Which way is Mecca in space? Helen Vatsikopoulos ponders this and other imponderables when she meets Malaysia’s “it” man, the hunky former male model Dr Sheik Muszaphar Shukor, who’s become the country’s first astronaut.
For 50 years David Frost has shared the world’s stage with the powerful, rich and famous – and this week he shares it with Foreign Correspondent’s Mark Corcoran.
What would you do if you discovered your adopted children were stolen and trafficked, and not willingly given up by their parents, as you’d believed? South Asia correspondent Sally Sara investigates the insidious trade of children in India, and joins an Australian family in their moving search for the truth.
In Antarctica the race is on for scientific supremacy and to find an ice-scientist’s Holy Grail … a 1,000,000-year-old ice core. It’s thought that’s where the secrets to understanding global warming have been snap frozen. And the best place to look – the vast Australian Antarctic Territory.
South Asia correspondent Sally Sara with the cricket tragics of Lahore, as Pakistan is wiped from world cricket's tour map.
Washington correspondent Tracy Bowden uncovers one of the biggest killers in America - the US health system. Lack of insurance is now the third leading cause of death in the US, after cancer and heart disease.
Dambisa Moyo is a Zambian-born economist who says aid is killing Africa. In her new book, Dead Aid, she argues that official aid is easy money that fosters corruption and distorts economies, creating a culture of dependency and economic laziness.
Cholera is a preventable disease, yet there’s an epidemic raging in Zimbabwe. At least 4,000 are dead, and some 90,000 infected. Filming secretly and posing as tourists, reporter Andrew Geoghegan and producer Mary Ann Jolley uncover the true extent of the crisis.
China’s exponential growth took Australia along for the white-knuckled ride. It fuelled our resources boom and had economic optimists forecasting decades of good times. How things change.
He’ll have you believe he’s a quiet goat farmer and a keen horseman who just happens to think he might make an ideal Indonesian President one day. But looks can be deceiving and there’s little doubt Prabowo Subianto’s pursuit of Indonesia’s top job will be ruthlessly efficient and purposeful.
When people in remote villages in Zanskar get sick, chances are they’ll turn to the “Oracle”. The Oracle is a faith healer who goes into a trance so a Tibetan spirit can take over and dispense medical advice. It’s all part of a complex system of folk healing that has spread to this isolated district in north-west India, from neighbouring Tibet.
He's in the fast lane to the top in South Africa but there’s powerful evidence the man following the trail blazed by Mandela has been on the take. Reporter Andrew Fowler investigates whether Jacob Zuma - the man most likely to become the next President of South Africa – took bribes from a French arms company.
They were hiding for their lives, hunted by gunmen who’d brought India’s biggest city to a standstill. In this chilling ‘insider's’ account of a terrorist siege, two Australian business people tell of their remarkable survival trapped inside Mumbai’s Oberoi Hotel, during the attacks last November.
It’s turned out some fearsome warriors in the past but can America’s prestigious military academy West Point manufacture the brass that will ultimately prevail in what’s now being dubbed ‘Obama’s War’ – Afghanistan?
How and why did a bunch of illiterate, dirt poor Africans transform themselves from simple cray-fishermen into the fearsome, gun-toting gangs mugging giant, sophisticated shipping off the coast of Somalia and gouging multi-million dollar ransoms? Marauding foreign fishing fleets took their lobsters.
Very few have seen it in the wild but those who have say it’s the most beautiful of the big cats. The Snow Leopard prowls the roof of the world in dwindling numbers. Can it be saved?
For more than four decades, tens of thousands of Colombians have been kidnapped or killed in South America’s longest-running civil war. Now Colombia’s hard-line president Alvaro Uribe insists it’s coming to an end. But will this country's most popular president ever, win the right to run for a third term in office? And at what cost to South America's oldest democracy?
It was big, it was shiny and it was brassy. Few things symbolised the wealth and optimism of a post-war America more than the big car and the Motown sound. And perhaps few things symbolise the decline of American capitalism more than the sight of the country’s biggest car makers going cap in hand to Washington begging for a bail out. General Motors has until June 1 to come up with a survival plan, or face bankruptcy.
Every year thousands of young Australians pack their backpacks, book their EuRail passes and make for Europe, leaving their parents to worry and fret about their wellbeing and their ability to cope with foreign languages and customs. God forbid anything should happen to them.
They're big men with even bigger secrets. The cloistered world of Sumo hides myriad rituals and traditions, bone-jarring training schedules even humiliating and painful punishment. As scandal rocks Japan's venerable sport, Foreign Correspondent opens the door on life inside a Sumo stable.
Foreign Correspondent presenter and reporter Mark Corcoran, who has spent a decade observing the dangerous world of South Asian narco-politics, takes us on a journey through Afghanistan's dark political underbelly.
How did a 15 year old boy, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, shot by a policeman in Athens six months ago become a cause celebre? Why was his name and the manner of his death invoked by students, anarchists and even terrorists as epitomising all that is wrong with the Greek government?
In a Venezuelan slum a young girl practices on her clarinet and dreams a big musical dream. On a stage in New York City an 80 year old clarinettist takes his final bow to rapturous applause. The two are worlds apart but joined by the profound, elevating forces of music.
It’s raw, it’s instant and it’s rocked authoritarian Iran and riveted world attention. It’s the phenomenal new-media broadcast by Iran’s angry, dissenting young that’s capturing a disturbing, perhaps defining collision of rebellion and repression. Digital dissent vs. bullets and batons - will the new technologies bring change in Iran?
A perilous year undercover - ducking the authorities and informers and risking decades in jail – has resulted in an unforgettable Foreign Correspondent with a team of Burmese cameraman capturing the plight of a pitiful new cast of Burmese – The Orphans of the Storm.
Kilometres of high concrete walls snake through Belfast in Northern Ireland - graffiti daubed and grim. They divide Catholic neighbourhoods from Protestant. They’re called the Peace Walls. But do they keep the enduring hatred and suspicion locked outside or inside?
The Uighurs. Who are they and why is the Chinese government flattening vast tracts of their magnificent cultural capital, Kashgar? Is it for safety or to secure against separatists and potential terrorism?
It's an idyllic tropical atoll, but amid the coconut groves are billions of dollars of high-tech surveillance equipment. Mark Corcoran reveals a hitherto top-secret, Club Med style nuclear missile test range which "sees" everything that moves across a third of the globe and in deep space.
When Venezuela’s socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez lost his best enemy and saw global capitalism teeter you might think he’d be jumping for joy. Not so.
A year ago Foreign Correspondent flew into the scandalously unsafe skies over PNG to examine why the nation’s aviation industry sustains so many fatal accidents and dangerous incidents then struggles to examine those crashes and near misses and fails to apply stricter safety standards.
They’ve been scarred so deeply they’re shockingly disfigured and yet they’ve refused to bow their heads or withdraw from the world. They’re the remarkable women who’ve survived acid attack and who have overcome their injuries to transform their lives.
It’s a staggering national habit and it’s grown into a juggernaut of a killing machine claiming an annual toll eclipsing the Aceh tsunami. Welcome to the warning-free, smoking free-for-all that’s become Big Tobacco’s big new frontier.
Are mobile phones the new blood diamond? Is our insatiable appetite for the latest electronic gadgets actually fuelling despair, deprivation and oppression in another part of the world … even threatening the survival of central Africa’s magnificent gorillas?
Most African adoptions don’t have a Hollywood ending. A Foreign Correspondent investigation in Ethiopia exposes a booming international adoption trade out of control – mothers duped into surrendering their children and some foreign families unsure if their adopted child was really an orphan after all.
In Iceland, the financial crisis is called the kreppa and a year after it hit, the whole country is still well and truly in it. Thousands are losing their homes, unemployment is ten times higher and Britain is demanding it pay back billions of dollars lost in Icelandic investments.
He’s got money to burn, enormous political and personal power, and well, a problem. Beautiful women. Why can’t Silvio Berlusconi behave himself and why do Italians shrug off his sexual escapades and say so what?
Paul Kenyon travels three thousand miles along the most dangerous illegal immigration route out of Africa. Many die crossing the Sahara, or at sea on the way to a better future in Europe - but can the survivors convince those who follow, that Europe in recession is no longer worth the risk?
In California massive wildfires are met with massive force – but it comes with a multimillion dollar price tag. With fires on the increase around the world, is money and manpower the answer or is there a better way?
It’s claimed Japan’s ferocious and feared Yakuza murder, extort and intimidate according to an honour code. But where is the honour in the squalid new enterprise now adding to their billion dollar criminal turnover?
What brought down Air France flight 447? The families, friends and fellow workers of the 228 people who perished when the Rio-Paris flight ditched in the Atlantic mid-year are all desperate for answers. But with airlines relying on outmoded technology that may never happen.
With its giant wind farms and pedal-pushing population, Denmark looks like a model global citizen setting a shining green example for all comers to the Copenhagen Climate Summit. Look a little closer though and there are some grubby realities.
Foreign Correspondent’s 2009 spins to a close with an inside look at the stories, characters and issues that moved, provoked and enthralled our audience. It’s a fascinating, behind the scenes edition featuring some things we didn’t show you along with updates, insights and candid reflections from some of the team.
If they stay they face intimidation, violence even death. If they go they put their lives and life savings in the hands of people smugglers, run the gauntlet of naval patrols and the perils of the sea itself. They are the Tamils of Sri Lanka and many of them are choosing to take the high water over the hell at home. For some it’s a case of if at first you don’t succeed, try again.
It’s a lifetime. Short, urgent and definitive. One hour to save those who can be saved – soldiers, civilians and the enemy critically wounded in the war in Afghanistan. Another defining feature – the surgeons, medics and patients are very young. Welcome to M.A.S.H. 2010 or to update another long-running American TV show – Gen Y Hospital.
How does a deeply personal spiritual offering from India’s poor to their Gods suddenly become a super-expensive, must-have style accessory in the haute salons of Europe, Asia, USA and Australia. Fire up the Benz, cue the hip-hop track and set the GPS for a collision course with faith, fashion and truckloads of money.
A 7 year old Ethiopian girl is portrayed as destitute and in grave danger. She is in fact 13 and has been well cared for much to the surprise of her adopting family. Then there are the children told they’re just visiting a foreign land who are in fact on a one way ticket. This is the powerful next instalment of Foreign Correspondent’s investigation of international adoption in Ethiopia and the United States that began with 2009’s Fly Away Children.
They imagined a breathtaking future-world, burned billions of dollars to summon it out of the sand and hundreds of thousands of expats and investors stampeded into Dubai for a piece of the action. But when the sands suddenly shifted it wasn’t going to be quite so easy getting out.
It’s thought a single, fluffy pillow killed a Hamas operative in Dubai. But it took 27 secret agents with pilfered passports and a bag of disguises to administer it. We investigate the incredible case of overkill and over-exposure that’s astonished even the most hard-boiled of spies.
The dominant face of the United States has long been white. Soon, when the nation looks in the mirror it will see a tanned, smiling Latin American face looking back. In a relatively short space of time a downtrodden minority will become a majority - restless and assertive.
When it comes to stem cells, mainstream scientists in the UK and America tell us their potential is both exciting and unlimited. But, they hasten to add, treatments for most illnesses are still years away and more research needs to happen. For Wilma Clarke, there is no doubt. Her three-year-old daughter, Dakota, born with a rare condition that left her almost blind and suffering from balance problems, can see things that she could not see before.
It’s not Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya or Somalia. But it is - arguably - the most dangerous place in the world to be a journalist. That’s one reason we know so little about a massacre in November 2009 that claimed the lives of more than 30 reporters. Now, Foreign Correspondent investigates.
Beware, Greeks bearing debts! Olympus-sized debts that would give Hercules a double-hernia and that threaten to swamp the nation like some modern day Atlantis. Sink or survive there’s plenty of pain ahead in the land of fakelaki. What?
In fashion conscious France it’s much more than a simple case of what not to wear. It’s a case of what should be illegal to wear. The push is on to outlaw cover-all Islamic dress in public places.
Before Haiti there was Aceh - a catastrophic natural event claiming tens of thousands of lives, destroying towns and villages and drawing enormous global sympathy and billions in aid. What is life like now for those traumatised survivors in this historically divided place?
Is the Chinese economy a bubble that’s about to burst, taking Australia down with it? Stephen McDonell looks for answers all over this vast country ... from young Beijing rock stars to the owners of the tallest building in China, and the lonely residents of a brand new ghost town in Inner Mongolia.
Few in the world had heard of it and very few could get close to pronouncing its rolling, rambling tongue-twister of a name. And yet - suddenly and spectacularly – a volcano called Eyjafjallajokull impacted millions of lives and blew away billions of dollars. But did the greatest aviation grounding since WW2 really have to happen?
Not so long ago it was thought worry and stress triggered the chronic pain of stomach ulcers. So how would yesterday’s doctors have reacted to scores of peaceful, meditating Tibetan monks rolling up to the surgery complaining of crippling pain. Thankfully, new medical science has sorted it all out. Oh and a dedicated team of Australian helpers.
They say they wanted to blow the lid on Japan’s super-sensitive whaling program. They were sure they’d found the red-hot evidence. But when they took their find to the authorities they were arrested and charged with crimes that could put them away for 10 years. What was in the box?
It’s perched on a perilous fault-line but California can’t blame the San Andreas for this big black bottomless pit. It’s a frightening financial hole engulfing the most populous state in the USA and there seems no way to fill it. Time to think outside the square. Or, just out of it.
So, you’re in a highly sensitive job working on a top secret project but something’s not right. In fact you think it’s very, very wrong. Go public and you risk your job, perhaps jail – maybe even your life. Stay silent and many other lives may be endangered or life-savings imperilled and malignant corruption festers. What do you do? Hurry – time is ticking!
Suddenly, explosively, the world began to bleed and a devastating stain began to spread. Why did it happen and where will it end? This is the story of cheap mistakes and an almighty mess told by the men who escaped with their lives and people of the gulf coast who’ve lost their livelihoods.
Both legs blown away by a mine, he sat on a chair outside his family's house and watched the world go by. This was his hopeless lot for five long, bleak years until a life-altering chain of events. He now walks tall, is second-in-charge of the clinic that helped him and feels like he is standing on the sky. Out of strife, a story to ignite the human spirit.
He’s a Hummer-driving bachelor with a soft-spot for saccharine R&B love songs, living the high life in Tokyo. And yet there he was on the World Cup centre-stage bawling his eyes out for his beloved North Korea and its so-called Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il. Where on earth does Jong Tae Se come from? Well, prepare to enter the detached and – for some – deluded world of the Zainichi.
Prepare to enter the real Washington DC and prepare to have your illusions shattered. It’s where the powerless live. Neglected, poor, black and waiting impatiently for Obama’s promise. But they’ve got one thing that raises the roof, shakes the foundations and makes them forget about being forgotten. It’s called Go Go.
The world’s car manufacturers are shifting gear and heading for greener pastures. They're designing, building and selling more and more hybrids and electric vehicles and that means they need more and more of a very precious metal for their batteries. But where's The Big Celldorado? A remote, beautiful and vast salt pan high in the Bolivian Andes. Problems? You bet!
Who does Frank Bainimarama think he is? Well, the Fijian ruler will tell you he's the difference between order and political mayhem. Don't get him wrong - he's all for democracy as long as it fits his military's model. And don't call him a dictator! He's simply a well intentioned leader who's abolished the constitution, rules by decree and decides what news is fit to publish. The strongman's opened his doors to Foreign Correspondent and we're walking in.
They’re the daughters of the rubble, the sons of the dust. They’re the little children who somehow survived the devastating cataclysm that shattered and crushed one of the world’s poorest countries – Haiti. Some were already orphans, many more would be made so by the earthquake. The epic quake brought an unimaginable toll and while the outside world tried to help, what could possibly be done for the smallest and most vulnerable?
Is it possible to defuse a terrorist? Can a violent extremist be disarmed, mellowed and transformed into an upright citizen who values human life and religious diversity? These are some of the profound and perplexing questions confronting authorities in Indonesia as they face rampant recidivism among terrorists. Jihadis do their time only to head out of their prison cell and back into a terrorist cell.
It’s a place that sends a shiver down a nation’s spine, chills its soul and has a people in absolutely no doubt that history does repeat and that lightning indeed strikes twice, in one place. A place called Katyn. It was in this starkly striking forest that 22,000 of Poland’s leading lights were brutally snuffed out. Close by, 70 years later a plane carrying Poland’s contemporary leadership slammed into the ground. Old suspicions, entrenched animosity and of course conspiracy theories rise up in the smoke.
They’ve fooled their families and friends, duped hard-bitten veteran soldiers and somehow managed to grow and prosper under the radar of America’s sophisticated military machine. They are the legion of liars and cheats who have fabricated service in the frontlines of war – particularly Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s a despicable phenomenon called Stolen Valour. It’s boomed since 9/11 and it’s infuriating those who really have put their lives on the line and appalling those who’ve lost loved ones in battle.
Golf instructor. Sailing adventurer. Eagles fan. War Criminal? In Australia he went by the name of Daniel Snedden. In Serbia he’s known simply as Captain Dragan and he’s feted as a war hero. In neighbouring Croatia he’s despised and accused of heinous crimes. As Dragan Vasiljkovic fights his extradition from Australia down to the wire, Foreign Correspondent examines the case for and against, through the accounts of his accusers and the vehement denials of his supporters.
They can almost hear the crackle and boom of economic development to the north and south and now little Laos wants a piece of the action. The ramshackle communist backwater doesn’t have much – but it does have a good stretch of the mighty Mekong River and so Laos is planning to build dozens of dams and sell hydro-electricity to a hungry neighbourhood. Can the river they call Mother cope?
He was a Lost Boy with an incredible story, if only someone could help him tell it to the world. And then as Sudan survivor Valentino Deng found himself in a new and very foreign land he also happened to find acclaimed author Dave Eggers. The result was a searing and moving book that became a publishing sensation and catapulted Deng into the celebrity spotlight. But after ‘What Is The What’, what happened next?
This time America’s hunters aren’t prepared to be very, very quiet. There’s an ornery critter roaming the wilds of the west that they say is devouring native animals and farm stock and they warn it’s only a matter of time before a human is attacked and killed. So they’re cussin’ and hollerin’ for the right to hunt down the predator but conservationists and the law won’t let ‘em. For now, the big wild wolf is protected. So, will they take the law into their own hands?
These are just a small grab-bag of scenes from a nation stunning the world with the scale and speed of its economic development and trying very hard to keep a lid on the grubby consequences. They’re scenes China’s authorities are not keen for you to see.
We go on the trail of Australians training for terrorism in the lawless backblocks of a failing nation, Yemen. And the man calling them there is American, angry and bent on jihad.
At 33, Salma et Tarzi has never known any other leader. Hosni Mubarak has ruled Egypt with such ruthless authority many call him The Last Pharaoh and very few dared to do anything other than quietly comply with his administration. Criticism, dissent even whispered disagreement would risk attracting the attention of Mubarak's henchmen, summary imprisonment, torture, even death. In this portrait of a revolution and one extraordinary participant, reporter Mark Corcoran follows Salma's personal journey and her stoic, excited, expectant and at times fearful resistance.
You can see them every day at Dublin's International Airport. Couples locked in teary embraces, damp-eyed mums and dads farewelling sons and daughters. Friends promising to stay in touch. 1000 people are leaving each week, heading to the four corners of the world in search of work and a better life. Many, like electrician Alan Niland and chef Sean Sherry are going to Australia.
In China they’re setting blistering speed records. From the go-fast, rich kids quickly amassing stables of super-cars to the developers building sky-scraping hotels – start to finish – in just 14 days. One local rich list estimates China has almost a million millionaires, 600 billionaires and the numbers keep growing at a staggering rate. Private jets are flying out of showroom hangers at mach 1. The economic transformation of China has been electrifying, but with Europe teetering and the U.S. plodding can the biggest tiger of all keep on roaring? The super-rich you’ll meet in our 2012 return certainly think so.
If Europe’s going down the gurgler why are the good burghers of Bavaria singing, dancing, and toasting their good fortune?
Even in war-weary Afghanistan, shocking images of a brutalised teenager only increased another young woman's determination to bring about change.
As the US tries to lessen its dependence on foreign oil, it’s turning instead to this controversial home-grown energy source.
If life’s two certainties are death and taxes then who blinks first in a face-off between God and The Taxman?
Bird flu is already aggressively lethal so why did researchers engineer a super strain that can be contracted far more easily?
Relaxing of restrictions to foreign journalists has allowed far easier access to people and places in this beautiful country.
With a steady growth in tourism, many Balinese locals are increasingly angry about the environmental and cultural impact.
If your children had been snatched by your partner and taken overseas you’d hope the law would be on your side and the authorities would do everything in their power to retrieve them. Well, not if they’ve been taken to one particular country with an infamous reputation for protecting kidnappers. Japan has become a refuge for nationals who’ve swiped their children from homes around the world and the catalogue of heartbreak is enormous. Unless, as one parent in our investigation has done, you side-step the law, hire some burly help and stop at nothing to get your children back.
50 years after the movie The Great Escape was released, based on a true WWII story, journalist Louise Williams uncovers a few flaws.
Miss Tibet - complete with bikinis & evening gowns. Is it all about liberation & empowerment or a cynical exercise in exploitation?
In all the excitement generated by the London Olympics, Philip Williams finds there are some who are less than enthusiastic.
Foreign Correspondent celebrates 20 years of international television reporting as reporters reflect on their most memorable moments.
Once a rich country's problem, obesity has now taken hold in poor and emerging countries where many have little idea of the danger.
In North & South Korea, a spectacular collision of real & virtual worlds - and the consequences are potentially earth shattering.
For 43 years this Vietnam veteran carried trauma, guilt – and a box of battlefield mementos. Now it's time to let them all go.
Together their future was very uncertain. Separated, they had better chance of a normal life... but there's always a risk.
With a new idea and a lot of luck, it's possible to earn millions in a very short time.
Both World Champions, these brothers are about to fight one of the biggest bouts of their careers - in the political arena.
As swarms of private and government drones gather in the skies, what's the risk to our personal security and privacy?
Israel has been running two very different operations aimed at stopping Iran developing nuclear weapons. One is very public, the other undercover. As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presses Israel’s allies to intensify action against Iran and even threatens his own armed strike if Iran crosses a red line of nuclear development, Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad is taking a more personal approach. It’s been training its sights on the brains within Iran’s atomic program.
The Land of the Long White Cloud is now the Land of the Long Loud Scream. In a spectacularly successful marketing makeover, New Zealand has transformed itself into a magnet for thrill-seekers from all around the world, turning adrenalin into a billion dollar rush. If you want to throw yourself off things or out of things or into things that in turn roll, slide or fall from breathtaking heights – all in a setting of spectacular scenery - then this is the destination. But when things go wrong is New Zealand really the place to be?
The young Tallahassee tailgaters party in the football arena carpark, slugging rocket fuel from jars and chanting in unison: ‘No Obama! No Obama!’ Across town, the party faithful watching the Democrat National Convention are just as exuberant and emphatic. ‘What’s the biggest misconception about Barack Obama?’ one is asked. ‘Misconception? I can’t think of a single negative thing about him!’ One patch of Florida; two polarised views. Welcome to the swingingest election hotspot in America with the biggest bounty of all-important electoral votes among the swing states. If you want the White House you really should be trying to get Florida in the bag.
We’ve seen and heard a great deal about the economic apocalypse thumping Greece. Violent protests, enormous pain, staggering job losses, lives destroyed. But that’s not the complete picture. Meet the Greeks turning national disaster into personal triumph. They’re not sitting around under the thunderheads of austerity waiting for the economy to turn and the sun to shine again. They’re taking matters into their own hands.
It once commanded an empire that occupied an enormous swathe of the world, now the world wants a big slice of Mongolia. It’s boomtime in this isolated and undeveloped nation as global miners are racing to stake their claims on vast riches that rival, perhaps even eclipse Australia’s resources bounty. So, if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em and local mining giant Rio Tinto and developer Leighton are right in the thick of the action. But profound questions are being raised about the impact on environment, the proud traditions of nomadic herders and the ability of a small, unsophisticated government to deal with slick, lawyered-up multinationals.
One day you’ve got a roof over your head and you’re doing your best to feed, raise and protect your family with very little at all. The next day you’re huddled in the pouring rain wondering what happened to the shack you called a home. That’s the parlous, unpredictable reality for thousands of Cambodia’s poor, forcibly evicted from their houses in the name of progress. The country’s march to modernity is coming at a profound human cost as aggressive developers, corrupt officials and bulldozers roll over the top of some of Asia’s most vulnerable people. But a brave group of women are taking a resolute stand.
Imagine a world without wild elephants. For some in the frontline of animal preservation it’s not a difficult image to conjure. In Africa, one veteran wildlife campaigner believes it could be a reality within the next 20 years. The reason? A rampant, illegal trade feeding China’s voracious appetite for ivory. The Asian giant’s burgeoning middle class can’t get enough of the stuff so Africa’s elephants are being hunted and slaughtered like never before. Foreign Correspondent goes undercover to expose this shameful, devastating trade.
It’s a fiercely protected state secret in Israel. No-one dares speculate openly about the identity of an infamous mystery prisoner or even enquire about what he may have done. A blanket suppression order has been issued on The Case of Prisoner X, even after his equally mysterious death in custody. Who was he and what could he have possibly done to be jailed in a super-secure, stand-alone cell in a prison where his guards didn’t even know his name? And what is it about the case that warrants a dramatic, all-points ban on coverage, even hinting that the ban itself didn't even exist. Now, some key answers as a Foreign Correspondent investigation follows a trail from Israel all the way to suburban Australia.
Italy is famous for its style and world class art, music, food and fashion. So how come the country that brings us Ferraris and Ferragamo hits a sour note when it comes to political and economic leadership? Emma Alberici investigates the paradox of the modern Italian state – a country where one in five workers is still employed in the manufacturing sector yet has a crippling two trillion dollar debt.
When 20 children died in a hail of gunfire in Sandy Hook, Connecticut there was an outpouring of global grief, a sense of national shame and very quickly a growing mood that this was an atrocity that would dramatically change minds and perhaps America’s gun-toting ways. Just a few months on those hopes and the political will to reform gun-laws are receding fast. One big reason - three big letters: The NRA. When deadly mass shootings happen, Americans don’t put down their guns, they race to the store to buy more, such is the success of the National Rifle Association’s spin, rhetoric and influence. How do they do it?
Even in a place where women and girls are, so often, treated appallingly it was beyond belief. The case of Jyoti and the bus trip home that became a hell-ride of unspeakable sexual violence and inhuman brutality. It stopped India dead in its tracks. Protests rose up screaming ‘enough is enough’, while the outside world was shocked by the scale of India’s endemic, rampant sex crime. Will the plight of one woman change a nation’s shameful ways? The case of Jyoti may just be a turning point for all.
Imagine a mighty, pristine river system. Then put a lid on it and imagine it underground, coursing through yawning, cathedral-sized limestone caverns, pressing gently past prehistoric bones and sustaining an abundance of unique wildlife as it pushes inexorably to the sea and a vital role flushing mangroves and succouring reefs. Seems like a great foundation for one of the world’s fastest growing tourist projects right? Wrong, say environmentalists who fear the tearaway development atop the magnificent Yucatan Aquifer in south-east Mexico will spell its demise.
What makes an 11 year old boy start wetting the bed? Try missile attacks on your town, for starters. Ibrahim lives with his family in Aleppo, Syria, where his father has left his job as a laundryman to fight for the rebels who are trying to topple the government of President Bashar Al Assad and his mother struggles to keep her six children safe amid the chaos and psychological trauma. They invited ABC Middle East Correspondent Matt Brown and cameraman Mathew Marsic to spend a week living with them, amid the bombs, death and destruction, for this revealing portrait of a family at war.
Ireland is known as a nation of horse lovers. They like to hunt on them, race on them and punt on them. They generally don’t like to dine on them. So they’ve been horrified by recent revelations that many of the frozen foods sold in their supermarkets as beef also contain substantial amounts of horsemeat.
The US and its allies, including Australia, invaded Iraq ten years ago to end the regime of terror of Saddam Hussein. But did they end up sponsoring the use of some of the same torture methods themselves? In this disturbing investigation by Guardian Films and BBC Arabic, it’s revealed how a retired US colonel played a key role in training and overseeing US-funded special police commandos who ran a network of torture centres in Iraq.
It’s a disintegrating nuclear waste dump in a paradise – nearly 100,000 barrels of low level radioactive material sitting on the edge of the Pacific Ring of Fire – the most earthquake prone region in the world. Many of the barrels are rusted and ruptured. The indigenous Tao people of Orchid Island fear widespread contamination and want to know why and how the promise of a fish cannery and jobs actually turned out to be the delivery of a nuclear dump and a toxic legacy. As they rage against a powerful mainland nuclear power company, many more Taiwanese – shocked by Japan’s Fukushima disaster – are joining in.
It’s come to symbolise the ultimate back of beyond. Timbuktu. But recently the far away place was catapulted front and centre into world focus as Islamic militants laid siege to the place and aimed to take control of the rest of magical, mystical, musical Mali. Islamist control would see a treasure-trove of antiquities and important historical documents obliterated and there's little doubt the music too would die. According to some, it would almost certainly become the Afghanistan of Africa and a new entrenched frontier of Al Qaeda and terrorism. It appears the old colonial power in these parts, France, has managed to wrest Mali back from oblivion, but is it not safe and sound. In one of Foreign Correspondent’s most challenging journeys, we go in search of the spirit and essence of amazing Mali, all the long, long way to Timbuktu.
After a gruelling journey through mesmerising Mali, the Foreign Correspondent team finally reach their destination – the legendary town of Timbuktu. They find a community traumatised by the events of the past year, when they were forced to live under the strict rule of a bunch of gun-toting religious extremists who imposed Sharia law, carried out public floggings, banned music and most forms of public entertainment, and destroyed religious shrines and books.
Imagine how you’d feel waking up one morning to discover that much of the money you’d put in your bank for safe keeping had been withdrawn. And not just by some opportunistic fraudster. A substantial slice of your savings, your company’s accounts, even your pension fund had been compulsorily acquired by the venerable Central Bank. Cypriots don’t need imagination. It’s happened. They call it - with all the black humour they can muster - The Haircut, but it’s less of a trim and more like a scalping. It has grave repercussions for Europe and the rest of the world.
After blowing the lid on the secret identity of Israel’s Prisoner X, Foreign Correspondent can now reveal why Israel went to such extraordinary lengths to keep Melbourne man Ben Zygier and his unexplained offences hidden from public view and scrutiny. In this follow up to the explosive, global scoop Prisoner X – the Australian Connection we unearth answers to some persistent questions. What could Zygier have possibly done that called for such measures and why – even after his death – is Israel still determined to keep his activities under wraps.
In a hidden corner of Asia, where two dramatically different and rapidly changing nations collide, a disturbing trade is taking hold that’s endangering lives around the world, including many in Australia. With money to burn, China’s non-stop party people are turning to drugs in unprecedented numbers turning neighbouring Myanmar into a meth-lab and driving a resuscitation of the bad-old days of big-time trade in the Golden Triangle’s devastating narcotic heroin. Foreign Correspondent returns with this explosive investigation.
The epic size and industrial scale of the new Asian drug supply is staggering. Intercepts of the methamphetamine Ice or the ingredients necessary for its manufacture are toted up in tonnages. But given authorities only manage to uncover a fraction of the trade that begins in Myanmar, pours into China and flows on to places like Australia, then a deadly dangerous drug is in overwhelming flood. Foreign Correspondent concludes its investigation of The Other China Boom, tracing a disturbing trail all the way to Australia’s front door.
It’s the ultimate double-header for sports fans – the World Cup and the Olympic Games. So you’d imagine that for football-crazed, sports-mad Brazilians all their Christmases have come at once as they prepare to host the greatest shows on earth, back-to-back. Actually, many of them are pretty conflicted – thrilled the carnivals are coming but angry that so much money is being burned to stage them, while their cost-of-living skyrockets, hospitals and schools crumble and their transport systems cough and splutter in gridlock.
In a tiny school in a far-flung pocket of India in July this year, 55 children sat down to eat their free, government-provided lunch. Soon many of them would be writhing in agony, some would die within hours, others would perish after failed treatment in hospital. 120 million children across India eat their free lunches every day, but the deaths of 23 has shocked the nation and the world. A special Foreign Correspondent investigation sheds new light on a dreadful incident.
French holiday makers crowd its taupe beaches, frolic in salty shore-breaks and crowd the cafes and hotels in its centuries-old towns and villages. Inland, hunters from all over Europe stalk quarry through some of the richest and most precipitous hunting grounds they’ll ever know. It’s one of the most popular destinations in the Mediterranean. It’s also one of the most deadly. Corsica has the highest murder rate in Europe and lately the assassins have been training their gun-sights on very powerful, very prominent local identities. Why is this holiday haven also a venue for so much bloodshed?
In most places it’s an unremarkable scene. But here - as the bright, attentive eyes of young girls take in the detail of a reading class – it’s powerful, poignant and hopeful. For this is a western extremity of Pakistan where until recently a particularly brutal, local brand of the Taliban enforced their ruthless view of the world, one in which girls are denied a modern education. The army has driven the extremists from the town and villages here but how long will their hold last and how long will the young girls of South Waziristan go to school?
We get up close and personal with the ageing rock stars of Rapa Nui - Easter Island's mysterious stone statues. While scientists race to save the gigantic statues, the locals hope those same statues will save their community.
Their lives intersected in a war zone where the crack combat doctor and the foreign correspondent shared one of the most harrowing days of their lives. Sally Sara tracks down Marc Dauphin - a life saver shattered by PTSD.
Sally Sara met the 'can-do' combat doctor in Kandahar. But when he made it home he struggled with PTSD. So many returned soldiers are ticking time bombs. Sally Sara investigates the impact of PTSD and how to beat it.
Going to school in Taliban-controlled Swat Valley, Pakistan was a dangerous act of defiance and Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head. Incredibly, she survived. Now Malala is a global icon for education.
Would you work for $2.13 an hour? That's the tough new reality for two former professionals you'll meet in this disturbing assessment of America's economic reality.
Around the world there’s a loud, proud fight for equality. And in some places significant battles are being won. The right for same-sex partners to marry under law and recognition that gay couples should enjoy the same financial and social benefits as heterosexual couples. In many places there’s good reason to celebrate advances but not in Russia. There the fight is to stay out of jail, or avoid stinging fines for openly identifying as gay. And draconian anti-gay laws are effectively licensing vigilantism as gangs target the LGBT community. Why the crackdown and will the billion-dollar Sochi Winter Olympics become a global protest point?
Earthquakes. Tsunami. Nuclear Emergency. The chilling set of dominoes that dropped in March 2011 and devastated northern Japan have now largely coalesced into one word - Fukushima. First, the intimidating power of the earth’s natural forces that lifted ships and deposited them inland, that swept and crushed entire towns and communities and that took thousands of lives. Then the intimidating, destructive power of a ruptured, crippled nuclear plant, tainting the sea and land and rendering swathes of heavily populated areas, uninhabitable. For North Asia Correspondent Mark Willacy it’s been a dominant and defining story. Now - as he visits the hot-zone one last time - a new and disturbing development.
In multi-cultural Britain police struggle to deal with honour crime as women from south-Asian and middle-eastern backgrounds are controlled, abused and sometimes murdered by their families. Foreign Correspondent investigates.
It’s a question that should have a straightforward answer. Are critically endangered Sumatran Tigers safer in poacher-infested jungles that are being razed for agriculture and consumed by development or are they safer in the care of an Indonesian zoo? If that zoo is Java’s Surabaya Zoo then it’s a very close call. The zoo was once something of a wildlife wonderland, now it’s more of a house of horrors. And the plight of the resident Sumatran Tigers in particular raises pressing questions about whether or not Indonesia cares deeply enough for its threatened indigenous creatures, inside zoos and in the wild.
The monster waves & wind of Typhoon Haiyan caused destruction & despair on Bantayan Island, but it's a forgotten corner of the typhoon tragedy. Little help has reached them but the islanders are determined to help themselves.
So one day you’re Ukrainian, the next you’re Russian. That’s the extraordinary prospect for the people of Crimea, a neglected pocket of a nation left battered and all but broke by a corrupt President and his political cronies. In the blink of an eye, protesters rose up against a government that reneged on a plan to embrace Europe. The government brutally turned on its own. As pitched battles were fought in the capital Kiev, the Russian-friendly leadership fled their luxury villas and palaces in a mass escape to foreign exile. Ukrainians dusted their hands, thrilled to be rid of politicians who’d robbed their country blind and ushered in a new leadership team. It was all too much for Vladimir Putin who quickly set about orchestrating the most audacious and dangerous manoeuvre since the Cold War. He sent his troops to take Crimea and began to mass tens of thousands more soldiers on Russia’s border with Ukraine. For Putin it’s as it should be. For many Crimean Russians who still remember life in the Soviet fold it’s as it should be. But for many others – ethnic minorities like the Tartars who’d been evicted from Crimea before– it’s here we go again. As the diplomatic frenzy unfolds and threats are issued to freeze Russian assets and the foreign holdings of Russian billionaires, Foreign Correspondent’s Eric Campbell hunkers down in Crimea to watch an epic arm-wrestle play out. America and Europe claim this is a despicable land-grab and a denial of democracy that cannot and will not be tolerated. Putin claims he’s protecting Russia and ethnic Russians in Crimea from the perils of ultra-nationalists and fascists who’ve taken over the reins of government in Kiev.
In Chile the brutal, murderous past under dictator general Augusto Pinochet is never far away. Families of those who perished or simply disappeared under his rule are looking for clues to what happened to their loved ones and they’re yearning for justice. During the Pinochet years more than 3,000 Chileans were politically targeted and killed. Fernando Ortiz was one of them - a university professor and senior member of the Communist Party, snatched from a Santiago street in 1976. His family never saw him again. We now know that Ortiz ended up at a super-secret extermination centre called Simon Bolivar where he was beaten to a pulp, injected with a lethal poison and died. We also now have a clearer picture of the scale of suffering and death inside Simon Bolivar because a witness to much of it has been compelled to go public by Chilean authorities examining myriad cases of murder and disappearance. The testimony of a man known as The Little Waiter, and other supporting accounts have generated a national and global hunt for culprits and their associates. It’s a quest for justice that leads all the way to suburban Sydney. In this special investigation, Foreign Correspondent’s Sally Sara travels to Chile to talk to the families of victims and the investigators and lawyers who are very keen to see a woman named Adriana Rivas returned to Chile to face trial. And, back in Australia, we go in search of Adriana Rivas. The Chilean Government is submitting extradition papers to Australian authorities based on 7 counts of aggravated kidnapping during Rivas’ time at Simon Bolivar. Will she face the courts in Chile or will she stay out of reach in Australia?
On Australia Day 2009, Australian property executive Marcus Lee was thrown into a seething, violent Dubai jail and nearly died. Nine months later he emerged accused of a crime he says he never committed. Despite his confidence of innocence and the wholesale lack of compelling evidence against him it took the better part of five years, trapped in Dubai, to shake the charge and the threat of a much longer prison stretch and get back to Australia. During that time he lost his house, his step-father, his grandmother and couldn’t return for their funerals. During much of that time Marcus and Julie Lee permitted Foreign Correspondent to follow their paralysing plight. Now they’re clear of Dubai and back home, they’re free to tell their story. They were locked in Dubai’s archaic and sclerotic court system – the same system that’s jailed foreigners for overt expressions of affection and rape victims ahead of their assailants. But the Lees were fighting accusations that he was part of a multi-million dollar sting involving a prize waterfront property. In Dubai financial crime is considered among the worst. Even bouncing a cheque equals prison time. Marcus Lee was implicated by authorities in a highly contentious deal involving his boss at Dubai developer Nakheel, Australian Matt Joyce, another Australian businessman named Angus Reed and well known Australian property developer Sunland. Lee, Joyce and Reed were accused of fleecing Sunland of 14 million dollars when it bought a prize chunk of the massive Dubai Waterfront development. While Dubai authorities were tenacious in their pursuit of the three it turns out Sunland was propelling much of the legal action that kept Lee and Joyce pinned down in Dubai for years. Legal action that ultimately failed and that even drew stinging criticism from a senior Australian court. In the end Marcus Lee was collateral damage in a brawl between property developers. Part 1 of this Foreign Correspondent spe
In Launceston, Tasmania, Kate and Paul Torney yearn for another child. The arrival for their son Ptolemy was a dramatic and damaging event that almost killed Kate and certainly ended her natural capacity to bear another child. In suburban Melbourne, Victoria, Kali and Bill Gerakas have endured a devastating procession of failed pregnancies and miscarriages. “We tried IVF for four and a half years - we did something close to 24 cycles. We fell pregnant four times ourselves and lost all four babies. It was the most devastating time in our lives.” KALI GERAKAS Both couples – like hundreds of other Australians – have decided to start or extend their families using a commercial surrogate and for that India has become a hot global destination. There are now an estimated 1500 surrogacy centres across the country. In the space of a decade or so the surrogacy industry has grown to what one industry observer has estimated to be a billion dollar industry. But it’s exploded in a place where regulation has been lagging well behind the boom. So there are pitfalls for aspiring parents and perils for surrogates as well. Many surrogates are from very poor backgrounds, have little or no education and certainly limited or non-existent financial literacy. There are concerns that some are pressed into the industry by their husbands and families as a quick way to make an otherwise unimaginable $7000AU per birth. Supporters of the industry say the money is vaulting them out of poverty and into their own homes, an education and the prospect of a much brighter future. “If you are just a critic who feels a childless person should live a life of misery and stay childless throughout their life, or a poor person is meant to remain poor all throughout their life then you’ll consider this as something wrong, as something immoral. A farm. A baby-making factory..” - Dr NANYA PATEL One of the pioneers of the commercial surrogacy business, Dr Nanya Patel grants
How did an 89-year old grandmother turn a chance encounter into a revolution? In a small country town in Canada in 2004, ex-pat Australian Norma Geggie had a glimmer of an idea – a plan to support grandmothers in South Africa who had lost their children to AIDS and struggled to support their grandchildren. The idea took off, and soon grew to involve thousands of grannies combining efforts to help their bereft counterparts living in poverty in townships across South Africa. An uplifting tale of connection between people living half a world apart.
“Should we close Gitmo? Absolutely. It’s a blight on our history and I say this as a man who helped create it.” So says retired General Michael Lehnert, who 12 years ago was given orders to build cells at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, which the United States has “leased” from Cuba for more than 100 years. General Lehnert supervised the building of Camp X-ray, the steel framed cages, open to all weathers, which it was proclaimed would house “the worst of the worst” - terrorists involved in the aircraft hijackings which had killed 3,000 innocents in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Lehnert says that in the wake of the 9/11 attacks the opening of Guantanamo was understandable, but can now be seen to be a tragic mistake. “I think that Guantanamo stands as a recruiting poster for terrorists,” - General Michael Lehnert One of the reporters watching in February, 2002 as orange clad figures, hand-cuffed and foot-shackled were dragged into their cells, was Washington Correspondent Lisa Millar. Returning to Guantanamo for Foreign Correspondent Millar was able to re-visit Camp X-ray, now abandoned to encroaching jungle, and to tour Camps 5 and 6 where the majority of the prisoners are held. It was an immensely frustrating experience being rushed down claustrophobic corridors, banned from filming the inmates or even talking to them off camera. One prisoner - Shaker Aamer arrived on Valentine’s Day, in February, 2002. He was in terrible shape having endured months of imprisonment and torture in Afghanistan but the camp commander brought joyous news. His son, Faris, had been born in England, joining three older siblings. Shaker Aamer has never been charged with any crime, let alone been put on trial and wants desperately to rejoin his family. Seven years ago he was cleared for transfer out of Guantanamo. But he and 153 others remain locked down - indefinitely - despite President Barack Obama’s promise five years ago to close what has
As Australian, British and U.S forces withdraw the majority of their troops from Afghanistan, they leave behind a country that remains profoundly threatened by the Taliban. 12 years of war has dented this resolute band of jihadists but it hasn’t broken them, nor their determination to turn as much of this nation as possible over to its uncompromising brand of Islam and Sharia. In a war that’s seen no end of horror and brutality, one of the more confronting tactics has been the use of children to deploy and operate mines, IEDs and as human bombs dispatched on suicide missions. In this story from the Channel 4 Dispatches team, child soldiers – many who’ve been abducted or reluctantly conscripted into service for the Taliban tell of being schooled for deadly attack. They are Afghanistan’s Taliban Generation. They’re kids like 10 year-old Neaz. At 8, he was abducted by the Taliban and groomed for a mission against the invading forces. Neaz managed to break away from camp under cover of night and hiked until he came to a police station where he turned himself in. The authorities wasted no time turning the little escapee into a star in their own propaganda war, showing off Neaz and his story of abduction and conscription on Afghan TV. Many little boys are easy targets for the Taliban. Most of the children in orphanages have lost their parents to the war. Neaz's family was murdered when their village was bombarded by the coalition forces in an attempt to kill hiding rebels. Neaz lost everyone. More than half of Afghanistan’s population is under the age of 18. They have known nothing but conflict and bloodshed. The NATO-supported Afghan government is battling to win over this dominant generation. But children indoctrinated by the Taliban and who’ve suffered or lost loved ones due to the US-led campaign will be hard to reach. They’ll carry their hardened hearts into adulthood and well into Afghanistan’s future.
Eric Campbell takes us on a journey to a place few outsiders ever get to experience – the place some say could be the trigger for the world’s next major conflict – the Spratly Islands, smack bang in the middle of the oil-rich South China Sea. In an Australian television exclusive, he catches a series of boats to reach the remote chain of islands and coral reefs that are claimed by no fewer than six countries – China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei. Many of the so called “islets” are simply specks of submerged rock in the middle of nowhere, but have been built up by competing nations over the years in order to bolster their claims of ownership. There are military forces from different countries living on different islands, often within shouting distance of each other. They’re probably the most contested islands in the world. It’s believed the undersea bed in the region is rich in oil and gas, it’s an important shipping lane, and there are vast fishing grounds to be exploited. “We call our island group the submerged Saudi Arabia of the Philippines”, the mayor of one island tells Foreign Correspondent. Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon runs a municipality with just 150 residents – Kalayaan, which means Freedomland in the local language. Posing as fishermen, Campbell and his crew go to Ayungin Shoal, where besieged marines live on a rusting, scuttled ship on the submerged reef. Chinese maritime forces attempt to stop them in a high-speed chase. The crew managed to reach the shallow coral before the vessels could block them. They found a group of hungry marines living on fish they catch on the reef as Chinese ships circle the reef 24 hours a day.
Polio should be history. When it swept the world last century it crippled and killed hundreds of thousands before the world fought back. An immunisation program saw the virus retreat from the developed world - then a concerted campaign in the ‘80’s all but wiped it out in the developing world. So why has Pakistan become a polio hotspot with cases on the rise? And why when vaccinators set out to administer preventative drops to children are they risking their own lives? In the cities and out in the rural reaches of this complicated country, suspicion and hostility against the polio eradication program is being fanned by religious extremists, including the Taliban.
They had front row seats to one of the most shocking, violent and oppressive dramas to unfold in modern China. The Tiananmen Square massacre. They were the men and women stationed at Australia’s embassy in Beijing. Over the space of weeks then days, they saw the very best and the very worst of human behaviour. Now, 25 years on and for the first time, Australia’s eye-witnesses to that dark chapter tell how they hid from gunfire, harboured and helped key targets and focussed wider attention on the outrage by smuggling defining image out and into the global spotlight. A Foreign Correspondent exclusive.
The people who are building and managing it insist it’s a temporary, emergency shelter. The people living in it are turning it into an incredible array of proud neighbourhoods, busy commercial and retail centres, education precincts and, if love blooms and a wedding’s set, then one of the world’s most unlikely function centres as well. It’s called Zaatari. But to call it a camp would be to deny the incredible vibrancy and complexity of this community in the desert. Of course everyone wants to go home to Syria. But as they pray for their war-ravaged nation to settle and become safe again, this extraordinary city in the sand has become their home away from home.
There’s a new gold rush in America’s west, where decades of marijuana prohibition are coming to an end and Wall Street is moving in. Hundreds of cannabis businesses are aiming to make it an industry to rival beer. With predictions sales and profits will grow by 64 per cent in the next year, thousands of new businesses are entering the market. But there is a growing opposition of voices warning that a new Big Tobacco is being created. One of them is Patrick Kennedy, former Congressman and son of Ted, nephew of JFK, a man who has had his own struggle with addictions. But Cannabis Inc. is a slick operation wooing politicians with the prospect of a billion dollar industry they can tax.
International reporting can sometimes be about being in the right place at the wrong time. A time when a fascinating foreign location can be a very dangerous place - life and death can be determined by centimetres and freedom can be snatched arbitrarily. Peter Greste knows this all too well. In Somalia, a colleague standing right beside Greste was shot and killed. Later in Egypt, Greste and two colleagues from news operation Al Jazeera found themselves targeted by forces trying to reassert their authority in the restless nation. They had declared one side of the story in Egypt not just just out of bounds but a crime and despite an absence of evidence, accused the Al Jazeera trio of spreading false news and helping terrorists. With access to family and key players in the saga, this is a special Foreign Correspondent report.
What happens when a vacuum-sealed, strictly-controlled nation loosens up, opens its doors and ushers in aggressive international businesses, hungry global developers and hoards of curious tourists? Can Myanmar’s sensitive culture, fragile & beautiful heritage and infant democracy cope with this strange, invasive and transformative surge? It’s too early to tell. But it turns out some enterprising locals aren’t just standing by waiting for change. They’re taking their opportunities now and they include a power-pop princess with world charts in her sights and a former US based Google exec who’s returned home to build a business. Myanmar’s even letting in nosey reporters so we sent our own Sally Sara to witness this historic collision of past, present and future.
Hopeful, excited prospective parents, happy, helpful surrogates and a baby brokerage offering an affordable plan. What could go wrong? In Cancun, Mexico and Los Angeles, California Foreign Correspondent blows the lid on an unscrupulous operator preying on the dreams and life savings of clients, abandoning surrogates and failing to deliver despite claiming hundreds of happy customers. North America Correspondent Jane Cowan has this latest chapter of our investigation into the booming international surrogacy business.
The locals call them ‘bombies’ – small bombs only about the size of a tennis ball. But, these tiny munitions have left a deadly legacy in Laos. The United States dropped a staggering 260-million bombies on Laos during the Vietnam War - the equivalent of a bombing mission every eight minutes for nine years. Many didn’t explode on impact, leaving Laos contaminated with millions of unexploded ordnance. Forty years after the end of the war, the ‘bombies’ are still taking lives and limbs – many of the victims are children. Now, a brave band of women is going where others fear to tread, to find and destroy the explosives that litter their precious land.
Syria’s civil war has become a magnet for jihadis from all over the world. And while nations like Australia wrestle with the threat of those dangerously radicalised warriors returning home, Foreign Correspondent presents an extraordinarily intimate and confronting journey as a violent, criminal king-pin leaves his drug-running turf behind to head to Syria’s frontlines to fight a war he doesn’t really comprehend. This is a searing insight into the many different motivations inspiring foot-soldiers to Syria’s conflict and beyond, into the fold of the super-violent radicals of ISIS, wreaking terror in Iraq. Michael Brissenden narrates a Guardian Films production.
In Glasgow, the Commonwealth Games may be the biggest show in town right now but Scots have a much bigger play underway that will define their economic and political future. Very soon they’ll be asked if they want to say goodbye to England and go it alone. The independence movement is gathering support but will it be enough to carry Scotland out of the United Kingdom? And does Scotland have the wherewithall to survive let alone prosper on its own? Europe correspondent, Scottish-born Barbara Miller heads home to test the water.
On a remote but vitally important frontier, a ground-breaking experiment is underway aimed at erasing the gender divide in the armed forces, eliminating intimidation and abuse and encouraging more and more women into service. On Norway's border with Russia - more tense now NATO and Russia are sharply at odds over Ukraine – men and women are training together, patrolling together and sleeping together in a counter-intuitive effort to build a unisex force in which women are just as likely to command men in the barracks and on the battleground. Many nations are taking a close interest in this radical program, including Australia.
As doctors and healthcare workers continue the challenge of treating preventable diseases in East Timor, Foreign Correspondent reporter Sophie McNeill spends time in Dili's Bairo Pite Clinic, with an inspiring medical team providing free health care services to thousands. Diseases such as leprosy, tuberculosis, heart failure, severe malnutrition, and infant diarrhoea are common and widespread - and over 50% of children under the age of five are said to be underweight and stunted for their age. Meanwhile, deaths in childbirth are among the highest in the whole of Asia. Meet team leader Dr. Dan, who came from the U.S, set up the clinic, and decided to stay.
Ever since it surrendered to the allies at the conclusion of WW2 Japan's military effort has been homebound. The Japanese Self Defence Force has been precisely that - remaining vigilant to outside threats but constitutionally restrained from striking the first blow. Now, with an assertive China throwing its weight around in North Asia, there's a developing inclination among Japan's leadership to take its tactical lead from another playbook: that the best form of defence is attack. Many in Japan - young and old - worry that's leading their nation down a path to war.
The deadly disease, Ebola, has swept across West Africa and is now threatening communities on the east coast as well. It’s the deadliest outbreak in history and doctors have no drugs or vaccines to stop it. This special Foreign Correspondent report, from ground zero of the ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, shows a country with some of the worst rates of infections and deaths. Our team, which was the last camera crew into the hardest hit areas before a Government lockdown was introduced, has been at the frontline for one of the worst weeks in the Ebola crisis. The story reveals how health workers, some of whom are Australians, are battling the outbreak, which includes finding homes for newly orphaned children whose whole families have died from the disease.
The world is eating a once mighty, abundant wild fish into oblivion. And with million dollar price tags on exemplary specimens it’s no wonder international fishing fleets are scouring the Pacific in search of Bluefin tuna and their relatives the Yellowfin and Bigeye. Many of those vessels will fish where they’re not supposed to and take catches they’re not entitled to. That’s made the tiny island nation of Palau hopping mad. But what can it do about one of the world’s more pressing environmental and sustainability questions? Can one of the world’s littlest countries help save the beleaguered tuna of the Pacific?
It's a place out of bounds for many of those who know it as home. Tibet. Seized by the Chinese and now tightly controlled, Tibet is out of reach for Tibetan refugees around the world who are left with distant memories of their homeland. They can only dream of its return to them and their return to it. Australian musician Tenzin Choegyal has the very vaguest recollections of Tibet. He was spirited out by his mother and father as a young boy. But he feels it's defined his spirit and now, he's determined to see it once again. To do that he has to travel though the hitherto hidden kingdom of Upper Mustang, and along a time-honoured trail that's now in competition with what passes for the 21st century up here. A major, transformative road rolling up to the Tibetan border. Will Tenzin fulfil his dream?
Off an isolated country laneway on a remote area of Irish bog, sophisticated forensic technology is being rolled out in an attempt to crack a now notorious cold case. 21st century science is being used to search for the remains of Belfast man Brendan Megraw who went missing 36 years ago without a trace. Accused by the IRA of being an informer, he was murdered, his body hidden, and the story of what happened suppressed for more than 30 years. It's now known he is one of a group of victims referred to as The Disappeared - there were 16 of them all together, and to date only 9 have been recovered. Foreign Correspondent follows the search for Brendan Megraw and the quest for answers. Where are the bodies, and just what happened all those years ago and how has Gerry Adams one of Ireland best known political identities become embroiled in the affair?
Soweto. It was once a byword for oppression, suffering and squalor as South Africa's Apartheid policy sought to segregate and confine blacks to their own precincts. But Soweto has always had an unassailable spirit. It was home to Nelson Mandela before he was despatched to Robben Island prison for 27 years. It was home to the apartheid resistance — a force that ultimately couldn't be denied. Now, in a distinctly different South Africa, Soweto has transformed dramatically. Ritzy shopping malls, flashy cars rolling down the main street - there's money around. A new generation in Soweto enjoys a very different life and thanks to a remarkable woman and an amazing music program, it's possible some very gifted children will become world class musicians.
As Australia lifts its terrorism preparedness to high and despatches planes and personnel to join the fight against Islamic State in Iraq, China is intensifying its crackdown on a resident Muslim community in the remote northwest of the country in what it claims is its own war on terror. The Uighurs have inhabited the sprawling and spectacular Xinjiang province for centuries, but cells of violent separatists have brought a crackdown from Beijing that's making life extremely difficult for the law-abiding majority. Amid claims the Communist Government is trying to erase the Uighur heritage and as authorities impose new barriers to reporting in China, Stephen McDonell heads into Silk Road territory and one of China's most sensitive issues. Which explains the shadowy, ever-growing team sent to follow him.
What can you do when a dysfunctional, often corrupt and malevolent justice system sees you charged with a crime you claim you never committed, denies you adequate legal support then puts you inside a violent, Dickensian prison for the rest of your life? In Kenya, you can either accept your fate or fight. In this remarkable, access-all-areas journey through some of the country's toughest jails, we examine an unorthodox program enabling convicts to school themselves in criminal law and become advocates aiming to set themselves and other inmates free. And don't think they're being set up to fail. They've put together a pretty imposing record, winning 3,500 cases in the past decade.
For two days, an inflatable dinghy packed full of young African men floats in the middle of the Mediterranean, its occupants unsure if they will live or die. Suddenly, the San Giusto — an Italian naval ship - looms into view, plucks the jubilant men from their sagging rubber boat and they join the 140,000 people rescued at sea by Italy, so far this year. When the San Giusto has collected its capacity of human cargo, they're taken to a southern Italian port, subjected to health tests and passed through a processing centre and, for some, on through the gates to town and onto to a new life in Europe. Italy's Operation Mare Nostrum is starkly different to Australia's Operation Sovereign Borders and it has also has its fair share of critics. In an Australian television first, Foreign Correspondent takes you aboard this high-risk, politically controversial exercise conducted, as you'd expect, with plenty of Italian passion and dedication.
For the first time ever Palestine's football team qualified for the Asian Cup, played in Australia. We follow the highs and lows as players are caught up in a brutal war at home and dramas on and off the pitch in Australia.
Imagine trying to find your identity among more than 90-million faces in Vietnam. Sophie English was born at the height of the conflict in Vietnam, and was one of the first war babies to be adopted by an Australian family. She was one of hundreds of children flown out to start new lives in the west. Reporter Sally Sara joins Sophie on an emotional journey in search of family and a sense of belonging.
For many, the golden haired Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is almost a cartoon character. He's made his mark through the "Boris" brand - an unconventional, dishevelled, funny politician, who admits his mistakes and entertains at the same time. This week, reporter Philip Williams spends time with the irrepressible Mayor, as he campaigns for a seat in parliament. But is this just the first step in his lifelong ambition, to become the Prime Minister of the UK?
Every summer its numbers swell as some of the world's top international scientists from more than a dozen countries travel to research bases dotted across King George Island. And whether it's to witness darts being shot at elephant seals or the pinning down of penguins, Foreign Correspondent has been invited to experience a side of Antarctica that is rarely seen and find out what life is really like on this wild frontier.
They're mostly young, educated and middle class - yet more than 60 British women and girls have chosen to move to Syria and live in the so called "Islamic State", under a deeply repressive regime. So, according to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, have a number of Australian women. This BBC investigation reveals how the women marry fighters, and become part of a powerful army of online recruiters, persuading other young girls on social media to join them and about 500 other Western women thought to be living in the self-declared caliphate.
An entrepreneurial culture is flourishing in the grim slums of India. Lives are being changed by an Australian enterprise that provides jobs as well as clean energy to some of the poorest people on the planet. In the slums of Bangalore, South Asia correspondent Stephanie March finds that from little things, big things can grow.
Qatar's triumphant bid for the 2022 World Cup is under fire not just because of the FIFA corruption scandal. Migrant workers now building its multi-billion dollar facilities endure wretched living & working conditions.
A French photo-journalist tells how he survived 10 months as a hostage of Islamic State terrorists while five of his fellow captives were taken away and beheaded. Should ransoms have been paid to save their lives?
Once shackled by mass illiteracy, South Korea now tops global academic league tables. But as North Asia Correspondent Matthew Carney reports, its stressed out students also rank as the unhappiest in the developed world.
About a Boy... Foreign Correspondent goes in search of a baby boy who was born via surrogacy in India but left behind by his Australian parents.
In this unique encounter the world’s most powerful man, US President Barack Obama, interviews the world’s most acclaimed naturalist, Sir David Attenborough, about the world’s most critical environmental issues: climate change, energy and population growth.
With just minutes to spare, mother-of-two Mary Jane Veloso escaped the firing squad that executed Australia's Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. Find out how she was saved and whether she will make it home to her children.
Every night they land in flimsy rubber boats, trudging ashore drenched and exhausted. It’s a short trip across the sea from Turkey to Kos, in easternmost Greece, but for these people the journey began much further away - in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan.
While Australia agonises over whether to let same sex couples marry, conservative Ireland has come out with a resounding "I do". Sally Sara journeys across Ireland to discover why this deeply Catholic country became the first in the world to say yes to gay marriage in a popular vote.
“So our arrest is not a mistake, and as a journalist this IS my battle. I can no longer pretend it’ll go away by keeping quiet and crossing my fingers.” - Peter Greste’s first letter from prison. For the first time, journalist Peter Greste reports his own story: the fabricated terrorism charges, his 400 days in Egyptian jails, and the long hard fight for freedom of speech.
“Welcome home and welcome to paradise” – Juris Greste to his son Peter With the beaming grin of a newly freed man, Peter Greste strode from his plane into the arms of his family. Hugs, kisses, tears… then a flurry of mock punches from his mum and his nephews. Peter Greste’s own story of his joyful homecoming after 400 days in an Egyptian jail – and the tense build-up to the final verdict on terrorism charges.
A diving stock market, a wobbling economy and a new security crackdown: where is China heading? Tapping into voices you’ve never heard, Stephen McDonell reports on the changing face of the superpower.
In Havana, you can feel the change in the air. For the first time in decades, young Cubans aren’t just hoping for a better future. They’re sure it’s coming. With the US poised to lift its 55 year trade embargo, reporter Eric Campbell tells the remarkable story of how one American farming family befriended Fidel Castro and helped end Cuba’s isolation.
Sally Sara meets the grass roots, social media-driven activists who are turning politics on its head in Spain. Now that they've got the power, what will they do with it?
Donald Trump was supposed to crash and burn but he is streaking ahead of his rivals in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Emma Alberici asks why the bombastic billionaire is defying the pundits.
In the foothills of the Himalayas, a brave social experiment is taking place. Eight years ago a former Buddhist monk set up a safe haven for abandoned and troubled children, providing a permanent home where children can receive a good education and learn to live happily and compassionately. But the newest charge, a traumatised little girl called Tashi, is his toughest challenge so far. Will the love and compassion of the community be enough to overcome the suffering in Tashi’s past?
Carpenter Barry Kirby's life turned upside down when he chanced upon a young woman dying on a bush road. The Australian tradie became a doctor with a mission: saving women's lives in the wilds of Papua New Guinea.
It's the war the world forgot. At Europe's side door nearly 8000 people have been killed and 1.5 million have fled their homes. Correspondent Matt Brown reports from devastated eastern Ukraine.
As key climate talks get under way in Paris, Eric Campbell explores potential solutions to global warming – from thermal power in Costa Rican jungles to giant North Sea wind farms and California’s solar start-ups.
Sally Sara takes to the streets of Baltimore and Chicago to investigate a reawakened civil rights movement that’s fighting to stop the killing of black Americans.
In his farewell report for the ABC, correspondent Stephen McDonell looks at the spectacular changes that have swept China during his 10 years there – and the untold sequels to some of the big stories he’s covered.
In an age when everyone has a phone camera and the internet links billions of people anywhere, anytime – has the foreign correspondent become redundant? And does the information blizzard make us better informed?
Does gender equality free women from family violence? Campaigner Rosie Batty & reporter Sally Sara journey to gender equality heartland, Sweden, to find out. What they discover will surprise. #ForeignCorrespondent
They’re back. The crazy loans that triggered the Global Financial Crisis have morphed into “zombie mortgages” and, as Paul Barry discovers, they’re cutting a swathe through some American cities.
A mob sexual assault on young women revellers on New Year’s Eve snapped Germany’s celebrated tolerance of mass migration. What happened? Why was it hushed up? How has it changed the nation?
Liam Cochrane travels to the source of most of Australia's heroin - the vast opium fields of Myanmar, where poppy production has more than doubled in a decade. What will it take to stop the opium trade?
Inside the life of Pino Maniaci, the irrepressible Sicilian journalist who campaigns daily against the Mafia, defying constant threats to his life.
A budding ski industry has sprung up in the remote alps of Afghanistan. But this enterprise – and the local people - face the menace of a resurgent Taliban.
Undercover cameras provide a rare window into one of the world's most secretive countries, revealing how Saudi Arabia ruthlessly crushes internal dissent - and how some people are fighting back.
Thousands of Australians book their holidays on cheap foreign airlines – but how safe are they? Troubling evidence about the safety of some budget carriers.
Hairy hipsters, beautiful girls, funky cafes, pulsing live music - this is modern Iran, where young artists and musicians are testing the tolerance of the Islamic regime. Matt Brown reports.
A giant leap for mankind or a hazardous lurch into the unknown? A tiny Australian venture is racing to rule the skies, as drone companies vie to deliver mail, medicines & pizzas to your door.
Mark Willacy travels to radiation-poisoned Fukushima to uncover startling new evidence about the dangers that still lurk there and the near insurmountable task of cleaning it up.
Anatomy of a military scandal. Why did US forces attack a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital in Afghanistan, killing 42 people? An Aussie doctor is among the survivors who tell their chilling stories.
Quit Europe or stay? It’s the English who hold the whip hand in the coming UK vote - and many want out. So what’s up with the Poms? Lisa Millar explores the essence of “Englishness”.
A puff of rumour grew into a tempest of accusations and led to the jailing of seven people for alleged child abuse at an elite international school in Jakarta. Was justice served or was it a case of moral panic?
As supporters battle to free seven people jailed in a child abuse scandal at an elite Indonesian school, Foreign Correspondent digs into the evidence – and turns up some surprises.
It’s the question posed after Orlando and every other massacre: Will America ever regulate guns? Lisa Millar revisits a mother who lost her little boy to a mass shooter and who – remarkably – sees positive signs of change.
It deposed tyrant Saddam Hussein but led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, lit sectarian conflict and helped the rise of ISIS. Was the Iraq war justified? Thirteen years on, a major British inquiry is set to pass judgment.
How do you free troubled kids from the violence and poverty of South Africa’s broken townships? For starters, you teach them surfing. Sally Sara reports on the idea that’s inspiring youngsters to unleash their best.
Eight or more students shot, universities boycotted, a prime minister fighting for his political life. Eric Tlozek looks behind the unrest afflicting Australia’s nearest neighbour, PNG.
As China’s economy stumbles, Matthew Carney taps into the anger of a growing mass of unemployed workers, and meets a labour activist who’s risking his freedom to fight for their rights.
As the world’s newest nation teeters on the brink of civil war, the young people of South Sudan are pushing back, seeking peace through music and the power of radio.
Hamish Macdonald goes deep inside the Republican Party’s civil war, as insurgents plot to destroy Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
With the Rio Games beset by doping controversy, Sarah Dingle reveals the tragic human cost of one of the biggest drug scandals of them all – East Germany’s state-sponsored doping program.
In a playground of international powers, it’s children who are dying from bombs, bullets and hunger. Sophie McNeill and cameraman Aaron Hollett report from the Yemen war zone.
For the first time ever, white Britons are a minority in London. This film delves into the lives of the dwindling cockney tribe of the East End as they struggle with immigration, “white flight” and loss of identity.
More than 60 million Chinese children are growing up without their parents, paying the price of their country’s dash to prosperity. Matthew Carney reports on the generation left behind.
When award-winning Australian filmmaker Bob Connolly reunites with the characters of his acclaimed PNG Highlands trilogy, he is shocked at how their fortunes have changed.
Wolves and bison roaming Germany... the lynx returning to the U.K. As Barbara Miller reports, endangered animals are being reintroduced to wild places as part of a radical and controversial idea called “re-wilding”.
Oil-rich Norway has adopted the radical goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. But, as Eric Campbell reports, there’s a catch to this green revolution.
Who’ll be next? Fear grips Turkey after a failed coup and a sweeping purge set the country on a dangerous and unpredictable path. Sally Sara investigates.
We got to know him as a showman, a wheeler-dealer and one-time rank outsider who shocked and appalled Washington’s establishment. Now he’s set to lead the free world. So who is President Trump?
Thousands of travellers, many of them young Australians, are flocking to the Amazon to chase the highs of the ayahuasca plant. Tragically, some never return.
It's got more oil than any country on the planet but its people eat garbage and gangsters rule. Defying a media ban, Eric Campbell goes undercover in the onetime socialist idyll of Venezuela.
India’s building boom has spawned a “sand mafia” that is plundering the environment and even killing those who get in its way. But as Samantha Hawley reports, some people refuse to be intimidated.
China is executing a master plan to dominate world football, pumping billions of dollars into buying up foreign players, coaches and entire European clubs, and grooming new generations of its own young stars.
It’s famed as the city of peace and love, but San Francisco is digging in for a fight over President Trump’s order to expel millions of undocumented migrants.
A band of inspired young Australians are deploying a new weapon against a global scourge – the great gobs of plastic polluting our oceans. Europe Correspondent Lisa Millar tells how they’re doing it.
The true story behind the legendary movie The Great Escape – and the overlooked role of Australians in breaking out of the “escape proof” German POW camp.
A spectacular journey into the wilds of Mongolia in search of an ancient, imperilled tradition – the Kazakh golden eagle hunters.
How do we make housing more affordable? What are other countries trying – and what bright ideas might we pinch from them?
To many Australians he was the honeyed voice behind the ABC Radio PM microphone, the agent of reason in a fevered Twittersphere. But Mark Colvin also carved out a singular career as a foreign correspondent roaming the world’s power centres and trouble spots.
For the first time, British investigators tell the inside story of the bizarre murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. In a tale that's stranger than fiction, a teapot is the murder weapon. (Part 1 of 2)
British investigators continue to tell the inside story of the bizarre murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. In a tale that's stranger than fiction, a teapot is the murder weapon. (Part 2 of 2)
Labour is praying for one of history's great comebacks in the UK Election. But something once unthinkable may be happening in tough, working class Wales. Could the Welsh be turning Tory?
Foreign Correspondent exclusive: unprecedented access inside Bali’s notorious Kerobokan jail - a riveting slice of life inside one our region’s notorious prisons.
A new space race is on, as tech companies rush to launch thousands of tiny satellites that will tell us more about what’s happening on our planet than ever before. But will the information be used for good, or for harm?
For 25 years Foreign Correspondent has brought the world home to Australians. Now, in a special one-hour collaboration with The New York Times, we flip the camera to get an outsider’s take on race relations here.
Tiny Estonia is digging in against potential attacks from its giant neighbour Russia. And it's employing defences far more creative than guns and boots on the ground. Eric Campbell reports.
Matt Brown reports on a radical cash experiment that challenges some deep-rooted notions of charity – and may hold the seeds of a revolution in social welfare.
Jamaica’s rich music heritage got hijacked by a vicious and violent brand of homophobia. But along came a new generation of artists who, with a little help from the Internet, are wresting it back.
Terror at a pop concert. Children die. Sirens, grief, fury. How does a city recover? Hamish Macdonald deep dives into Manchester's Muslim community to find hard & revealing conversations going on.
Thousands of people have been caught up in a brutal new ISIS battleground on Australia's doorstep. One of them was ABC correspondent Adam Harvey, who took a bullet to the neck. This is his story, and theirs.
Children as young as 12 must survive alone in the streets and woods of Calais while desperately trying to jump on trucks bound for Britain.
After riot police clear an unofficial refugee camp, a young Kurdish family intent on making it to Britain returns to the woods. With no food or shelter, they have to work out how to get through the night.
Deborah Hyde left her job as an economic analyst in London to help refugees in Paris. When she befriends a young Afghan man who is seeking asylum, she realises the emotional toll the situation is having on her.
Climate change meets nuclear legacy as Mark Willacy examines the aftermath of the US nuclear tests in the Pacific in the 1940s and 50s.
Vladimir Putin crushes opponents, but a growing army of young Russians is fighting back. Their gift to the strongman on his 65th birthday? A show of defiance and a demand to quit.
He fled Saddam Hussein's brutality to become detainee #982 in an Australian refugee camp. Now Munjed al-Muderis is a world-leading surgeon giving amputees a second chance at life. Sophie McNeill tells his inspiring story.
While Australia says 'yes', the country with more gay people than most says an implacable 'no'. But in China, a determined group of young men and women just won't take no for an answer, as Matthew Carney reports.
The old is new. Ditching conventional careers, a generation of hip young Italians is rediscovering the grand tradition of “Made in Italy”. Hamish Macdonald takes an exhilarating road trip to meet them.
A year into Donald Trump's presidency resurgent white supremacists are preaching hate. Now left-wing activists are hitting back with their own shock tactics. Stephanie March goes inside a controversial radical group.
A cruel trade is tearing baby orangutans from their jungle homes to be sold abroad. Samantha Hawley gets a smuggler's story - and meets the warriors risking their lives to save the great apes from extinction.
Is the world going mad when Greenlanders fight drought & brushfires & catch warm water fish? A decade after seeing a farming boom in Greenland, Eric Campbell returns to see how locals face climate change.
This is the inside story of 104-year-old activist David Goodall’s last days in Europe as he farewells family and campaigns for the right to die, up to his final hour.
Australia is detaining, cuffing and deporting more New Zealanders than any other group. Guest reporter Peter FitzSimons finds it’s riling Kiwis and straining relations across The Ditch. Is this how we treat an old mate?
A tropical paradise is racked with bankruptcy then smashed by a killer hurricane. In rides a cavalry of digital evangelists selling hi-tech revolution. Will they save the day? Eric Campbell reports.
Are attacks on white South African farmers aimed at terrorising them off the land? Should Australia offer them special haven, as some MPs here have suggested? Jonathan Holmes investigates.
China sent Australia's recycling industry into a spin when it banned most waste imports. Now it's tackling a home-grown rubbish crisis. Bill Birtles looks at China's own war on waste and asks: is it winning?
There's a new push in Australia to build giant incinerators to burn waste. Is this the way to go? Those clever Swedes think so. Foreign Correspondent sends War on Waste's Craig Reucassel to Sweden to investigate.
Sean Dorney got thrown out of PNG for his reporting yet he received one of its top honours. He skippered its footy team and fell for a local girl. Now suffering motor neurone disease, he makes an emotional final visit.
Berlin was Holocaust headquarters - but for young Israeli Jews it's the paragon of cool. Eric Campbell tracks one of the odder modern migrations as he goes inside Berlin's Jewish diaspora in Homeland.
Is it OK for a man to proposition a woman in the street or at work? Some leading French women say yes. In Paris, guest reporter Annabel Crabb asks what happens when #MeToo rubs up against Pepe Le Pew.
A wild and spectacular stretch of southern Californian coast was threatened by malls and McMansions, until a reclusive billionaire couple arrived with the gift of a lifetime. Zoe Daniel reports.
China is marrying Big Brother to Big Data. Every citizen will be watched and their behaviour scored in the most ambitious and sophisticated system of social control in history. Matthew Carney reports.
It's a Greek tale of tragedy, heroism and mind-blowing incompetence. Eric Campbell tells the story of the world's deadliest bushfire since Australia's Black Saturday in 2009 - and the fury in its aftermath. (Season Final)
In India's far east, wild elephants are in deadly, daily conflict with people. Siobhan Heanue follows the clashes as roaming herds get squeezed by shrinking forests and a growing human population.
What drives Tatyana, 21, heavily pregnant and with two tiny kids in tow, or 13-year-old Daniel, to make an epic trek over thousands of kilometres? Eric Campbell tells the stories of the people behind Donald Trump's wall.
Vanilla hustlers in dusty streets. Vanilla brokers in vanilla-built palaces. Vanilla crops threatening rare lemurs' jungle homes. On a wild ride through Madagascar, Adam Harvey finds there's nothing plain about vanilla.
It's touted as Europe's most beautiful island - but the people of Sardinia are getting sick and dying mysteriously. Fingers are pointing at secret bomb tests and war games by the world's armies, as Emma Alberici reports.
Two young men escape the misery of Manus Island to forge new lives in North America. Reporter Eric Tlozek charts their progress and their pitfalls over 18 months.
This is no armchair spectator sport. ABC Indonesia Correspondent David Lipson ventures into the fanatical, often deadly, arena of Indonesian soccer.
As Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un ready for their late February summit, we take a unique and inspiring journey into rural North Korea where local doctors join with international volunteers to heal the sick.
They sound like science fiction, but radical remedies to slow global warming are on the way. Eric Campbell goes in search of crazy brave ideas to save the world.
A radical experiment in democracy and women's rights is under way in the old badlands of Islamic State. But as Yaara Bou Melhem reports, it could be crushed in an instant.
The "Floating City" is sinking under rising seas and the weight of mass tourism. Now Venice's residents are fighting to reclaim it, as Samantha Hawley reports.
A secretive billionaire family pushes a pill that triggers more deaths than guns or car crashes. From backwoods Appalachia to hi tech San Francisco, Conor Duffy investigates America's opioid scourge.
Democrat or despot? Brazil's new strongman is cracking down on rampant crime - but many fear the "Trump of the Tropics" is turning his country into a police state. Sally Sara reports.
In the season return, Craig Reucassel investigates the future of food, where plant and animal cell-based meat substitutes challenge America's multi-billion-dollar meat industry.
Is Taiwan the next flashpoint? As Hong Kong protesters take to the street to fight the rising power of China, a younger generation of Taiwanese also confront increasingly hardline Chinese attitudes. Bill Birtles reports.
Ukraine is the new 'go-to' destination for couples desperate to be parents. But Samantha Hawley uncovers an industry out of control that exploits surrogate mothers and leaves babies abandoned.
Reporter Eric Campbell was living in Barcelona when the Spanish state cracked down on its 2017 independence vote, clubbing voters and firing rubber bullets. He explores how this cultural capital suddenly became a warzone.
The site of the world's worst nuclear accident Chernobyl is now a tourist destination. Linton Besser visits the exclusion zone to see the devastation of nuclear meltdown, government-sanctioned cover-up and radiation sickness.
The inspirational women of Rwanda who have turned pain into hope. They lived through one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century but the power of love and family saved them.
As Australia grapples with a spate of deaths at music festivals, triple j presenter Tom Tilley heads to Europe to see drug testing in action. But is it the only way to keep people safe?
It's been an open secret for years, Catholic priests fathering children in breach of their vows. After suffering in silence and shame those children are speaking out, demanding answers and recognition from Rome.
They're young, passionate and want to save the planet. We profile three young activists inspired by Swedish teen Greta Thunberg to mobilise the public and demand action on global warming with climate strikes and at the UN.
'What is Danish?' asks comedian Ellie Jokar. Born in Iran, now a Dane, Ellie struggles to understand why her once friendly country has pulled up the welcome mat. Hamish Macdonald explores a nation with an identity crisis.
Foreign Correspondent travels to Europe to investigate the decline of the insect population, threatening entire ecosystems. Reporter Eric Campbell discovers the causes and the steps in place to reverse the decline.
Alaska's indigenous tribes are fiercely proud of their pristine land and traditions, but as Trump pushes to open up its protected wilderness for oil exploration, Zoe Daniel asks could it be under threat?
While Australia ponders opening new coal fields, Germany has reached an agreement between government, mining and energy companies and unions to phase out brown coal by 2038 in return for a $60 billion injection of funds.
The 'hidden kingdom' of Saudi Arabia has been mostly closed to journalists and travellers ... until now. In a glitzy PR push, the country wants to promote itself as a tourist destination. But will the notoriously repressive regime deliver on its promise of reform?
Reporter Sally Sara travels to Nepal to uncover an ugly truth: many children living in the more than 500 orphanages across the country are not orphans but victims of traffickers, who prey on poor families in remote areas.
An idealistic young woman who believed in a better future for her war-torn country, Hevrin Khalaf was brutally murdered just days after Turkey's invasion of north-east Syria. Who killed her and why? Yalda Hakim investigates.
Sex, drugs and people smuggling. Emma Alberici braves a no-man's land near Naples to report on a ruthless new criminal group moving in on the Italian mafia. Will the Nigerian mafia be as hard to root out as the local mob?
Europe's Coronavirus epicentre and a system at breaking point. Italy in lockdown with cases of infection rising by up to a thousand daily, hospitals are swamped and patients young and old are dying. Emma Alberici reports.
While the world shuts down, Singapore has been open for business. Learning from the SARS outbreak Singapore acted on its pandemic plan even before the new virus arrived. Eric Campbell explores the secrets to its success.
Take an epic journey across Antarctica with a crack team of scientists on a mission to unlock earth's secret history. They plan to drill hundreds of metres deep to find atoms in a bid to illuminate our climate future.
After years of war the US government and the Taliban are making a 'peace deal'. But what does the Taliban's return to power mean for Afghan women? Will migrant Afghani workers returning home from Iran spread COVID-19?
With around 10,000 deaths estimated to have been caused by COVID-19, New York has become the epicentre of the US fight against the coronavirus outbreak. Foreign Correspondent's reporter Karishma Vyas, a New York resident, goes behind the lines of the city's battle to slow infections, save lives, protect its vulnerable and bury the dead.
A deeply divided nation in the throes of a culture war. The Polish government and Catholic Church are forming a holy alliance to denounce Western-style liberalism. Now feminists, gay people and liberals are fighting back.
Lebanon's young and old, rich and poor, Muslim, Christian and Druze have united to try and overthrow corrupt and incompetent leaders. They face hyperinflation, currency collapse, high unemployment, power cuts and COVID-19.
A secret war on Australia's doorstep. Sally Sara reports from inside the escalating conflict in Indonesian-ruled West Papua. There have been protests, fighting, a security crackdown, hundreds dead and thousands displaced.
India has enforced the world's biggest lockdown. When the government ordered people to stay home, millions of migrant workers left the city for their villages so they wouldn't starve. Is the cure worse than the disease?
The coronavirus pandemic has hit Britain hard. More people have died than in any other European country. Carry On Covid takes a snapshot of England through the lockdown, canvassing pub owners, school principals, carers, students and experts about their fears and hopes for life after corona.
She's a young doctor. He's the Russian President. He insists he's got the virus under control. She says he's lying. We follow the medic who's learned to fight without fear and the leader who's afraid of losing control.
The laid back, self-proclaimed 'rainbow people' of Trinidad and Tobago are dealing with an increase in illegal migration, gang crime and piracy on-sea. Andy Park visits during peak party season, the festival of Carnival.
What began as a hashtag seven years ago has transformed into a global movement for justice for black people. Sally Sara reports on #BlackLivesMatter, the force galvanising rage and grief sparked by George Floyd's death.
Being a single man in China is tough. Young men face pressure to provide a family heir but finding a bride isn't easy. With 30 million more males than females, many bachelors are taking desperate measures to get hitched.
Sweden is doing COVID differently. Its high-risk strategy allows cafes, schools and gyms to stay open, trusting citizens to do the right thing. But with over 5000 dead, many are asking - is the Swedish model working?
Born in Timor, raised in Indonesia, a group of East Timorese stolen during wartime is now returning home. But will reunion with long lost family heal old wounds? This is a moving story about the power of blood and memory.
Foreign Correspondent investigates North Korea's secret fishing fleets, exposing smuggling operations which make millions for leader Kim Jong Un. As they illegally fish further out to sea are they breaking UN Sanctions?
Falun Gong has morphed from fringe quasi-religious group into a powerful player in America's conservative media landscape. Using social media they try to get Trump re-elected so he can continue his war of words with China.
US Bureau Chief David Lipson travels through the northeast swing states to speak with voters about the coming presidential election. Will this fractured country survive the ultimate democratic stress test?
Meet the formidable women in Georgia who fought for democracy and won. They faced generations of racism and voter suppression, inspiring record black voter turnout. Now their sights are set on the American South.
Once a city of protest, now a city of fear. Bill Birtles chronicles freedom's final days as Hong Kong activists face a stark choice: should they stay and fight for democracy, risking jail or flee and campaign from abroad?
He's been poisoned, almost blinded, arrested and jailed, but Alexei Navalny isn't cowed. He wants to force out President Putin, and he's risking his life to do it.
The women are rising. With their men jailed, Belarusian women have stepped on to the frontlines of the revolution. Inspired by a fearless great-grandmother, they won't give up till they've toppled their President.
As Japan commemorates the 10th anniversary of the tsunami, Mark Willacy travels along the north-eastern coast to meet the fishermen and communities affected by a $17 billion project.
Bali's natural beauty and rich culture have made it a top holiday destination, but since COVID hit, the island is struggling. Locals are now questioning their dependence on tourism and the over-development it has unleashed.
New Zealand's clean, green image hides a dirty truth. Polluted by intensive dairy farming, its waterways are some of the most degraded in the world. Will the Ardern government clean it up or will the Maori take control?
Australian reporter Lily Mayers moved to Spain, the country of her ancestors, in the midst of the COVID pandemic as the country endures its worst upheaval since the civil war. Filmed over six months, Into the Outbreak paints an intimate portrait of a people struggling to survive through a once-in-a-lifetime crisis.
In a world TV exclusive, Sarah Ferguson reports on the fallout of a brutal US immigration policy that tore families apart. She tracks the journey of one mother seeking to reunite with her children after four painful years alone.
For millennia, its waters healed the faithful. Today they’re the source of conflict and tension. Eric Tlozek takes us on a spectacular journey through an ancient land to unravel the mysteries of the disappearing Dead Sea.
It’s called ‘the British betrayal’. Great Britain promised Brexit wouldn’t lead to the creation of a new border between the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. It broke that promise. Now the province’s Loyalists – those welded to the union with Great Britain – are feeling abandoned.
A new generation of "deepfake" videos has got Hollywood excited ... and Washington worried. They’ve got the potential to change reality as we know it. Reporter Hamish Macdonald does a deep dive into an emerging technology with explosive potential.
As China celebrates the Communist Party's centenary, relations between the world's two superpowers are in dire straits. With special access inside China, we explore the deeper forces pushing US-Sino relations to the brink.
A way of life that endured for centuries is now under threat. A land-locked country is warming three times faster than the global average. It could be the end of the road for the nomads of Mongolia unless the younger generation save them.
Tens of thousands are missing, many more murdered. So why are Mexico's violent drug cartels operating with impunity? We go inside the most powerful cartel to meet the footsoldiers. Corruption, they say, goes right to the top.
A military coup. A young democracy shattered. Six months later, Myanmar’s Gen Z is resisting, boycotting the military and its businesses. Many are in hiding, some are picking up guns. Is the country on the brink of civil war?
The right to an abortion in the US is on the brink. Guaranteed by the Supreme Court 50 years ago, that right has been wound back by the states. With the Court about to reconsider the issue, many states could ban it overnight.
The dark side of the world’s fashion addiction. Many of our old clothes, donated to charities, end up in rotting textile mountains in West Africa. This is a story about how our waste is creating an environmental disaster.
The Taliban is back. Even before foreign forces have withdrawn from Afghanistan, the hardline Islamic force has seized control of the country. In the lead up to the takeover Yalda Hakim asks its leaders how they will rule.
Since the start of the pandemic, 21 delivery workers in South Korea have died. Unions blame overwork. As demand for home deliveries explodes, the pressure on sorters and drivers is relentless. Now they’re fighting back.
From Europe to the US, coal is under fire. Environmentalists are circling, mines closing. As coal declines, how will communities fare? We go to the US and Spain to see how different regions are managing the dying days of coal.
Europe’s museums are stashed full of Africa’s cultural heritage, much taken in colonial times. Some was looted, some traded. The museums say they’re the rightful owners but others say the objects belong in Africa.
One Spanish yacht. A quarter of a million square kilometres of sea. Boatloads of desperate men, women and children fleeing for their lives. Can a Barcelona crew help the thousands on this risky journey and steer them to safety?
Three young people. Three stories of living differently in China. This generation is richer than their parents but they’re facing strong pressure to achieve and conform. They’re finding their own ways to rebel in search of identity.
In the era of New Space, billionaire Elon Musk is blazing the trail. He's building a gigantic starship to fly humans further than ever before. Sarah Ferguson reports on a man with an extraordinary mission: Destination Mars.
Reporter Yalda Hakim returns to Afghanistan for the first time since the Taliban took power. She finds a war-ravaged country on the brink of starvation and economic collapse, and a new terror threat on the rise.
Around the world more and more people are opting for the single life but in Japan, loneliness has become an epidemic. Correspondent Jake Sturmer has reported from the ABC's Tokyo bureau for four years and nothing has confounded him more than this social crisis.
The brutal cost of our green energy future. In the Democratic Republic of Congo we expose the shocking truth about the mining of cobalt, a metal essential to making the batteries in electric cars, laptops and mobile phones.
The world is watching on in shock as Putin's army invades Ukraine. Two countries with a shared history spanning centuries are fighting in the streets of Ukrainian cities. We explore both sides of this dangerous conflict.
Before Ukraine, there was Syria. Now in its 11th year, this ongoing conflict is Russia's forgotten war. Syrian journalist Yaman Khatib, who fled in 2016, returns to his homeland to see how people who stayed are faring.
Once the owners of vast tracts of forest and mountains, Chile's largest indigenous group the Mapuche are fighting to take back what was lost. Eric Campbell is in central Chile where a rebellion is met with military force.
In Mexico, 10 women are murdered every day. In this compelling true crime episode, Sarah Ferguson goes on the road with Mexico City's femicide detectives, following them as they visit crimes scenes, gather evidence and solve cases.
In this month's presidential race France is swinging to the right. Candidates on the far-right are polling around 30%. The left is divided, xenophobia rife. Has the nation that champions equality and fraternity lost its way?
A rare glimpse inside Israel's ultra-Orthodox communities. Traditionally, men study the Torah while women work and look after the children. Now, some in this rule-bound world are pushing the boundaries of what's acceptable.
For years a ruthless mafia ruled Calabria through intimidation and violence. Now a magistrate is taking them on, charging hundreds in one of the biggest trials in decades. Can the Italian state beat its most powerful mafia?
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February, about 30,000 Russians have fled to Georgia. Reporter Eric Campbell travels to the former Soviet republic to meet the brave people opposing Putin and his war.
Forced into exile nearly four decades ago, the Marcos dynasty is poised to take power again in the Philippines. The son of dictator Ferdinand Sr, Bongbong, is much loved – but how has the family restored its tarnished reputation?
It’s a slice of paradise for some but behind the postcard façade, native Hawaiians have a different story to tell. Reporter Matt Davis visits the Hawaiian Islands to hear from the people fighting to keep their culture alive.
A troubled man. His missing father. A secretive kingdom, faraway. Like many who were abandoned by their Saudi fathers, Jared wants to meet the dad he never knew. Will this rigid society welcome the children it left behind?
In Nebraska, a grim search is underway. A community is trying to locate the graves of indigenous children who died after being taken from their tribes and sent to boarding school. A powerful story on facing a painful past.
He started as a low-level spy. He ended up president for life. For two decades, former Moscow correspondent Eric Campbell has tracked Putin's rise to power, speaking with his school teacher, friends, patrons and enemies.
Celebrating 30 years, we chronicle the extraordinary changes that have shaped our world. We talk to correspondents about being on the ground reporting history - from revolution and war, tragedy and survival, terror and hope.
Across Thailand a quiet revolution is underway. Hundreds of women are defying generations of Thai tradition and ordaining as Theravada Buddhist monks. Mazoe Ford follows two Thai women on a deeply spiritual quest.
Wyoming is the most pro-Trump state and respected Republican Liz Cheney is about to find out what that means. Kathryn Diss travels through the spectacular wilderness to talk with locals about the upcoming primary elections.
In remote north western Myanmar, a civil war you've never heard of is underway. The people of the Chin State are locked in conflict with Myanmar's military machine. Matt Davis gained exclusive access to the Chin resistance.
In the oceans of West Africa, it's a poachers' paradise. Foreign ships are illegally raiding these rich fishing grounds, leaving little for locals. Now the tide is turning, as activists help governments push back the boats.
An intimate and moving story of families stretched to the limit. In China, as people live longer, dementia is on the rise. With few government services, ordinary people are sacrificing everything to care for their own.
The mighty Colorado is under threat. From the Rockies' snowy peaks to Mexico, the river is a lifeline for tens of millions of people. We journey along its waters to see the places and meet the people changed by a drier world.
A few months ago Sri Lankan protestors made history, forcing the president from power. They stormed his palace & swam in his pool. Now a new president is cracking down and many are in hiding. We ask, can the movement survive?
In the French city of Marseille, there's a war on drugs. The police are cracking down on gangs dealing from estates in the city's north. The dealers say it's the only way to survive. We gain rare access to both sides.
The mighty rhino is making a comeback. In Zimbabwe it was poached to near extinction in the 2000s. We visit a wildlife sanctuary, with an elite anti-poaching squad, to see how the animal is being brought back from the brink.
From zero tolerance to decriminalisation, Thailand's U-turn this year on cannabis laws is lighting up a billion-dollar industry. Officially it's for medicinal use but the legal grey area means 'ganja' lovers are celebrating.
Japan is confronting the possibility of war. New military bases on the country's remote southwest islands have the locals worried about the impact on their idyllic life and the prospect of becoming a target.
Independent Russian journalists forced to flee their homes following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, have been given sanctuary in neighbouring Latvia where they are broadcasting news of the war to counter Putin's propaganda.
In the Philippines online child sex abuse is flourishing and demand by Australian perpetrators for live streaming is increasing. Reporter Stephanie March embeds with police who are catching abusers and rescuing children.
The extraordinary Sepik River region in Papua New Guinea, known as the second Amazon, is under threat.Tensions are running high over logging and a mine proposal amidst claims of land grabs, police brutality, even killings.
In Cambodia, Chinese organised crime syndicates are running global cyber scam operations using workers who have been trafficked and enslaved in secure compounds. The syndicates have strong ties to the ruling Hun Sen regime.
Somalia is one of the most dangerous places on earth. Almost two decades of terrorism has taken a huge toll. Now the African nation is facing its worst drought in 40 years with significant areas on the brink of famine.
Three years after Brexit and Britain is broken. The country's cost of living crisis is now fuelling separatist movements. In Wales where one in three children live in poverty, the call for independence is getting louder.
Guest reporter Craig Reucassel goes off the tourist track in Fiji to see how communities are dealing with the reality of climate change. Rising sea levels and cyclones are forcing Fijians to change their lives to survive.
Every weekend in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, thousands of young Saudis flock to the city to party. Here they can do things that would be utterly forbidden just over the "Johnny Walker" bridge.
The US State of Florida has become the centre of America's culture wars as Governor Ron DeSantis pursues a right-wing agenda focused on gender and race laws which some hope will take him all the way to the White House.
North Korean defectors overcome huge odds to escape to a new life in the south but instead of finding happiness they are often overcome with loneliness and isolation. Still living in fear, they rarely speak out publicly.
Fentanyl is the main source of drug overdoses in the United States, supplied by the infamous Mexican Sinaloa cartel. The drug is making a fortune for the cartel, we go inside to see the luxurious lifestyle.
It's almost a decade since ISIS forces swept through Iraq and Syria but the legacy of their brutal caliphate remains. The Yazidis of northern Iraq were slaughtered and enslaved by ISIS. Today the search continues for the missing Yazidis who have still not returned home.
A team of art sleuths are on a mission to bring home Cambodia's cultural heritage. South-East Asia correspondent Mazoe Ford travels with them as they journey across the country and over borders to identify, trace and reclaim missing treasures.
In India the Modi government is being accused of waging a war on Bollywood, the country’s most powerful cultural force, effectively turning it into a propaganda tool.
Almost a year since widespread protests erupted on the streets of Iran, young dissidents who continue to defy the country’s repressive regime have participated in secretly recorded interviews with Foreign Correspondent.
Reporter David Lipson goes inside Canada's fireground to see firsthand how a nation better known for snow and ice is coping with the fire catastrophe.
In Germany, a growing far-right 'sovereign citizens' movement believe they are not bound by German laws. Some are now on trial for shooting police, engaging in acts of terrorism and allegedly plotting a coup.
A year after the Uvalde school shooting in Texas the community is still traumatised. They're angry about the inadequate police response on the day and they're determined to change the law on the sale of deadly assault rifles.
It's a small island calling on powerful institutions like the British royal family, as well as the living relatives of past slave owners to make amends for the sins of their ancestors. Reporter Isabella Higgins travels to Barbados where the question is now, who should pay?
NBA superstar LeBron James has put his name and his money behind an extraordinary social experiment in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. The ABC's senior sports reporter Paul Kennedy travels to Ohio to see how the plan is coming to life — and whether it's working.
A billion-dollar illegal drug trade is funding the Syrian regime under President Bashar al-Assad. This week on Foreign Correspondent, insiders detail the vast extent of the drug trade and how members of the president's family and the Syrian Armed Forces are facilitating it.
Argentina was once one of the world’s richest nations but today it’s a country on its knees. With inflation running at 100 per cent, some are now proposing radical solutions to the country's economic crisis.
Just weeks before the outbreak of war, Foreign Correspondent's Stephanie March was in Israel and the occupied West Bank documenting rising tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
Fake fashion is big business. From Gucci to Balenciaga, replica brands are everywhere. The trade is run by crime syndicates implicated in human trafficking and even terrorism. This story goes inside the counterfeit industry.
Indonesia has embarked on a radical plan to relocate its congested and sinking capital Jakarta to the jungles of Borneo. A new $45 billion mega city is currently being built but critics say it's too expensive and too remote.
The horrific events of October 7 and its aftermath have dramatically changed the lives of Palestinians and Israelis. With widespread loss of life and devastation, suspicion and revenge are boiling over and fear is everywhere.
In Punjab, northern India, the Sikh separatist movement is fighting to create its own independent Khalistan nation. Separatist leaders have accused the Modi government of targeting Sikhs around the world including Australia.
Italy's population is ageing and with towns dying out, residents in Sicily have undertaken a grand social experiment. They're selling abandoned houses to newcomers for just one euro in a bid to breathe new life into old towns.
In the jungle of central Vietnam lies Son Doong, a magnificent underground cave passage, the largest in the world. Undisturbed for millions of years, its future has been placed in doubt with plans to make it a tourist mecca.
Eighty years since Japan and the Allied forces waged a battle at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islanders are still paying the price with thousands of unexploded devices left behind and the threat of leaking oil from rusting warships.
In Japan the ancient sport of sumo is wrestling with how to accept women competitors on an equal footing, challenging deeply held traditions. We meet the women who are trying to modernise attitudes in a sport they love.
Reporter Trevor Bormann discusses the lead and the investigation that brought Foreign Correspondent's explosive "Prisoner X - The Australian Connection" and its follow-up "Prisoner X - The Secret", two stories that blew the lid on one of Israel's most closely guarded secrets and revealed the identity of a nameless, high security prison inmate, what he did and why Israel was so intent on keeping it all top secret.
It was a crime that rocked India and shocked the world - the rape, torture and murder of a 23 yo Indian woman on a bus trip home from the movies. A year on South East Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel reflects on the assignment behind Foreign Correspondent's 'India On Trial'.
Middle East Correspondent Matt Brown discusses 'Ibrahims War' his report for Foreign Correspondent that took him and cameraman Mat Marsic into Aleppo, Syria and the daily ordeals endured by young Ibrahim and his family, trying to survive Syria's brutal civil war. 'Ibrahim's War' was nominated in two categories in the 2013 Walkley Awards for Journalistic excellence, including best camerawork.
During 2013 the ultimate far away place - Timbuktu - was drawn dramatically into world focus as Islamic militants laid siege to northern Mali and aimed to take control of the rest of this magical, mystical and very musical place. Here, correspondent Eric Campbell discusses the long, arduous but often stunning road trip through Mali that became Foreign Correspondent's two-part program "The Road to Timbuktu".
A year on from the mass murder of school children and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary school, North America Correspondent Lisa Millar reflects on the making of Foreign Correspondent's "Inside The NRA" which focused on the shooting, the awful loss suffered by parents like Veronique Pozner, mother of 6yo Noah and the failed efforts to reform gun laws.
