Foreign Correspondent

Argentina is on its knees with inflation rates over 100 percent and 40 percent of the population living in poverty. There's hope that mining the country's vast supply of the rare metal lithium could solve the current crisis.

NBA superstar LeBron James has put his name and his money behind an extraordinary social experiment in his hometown of Akron. Paul Kennedy travels to Ohio to see how the plan is coming to life - and whether it's working.

A year after the Uvalde school shooting in Texas the community is still traumatised. They're angry about the inadequate police response on the day and they're determined to change the law on the sale of deadly assault rifles.

In Canada Australian firefighters join an international team in a desperate battle to help combat the nation's worst forest fires in recorded history. An area of 32 million acres has been scorched in this climate catastrophe.

In India the Modi Government is being accused of waging a war on Bollywood, the country's most powerful cultural force. Filmmakers who criticise the government or resist pressure to produce pro-Hindu content face a backlash.

It's almost a decade since ISIS forces swept through Iraq and Syria but the legacy of their brutal caliphate remains. The Yazidis of northern Iraq were slaughtered and enslaved by ISIS. Today the search continues for the missing Yazidis who have still not returned home.

North Korean defectors overcome huge odds to escape to a new life in the south but instead of finding happiness they are often overcome with loneliness and isolation. Still living in fear, they rarely speak out publicly.

The Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain is reinventing itself as a liberal oasis and its capital Manama has become the place to party for young Saudis who can do things that are forbidden in their own country.

Three years after Brexit and Britain is broken. The country's cost of living crisis is now fuelling separatist movements. In Wales where one in three children live in poverty, the call for independence is getting louder.

In Cambodia, Chinese organised crime syndicates are running global cyber scam operations using workers who have been trafficked and enslaved in secure compounds. The syndicates have strong ties to the ruling Hun Sen regime.

In the Philippines online child sex abuse is flourishing and demand by Australian perpetrators for live streaming is increasing. Reporter Stephanie March embeds with police who are catching abusers and rescuing children.

Japan is confronting the possibility of war. New military bases on the country's remote southwest islands have the locals worried about the impact on their idyllic life and the prospect of becoming a target.

In Scandinavia, the indigenous Sami have their own parliaments. But a new wave of green development is putting pressure on Sami lands, testing the power of their voice. What lessons can Australia learn from the Sami?

From zero tolerance to decriminalisation, Thailand's u-turn this year on cannabis laws is lighting up a billion-dollar industry. Officially it's for medicinal use but the legal grey area means 'ganja' lovers are celebrating.

In the French city of Marseille, there's a war on drugs. The police are cracking down on gangs dealing from estates in the city's north. The dealers say it's the only way to survive. We gain rare access to both sides.

The mighty Colorado is under threat. From the Rockies' snowy peaks to Mexico, the river is a lifeline for tens of millions of people. We journey along its waters to see places and meet people changed by a drier world.

In the oceans of West Africa, it's a poachers' paradise. Foreign ships are illegally raiding these rich fishing grounds, leaving little for locals. Now the tide is turning, as activists help governments push back the boats.

Wyoming is the most pro-Trump state and respected Republican Liz Cheney is about to find out what that means. Kathryn Diss travels through the spectacular wilderness to talk with locals about the upcoming primary elections.

He started as a low-level spy. He ended up president for life. For two decades, former Moscow correspondent Eric Campbell has tracked Putin's rise to power, speaking with his school teacher, friends, patrons and enemies.

A troubled man. His missing father. A secretive kingdom, faraway. Like many who were abandoned by their Saudi fathers, Jared wants to meet the dad he never knew. Will this rigid society welcome the children it left behind?

Forced into exile 36 years ago, the Marcos dynasty is poised to take power again in the Philippines. The son of dictator Ferdinand Sr, Bongbong, is much loved - but how has the family restored its tarnished reputation?

For years a ruthless mafia ruled Calabria through intimidation and violence. Now a magistrate is taking them on, charging hundreds in one of the biggest trials in decades. Can the Italian state beat its most powerful mafia?

In this month's presidential race France is swinging to the right. Candidates on the far-right are polling around 30%. The left is divided, xenophobia rife. Has the nation that champions equality and fraternity lost its way?

Once the owners of vast tracts of forest and mountains, Chile's largest indigenous group the Mapuche are fighting to take back what was lost. Eric Campbell is in central Chile where a rebellion is met with military force.

The world is watching on in shock as Putin's army invades Ukraine. Two countries with a shared history spanning centuries are fighting in the streets of Ukrainian cities. We explore both sides of this dangerous conflict.

Flying solo in Japan. A rich and powerful nation is facing a social crisis. Millions of young singles are turning their backs on marriage and children - will it create an epidemic of loneliness? Jake Sturmer reports.

In the era of New Space, billionaire Elon Musk is blazing the trail. He's building a gigantic starship to fly humans further than ever before. Sarah Ferguson reports on one man's extraordinary mission: Destination Mars.

One Spanish yacht, a quarter of a million square kilometres of sea. Boatloads of desperate men, women and children fleeing for their lives. Can a Barcelona crew help thousands on a risky journey and steer them to safety?

From Europe to the US, coal is under fire. Environmentalists are circling, mines closing. As coal declines how will communities fare? We go to the US & Spain to see how different regions are managing the dying days of coal.

The Taliban is back. Even before foreign forces have withdrawn from Afghanistan, the hardline Islamic force has seized control of the country. In the lead up to the takeover, Yalda Hakim asks its leaders how they will rule.

The right to an abortion in the US is on the brink. Guaranteed by the Supreme Court 50 years ago, that right has been wound back by the states. With the Court about to reconsider the issue, many states could ban it overnight.

Tens of thousands missing, many more murdered. So why are Mexico's violent drug cartels operating with impunity? We go inside the most powerful cartel to meet the footsoldiers. Corruption, they say, goes right to the top.

There's a tech war being fought between the US and China. While the US has had the edge, China is catching up fast, investing heavily in A.I., robotics and surveillance. Will it overtake the US to dominate the 21st century?

Is seeing believing? Not anymore. AI can now make fake video where real people say and do things they never did. Hamish Macdonald reports on deepfakes, the technology some fear will undermine civilisation as we know it.

For millennia, its waters healed the faithful. Today they're the source of conflict and tension. Eric Tlozek takes us on a spectacular journey through an ancient land to unravel the mysteries of the disappearing Dead Sea.

Spain has been hit hard by the pandemic, with over seventy thousand dead. Australian Lily Mayers reveals how the nation's people are struggling to survive through a once-in-a-lifetime crisis.

Bali's natural beauty and rich culture have made it a top holiday destination but since COVID hit the island is struggling. Locals are now questioning their dependence on tourism and the over-development it has unleashed.

The women are rising. With their men jailed, Belarusian women have stepped on to the frontlines of the revolution. Inspired by a fearless great-grandmother, they won't give up till they've toppled their President.

Once a city of protest, now a city of fear. Bill Birtles chronicles freedom's final days as Hong Kong activists face a stark choice: should they stay and fight for democracy, risking jail or flee and campaign from abroad?

Falun Gong has morphed from fringe quasi-religious group into a powerful player in America's conservative media landscape. Using social media they try to get Trump re-elected so he can continue his war of words with China.

Born in Timor, raised in Indonesia, a group of East Timorese stolen during wartime is now returning home. But will reunion with long lost family heal old wounds? This is a moving story about the power of blood and memory.

Being a single man in China is tough. Young men face pressure to provide a family heir but finding a bride isn't easy. With 30 million more males than females, many bachelors are taking desperate measures to get hitched.

The laid back, self-proclaimed 'rainbow people' of Trinidad and Tobago are dealing with an increase in illegal migration, gang crime and piracy on-sea. Andy Park visits during peak party season, the festival of Carnival.

Coronavirus has hit Britain hard with the highest death toll in Europe and forecasts of the deepest recession in 300 years. We look at England through the lockdown and hear people's fears and hopes for life after corona.

A secret war on Australia's doorstep. Sally Sara reports from inside the escalating conflict in Indonesian-ruled West Papua. There have been protests, fighting, a security crackdown, hundreds dead and thousands displaced.

A deeply divided nation in the throes of a culture war. The Polish government and Catholic Church are forming a holy alliance to denounce Western-style liberalism. Now feminists, gay people and liberals are fighting back.

After years of war the US government and the Taliban are making a 'peace deal'. But what does the Taliban's return to power mean for Afghan women? Will migrant Afghani workers returning home from Iran spread COVID-19?

While the world shuts down, Singapore has been open for business. Learning from the SARS outbreak Singapore acted on its pandemic plan even before the new virus arrived. Eric Campbell explores the secrets to its success.

Sex, drugs and people smuggling. Emma Alberici braves a no-man's land near Naples to report on a ruthless new criminal group moving in on the Italian mafia. Will the Nigerian mafia be as hard to root out as the local mob?

Reporter Sally Sara travels to Nepal to uncover an ugly truth: many children living in the more than 500 orphanages across the country are not orphans but victims of traffickers, who prey on poor families in remote areas.

While Australia ponders opening new coal fields, Germany has reached an agreement between government, mining and energy companies and unions to phase out brown coal by 2038 in return for a $60 billion injection of funds.

Foreign Correspondent travels to Europe to investigate the decline of the insect population, threatening entire ecosystems. Reporter Eric Campbell discovers the causes and the steps in place to reverse the decline.

They're young, passionate and want to save the planet. We profile three young activists inspired by Swedish teen Greta Thunberg to mobilise the public and demand action on global warming with climate strikes and at the UN.

As Australia grapples with a spate of deaths at music festivals, triple j presenter Tom Tilley heads to Europe to see drug testing in action. But is it the only way to keep people safe?

The site of the world's worst nuclear accident Chernobyl is now a tourist destination. Linton Besser visits the exclusion zone to see the devastation of nuclear meltdown, government-sanctioned cover-up and radiation sickness.

Ukraine is the new 'go-to' destination for couples desperate to be parents. But Samantha Hawley uncovers an industry out of control that exploits surrogate mothers and leaves babies abandoned.

In the season return, Craig Reucassel investigates the future of food, where plant and animal cell-based meat substitutes challenge America's multi-billion-dollar meat industry.

A secretive billionaire family pushes a pill that triggers more deaths than guns or car crashes. From backwoods Appalachia to hi tech San Francisco, Conor Duffy investigates America's opioid scourge.

A radical experiment in democracy and women's rights is under way in the old badlands of Islamic State. But as Yaara Bou Melhem reports, it could be crushed in an instant.

As Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un ready for their late February summit, we take a unique and inspiring journey into rural North Korea where local doctors join with international volunteers to heal the sick.

Two young men escape the misery of Manus Island to forge new lives in North America. Reporter Eric Tlozek charts their progress and their pitfalls over 18 months.

Vanilla hustlers in dusty streets. Vanilla brokers in vanilla-built palaces. Vanilla crops threatening rare lemurs' jungle homes. On a wild ride through Madagascar, Adam Harvey finds there's nothing plain about vanilla.

In India's far east, wild elephants are in deadly, daily conflict with people. Siobhan Heanue follows the clashes as roaming herds get squeezed by shrinking forests and a growing human population.

China is marrying Big Brother to Big Data. Every citizen will be watched and their behaviour scored in the most ambitious and sophisticated system of social control in history. Matthew Carney reports.

Is it OK for a man to proposition a woman in the street or at work? Some leading French women say yes. In Paris, guest reporter Annabel Crabb asks what happens when #MeToo rubs up against Pepe Le Pew.

Sean Dorney got thrown out of PNG for his reporting yet he received one of its top honours. He skippered its footy team and fell for a local girl. Now suffering motor neurone disease, he makes an emotional final visit.

China sent Australia's recycling industry into a spin when it banned most waste imports. Now it's tackling a home-grown rubbish crisis. Bill Birtles looks at China's own war on waste and asks: is it winning?

A tropical paradise is racked with bankruptcy then smashed by a killer hurricane. In rides a cavalry of digital evangelists selling hi-tech revolution. Will they save the day? Eric Campbell reports.

This is the inside story of 104-year-old activist David Goodall's last days in Europe as he farewells family and campaigns for the right to die, up to his final hour.

A cruel trade is tearing baby orangutans from their jungle homes to be sold abroad. Samantha Hawley gets a smuggler's story - and meets the warriors risking their lives to save the great apes from extinction.

The old is new. Ditching conventional careers, a generation of hip young Italians is rediscovering the grand tradition of "Made in Italy". Hamish Macdonald takes an exhilarating road trip to meet them.

He fled Saddam Hussein's brutality to become detainee #982 in an Australian refugee camp. Now Munjed al-Muderis is a world-leading surgeon giving amputees a second chance at life. Sophie McNeill tells his inspiring story.

Foreign Correspondent returns for a new season. Rising sea levels threaten to flush a vast stash of highly radioactive plutonium into the Pacific Ocean. But thats not the only toxic fallout from a legacy of nuclear tests.

Terror at a pop concert. Children die. Sirens, grief, fury. How does a city recover? Hamish Macdonald deep dives into Manchester's Muslim community to find hard & revealing conversations going on.

Matt Brown reports from Kenya on a radical cash experiment that challenges our deep-rooted notions of charity and may hold the seeds of a revolution in social welfare.

ABC NEWS & The New York Times collaborate on a special in which New York Times National Correspondent John Eligon examines the state of race relations in Australia through the fresh eyes of a journalist from Missouri.

A Foreign Correspondent exclusive: Unprecedented access inside Bali's notorious Kerobokan jail.

British investigators continue to tell the inside story of the bizarre murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. In a tale that's stranger than fiction, a teapot is the murder weapon.

In this special tribute episode to Mark Colvin Foreign Correspondent reports on his legacy as a foreign correspondent, as well as a virtual correspondent, harnessing Twitter as a portal to dive into big, breaking stories.

Foreign Correspondent takes a spectacular journey into the wilds of Mongolia in search of an ancient, imperilled tradition - the Kazakh golden eagle hunters.

A band of inspired young Australians are deploying a new weapon against a global scourge - the great gobs of plastic polluting our oceans. Europe Correspondent Lisa Millar tells how they're doing it.

China is executing a masterplan to dominate world football, pumping billions of dollars into buying foreign players, coaches & entire European clubs & grooming new generations of its own young stars.

It's got more oil than any country on the planet but its people eat garbage and gangsters rule. Defying a media ban, Eric Campbell goes undercover in the onetime socialist idyll of Venezuela.

Who'll be next? Fear and paranoia grip Turkey after a failed coup and a payback purge, as Sally Sara reports.

Elephants roaming Scandinavia, wolves chasing bison in Europe - endangered animals are being reintroduced to wild places as part of a radical and controversial idea called "re-wilding".

More than 60 million Chinese children are growing up without their parents, paying the price of their country's dash to prosperity. Matthew Carney reports on the generation left behind.

In a playground of international powers, it’s children who are dying from bombs, bullets and hunger. Sophie McNeill and cameraman Aaron Hollett report from the Yemen war zone.

Hamish Macdonald obtains exclusive access to rebel Republicans as they plot to railroad Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

As China's economy stumbles, Matthew Carney taps into the anger of a growing mass of unemployed workers and meets a labour activist who's risking his freedom to fight for their rights.

How do you free troubled kids from the violence and poverty of South Africa's broken townships? For starters, you teach them surfing. Sally Sara reports on the idea that's inspiring youngsters to unleash their best.

It's the question posed after Orlando & every other massacre: Will America ever regulate guns? Lisa Millar revisits a mother who lost her little boy to a mass shooter and who - remarkably - sees positive signs of change.

A puff of rumour grew into a tempest of accusations and led to the jailing of seven people for alleged child abuse at an elite international school in Jakarta. Was justice served or was it a case of moral panic?

Anatomy of a military scandal. Why did US forces attack a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital in Afghanistan, killing 42 people? An Aussie doctor is among the survivors who tell their chilling stories.

A giant leap for mankind or a hazardous lurch into the unknown? A tiny Australian venture is racing to rule the skies, as drone companies vie to deliver mail, medicines & pizzas to your door. Zoe Daniel reports.

Thousands of Australians book their holidays on cheap foreign airlines - but how safe are they? This special report reveals troubling evidence about the safety of some Asian budget carriers.

A budding ski industry has sprung up in the remote alps of Afghanistan. But this enterprise – and the local people - face the menace of a resurgent Taliban.

Liam Cochrane travels to the source of most of Australia’s heroin - the vast opium fields of Myanmar, where poppy production has more than doubled in a decade. What will it take to stop the opium trade?

They're back. The crazy loans that triggered the Global Financial Crisis have morphed into "zombie mortgages" and as Paul Barry discovers, they're cutting a swathe through some American cities.

After 10 years as the ABC's China Correspondent, Stephen McDonell looks back at the big stories of his time based in Beijing and asks where the country is headed.

As key climate talks start in Paris, Eric Campbell looks at potential solutions to global warming - from Costa Rica's thermal power to giant North Sea wind farms and California's solar start ups.

Carpenter Barry Kirby's life turned upside down when he chanced upon a young woman dying on a bush road. The Australian tradie became a doctor with a mission: saving women's lives in the wilds of Papua New Guinea.

Donald Trump was supposed to crash and burn but he is streaking ahead of his rivals in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Emma Alberici asks why the bombastic billionaire is defying the pundits.

With the US poised to lift its 55 year trade embargo, reporter Eric Campbell tells the remarkable story of how one American farming family befriended Fidel Castro and helped end Cuba's isolation.

Peter Greste's own story of his joyful homecoming after 400 days in an Egyptian jail - and the tense build-up to the final verdict on terrorism charges.

Sally Sara journeys across Ireland to discover why this conservative Catholic country became the first in the world to say yes to gay marriage in a popular vote.

With just minutes to spare, mother-of-two Mary Jane Veloso escaped the firing squad that executed Australia's Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. Find out how she was saved and whether she will make it home to her children.

Once shackled by mass illiteracy, South Korea now tops global academic league tables. But as North Asia Correspondent Matthew Carney reports, its stressed out students also rank as the unhappiest in the developed world.

Qatar's triumphant bid for the 2022 World Cup is under fire not just because of the FIFA corruption scandal. Migrant workers now building its multi-billion dollar facilities endure wretched living & working conditions.

Hundreds of young Western educated women are running away from home to marry radical Islamic fighters and live in the self declared "Islamic State" in Syria and Iraq. We go into the secret world of the online recruiters.

An exclusive with the Mayor of London - Boris Johnson. Philip Williams follows the star of British politics across London and asks: What challenges will he face if he gets the top job of Prime Minister?

For the first time ever Palestine's football team qualified for the Asian Cup, played in Australia. We follow the highs and lows as players are caught up in a brutal war at home and dramas on and off the pitch in Australia.

Sally Sara goes inside some of Kenya's toughest jails to investigate an innovative program that is seeing convicted criminals learn how to set themselves free, using the justice system.

Sally Sara meets the new generation of Soweto. The black township was once a byword for suffering and squalor but it's always had an unassailable spirit and now it's undergoing a dramatic transformation.

The kingdom of Upper Mustang, Nepal is the last outpost of authentic Tibetan Buddhism. Cut off from modernity, foreigners were banned until 1992. Now a road is being built all the way to China. Can the unique culture survive?

A special report on the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. Our team, which was the last camera crew into the hardest hit areas before a Government lockdown, has been at the frontline for one of the worst weeks in the Ebola crisis.

Foreign Correspondent travels to Dili, East Timor and witnesses a country facing a myriad of health problems. We follow the challenging daily life of Dr Dan Murphy as he treats people overwhelmed by the diseases of poverty.

Scottish/Australian reporter Barbara Miller returns home to see whether the Scots really are prepared to be brave and vote for independence?

Sally Sara travels into the mountains of Laos, to meet the brave women hunting for bombs.

What happens when a vacuum-sealed, strictly-controlled nation opens its doors and ushers in aggressive international businesses, hungry global developers and curious tourists? Sally Sara reports from Yangon, Myanmar.

Hundreds of cannabis businesses are aiming to make it an industry to rival beer. But there is a growing opposition of voices warning that a new Big Tobacco is being created.

China has changed dramatically since the crackdown and wholesale slaughter in Tiananmen Square 25 years ago. For the first time Australia's embassy staff assemble with their first-hand accounts of the days that stained China.

Eric Campbell reports from a conflict zone in the South China sea. In a world exclusive, Foreign Correspondent reports from the island dispute threatening war with China.

Shaker Aamer, hands and feet shackled, was dragged into Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay prison more than 4,500 days ago. No charges, no trial. North America correspondent Lisa Millar inspects the infamous prison, Guantanamo Bay.

Foreign Correspondent investigates India's booming international surrogacy industry by following Australian couples hoping to start or build their families by paying Indian women to bear them a child.

In Dubai, Australian Marcus Lee was accused of a multi-million dollar fraud he never committed. But it took him 7 months of jail time and a legal battle lasting years before he and his wife Julie would be free.

With breathtaking speed, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the armed takeover of a key part of a neighbouring country and dared the world to do something about it. Eric Campbell is there for the countdown.

Highly endangered Sumatran tigers are barely surviving in the wild - but captivity for these magnificent animals can be just as threatening - Foreign Correspondent investigates the zoo from hell.

Earthquakes. Tsunami. Nuclear Emergency. The chilling set of dominoes that dropped in March 2011 and devastated northern Japan have now largely coalesced into one word - Fukushima.

Would you work for .13 an hour? That's the tough new reality for two former professionals you'll meet in this disturbing assessment of America's economic reality.

Sally Sara met the 'can-do' combat doctor in Kandahar. But when he made it home he struggled with PTSD. So many returned soldiers are ticking time bombs. Sally Sara investigates the impact of PTSD and how to beat it.

We get up close and personal with the ageing rock stars of Rapa Nui - Easter Island's mysterious stone statues. While scientists race to save the gigantic statues, the locals hope those same statues will save their community.

It's got sun, beaches, spectacular scenery and hoards of holiday makers. It's also the number one European destination for murder. Foreign Correspondent examines the brutal, dark heart of a tourist playground.

With the world's biggest sporting events heading their way, Brazilians are getting ready to party. So why are they so upset? Lisa Millar goes to Rio to find out.

Australia's leading international current affairs returns with the first of a captivating two part investigation into China's booming drug culture and surging supply chains out of Myanmar.

Economics Correspondent Stephen Long meets shocked, angry residents of this sun drenched Mediterranean island who've had their savings - including their pension funds - seized.

Eric Campbell takes a 1,000km road trip to the fabled Saharan desert city of Timbuktu, which has just been liberated by French troops after radical Islamists invaded.

Did the U.S. and its allies sponsor the use of torture methods in Iraq?

As the bombs and ballistic missiles rain down on the divided ancient Syrian city of Aleppo, Matt Brown follows the life of an 11 year old boy who just wants to go to school and play football with his mates.

Zoe Daniel reports from India, where a woman is raped almost every 20 minutes. But Joyti's story stood out, and her family tells Zoe that they're determined to bring about change.

Emma Alberici investigates the paradox of the modern Italian state - a country that the European Union simply can't afford to go the same way as some of its neighbours.

In a special investigation reporter Eric Campbell goes undercover with the world's top ranger, Australian Sean Willmore - to expose ivory traders and their rampant, black trade.

It once commanded an empire that occupied an enormous swathe of the world, now the world wants a big slice of Mongolia. It's boomtime in this isolated and undeveloped nation as global miners are racing to stake their claims on vast riches that rival, perhaps even eclipse Australia's resources bounty. So, if you can't beat 'em join 'em and local mining giant Rio Tinto and developer Leighton are right in the thick of the action. But profound questions are being raised about the impact on environment, the proud traditions of nomadic herders and the ability of a small, unsophisticated government to deal with slick, lawyered-up multinationals.

The young Tallahassee tailgaters party in the football arena carpark, slugging rocket fuel from jars and chanting in unison: 'No Obama! No Obama!' Across town, the party faithful watching the Democrat National Convention are just as exuberant and emphatic. 'What's the biggest misconception about Barack Obama?' one is asked. 'Misconception? I can’t think of a single negative thing about him!' One patch of Florida; two polarised views. Welcome to the swingingest election hotspot in America with the biggest bounty of all-important electoral votes among the swing states. If you want the White House you really should be trying to get Florida in the bag.

Israel has been running two very different operations aimed at stopping Iran developing nuclear weapons. One is very public, the other undercover. As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presses Israel's allies to intensify action against Iran and even threatens his own armed strike if Iran crosses a red line of nuclear development, Israel's intelligence agency Mossad is taking a more personal approach. It's been training its sights on the brains within Iran's atomic program.

It's a boxing promoter's dream bout. A pay-per-view, box-office knockout right up there with the Rumble in the Jungle and the Thriller in Manila. In the red corner a hulking great Ukrainian world champion by the name of Klitschko. In the blue corner a man-mountain Ukrainian world champion by the name of Klitschko. What? That's right the heavyweight boxers are brothers and they're the biggest things in the ring right now. Unfortunately mum won't let them fight each other so the dream bout's just that. But the Klitschkos are about to fight one of the biggest bouts of their careers together, entering the political arena to save their beloved Ukraine. Let's get ready to rumble!

Together their future was very uncertain, almost certainly bleak. They'd been surrendered by their parents and shunned by their village. Separated, they had better chance of a normal life but there were risks as well. Conjoined 11 month-old twins Stuti and Aradhana had the best medical expertise on their case, including three specialists from Australia. In this emotion charged journey into India, Foreign Correspondent discovers best intentions, love and a crack international surgical team offer hope, but there can be no guarantees.

It's a spectacular collision of real and virtual worlds and the consequences are potentially earth shattering. On one side, South Korea, the most wired place on earth with an internet that sizzles into 90% of all homes, powers commerce and super-charges entertainment including a national obsession with internet games. On the other side, North Korea, arguably the most paranoid and dangerously unpredictable place on earth, with a million-strong army and, we reveal, a super-secret team of state-authorised hackers looking to bring chaos to the neighbourhood and beyond.

Foreign Correspondent celebrates 20 years of Australia's finest international television reporting with 'That Was Then This is Now', a one-hour special featuring the return of much loved alumni to reflect on their most memorable moments and - for former host and reporter Jennifer Byrne and former Europe correspondent Tony Jones - a return to the scenes of their landmark reporting for the program. Jennifer reprises an early assignment in New York on the spectacular dot-com boom of the late '90s and chases the internet revolution forward with characters from her original story. Tony heads back to Bosnia and his powerful reporting of the Balkans' conflict of the '90s. Some things change dramatically and fundamentally alter the way we live our lives, others remain mired in the past and barely change at all.

It's unquestionably the world's highest national beauty pageant, it may also be the world's smallest but it must be right up there with the strangest. Certainly when you think of Tibet you're far more likely to think of the Dalai Lama, Buddhist spirituality and the struggle for an independent homeland. You're less likely to summon images of a wanna-be Donald Trump-style impresario in silver threads, swimsuit shoots by mountain streams and beautiful girls aiming to be the next top beauty on top of the world. That's the Miss Tibet pageant and - perhaps surprisingly - it's as catty and competitive as any beauty contest. But is it, as its promoter claims, all about liberation and empowerment or is it a cynical exercise in exploitation? And what will the Dalai Lama make of it all?

If your children had been snatched by your partner and taken overseas you'd hope the law would be on your side and the authorities would do everything in their power to retrieve them. Well, not if they've been taken to one particular country with an infamous reputation for protecting kidnappers. Japan has become a refuge for nationals who've swiped their children from homes around the world and the catalogue of heartbreak is enormous. Unless, as one parent in our investigation has done, you side-step the law, hire some burly help and stop at nothing to get your children back.

Have visa, will travel. Sounds simple, but until now, it just wasn't that easy for journalists to visit one of Asia's most fascinating and under-reported countries. Now Burma has lifted the curtain and the ABC's South East Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel and her crew have been able to travel widely and openly there for the first time, talking to ordinary Burmese and showing the rest of us what this beautiful place looks like. It's still early days for the reform process and no-one really understands why the changes are happening, but one thing seems clear - Burma will be the next hot spot on the tourist trail.

If life's two certainties are death and taxes then who blinks first in a face-off between God and The Taxman? Italians are buckling up for very bumpy, very bleak ride into economic gloom and doomdom but many are asking if everyone's paying their way - particularly the very wealthy. The Catholic Church for instance. As a get-tough Government doles out some harsh medicine, it has at least signalled the Church may need to toss a lot more into the collection plate. But will it come to pass?

They're two women from utterly different worlds so what do a seasoned Australian television producer and a 19 year old student from Kabul, Afghanistan have in common. It's a shared hope for the ascendency of female rights, aspiration and opportunity in one of the most dangerous and oppressive places on earth. The outsider is shaping some of the country's TV drama, tackling confronting issues that challenge the orthodoxy. The teenager is boldly fighting violence in the street and at home. It's a massive battle against an age old order but don't discount her - Noorjahan Akbar isn't about to take a backward step.

In China they're setting blistering speed records. From the go-fast, rich kids quickly amassing stables of super-cars to the developers building sky-scraping hotels - start to finish - in just 14 days. One local rich list estimates China has almost a million millionaires, 600 billionaires and the numbers keep growing at a staggering rate. Private jets are flying out of showroom hangers at mach 1. The economic transformation of China has been electrifying, but with Europe teetering and the U.S. plodding can the biggest tiger of all keep on roaring? The super-rich you'll meet in our 2012 return certainly think so.

Banking used to be the very model of prudence. Now much of it resembles an extreme sport where the line between risk and recklessness has been wiped out. As the Occupy movement moves in on major cities around the world, we meet some of the extreme players who crashed and burned mountains of other people's money, and ask are rogue traders really maverick loners or products of a system that's thrown away the rule book?

Just nine months ago, Egyptians were celebrating their revolution and savouring their sweet victory. Hundreds of thousands of protesters camping in Cairo's Tahrir Square stared down the 30-year dictatorship of President Hosni Mubarak. Foreign Correspondent was there for the moment of triumph as he was forced from power. But was it really a victory or has the revolution been hijacked? We return to Tahrir Square, and the charismatic woman at the centre of our story, Salma el Tarzi, to find out what happened next.

Who would have thought that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would ever become this hip? There's a multi award-winning Broadway blockbuster based on Mormon missionaries, two TV series featuring polygamous families, a slick new advertising campaign aiming to demystify the religion and two Presidential candidates who also happen to be of the faith. It all adds up to what's being called "a Mormon moment". But popular culture success may not be enough to overcome the deep suspicions many Americans still harbour towards what some regard as a heretical, secretive cult. Is America really ready to vote for a Mormon President?

It launched with massive fanfare and a radical agenda to change the way news was reported. It offered anonymity to whistleblowers and a platform to freely publish information to a global audience. WikiLeaks was an instant sensation as it exposed the hidden deeds of governments and corporations. But now its controversial founder Julian Assange finds himself isolated - deserted by many of his former partners and friends and fighting extradition. His organisation is damaged and can't currently receive the leaks that are its lifeblood. Can WikiLeaks survive?

What would happen if people around the world who are concerned about the plight of Palestinians all stopped buying Israeli products and ceased using Israeli services and urged many more to do the same? Would their actions alter the course of events, change an intractable stand-off, succeed where so many peace proposals, special envoys, intense diplomacy and of course armed conflict have persistently failed? We go behind the global grassroots campaign railing against Israel with boycotts.

He compares Islam to communism and fascism, the Koran to Mein Kampf and he holds the balance of power in the Netherlands. Geert Wilders is Europe's incendiary, polarising Stop-And-Go-Back man and he won't rest until he kills multiculturalism stone dead and shows Islam the door. Just a decade ago, the Netherlands was one of the most welcoming countries in Europe now it's leading Europe's anti-immigration backlash. Wilders went to ground after 69 people were massacred in Norway by an anti-immigration fanatic. Now, in his first interview since that atrocity, he's as strident and determined as ever and he wants to bring his message to Australia.

Diamonds ignite passions. They symbolize beauty, glamour and romance. But how can something so beautiful also bring so much harm? In Zimbabwe they've been at the centre of violence and bloodshed that until now has been shrouded in a massive cover-up. Now - in this special investigation - we present compelling documentary evidence of an army-led massacre of workers in a remote diamond field and ask where the orders came from.

It's very rare and you'll only find it up in the very rare air. And even if you have the lungs, stamina and perseverance to get there you'll need razor-sharp eyes, hardy hands and knees and plenty of patience to find it. So what is it? Well it's part-monster, part-mummy and depending on who you talk to it has a multitude of super powers from heart health to sex aid. On one of the strangest journeys we've ever undertaken, we go in search of, er - what to call it? The mile-high grub? No.

They didn't stand a chance. When a powerful earthquake shook Christchurch at lunchtime on a February afternoon earlier this year, the relatively modern CTV building was reduced to a mound of rubble in a matter of seconds. 116 lives were lost. Now, as anguish turns to anger in New Zealand's second largest city we assess disturbing allegations that the building was fatally flawed and so many people didn't have to die.

How low could they go and how high did it reach? Like a cluster bomb, the phone hacking scandal keeps on exploding, taking more and more casualties, killing The News Of The World - one of the world's most successful tabloids - and shaking a very powerful global media empire.

A big black question mark is creeping across Spain, shaking and shocking a growing number of mothers and fathers of still-born babies and prompting them to dramatically rethink the fate of their children. Did they really die or were they sold to other families in a macabre, callous and widespread black-market trade that's only recently been uncovered? And stepping into this murky saga is an apparent foreigner who was one of those stolen and sold and who's only now returning to his real birthplace in search of his natural mother and the truth.

They're two darlings of Jakarta's fashion obsessed, social set. One's a former top central banker mired in claims she jumped into the job off a pile of bribes. The other's a brassy financial high flyer also accused of a super-charged rise to the top on criminal deals. They're both starring in separate, sensational courtroom dramas exposing the murky goings on - top to bottom - in Indonesia's banking system. After all - down the ladder - if you don't pay your credit card bill you might end up dead.

He was a cheeky skylark who zoomed past our camera and tried his best to get into our story. He was so persistent we finally relented and so a little boy on a bike got his cameo. That was a year ago, long before a monstrous series of waves loomed up and wiped away his town. Thousands were killed or missing. What happened to the boy on the bike and others we met during our assignment?

He was watched at every turn. Trailed by secret agents everywhere he went. Every conversation and meeting observed. The black Hondas of the local security services followed him from city to city, village to village. For China correspondent Stephen McDonell, this report was proving a difficult assignment. But in China these days, this is what happens when the story is about a group which is making the Communist Party very nervous.

He doesn't host his own cooking show. He doesn't endorse a line of high-end kitchenware or churn out glossy recipe books by the tonne. His career path certainly had its destination in Europe as a Masterchef making haute cuisine for the affluent. Instead he's making a difference on the streets of southern India, shattering caste barriers, feeding the forgotten and sustaining lives. Among the helpless and destitute of Madurai he's a genuine celebrity chef. See Krishnan Narayanan's Akshayatrust.

In an idyllic, crystal clear patch of the Pacific, locals are learning what goes down must come up - and they're told the consequences will be devastating. Lurking at the bottom of a giant blue lagoon - a pinprick in the enormous ocean expanse - is a huge, ticking, time bomb threatening very soon to disgorge tens of millions of litres of thick, bunker oil, destroying the environment and a fragile island economy. The recent Pacific tsunami threatened to unleash the black tide but - thankfully - it passed without incident. But very soon something's going to give.

It could be the most misrepresented and misunderstood nation on earth. It's unlikely you'll find farm animals roaming inside family homes while women haul ploughs in the field. There's no such thing as a designated town rapist and anti-Semitism is not a rampant and unifying national phenomenon. The Kazakhstan of Borat Sagdiyev is - for Kazakhs and for many outsiders - an appalling fiction. But is the real story a great deal better?

Who is killing the intrepid reporters of Russia and why aren't they being caught and brought to justice? There's a bulging casebook of horrifying murder mysteries that sends a shiver through Russia's newsrooms where simply reporting for work can be deadly dangerous. And while killers and attackers go unpunished, critics blame the most powerful man in Russia for creating an environment of fear and intimidation that's enabling the muzzling of media, even the killing spree.

When the going gets tough, even the toughest and most resilient in Ireland get going - overseas. They have to. Ireland’s economy is on life support, jobs have been obliterated and if the nation is to get itself out of a black hole of debt things will probably get worse. And so they’re packing their bags, bidding an often heartbreaking farewell to family and friends and heading in droves to places with prospects. Australia’s high on the list.

From the lawless confines of a dirt poor nation an accused terrorism mastermind sends out a rallying call for fanatical foot soldiers and they come running from near and far. We set off for Yemen on the trail of disaffected young Australians joining up for jihad.

It was a bit of electronic skulduggery aimed at getting shock horror, scoop exclusives on Royals, TV celebrities and politicians – anyone with a high profile and a mobile. Simply hack into their phone message bank and turn the juicier stuff into screaming headlines and raucous stories for your tabloid readers. Dead easy! So simple it was almost criminal. Well, err, it was and it’s fuelled a scandal that – just like a pesky pap – refuses to go away.

This time America's hunters aren’t prepared to be very, very quiet. There's an ornery critter roaming the wilds of the west that they say is devouring native animals and farm stock and they warn it's only a matter of time before a human is attacked and killed. So they're cussin' and hollerin' for the right to hunt down the predator but conservationists and the law won't let 'em. For now, the big wild wolf is protected. So, will they take the law into their own hands?

They can almost hear the crackle and boom of economic development to the north and south and now little Laos wants a piece of the action. The ramshackle communist backwater doesn't have much - but it does have a good stretch of the mighty Mekong River and so Laos is planning to build dozens of dams and sell hydro-electricity to a hungry neighbourhood. Can the river they call Mother cope?

They've fooled their families and friends, duped hard-bitten veteran soldiers and somehow managed to grow and prosper under the radar of America's sophisticated military machine. They are the legion of liars and cheats who have fabricated service in the frontlines of war - particularly Iraq and Afghanistan. It's a despicable phenomenon called Stolen Valour. It's boomed since 9/11 and it's infuriating those who really have put their lives on the line and appalling those who've lost loved ones in battle.

The world demands answers and here they are, in the most revealing examination to date of the deadly mid-year melee on the Mediterranean. Come aboard the Mavi Marmara as it sails toward Gaza and meet the leaders of the flotilla aiming to bust Israel's blockade of the Palestinian strip. Come inside Israel's top secret naval commando units, hear first person accounts from both sides and witness what really unfolded that fateful, bloody night at sea.

Is it possible to defuse a terrorist? Can a violent extremist be disarmed, mellowed and transformed into an upright citizen who values human life and religious diversity? These are some of the profound and perplexing questions confronting authorities in Indonesia as they face rampant recidivism among terrorists. Jihadis do their time only to head out of their prison cell and back into a terrorist cell.

Who does Frank Bainimarama think he is? Well, the Fijian ruler will tell you he's the difference between order and political mayhem. Don't get him wrong - he's all for democracy as long as it fits his military's model. And don't call him a dictator! He's simply a well intentioned leader who's abolished the constitution, rules by decree and decides what news is fit to publish. The strongman's opened his doors to Foreign Correspondent and we're walking in.

Prepare to enter the real Washington DC and prepare to have your illusions shattered. It's where the powerless live. Neglected, poor, black and waiting impatiently for Obama's promise. But they've got one thing that raises the roof, shakes the foundations and makes them forget about being forgotten. It's called Go Go.

Both legs blown away by a mine, he sat on a chair outside his family's house and watched the world go by. This was his hopeless lot for five long, bleak years until a life-altering chain of events. He now walks tall, is second-in-charge of the clinic that helped him and feels like he is standing on the sky. Out of strife, a story to ignite the human spirit.

So, you're in a highly sensitive job working on a top secret project but something's not right. In fact you think it's very, very wrong. Go public and you risk your job, perhaps jail – maybe even your life. Stay silent and many other lives may be endangered or life-savings imperilled and malignant corruption festers. What do you do? Hurry – time is ticking!

They say they wanted to blow the lid on Japan's super-sensitive whaling program. They were sure they'd found the red-hot evidence. But when they took their find to the authorities they were arrested and charged with crimes that could put them away for 10 years. What was in the box?

Few in the world had heard of it and very few could get close to pronouncing its rolling, rambling tongue-twister of a name. And yet - suddenly and spectacularly – a volcano called Eyjafjallajokull impacted millions of lives and blew away billions of dollars. But did the greatest aviation grounding since WW2 really have to happen?

Before Haiti there was Aceh - a catastrophic natural event claiming tens of thousands of lives, destroying towns and villages and drawing enormous global sympathy and billions in aid. What is life like now for those traumatised survivors in this historically divided place?

Beware, Greeks bearing debts! Olympus-sized debts that would give Hercules a double-hernia and that threaten to swamp the nation like some modern day Atlantis. Sink or survive there's plenty of pain ahead in the land of fakelaki. What?

When it comes to stem cells, mainstream scientists in the UK and America tell us their potential is both exciting and unlimited. But, they hasten to add, treatments for most illnesses are still years away and more research needs to happen. For Wilma Clarke, there is no doubt. Her three-year-old daughter, Dakota, born with a rare condition that left her almost blind and suffering from balance problems, can see things that she could not see before.

It's thought a single, fluffy pillow killed a Hamas operative in Dubai. But it took 27 secret agents with pilfered passports and a bag of disguises to administer it. We investigate the incredible case of overkill and over-exposure that's astonished even the most hard-boiled of spies.

A 7 year old Ethiopian girl is portrayed as destitute and in grave danger. She is in fact 13 and has been well cared for much to the surprise of her adopting family. Then there are the children told they're just visiting a foreign land who are in fact on a one way ticket. This is the powerful next instalment of Foreign Correspondent's investigation of international adoption in Ethiopia and the United States that began with 2009's Fly Away Children.

It's a lifetime. Short, urgent and definitive. One hour to save those who can be saved - soldiers, civilians and the enemy critically wounded in the war in Afghanistan. Another defining feature - the surgeons, medics and patients are very young. Welcome to M.A.S.H. 2010 or to update another long-running American TV show - Gen Y Hospital.

With its giant wind farms and pedal-pushing population, Denmark looks like a model global citizen setting a shining green example for all comers to the Copenhagen Climate Summit. Look a little closer though and there are some grubby realities.

It’s claimed Japan’s ferocious and feared Yakuza murder, extort and intimidate according to an honour code. But where is the honour in the squalid new enterprise now adding to their billion dollar criminal turnover?

Paul Kenyon travels three thousand miles along the most dangerous illegal immigration route out of Africa. Many die crossing the Sahara, or at sea on the way to a better future in Europe - but can the survivors convince those who follow, that Europe in recession is no longer worth the risk?

In Iceland, the financial crisis is called the kreppa and a year after it hit, the whole country is still well and truly in it. Thousands are losing their homes, unemployment is ten times higher and Britain is demanding it pay back billions of dollars lost in Icelandic investments.

Are mobile phones the new blood diamond? Is our insatiable appetite for the latest electronic gadgets actually fuelling despair, deprivation and oppression in another part of the world … even threatening the survival of central Africa’s magnificent gorillas?

They’ve been scarred so deeply they’re shockingly disfigured and yet they’ve refused to bow their heads or withdraw from the world. They’re the remarkable women who’ve survived acid attack and who have overcome their injuries to transform their lives.

When Venezuela’s socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez lost his best enemy and saw global capitalism teeter you might think he’d be jumping for joy. Not so.

The Uighurs. Who are they and why is the Chinese government flattening vast tracts of their magnificent cultural capital, Kashgar? Is it for safety or to secure against separatists and potential terrorism?

A perilous year undercover - ducking the authorities and informers and risking decades in jail – has resulted in an unforgettable Foreign Correspondent with a team of Burmese cameraman capturing the plight of a pitiful new cast of Burmese – The Orphans of the Storm.

In a Venezuelan slum a young girl practices on her clarinet and dreams a big musical dream. On a stage in New York City an 80 year old clarinettist takes his final bow to rapturous applause. The two are worlds apart but joined by the profound, elevating forces of music.

Foreign Correspondent presenter and reporter Mark Corcoran, who has spent a decade observing the dangerous world of South Asian narco-politics, takes us on a journey through Afghanistan's dark political underbelly.

Every year thousands of young Australians pack their backpacks, book their EuRail passes and make for Europe, leaving their parents to worry and fret about their wellbeing and their ability to cope with foreign languages and customs. God forbid anything should happen to them.

For more than four decades, tens of thousands of Colombians have been kidnapped or killed in South America’s longest-running civil war. Now Colombia’s hard-line president Alvaro Uribe insists it’s coming to an end. But will this country's most popular president ever, win the right to run for a third term in office? And at what cost to South America's oldest democracy?

How and why did a bunch of illiterate, dirt poor Africans transform themselves from simple cray-fishermen into the fearsome, gun-toting gangs mugging giant, sophisticated shipping off the coast of Somalia and gouging multi-million dollar ransoms? Marauding foreign fishing fleets took their lobsters.

They were hiding for their lives, hunted by gunmen who’d brought India’s biggest city to a standstill. In this chilling ‘insider's’ account of a terrorist siege, two Australian business people tell of their remarkable survival trapped inside Mumbai’s Oberoi Hotel, during the attacks last November.

When people in remote villages in Zanskar get sick, chances are they’ll turn to the “Oracle”. The Oracle is a faith healer who goes into a trance so a Tibetan spirit can take over and dispense medical advice. It’s all part of a complex system of folk healing that has spread to this isolated district in north-west India, from neighbouring Tibet.

China’s exponential growth took Australia along for the white-knuckled ride. It fuelled our resources boom and had economic optimists forecasting decades of good times. How things change.

Dambisa Moyo is a Zambian-born economist who says aid is killing Africa. In her new book, Dead Aid, she argues that official aid is easy money that fosters corruption and distorts economies, creating a culture of dependency and economic laziness.

South Asia correspondent Sally Sara with the cricket tragics of Lahore, as Pakistan is wiped from world cricket's tour map.

What would you do if you discovered your adopted children were stolen and trafficked, and not willingly given up by their parents, as you’d believed? South Asia correspondent Sally Sara investigates the insidious trade of children in India, and joins an Australian family in their moving search for the truth.

Which way is Mecca in space? Helen Vatsikopoulos ponders this and other imponderables when she meets Malaysia’s “it” man, the hunky former male model Dr Sheik Muszaphar Shukor, who’s become the country’s first astronaut.