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Best of the BBC
69 days underground
For more than two months, 33 men were trapped underground in Chile’s San Jose mine. As the rescue attempt gathered pace in the Atacama Desert above, hundreds of relatives and dozens of international media organisations set up camp there. Now – with all the men brought to the surface safely – BBC News takes a look back at the miners’ ordeal.
>>>Watch the audio slideshow
Britain’s first car accident
Almost 4,000 people are killed on the world’s roads every day, according to the campaigning charity RoadPeace. So who was the UK’s first fatal car accident victim – exactly 114 years ago – and what happened?
Audio slideshow: The Hubble is 20
The famous space telescope has been peering into some of the deepest recesses of the universe for two decades – and is now celebrating its 20th birthday. In this Best of the BBC, you can take a look at some of the fantastic sights it has seen in that time with Professor Alec Boksenberg from the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge – who was on the European team that helped build Hubble.
Audio slideshow: soccer kings of New York City
Martin Luther King Jr High School has a troubled history. In 2002 it made news when a student shot two fellow students, shortly afterward, MLK became one of the first in New York City to be closed due to low performance and high drop-out rates. The building now houses six smaller schools, and their boys’ soccer team, still playing under the MLK banner is a big success: it’s winning championships and the players have high graduation rates. The man behind the team’s success is Coach Jake, and he can rely on talent from all over the world.
When the prime minister calls
London seniors Joyce and Ted Hawkes were quite surprised when Downing Street called in 1997 to ask whether Britain’s new prime minister Tony Blair and his wife could come by for a cup of tea. They relived the moment with the host of the BBC’s PM program, Eddie Mair.
Fallujah doctors report rise in birth defects
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Download MP3Doctors in the Iraqi city of Fallujah are reporting a high level of birth defects, with some blaming weapons used by the US after the Iraq invasion. BBC world affairs editor John Simpson (pictured) visited a new, US-funded hospital in Fallujah where pediatrician Samira al-Ani told him that she was seeing as many as two or three cases a day, mainly cardiac defects. Download MP3
Actor George Takei remembers his internment
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The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour led, on February 19th, 1942, to Executive Order 9066 being issued by President Roosevelt. It consigned over 100,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps. Star Trek actor and Japanese-American George Takei was just four-years-old when he, along with his parents and siblings, was removed from the family home. BBC World Service programme Witness interviewed Takei about the experience. Download MP3
Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom
It has been 20 years since the South African authorities agreed to free Nelson Mandela – the man who would lead the struggle to end the country’s policy of racial segregation, and create a multi-racial democracy. In this audio slideshow, using the BBC archives, you can see how he left behind his cell of 27 years, to become South Africa’s first black president.
Hero Pilot: ‘I thought I was going to die’
In his first media interview, the pilot of a British Airways jet which crash landed at London’s Heathrow airport two years ago has described the moment he thought would die. Captain Peter Burkill’s jet plane lost power in the final seconds of its approach to land. Captain Burkill describes how in the space of five seconds his prediction for the imminent hard-landing changed from 100% casualties to 50%. In the event, there was only one serious injury, and Captain Burkill and his crew were hailed as heroes.
Your World, Your Way – BBC users show off video skills
Michael Schmacke’s fast animation through the center of Berlin is art of the BBC World Service MyWorld project. The film is one of many short videos being submitted by World Service users to share the things that matter to them. Michael shot his film with a digital SLR camera – he describes it as “a point of view which only could be developed by the cold war, an abstract building of childish arguments. Just like the film…”
Pakistan Earthquake – Four Years On
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In fall 2005, tens of thousands of people were killed in a massive earthquake which struck northern Pakistan. Then, as in the more recent quake in Haiti, international agencies launched massive aid progams to help the survivors. As the focus of media attention now begins to shift away from Haiti, the BBC’s Aleem Maqbool has returned to Muzzafarabad, where he’s found that reconstructing homes and rebuilding lives has been a slow process in the years since the TV cameras moved on. Download MP3
Ugandan witch doctors sacrifice children
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The secret shrine of a witch doctor, body parts, dead children – these are the horrific details revealed in this documentary on an apparent rise in human sacrifice in Uganda. People there believe that human body parts will appease evil spirits. In this Best of the BBC, Tim Whewell travels to Uganda to investigate. Please note this program contains disturbing accounts throughout Download MP3‘I boarded a plane with an aerosol can’
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After the foiled attempt on Christmas Day to bring down transatlantic flight 253 bound for Detroit, there have been many calls for better safety measures. More careful screening of passengers and their belongings passing through airports was immediately implemented. But as this BBC report from Colette Hume shows, security is still not exactly where it should be. Download MP3
Death and denial in Nigeria
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A harrowing report has been filed by Caroline Duffield, the BBC’s correspondent in Lagos, Nigeria. The bodies of young men are literally piling up in a hospital in the town of Enugu, and have been for months, it has been alleged. Nigerian police say the men, many of whom are untraceable, were thiefs and armed robbers. But the family members of some who can be identified are disputing the claims. Download MP3
World AIDS Day Posters
In this audio slideshow from BBC News, you can see the subtle and shocking ways that health campaigners have used images to raise HIV/AIDS awareness across the world. The posters use various methods, from humorous to blunt messages, to convey to observers why the message remains so important more than two decades after the virus was discovered.
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