Rupa Jha talks to former militants in Kashmir and their families about why they took up arms and the reasons behind giving up violence. What are the challenges of returning to normal society?

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You might think that copper is just another metal, but in fact it is a vital substance. Discover why, without this metal, even the evolution of life itself would be radically different.

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Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless when Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of the southern coast of the United States in 2005. Many survivors were rehoused by the federal government in travel trailers which they claim made them sick. For Assignment, Rob Walker travels to Mississippi to hear their story.

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Former Kabul correspondent Alan Johnston reflects on decades of turmoil in Afghanistan, from the Soviet invasion in 1979 to the intervention by the West.

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Animal Migration in a Climate of Change is a special four-part series that explores the way environmental change is affecting the natural movement of animals all around the world. In Part Four, In A Wild Goose Chase, the focus is on wild geese.

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Animal Migration in a Climate of Change is a special four-part series that explores the way environmental change is affecting the natural movement of animals all around the world. In Part Three, The Elephant's Journey, Brett Westwood looks at African elephant migration.

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Animal Migration in a Climate of Change is a special four-part series that explores the way environmental change is affecting the natural movement of animals all around the world. In Part Two, Silent Landscapes, focuses on how environmental change is affecting some popular bird species.

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

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Former Kabul correspondent Alan Johnston reflects on decades of turmoil in Afghanistan, from the Soviet invasion in 1979 to the intervention by the West.

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Animal Migration in a Climate of Change is a special four-part series that explores the way environmental change is affecting the natural movement of animals all around the world. In Part One, The Mexican Wave, the focus is on sustaining the Orange Monarch butterfly.

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The South Ossetian conflict not only sparked a military war between Russia and Georgia, but a propaganda battle. James Rodgers examines this ongoing media war between Georgia and Russia - featuring archive clips of key events and interviews.

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Neil McCarthy pieces together a story of rats, famine and insurrection from the 1950's to present day, in remote hills of North East India.

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Andrew Purcell investigates the growing homelessness crisis among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the United States. The programme looks at how these 'lost veterans' struggle to reintegrate into civilian society, and how they feel abandoned by the US military.

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Allan Little presents an appraisal of the man described as America's Apostle of Freedom: Thomas Jefferson, author of the founding document of the American Republic.

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As the global banking crisis deepens, a flood of multi-million dollar lawsuits is beginning to shed light into some of the darkest corners of international finance. The BBC's Michael Robinson investigates these cases and what they reveal about the present disaster.

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The Saudi Interior Ministry and the US Military in Iraq have offered al - Qaeda sympathisers and detainees therapy and job training. Owen Bennett-Jones asks if this can really prevent someone from supporting al-Qaeda.

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This special documentary exploring life in Chicago's inner city is based on Ghetto Life 101, an acclaimed 1993 documentary featuring LeAlan Jones and LLoyd Newman, two teenagers who brought US radio listeners face to face with life in of one of Chicago's worst housing projects. Jones has revisited the area to see how it has changed.

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A series of protests against Indian rule in Kashmir has left more than 30 people dead since August. Thousands of people have died in the violence there since 1989. For Assignment George Arney travels to Kashmir to speak to young people caught up in the protests and discovers that for the first time the Muslim separatist struggle is embracing non-violence.

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Owen Bennett-Jones tests the big promises governments have made about the financial war on terror.

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What is the state of health of the Italian nation today? Is Italy in crisis or undergoing a new Renaissance? Italian journalist Annalisa Piras returns home to find out.

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In Mexico, the government has deployed thousands of troops in an attempt to break up the powerful drug cartels operating in the country. Emilio San Pedro travels to the border city of Tijuana and profiles a community under pressure from one of Mexico's most violent gangs.

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In Iran, the constant drugs crisis and loss of skilled workers contrast with a lively internet scene which harbours poets, political dissidents and religious leaders.

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Owen Bennett-Jones looks at al Qaeda's hard power and military capabilities in its chosen key battlegrounds: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

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The Maldives, Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Mauritius are all popular tourist destinations. Robin White tells the stories behind the tourist facades, visiting Mauritius for part four of this series.

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In Assignment, Robert Walker travels to East Africa to investigate a secret detention programme - involving the transfer of suspected terrorists across three countries: Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.

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This series explores what life offers to Iran's burgeoning young population who are trapped by conservatism and an ailing economy. In the first programme, we hear how the war with Iraq acted as a continuation of the Revolution.

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Seven years into the global war on terror, is al-Qaeda winning? It's a deceptively simple question, one Owen Bennett-Jones asked in Riyadh, Peshawar and Baghdad, as well as London, Brussels and Washington for this series in four parts.

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The Maldives, Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Mauritius are all popular tourist destinations. Robin White tells the stories behind the tourist facades, visiting the Seychelles for part three of this series.

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Pakistan's government is locked in an intense battle with Islamist militants for control of areas on its northern border with Afghanistan. For Assignment Owen Bennett-Jones visits the Khyber pass - the main supply route for the American and other western forces based in Afghanistan - and discovers that the insurgency has made it vulnerable.

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Robin Lustig travels to Phoenix, Arizona, the home of Senator John McCain, to ask two ordinary voters about their most pressing concerns in the forthcoming US presidential election.

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A tale of a tiny painting, set against a large canvas of war, politics and looted art in Charle's Wheeler quest to solve a 50-year mystery.

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The Maldives, Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Mauritius are all popular tourist destinations. Robin White tells the stories behind the tourist facades, visiting Sri Lanka for part two of this series.

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As the insurgency in Afghanistan grows, Kate Clark travels undercover to investigate who's arming the Taleban. Meeting commanders and arms dealers, she finds the Taleban are getting their weapons from some suprising sources.

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We know the two US presidential candidates and what they would do in office, but what does the electorate itself want? Robin Lustig travels to the candidates' home states to meet four Americans to find out what issues have determined their choices.

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How are the Marwari traders managing as India goes global? Can a business culture based on traditional values survive as India's economy changes?

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The Maldives, Sri Lanka, Seychelles and Mauritius are all popular tourist destinations. Robin White tells the stories behind the tourist facades, visiting the Maldives for part one of this series.

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Mukhul Devichand finds out how the Marwari trading caste from India's western deserts has become a major global economic and political force.

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

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Haiti, one of the very poorest countries in the world, has been hit hard by soaring food prices. Earlier this year riots led to the sacking of the prime minister. In Assignment, Orin Gordon looks at the ongoing struggle for Haitians to feed themselves.

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John McCain: a profile of the man who talks of honour and patriotic duty and admits having a legendary short fuse.

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Win Scutt finds out how the maritime treasure hunting industry has boomed in recent years.

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Following recent legislation in Spain the government has agreed to offer support to families wishing to find the remains of their loved ones killed during the country's brutal civil war of the 1930s. For Assignment, Mike Williams travels to Spain to visit an exhumation of bodies and asks if the government's attempt to end the political silence of that period is working.

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

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Barack Obama:the profile of one of the two individuals who are the presumptive nominees in the US presidential election.

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International seas are largely unregulated, meaning most underwater archaeological wealth can be retrieved and sold without any obstacle. Can a new UNESCO convention bring some order?

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The experience of growing up in a socially deprived, inner city neighbourhood is a common one, no matter where you may live in the world. In Britain's main cities, police and politicians say a worrying trend has developed where some young people are now carrying and using both knives and guns at an ever younger age. The BBC's Nina Robinson takes a day out of the life of two youngsters in the English city of Birmingham to find out a little more about what it is that shapes their lives.

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BBC World Affairs correspondent Mark Doyle continues travelling from the west to the east of the DR Congo on a journey to find out why so many people have died and continue to die in that country.

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

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What do Freedom of Information laws actually achieve? Are they sometimes more symbolic than practical in their impact?

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During Argentina's Dirty War of the seventies and eighties thousands of leftists and dissidents vanished after being abducted by the security forces. Many of the women detained gave birth in detention centres before being killed and their babies were given to military families to bring up. Now, as Daniel Schweimler reports for Assignment, those babies have come of age in Argentina and some are trying to seek justice for what happened to them.

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BBC World Affairs Correspondent Mark Doyle explores why over five million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the past decade.

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Prestigious job. Exotic location. Stately home, fine food and wine, and many other perks thrown in. Yours for only $200,000. The position a US ambassadorship. Around a third of all US ambassadors are not career diplomats; they're political appointees and almost all of them are major donors, wealthy businessmen. Is this really the way for the US to run its foreign policy?

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

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In the United States a small but increasingly vocal group of people believe that members of the country's Muslim community are working from within to turn America into an Islamic state. This group of right wing thinkers believe this so-called 'Soft Jihad' is being carried out in schools, universities and other institutions across the country and they want to put a stop to it. In Assignment, Pascale Harter travels to America to find out how this fear is finding a foothold in public opinion there and hears from some of those accused of being the 'soft jihadists'.

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Will there be a return to the dreaded days of "stagflation" with weak growth and rising inflation. Can economic policymakers find a way to deal with this double danger? Or is further pain inevitable?

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

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After the ending of apartheid in South Africa, the transfer of land from white to black was a key ANC promise - a proud calling card to correct the injustices of apartheid. But many critics argue that the reform programme has gone badly wrong. For Assignment Rosie Goldsmith reports on the struggle for South Africa's promised land, which is driving a political, economic and racist wedge down the middle of an already tense country.

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With the world's economy now threatened by what some believe is the most dangerous crisis since the depression of the 1930s, Michael Robinson looks at the deepening international financial turmoil.

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

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In May violence against African immigrants exploded across South Africa. Two months on thousands are still displaced, living in camps and shelters. Robert Walker travels to one of the townships in Johannesburg where the attacks started and asks whether the violence could happen again.

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Jill McGivering explores whether China is doing enough to provide healthcare to 1.3 billion people and what it can learn from the struggles of the developed world.

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Russell Fuller follows the difficult journeys of six hopefuls from around the world in the run up to the Beijing Olympics.

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

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An undercover BBC investigation has exposed how young African footballers are being defrauded by conmen posing as talent scouts from English Premiership clubs. Victims are duped into parting with thousands of pounds in the false belief that they are paying an official fee for a trial to play with their favourite teams. Gavin Lee reports from Nigeria for Assignment.

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

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In the second part of this series, Kate Clark reports from those provinces where an opium ban is in force, but farmers are feeling the pressure.

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The dynamics of the old world and the new world are changing and the balance of economic systems is shifting. Martin Wolf of the Financial Times asks leading economists how important is the American financial cycle to the rest of the world now?

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In a multi billion dollar deal China has promised to rebuild DR Congo's crumbling infrastructure in exchange for a valuable slice of Congo's vast mineral wealth. What's being called the Contract of the Century was negotiated in secret and has left some people in the country wondering who stands to benefit most from the deal - for Assignment Tim Whewell travels to the DR Congo to find out.

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China says hosting the Olympics has accelerated national reforms, technological advances and greater freedoms overall but Gerry Northam investigates claims that life has gotten worse for China's poor.

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Kate Clark gains rare access to the fight against the Afghan opium trade and asks how effective attempts to control it have been.

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Campaigners for improving maternal health have been lobbying the G8 to get the topic on the agenda for the next meeting in Japan. In programme two of the series Health for All, Uduak Amimo asks is there enough political will to combat maternal mortality?

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As the world counts down to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Gerry Northam investigates China's claims of 'vigorous growth in the public practice of religion' but he discovers people are still being persecuted and oppressed for practising religion.

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In the third part of this series, Audrey Brown travels to Atteridgeville, a township outside the capital, Pretoria, to explore what really lay behind the recent attacks by South Africans on foreigners.

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Is health for all a fact or just fiction? Helen Sharp asks if the world has the will, people and money to deliver basic good health to everyone.

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This week's Assignment tells the story of the Burmese cyclone through the eyes and ears of the few BBC journalists who managed to get into the country after the disaster. Hear the story of the cyclone unfold told by those who witnessed it first hand. That's Reporting The Cyclone, from Assignment this week.

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In 1998, a truck bomb exploded outside the American embassy in Nairobi. Over 200 people died and thousands were injured. It features an extraordinary interview with the FBI agent who tracked down and questioned a suspected al-Qaeda bomber. It was Osama Bin Laden's first major strike in his jihad against America.

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In the second part of this series, Audrey Brown travels to South Africa to explore how privilege and access to resources is increasingly being seen as an issue of colour.

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Sheila Dillon reports on the work of restaurateurs, farmers, fishermen and activists to restore the culinary heritage of a devastated city.

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Baseball may be the United States' national sport - but this year, 2008, almost half of all its professional players come from overseas - and some 40 per cent of them from the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti. For Assignment David Goldblatt visits Haiti to report on what has become a significant export industry for this country of nine million people.

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In the third part of this series, Peter Taylor investigates The Paris Plot, the hijacking of a plane in Algiers on its way to Paris; a plan to use a plane as a weapon of mass destruction.

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Fourteen years after liberation and 60 years since the beginning of what was then 'apartheid', Audrey Brown explores and uncovers the extent to which race still plays a part in everyday life for those living in South Africa.

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More than 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War, Bomb Hunters, tells the stories of the people living in Xieng Khuang in Laos and how they survive in a land still littered with unexploded ordnance.

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The new mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno was once a so-called neo-fascist - a supporter of anti-democratic, right wing radicalism. And his election has come at a time of mounting ethnic tension in Italy. As Christian Fraser now discovers in Assignment, there are fears that Rome could be about to suffer the return of hard right, authoritarian rule.

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In the second part of this series, Peter Taylor investigates how two events in 1987 contributed to the beginnings of the road to peace in Northern Ireland.

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The powerful story of a young Iranian woman called Leila, sold into prostitution at the age of nine by her own family and sentenced to hang aged 18.

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

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The town of Auroville in southern India was built in 1968 on the basis of a utopian ideal - that a community could live in peace and harmony without having to worry about food and shelter. But forty years on there are unsettling allegations of abuse emerging from the City of Dawn. For Assignment Rachel Wright visits Auroville and tells the disturbing story of a dream gone wrong.

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In the first part of this series, Peter Taylor reveals how events unfolded in the 1976 hijacking of an Air France plane on a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris which ends with a bid to rescue hostages from Idi Amin's Uganda

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In Taxi To The Dark Side, American film-maker Alex Gibney reports on the use of torture by American soldiers in Afghanistan. Was the torture the work of a few rogue soldiers, or officially approved by the Pentagon?

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