Season 2016 2016

NR

America imprisons a higher proportion of its citizens than anywhere else in the world, and Louisiana more than anywhere else in America. Aleem Maqbool tells the story of one prisoner, Robert Jones, who was jailed in the 1990s for killing a young British tourist in New Orleans. It was a crime another man had already been convicted of, but he was prosecuted anyway. The judge who sentenced the young father to life in prison now says his skin colour sealed his fate.
But even today, more than 23 years after he was arrested, Robert Jones is still not a free man.

In December 2015, women in Saudi Arabia voted and stood as election candidates for the first time. Our World follows three women on the campaign trail.

Five years ago revolution erupted in Libya as rebels rose up against the rule of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. A bloody civil war followed and Gaddafi was captured and killed in October 2011. The golden gun he was carrying was displayed by his killers as a trophy of their triumph. Today, Libya remains divided and violent, with so-called Islamic state becoming stronger there every day. Gabriel Gatehouse returns to Libya to find those who seized Gaddafi's golden gun, and report on IS's rise. Contains distressing images from the start.

Zanskar is one of the most inaccessible settlements on earth: a remote Himalayan Buddhist kingdom little changed in a thousand years.

Thirty years ago two American college friends walked for seven days up the frozen Zanskar River to reach an ancient monastery, built into the side of a cliff, at an altitude of four thousand metres.

Only a few hundred outsiders visit each year, but this is about to change. The first ever road into the region is nearing completion.

The two friends have returned to try to find the people they met in 1986 - and to discover what they think about the dramatic changes coming to their valley.

On April 20 1999, two teenagers walked into their high school in Colorado armed with guns, bombs and grenades and killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives. The tragedy had a seismic impact on America, with the murderers cited as an inspiration by subsequent killers. Now, for the first time, Sue Klebold, the mother of one of the shooters, talks to Kirsty Wark about trying to come to terms with what happened at Columbine High School and her efforts to raise awareness about children's mental health issues.

Chris Rogers goes undercover in Thailand to expose how the country treats its asylum seekers. Among the second largest group of asylum seekers in Thailand are Pakistani Christians fleeing extremist violence.

Tens of thousands of Mexicans have been killed in drug-related gang violence in the past ten years. Ruthless criminals control the illegal trade with the US, thought to be worth 13 billion dollars a year. One of Mexico's leading politicians, known as El Bronco, the governor of the State of Nuevo Leon claims he can beat the country's infamous cartels. Yalda Hakim speaks to him.

Kidnapping in Mexico is an epidemic. It's a crime that now affects not just the wealthy but also ordinary Mexicans. For Our World, Vladimir Hernandez meets people rebuilding their lives after being held for ransom, and he meets a man who has made kidnapping his business. In a rare and chilling interview, the kidnapper spells out what motivates him to abduct and sometimes to kill innocent people.

Victoria Gill joins scientists in Antarctica as they begin to analyse their findings after a year spent monitoring the lives of thousands of penguins.

Tim Whewell meets the parents and professionals calling Norway's child protection agency dysfunctional and dangerous. Is a system designed to put children first, out of control?

Over the past year, a new wave of violence has brought terror to the streets of Israel and the West Bank. Palestinians have attacked Israelis in apparently random acts. In some cases the attackers have been young teenagers, armed with kitchen knives. The Gush Etzion junction is one site of many attacks. It's on the main road between Jerusalem and Hebron and is used by thousands of Jewish settlers. The junction used to be a place where Palestinians would also shop and work. Now people are scared that being there could cost them their lives. The film contains disturbing images from the start.

The Kabul headquarters of Afghanistan's Tolo Television is a young and energetic place, and its staff work on some of the most-watched programmes in the country. But the station's reach and prominence carries a deadly risk. In January 2016, a Taliban suicide bomber blew up a bus carrying Tolo employees home - seven of them died. Yalda Hakim is in Kabul with the station's staff to hear them talk about life, and making television, in a country at war.

Now that China has ended its One Child policy, one group of state employees may be out of a job - the country's hated population police. Hundreds of thousands of officers used to hunt down families suspected of violating the country's draconian rules on child bearing. But with an eye on improving child welfare nationally, the state is hoping to redeploy many of them as child development specialists. Lucy Ash visits a pilot project in Shaanxi Province. Former enforcers there are being trained up to offer advice and support to rural grandparents who are left rearing children while parents migrate to jobs in the big cities. If successful, the scheme could be rolled out nationwide to redeploy an army of family planning workers and transform the life prospects of millions of rural children.

India's greatest river, the mighty Ganges, is one of the world's dirtiest. The river's revered by Hindus - but it is also the sewer that carries away the waste from 450 million people. Hundreds of millions of people depend on the river, yet pollution from industry, agriculture - even religious waste - has turned its sacred waters into a toxic and deadly cocktail. The Indian prime minister has staked his political reputation on cleaning it up, but can the Ganges be saved?

Our World follows Fernando Montano, the world-famous Colombian ballet star, as he returns home for the first time in 16 years to lend his support to the peace process in Colombia.

Syria's neighbour Jordan is struggling with a huge refugee population. For disabled refugees, including those injured during the conflict, the future looks particularly difficult.

As the European Union struggles to stay united in the face of a 21st century crisis, Gabriel Gatehouse asks what's happened to the European dream.

Nick Lazaredes reports on life at the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota, and the efforts to improve life for young people there.

Filipina women who were raped by Japanese soldiers during the Second World War tell their extraordinary stories. The handful of women who are still alive are fighting to make sure their ordeal isn't forgotten and asking for a full state apology from the Japanese Government.

Namak Khoshnaw meets refugee families whose only means of survival is to scavenge in the rubbish dump which serves Erbil in Northern Iraq.

The Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music was founded in Damascus in 2003. But, after the outbreak of war in 2011, many of its members were forced to flee the country. Our World follows four musicians as they prepare for a groundbreaking series of concerts, reuniting orchestra members in exile, and those in Syria, in the hope of changing perceptions of their war-torn nation.

Iran wanted an end to sanctions. The West wanted to stop Iran getting a nuclear bomb. Stalemate and the threat of military action finally ended with an historic agreement in 2015. With exclusive interviews, and access to the key players, Our World goes behind the scenes to reveal the story of one of the most complex and significant diplomatic deals of our time.

Tens of thousands of children work for fishermen on Lake Volta in Ghana. Many have been given away by poor families in the hope they would have a better life, but they have been trafficked into forced labour and are treated like slaves.
Yalda Hakim joins a team of charity workers travelling around the lake rescuing trafficked children and trying to help them rebuild their lives.

Oil-rich Venezuela is struggling to feed its people. With a spiralling economic and political crisis, the country is threatening to slide into anarchy. Vladimir Hernandez returns home to meet those struggling to survive and finds thousands queueing for hours in the hope of buying basic food items.

After the last elections in Russia, mass protests against vote-rigging led to violent clashes in Moscow. They were the biggest challenge Vladimir Putin has ever faced to his rule. Four years on and some demonstrators are still serving long prison sentences, the laws on protesting have been tightened and arrests continue. As Russia gears up for its next elections, Our World meets some of those caught up in the 2012 protests and asks what their experiences tell us about President Putin's Russia.

More than 20 years after the end of apartheid, some Afrikaners claim their language, and culture, are being marginalised. For Our World, Benjamin Zand meets Afrikaners who fear for their future in the Rainbow Nation.

The silent killer in Yemen's ongoing conflict is starvation. Nawal Al-Maghafi travels to the city of Hodeida - while it is being bombed by Saudi-led forces.

The new president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has launched a brutal crackdown on drug crime. Might the president's ruthless approach succeed, or simply see his country branded a leading human rights abuser?

More than 300 people have left Sweden to fight for ISIS in Syria and Iraq, one of the highest numbers in Europe, per head of population. Many are second generation immigrants and come from neighbourhoods on the fringes of Sweden's two largest cities, Stockholm and Gothenburg.

Yalda Hakim has been to one such community in Gothenburg to discover why so many young people there are attracted by ISIS. She meets a young man who describes how extremists tried to recruit him and she talks to a young girl who has returned from Isis-controlled Syria. Gothenburg police tell her they have a problem and admit they are struggling to cope.

Qandeel Baloch, Pakistan's first social media star, was murdered in her bed in July. Our World has been to her home village to discover more about the remarkable story of her life.

Residents of the small American city of Flint, Michigan, are living with a contaminated water supply. Our World meets residents to find out how they're coping.

The Olympic Games are the pinnacle for many of the world's leading sportsmen and women - but for horseback wrestlers, bone-throwers and eagle hunters it's the World Nomad Games. Kyrgyzstan hosts the games, and they are an important part of the region's drive to re-establish its nomad identity and traditions, 25 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. One of the most important nomad folk heroes is a female warrior called Saikal. As part of the BBC's 100 Women season Olga Ivshina visits the Games in search of Central Asia's modern-day nomad warrior women.

Australia's world-famous east coast surfing beaches are suffering from a spate of deadly shark attacks, with 14 attacks in the past two years. On some beaches, great white sharks are spotted almost daily. Coastal communities are suffering, and people are divided over whether to cull the giant predators. But as Our World discovers, there's little agreement about what can actually be done to make the beaches safer.

More Americans die from drug overdoses than car crashes or being shot. The majority of the deaths involve the use of heroin or prescription painkillers. Over the past year, Ian Pannell has followed a number of addicts as they try to kick the habit.

On one traumatic night in July 2016, a faction of the Turkish military tried to overthrow the government. The coup failed, but hundreds of people were killed. President Erdogan said it was the work of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen and his supporters. Gulen denies involvement, but President Erdogan has vowed to 'cleanse the virus' behind the coup attempt and thousands of Turks, accused of being Gulenist sympathisers, have lost their jobs. Tim Whewell reports.

For centuries in Nepal girls, some as young as one, have been chosen to be living goddesses - or Kumaris. They are worshipped and revered by Buddhists and Hindus. The title is bestowed on three girls at any one time. Once appointed, the Kumari is confined to the temple and has little contact with the outside world and they hit puberty they must leave and try to live an ordinary life. As part of the 100 Women season, Sahar Zand travels to Nepal to find out if this practice empowers women or demeans them.

In April 2016 a boat carrying more than 500 people sank in the Mediterranean. Fewer than one in ten of those on board survived. The passengers were migrants, travelling from North Africa to Italy. Survivors spoke of a horrendously overcrowded ship, unfit for its human cargo. But other details of the journey remained unclear, including where the passengers set off from, and who organised their deadly journey.

Nawal al-Maghafi investigates the Saudi-led coalition campaign in Yemen.

Allan Little examines the forces behind the momentous events of the last year and explores the new political landscape as we enter 2017.