism in their own community and flagrant objection from Fifa, world football’s governing body.

Spats, tantrums and explosions from the archive. American satirist Joe Queenan presents.

Aid is pouring in to Nepal in the wake of the recent earthquakes. But in a country where corruption is endemic, will the money go where it is meant to? Simon Cox investigates.

Claudia Taranto travels to the Philippines where 10% of the population work overseas. She travels to the coastal town of Mabini where many citizens have gone to Italy for work. She hears from the children left behind, including 10-year-old Jen who lives with her 80-year-old grandmother. Claudia asks whether the Philippines have become over-reliant on work abroad and if there is any prospect of breaking the cycle

Claudia Taranto travels to Australia where she hears how temporary workers are changing the face of a country founded on the idea of permanent settlement. She uncovers abuses of the temporary migrant visa system and speaks to a group of Filipino welders earning far less than they were promised in their contracts. Claudia also hears from critics who call for a return to a 'settler society'.

The story of how Islamic State, a small band of fanatical jihadi fighters, became the world’s richest terror army.

Andrew Harding speaks to defectors inside the militant group al-Shabab and asks if Somalia is turning the tide against extremism.

Claudia Taranto visits Singapore, which is increasingly reliant on labour from abroad - 40% of the population are in the country temporarily for work. She hears from locals who feel anger at being squeezed out of the job market and from exploited migrant workers who are in despair at Singapore's complex and bureaucratic system for resolving workplace problems.

Claudia Taranto travels to Nepal where - until the recent disasters - 1600 people were leaving each day to travel overseas for work. The earthquakes are only likely to add to this exodus in the coming years. Claudia discovers the benefits of money earned in the Middle East, but also hears appalling accounts of exploitation. She discovers the benefits of money earned in the Middle East, but also hears appalling accounts of exploitation.

Peru is one of the most biodiverse nations in the world. But its precious wildlife is threatened by traffickers. Crossing Continents goes on operations with the wildlife police.

Over 35,000 African students studied at British universities last year - part of a growing number of foreign students coming to the UK. Bola Masuro charts the progress of four students from Africa. What do they want to take back with them from the British way of life? And what could the UK learn from Africa?

The Jordanian social media campaign run in response to the burning of pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh. Dominic Casciani examines Islamic State’s social media strategy and the attempts to combat it.

American historian David Blight explores the legacy of the American Civil War - especially regarding the issue of race-relations. He joins the dots between events from 150 years ago through to the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s to more recent protests in the US cities of Baltimore and Ferguson.

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.

Following the end of World War Two, the BBC began a series of special radio appeals on behalf of a group of children who had survived the Holocaust but were now stranded as orphans in post-war Europe. Alex Last finds out what happened to the 12 children named in the recordings.

Tarek Osman considers how the impact of the Arab Uprisings of 2011 was felt in Saudi Arabia. The country’s growing youth population faced high unemployment and was well adapted to social media. But unlike other Arab countries, they did not take to the streets. And, As King Salman takes power, what is the future of this traditional society and global banker of oil?

Dominic Casciani explores the way the so called Islamic State use social media to recruit people to their cause, and what can we be done combat this. Dominic travels to Canada to meet a mother whose son was recruited by IS and executed by the FSA, and the police chief who says a lot more needs to be done to counter IS online

Lucy Ash investigates the mass rapes committed by Soviet troops in Germany at the end of World II - in part as revenge for Nazi atrocities in the Soviet Union.

In India, a wrestler in the family can mean a ticket out of poverty. Rupa Jha meets the young fighters determined to get to the top and overcome India's complex caste system.

Tarek Osman investigates the rise of the Kindgom of Saudi Arabia. In this second episode he sees how Saudi Arabia was suddenly challenged at the end of the 1970s by the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which gave rise to religious extremism, as well as the Arab uprisings.

American satirist PJ O’Rourke travels across Britain trying to work out why party politics in the UK is being shaken up. He meets politicians, pundits and voters, to find out what it takes to get elected to the UK Parliament in 2015.

Will Coley listens to the stories of Ethiopian and Eritrean migrants who have made the often lethal journey across the Sahara, and then the Mediterranean, to arrive in Sicily asking for political asylum. Once the news cameras have left them on the beaches, Italian squatters are helping them to occupy the opulent empty homes of a Sicily in decline.

Does Portugal have a problem with police brutality and racism? The residents of Cova da Moura, a largely immigrant community, believe that it does. (Warning: contains strong language)

American writer and satirist PJ O’Rourke hits the campaign trail to give his own unique take on the British election.

Egyptian writer Tarek Osman follows the dramatic events that led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its rise, in less than 50 years, to the status of global power.

As the UK heads towards a highly competitive general election with an uncertain outcome, Mary Ann Sieghart explores how the parties are planning to form a government if there is no clear winner.

Teatr Doc is widely praised for its hard-hitting plays about contemporary Russia. Lucy Ash finds that for the country's most controversial theatre company, the show must go on

Comedian Des Bishop finds out what makes the chinese laugh. He has learnt Mandarin to take his jokes to China. He finds that there is a long tradition of comedy in China called Xiangsheng, or Crosstalk, often in the form of two comedians playing off each other. Join him in a comedy club in Beijing to find out what goes down well - and what doesn't!

More women and girls from Canada's Aboriginal population go missing or are murdered than any other section of society. Joanna Jolly reports from the city of Winnipeg.

Imagine your nationality was used by people all around the world to describe someone with a learning disability or a stupid person. Uuganaa Ramsay investigates how the word mongol became a term to describe someone with Down's Syndrome and as a term of abuse meaning an idiot.

Dawood Azami talks to some of the descendants of the thousands of Afghan pioneers in Australia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, who, with their camels, first arrived in Australia in the 1860s and criss-crossed the harsh interior of Australia for several decades. He explores the adventurist nature and the entrepreneurial spirit of the Afghans and discusses their ancient and unwritten code of life called – Pashtoonwali.

World renowned DJ Edu, aka The ‘Afro Boss’, is on a journey across Africa to explore how the young generation are having fun from Friday to Sunday. He starts in his hometown Nairobi and finds out how young, up and coming DJs, are making their mark on the music world by selling mixtapes on the public buses. In Morocco he finds a new music genre called ‘Afro-bian’ and in Botswana, an emerging outdoor festival culture is pushing back against government attempts to crackdown on anti-social behaviour. Moving to Central Africa and The Democratic Republic of Congo, DJ Edu meets the new generation of Sapeurs – Kinshasa’s gentleman dandies, now made famous by ad agencies around the world. He finishes in South Africa, whose native house music scene is taking the clubbing world by storm, and discovers a hipster’s paradise in Johannesburg, which has reformed a previously ‘no-go’ area to the ‘must-go’ area.

The story of a Tanzanian safe house, a place where girls find refuge from female genital mutilation - a bloody and life-threatening rite of passage.

Ahmed has spent much of the last three and a half years sleeping on London’s night buses. He fled to the UK from India in 2002 during the communal riots in Gujarat, fearing that he was going to be a target. He had his asylum application turned down but, still nervous about the situation at home, he stayed in the UK. Through Ahmed we enter a netherworld where many other failed asylum seekers like him exist.

Dawood Azami focuses on the life and legacy of the Afghan cameleers, who first arrived in Australia in the 1860s. They played a crucial role in the development of railway lines, overland Telegraph line and provided supplies to remote mission stations and farms. They became part of the pioneering legend of inland Australia by opening up the Australian deserts, exploring it and enabling the early white settlers to survive.

What’s in your fridge? That’s the question former BBC Africa Service editor Elizabeth Ohene has been asking as she opens fridge doors on three continents to find out how the fridge has changed – and continues to change – millions of lives around the world.

Edward Stourton looks back at the remarkable life of Lee Kuan Yew, who transformed Singapore from a backwater into one of the world’s richest nations. He talks to critics and admirers as he assesses the record of the man who laid down the blueprint for the modernisation of the island nation.

Tim Whewell tells the story of how Gaza's only grand piano is being restored and of how music - for so long played behind closed doors - is being re-introduced to school children.

Formerly known as Burma, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar is in a state of upheaval. Business is booming in Yangon, thanks to new access to international markets. And while the country is offering greater stability for investors, ethnic and political tensions still run high. Mark Turin explores what these transformations mean for the indigenous ethnic groups that make up much of the population, and specifically for their languages and cultures.

Indian Journalist Rupa Jha travels to her own state of Bihar, where nearly 10% of the population now live, facing many of the issues confronting the average citizen. It is the height of festival season and Patna is resonating to the sound of loud fireworks and blaring music. She speaks to four local residents from different backgrounds to understand how day-to-day life is for the majority of ordinary Indians.

How did the disease originate & how was its deadly progress checked? Statistician Hans Rosling & the WHO's Margaret Lamunu discuss their experiences of fighting the disease.

Detroit Soup is an innovative crowdfunding dinner which has raised more than $85,000 for community projects in Motor City - but could it work elsewhere? The BBC takes Detroit Soup founder Amy Kaherl to Nepal, to inspire a new crowdfunding culture, Kathmandu-style.

Lyse Doucet talks to journalist Safa al-Ahmad about her recent reporting trip to Yemen to cover the takeover of the capital Sanaa by Houthi rebels from the north of the country.

Bhutan is a landlocked country in the eastern Himalaya, best known as a Buddhist kingdom where the policy of ‘Gross National Happiness’ replaced GDP. Anthropologist and linguist Mark Turin documents the country’s endangered oral traditions. Can Bhutan’s languages and cultures be preserved in the face global influences through television and the internet?

Journalist Rupa Jha travels to her own state of Bihar, where nearly 10% of the population now live, and who face many of the issues confronting the average citizen. In part two Dalit student Sunil hopes his exam results will help lift his entire family out of poverty.

Theo Leggett looks at our apparent addiction to economic growth as the secret to prosperity and cure for global poverty. In a finite world with limited resources, can economies continue to grow indefinitely, or will physical and environmental constraints have the final word?

Has Eritrea reached its Millenium Development Goals target early? BBC’s Yalda Hakim finds out in areas such as child mortality, maternal health and HIV/Aids and malaria.

In a rapidly changing Russia, Sasha Tsaliuk continues to fight for the existence of his beloved Moscow Acapella Jewish Choir. Formed as the Soviet Union collapsed around him, Sasha came to the choir as conductor when it was a potent, exciting and hopeful symbol of the new Russia. Here was music both sacred and folk that had been arrested, buried and silenced by Communism, anti-semitism and the hammer blow of war.

India is home to an extraordinary number of people, languages and religions, but one of the more surprising statistics is that hundreds of millions of people still live on, or below, the poverty line. Indian journalist Rupa Jha starts her journey in Patna, capital of the state of Bihar. She gets to know four local residents, who come from very different backgrounds, but are unified by their sense of ambition.

As evidence grows that major historical sites are being looted in Syria, how much are groups such as Islamic State profiting from the global trade in illicit antiquities?

Four reigning Arab monarchs have passed through the UK's Royal Military Academy Sandhurst or its associated institutions - the kings of Bahrain and Jordan, the Emir of Qatar and the Sultan of Oman, alongside a long list of lesser sheikhs and princes, and many of the region's military chiefs of staff. Is training at Sandhurst Military Academy, bolstering militarised monarchies in the Arab world?

Lucy Ash examines the Russian military strategy of deception, maskirovka, from the 14th Century to the current crisis in Ukraine.

If the statistics can be believed, over the last 30 years the gap between rich and poor in the West has grown as cavernous as it was in the Nineteenth Century. In the US, for example, the richest 1% of the population is estimated to own more than 40% of the country's wealth. And it is a similar picture across the planet. But who are the 1%? How have they made their wealth? And why have the rest of us seemingly been left behind? Robert Peston speaks to leading policymakers and opinion shapers as he charts the new consensus that inequality is the biggest economic challenge we face.

Claire Bolderson reports on the tiny independent cities that make up St Louis County and how they stand accused of fuelling community tensions

As part of the BBC's A Richer World season, Rustam Qobil visits a desert where people have lost their sea, health and loved ones to a man-made disaster. He meets 86 year-old Khojabay who lives in Kazakhstan in the middle of a vast toxic desert made of mud, dust and pesticides – once The Aral Sea. 40 years ago his village was a seaside fishing port surrounded by freshwater lakes and barley fields, and he could catch up to 400 kilos of fish in one go. However, 26,000 square miles of sea is now called Aralkum or ‘The Aral Sands’ locally. When the Soviets started building dozens of dams and canals in the 1960s they deprived the Aral Sea of its two main tributaries and the sea started shrinking. Rustam Qobil travels to ‘The Aral Sands’ and hears from the people whose lives and families have been affected.

My Africa offers a series of inspiring snapshots of a continent working towards future prosperity. In the third part of this series, Alan Kasujja travels to Tanzania to investigate how its unique blend of modern and traditional music is attracting the world’s attention and helping social mobility – Africa doing things its own way, and leading.

The Chinese Cricket Association has set itself the target of achieving Test match status and playing against the likes of England, Australia and South Africa by 2020, and a grass roots campaign to get the game taught in schools is well underway. Fred Dove investigates China's attempts to make itself a cricketing nation, and meets some of China's finest cricketers.

Australia is one of the most popular destinations for asylum seekers escaping their home countries. But Australia doesn’t want them. Asylum seekers dreaming of a life in Australia are being banished to camps in Papua New Guinea. Fariba Sahraei presents.

As part of the BBC's Richer World season, Alan Kasujja travels to three countries in his native east Africa to meet young Africans determined to build a better future. In the second programme, Alan travels to Rwanda, a country notorious for the genocide that took place there in 1994. Yet a bright new future beckons for some of its youth, as young female schoolteacher Jessie trains them in the high technology that promises to transform the nation.

The imperial summer palace in Beijing was looted and destroyed by French and British troops in 1860. Chris Bowlby discovers why.

One year on from the massacre in Kiev’s Maidan square, when more than fifty protestors were killed. It was the events on Maidan that led to Ukraine’s pro-Russian president fleeing the country, sparking a confrontation over Crimea and now in the east of the country. So what did happen on Maidan square, an event that has pushed the world to the brink of a new cold war? Gabriel Gatehouse investigates/

For Stalin, privacy was key. So how would he feel about his secrets being revealed? The Stalin Digital Archive aims to release 400,000 pages of Soviet secrets from 1890 through to 1952, and may give us a new way of looking at this period, and at Stalin.

Claire Read has spent the last six months following a court case in Egypt and trying to get to grips with how the country's justice system operates under the government of President Sisi.

My Africa offers a series of inspiring snapshots of a continent working towards future prosperity. As part of the BBC's Richer World season, Alan Kasujja travels to three countries in his native east Africa to meet young Africans determined to build a better future

A Vietnamese woman's perspective of the Vietnam War. Her memoirs have inspired film director Oliver Stone and given an essential insight into the conflict between Vietnam and the US.

Tata is the biggest industrial employer in the UK, owning Jaguar, Land Rover & Tetley. Now, the Tata family no longer controls the companies which bear its name. Can this powerful organisation hold onto its historic values in a world of the ruthless multinationals?

The testimonies of twins who survived the brutal medical experiments of Dr Josef Mengele during the second world war in Auschwitz.

World renowned DJ and BBC 1Xtra presenter DJ Edu is on a journey to find the best nightclub in Africa. This programme is part of the BBC’s Richer World season

In the wake of the recent attacks in Paris, do France’s Muslims feel there’s a place for them in the strongly secular Republic?

British actor Lenny Henry traces the life and works of August Wilson, the great black playwright, whose work brought the lives of working-class, Pittsburgh African-Americans to Broadway and across the United States.

Even by the sometimes-bizarre standards of modern Japanese culture, the annual love-your-wife shout-out is one of the stranger rituals to have emerged in recent years. But what does it tell us about love and life in Japan today?

Slum settlements have a strong visual identity. We are used to seeing TV footage of densely packed, ramshackle homes squeezed onto strips of land in inner cities. Dr Tom Rice, a sound anthropologist, takes an alternative perspective and explores what a slum sounds like and how this embodies and reflects the local culture. Tom meets up with Dr Tripta Chandola, an urban researcher, who for 10 years has studied the slums of Govindpuri in India’s capital, Delhi.

Last summer the deaths of four innocent teenagers in Israel, three Jewish and one Israeli Arab, heightened tensions leading to the start of the 2014 Gaza war. Mike Thomson travels to Israel to speak with the friends and family of Naftali Fraenkel, one of the murdered Jewish schoolboys and those of Mohammed Abu Khdeir.

Germany's nascent anti-Islamisation movement, Pegida, is attracting a new middle aged following to its weekly marches around the country. Catrin Nye meets its leader.

For decades rubbish pickers crawled their way over the biggest rubbish dump in South America. Their lives in Gramacho, just outside Rio de Janeiro, living alongside their pigs and dogs, amongst the hundreds of thousands of tons of bloody hospital waste, dead bodies, festering food, needles and other sharp objects, were unimaginably hard and poor. But in the lead up to Brazil’s hosting of the World Cup in 2014 Gramacho was closed. So what happened to them and how have they survived in this new world?

Machado de Assis was born in 1839 of mixed race, an epileptic with little formal education. Yet from these humble origins he went on to become Brazil’s greatest writer - the ‘Charles Dickens’ of Rio de Janeiro. Juliana Iootty of the BBC Brazilian Service goes out onto the streets of Rio to discover what the people of this vibrant and colourful city make of their literary star.

The protest by cleaners, laid off from tax offices and the Greek Finance Ministry, which has captured the imagination of those opposed to the country's harsh austerity programme.

The olive harvest in the West Bank is all about tradition. The first rains of the winter signal the start of gathering the olives on which so many Palestinian farmers depend. In a land where everything is politicised, so is the olive harvest.

Allen Ginsberg arrived in early 1960s Calcutta to discover a collective of angry young poets whose anti-establishment antics were uncannily reminiscent of his own past. This is the story of the so-called Hungry Generation - born in the slums, but highly educated and primed for a revolution in both literature and society. Through their verse, they broke strict rules of Bengali poetry as well as social taboos.

In the 1950s and 1960s tens of thousands of migrants came to Britain from the Indian subcontinent. Many arrived with no more than £3 in their pocket - the limit set by the Indian authorities. They came to work in Britain's factories, foundries, and new public services. Kavita Puri hears their stories.

Former jihadi Aimen Dean gives a unique insight into the workings of Islamic State. Dean left school in Saudi Arabia to fight jihad in Bosnia in the 1990s. But with the rise of al-Qaeda he became disillusioned with his comrades’ drift towards terrorism. He joined al-Qaeda – but working undercover for the British government.

James Fletcher travels to Japan to find out why they decided earlier this year not to ban graphic cartoons depicting children in sexual situations.

Noor Inayat Khan was one of the most courageous, unusual secret agents of World War Two. She was determined that even as a Muslim of mixed origin and as someone with Sufi pacifist beliefs, she would commit to the British war effort. Shahidha Bari uncovers Khan’s story

We like to think of our romantic lives as pure and unbothered by the cold business of spreadsheets and tax documents. But serious relationships are both romantic and financial partnerships.

A year ago, we asked former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill to identify the next big emerging economies, and he picked the MINT nations - Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey. How has 2014 been for these countries - are they proving to be the drivers of growth that were predicted?

In Medellin there's a huge dump. Locals say it's where the truth is buried - they're talking about victims killed in the armed conflict. Now there are moves to excavate it.