Crossing Continents

Investigating how young girls in India are being trafficked and forced into marriage, or to work as prostitutes or domestic servants. Natalia Antelava hears stories of the trafficked girls and from a trafficker himself. Listeners may find some details disturbing.

Japan has an astonishingly high conviction rate but is the use of prolonged questioning and other dubious tactics by police and prosecutors one of the reasons for this? Mariko Oi investigates

Owen Bennett-Jones is joined by some of the BBC's top correspondents as they give their predictions about what will shape our world next year. Producer: Linda Pressly

Two farmers daughters, known as the Iron Ladies, are leading a campaign against a Chinese-backed copper mine in northwest Burma. They complain of pollution and a loss of farmland but the authorities are worried the protest could put off foreign investors in the poorest country in South East Asia. Will the row over the mine prove a test case for the government's commitment to democratic reforms?

Migrants to Poland? Poland hasn’t had to cope with a big influx in foreign workers for generations. But with the success of its economy is coming a new wave of immigration. In this week’s Crossing Continents, Paul Henley investigates the changing face of one of the very few prosperous countries left in Europe.

Allan Little charts how the centre of power in the European Union is moving from France and towards Germany and Poland.

It’s more than a year since the Libyan revolution ended but the country is still awash with weapons. While most Libyans rejoice in their success overthrowing 42 years of dictatorship, there are tensions over who deserves most of the credit and who should get a bigger say in shaping the country. In Crossing Continents now Justin Marozzi reports on the battle for who owns the revolution. The programme does contain some descriptions of violence, including sexual violence, which some listeners might find upsetting.

Sexual abuse has become so common in America’s huge jail and prison system that the government has introduced new rules designed to stamp it out. Linda Pressly speaks to victims of prison rape and asks whether the new rules can stamp out abuse behind bars.

BBC foreign affairs editor John Simpson returns to Halabja in Kurdistan, 25 years after the world's worst-ever chemical weapons attack on civilians.

Many schools in the north of South Africa have gone for months without text books. There was money to buy the books. There was also a contract to deliver them. Yet they didn't arrive. Many students and parents are furious with politicians of the governing ANC - and say the problem is due to mismanagement and alleged corruption. For Crossing Continents, Rob Walker investigates the mystery of the missing books, and asks what it says about the way the ANC is running South Africa.

Kirsty Lang and Lucy Ash investigate an underground arts collective which operates in the vast network of tunnels which lie beneath Paris.

Kirsty Lang and Lucy Ash meet female authors, magazine editors and activists wearing false beards who tell them that feminism in France is still very much a fringe affair.

El Salvador's violent street gangs have made a truce. The Mara Salvatrucha and 18th Street gang are criminal outfits that trace their origins to Los Angeles. In March peace was brokered in El Salvador’s prisons with the gangs’ leaders. Since then the murder rate in this small Central American nation has plummeted. Linda Pressly visits the jailed leaders to find out how the deal was done. Is this a peace that can last?

Kirsty Lang and Lucy Ash take a journey off the beaten track of the French arts scene and meet the world's most celebrated street theatre company.

Kirsty Lang and Lucy Ash take a series of snapshots off the beaten track in France looking at the state of the nation through the prism of arts and culture.