The Documentary Podcast: Archive 2009

In Assignment Peter Greste investigates whether Rwandans in France and Germany are controlling a deadly African militia in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The BBC World Service has been investigating the controversial issue of whether poor countries have ever seen all of the money promised by industrialised countries in 2001. According to some less than 10 percent of it has been paid: others disagree.

In the third instalment of The Crescent and the Cross, Owen Bennett Jones examines one of the most important Muslim empires in history - the Ottoman Empire. In particular, it focuses on the time of Suleiman The Magnificent, a towering figure in the rivalry between Christianity and Islam, and a crucial battle - the 1565 Seige of Malta.

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

In Nepal, severe drought and unreliable monsoon rains have led to acute food shortages. The impact is felt most by people like Charuri who is struggling to feed three children and cannot afford the medical help she needs.

Owen Bennett Jones explores five crucial battles in the relationship between Christianity and Islam. This episode looks at the Crusades.

Seventy years after the start of the Second World War the overwhelming impression is of a conflict fought on the battlefields of Europe by white troops. Britain’s war effort was bolstered by soldiers from the white Commonwealth – Australia, Canada and New Zealand and later by the United States. The war in the Far East is often overlooked, as is the fighting that took place in Africa. Yet one million African troops participated in the conflict, fighting their way through the jungles of Burma, across the Libyan deserts and in the skies over London.

As governments struggle to curb the so-called “casino-banking” practices which some blame for the global financial meltdown, Michael Robinson now reports on growing concerns over super-fast, computerised share-dealing systems which are earning massive new profits for banks.

Thrown off nearby farms at the time of Namibia’s independence, the squatters of Otjivero lived a hand-to-mouth existence. Last year a scheme was established to give every inhabitant a basic cash grant of US$10 a month, to spend as they wanted. School enrolment has shot up, small businesses are springing up, and the nurse at the local clinic says malnutrition rates amongst the children have dropped.

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