This World

When the world fell in love with Cuban music after Buena Vista Social Club, the Cubans set about re-releasing their old songs. But American company Peer music took them to court claiming that Peer owned the songs. This documentary travels from London to Havana, where the old musicians sit and wait for their share of the royalties. An English judge will decide who owns the rights to Cuba's music, the Cubans or the Americans.

In September 2006, three nooses were found dangling from a tree at a high school in Louisiana. At a school assembly, a black student had asked the vice principal if he could sit under the same tree – in a traditionally white part of the school yard. Tom Mangold uncovers the truth behind allegations that racism still exists in the Deep South of America. As a black man announces his presidential candidacy, This World investigates how far race relations have progressed since the turbulent 1960s.

Nine CIA flights land secretly in Poland. Was Europe the site of a secret prison where top Al Qaeda suspects were held? "It is unlikely," says lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, "that the British, European and American governments will tell us the truth. So we will sue them into the next generation." Olenka Frenkiel reports on the plane spotters, civilians, judges, lawyers and journalists piecing together the jigsaw of "extraordinary rendition", the CIA’s secret programme of kidnapping citizens, out-sourcing their torture, and sending them for trial in what even the US military lawyers call "kangaroo courts" where the outcome is rigged

In his State of the Union address, George Bush said Hezbollah is one of the most dangerous terrorist organisations in the world. So in Beirut, This World seeks out the "Party of God". It’s a year since the Iranian backed militants claimed victory in a bloody 33 day conflict with Israel – This World investigates claims that Hezbollah are back, more powerful than ever and readying themselves for another war.

This World enters a world of paranoia and fear as the programme goes to South Africa to follow some of the thousands of Zimbabweans who enter the country illegally every week, fleeing from the political and economic crisis in their country.

The UN has sent a unit of Indian women, its first-ever, all-female peacekeeping force, to the West African country of Liberia, which is recovering from a 14-year civil war during sexual violence was common. It is now stable but rape is still a major problem. Will the presence of this unit empower local women, or will the culture shock the Indian women face, in their first visit outside India, stop them from interacting with the Liberians?

In April of 2006 the head of the sicilian mafia, Bernardo Provenzano was arrested., he was on the run for an unparralled 43 years. This film tells the story how the godfather was arrested in the longest manhunt

Across Russia, hundreds of people have died and thousands have been poisoned after drinking illegal alcohol that had apparently been spiked with a mystery chemical. This World sends John Sweeney to Pskov, a city badly affected by the poisonings in which a state of emergency has been declared. The hospital corridors are full of poison victims suffering from Toxic Hepatitis. The investigation puts John Sweeney's own health at risk when he accidentally tastes some suspect alcohol.

Documentary by award-winning filmmaker Ruhi Hamid. Some British Muslims want Shari'ah law implemented in the UK. Already practised informally here to resolve Islamic divorce, inheritance and family disputes, it is seen by many in the West as oppressive and brutal, with punishments like stoning and amputations. Ruhi Hamid, a British Muslim, travels to Nigeria to see Shari'ah law in action, and asks whether it could work alongside the UK's existing legal system.

Earlier this summer, a farmer in southern India discovered a two day old baby girl who'd been buried alive. Left to die, she was one of the thousands of unwanted girls in a country where daughters are often seen as an expensive burden, needing a large wedding dowry. Even among the middle classes, girls are often aborted as soon as their gender is determined. Despite the economic boom, the country is now missing so many young women that in some states, men are struggling to find brides.

Reporter Emeka Onono travels to Cleveland, Ohio, the number one city in America for house reposessions to discover the human impact of the subprime mortgage crisis. He meets the sheriff responsible for reposessions, the activists fighting for families and the people themselves who have been hit by the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression.

In Nepal, a nine-year-old girl is worshipped as a Virgin Goddess. It is she, the custom says, who gives the King his power to rule. At an annual festival every September she blesses the King by marking him on the forehead. But this year? With the King stripped of power and shunned by diplomats, no one knows. Democracy is coming to the last Hindu Kingdom and the future of the Goddess and the King are delicately intertwined.

In September, Burma's population rose up once again against their military rulers. Civilians joined demonstrations by Buddhist monks across the country, but the rising sense of anarchy was cut short in just days when the army were ordered to shoot. The film documents the accounts of bloggers, monks, student leaders and protest organisers who were lucky enough to escape. Their friends are dead or in jail.

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela calls the United States ‘Dracula’ and George W. Bush ‘Mr Danger’, ‘a drunk’ and ‘a donkey’. He can get away with being rude to the most powerful man on Earth because his country sits on trillions of dollars worth of oil. Chavez boasts that he is spending his oil bonanza on the poor, but even London mayoral candidate Boris Johnson has called this 'Caracas'.

Who poisoned Alexander Litvinenko? Reporter Mark Franchetti gains exclusive access to Scotland Yard's prime suspect, Andrei Lugovoi. As Lugovoi prepares to stand in this week's Russian parliamentary elections, the programme places the Litvinenko murder mystery in the context of a newly resurgent Russia.

A 12 year old boy is sold by his mother for £25 to a fisherman in Ghana. The boy will spend his childhood diving to disentangle nets in the murky waters of Lake Volta. In Saudi Arabia, a six year old boy who has been trafficked into the country from Yemen, in order to beg on the streets for a gang master, is picked up by the Saudi authorities and deported. Meanwhile in Cambodia, a 17 year old girl recalls her horrific life as a sex slave, sold to a brothel aged 12. These are just three of the lives encountered in this special documentary looking at the extraordinary, global story of child slavery today, in which eight and a half million children are estimated to be involved.