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.

Dr Thomas Hargrove, an American scientist kidnapped by FARC, is reunited with the family's German neighbour, who was part of 'Team Tom' which organized the negotiations.

How have non-native creatures - from birds to bovines, reptiles to rhesus monkeys - become unlikely, but permanent, residents of Hong Kong?

In the second of this series which charts the explosion of international organised crime, Misha Glenny goes to the Balkans to follow the trail of smuggled cigarettes.

Forty years ago, 504 unarmed Vietnamese civilians were killed by US soldiers. It became known as ‘The My Lai Massacre' and was covered up by the army for almost a year. In the second part of ‘The My Lai Tapes’, presented by Robert Hodierne, you can hear for the first time, the taped recordings of the US Army’s internal inquiry into the massacre.

The resourcefulness and resilience of prisioners fighting for freedom that make Australians today proudly boast of their own inherited 'convict streak'

Manuel Bagorro, the director of the Harare International Festival of the Arts, describes his efforts to bring a cultural highlight in the midst of the election chaos in Zimbabwe.

The United States has long been home to violent gangs, from the Mafia to the Bloods and Crips. But recently, US authorities have warned of the dangers of a transnational, ultra-violent gang with its origins in Central America. The FBI has now opened an office in El Salvador to deal with the threat of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. For Assignment, Maurice Walsh travelled to Washington DC's suburbs and San Salvador to take a look at MS-13, dubbed "The Most Dangerous Gang in America."

After the invasion of Iraq in 2003 hundreds of young American recruits were sent by Washington to help run the Coalition Provisional Authority, the body set up to administer Iraq. The CPA's tenure was widely criticised, as were its staff who, critics say, were simply political appointees with little or no experience relevant to the massive task they faced. Five years on Pascale Harter speaks to some of the so-called Brat Pack of US recruits to find out if they feel proud of what they achieved.

According to US intelligence the Afghan president Hamid Karzai controls only 30 percent of Afghanistan, with the Taleban holding 10 percent. Most of the country is under local tribal control.

But building support among the tribes is now at the core of a new American counter-insurgency strategy. The Americans believe they've now got a blueprint for winning hearts and minds. The BBC's Alastair Leithead has been following US troops and their British allies to find out how the plan is working.