After the fall from power of Slobodan Milosevic, a promise was made to the people of Serbia that their nation could rejoin the international community, ending a long period of isolation. But when he lived in Belgrade in 2001 and 2002, what George ...

Kukes, in northern Albania, was the first point of refuge for hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees fleeing Kosovo in the spring of 1999. A year later, this led to it becoming the first ever town to be nominated for the Nobel Peace prize. It ...

In the wake of the NATO bombing of Serb forces in 1999, ethnic Albanian refugees began to return to Kosovo. As they buried the dead and started to rebuild their homes, their former neighbours from the Serb and Roma communities faced up to a hostile and ...

In late 2003, Georgia's 'Rose revolution' brought the promise of an open, free and democratic future. In the years since, the new government has faced increasing hostility from its giant neighbour Russia.This has been manifested in many ways, including ...

Turkey is a strategically important nation, poised geographically and symbolically between Europe and Asia. But the tensions at its heart are becoming increasingly severe. A fierce struggle is taking place between modernity and tradition, secularism and ...

'In 2008 I returned to London having spent the last nine years living and working in Eastern Europe and Turkey and was surprised by the speed of change that had taken place. I wanted to document the city, its movements and migrations, its landscape ...

These photographs were taken in the middle of Taksim Square, the heart of modern Istanbul. The word Taksim has its origins in the Arabic word for distribution or division. That is reflected in the diversity of people that one sees passing through ...

Immigration is a divisive topic in Europe - and Britain is no different. Though probably less vociferous than in countries like Denmark or the Netherlands, anti-immigrant voices in Britain have been calling on caps on immigration and more stringent ...

On January 20th 2009 Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. Before a crowd of more than a million in Washington DC, Obama became the first African-American to take command of a nation founded by slaveholders. This is an ...

Commissioned by the Nature Conservancy, one of the leading conservation organisations working to preserve ecologically vital waters and lands for nature and people, Ami Vitale travelled to the US states of Alaska, Maine and Idaho and to the Marshall ...

The Thelon Wildlife Sanctuary which straddles the border between Canada's Northwest Territories and Nanavut is the largest wildlife refuge in Canada, covering over 52,000 square kilometres, an area twice the size of Belgium. This shrubby, almost ...

All over the flat and sparse Great Hungarian Plain (or Alföld), hundreds of hot springs gush out of the ground. Hungary is one of the most geothermally active regions in the world, with over 150 hot water spas and the largest active medicinal ...

While the damage done to the environment by burning coal is a hotly debated topic that has become even mere pressing with the breakneck growth of developing economies like China and India, the effect it has on people across the United States and ...

A decade after Michael Pollan wrote his landmark article 'Power Steer' it appears that not much has changed in U.S. beef production, although a movement for healthier, more ethical food has certainly grown. In the Centennial Valley, the variety of...

Timbuktu, on the south western edge of the Sahara desert, has an illustrious history as a centre of trade and learning dating back to 13th century. Tens of thousands of manuscripts covering everything from astrology to medicine have been kept in the ...

Professional European cyclists with gleaming bicycles and fully equipped back-up teams compete with locals on rickety 30-year-old bikes in Africa's best-known cycle race, the 1,300 kilometre Tour du Faso. Temperatures that can hit 40 degrees Celsius make...

Starting in the capital Dakar, the Tour du Senegal takes in much of the country, both rural and urban, in temperatures which rise as high as 47 degrees Celsius. The field is split between African entrants, many from Senegal itself, and riders from ...

Eritrea's passion for cycling is one of many lasting influences of Italian colonial rule. The country's first multi-day cycle race was staged in 1946, although locals were not allowed to enter. The Giro was resurrected fifty-five years later, a symbol of...

Italy is in turmoil. Its economic problems are symptomatic of the current crisis in the Eurozone and need to be addressed, urgently. But part of the solution needs to come from the political establishment which is very much part of the problem. On ...

'I never know, although I use the term myself occasionally, quite what people mean when they talk about multiculturalism'. Tony Blair, August 2005 'Multiculturalism: the policy or process whereby the distinctive identities of the cultural groups within ...

Behind the fashion for wearing distressed jeans lies a sorry tale of worker exploitation. The wear and tear process is outsourced to countries such as China, where cheap wages and lax environmental controls have allowed the rapid growth of a ...

If there is such a thing as being well prepared for having an autistic child then Rupert Isaacson and Kristin Neff were in a better position than most parents. Rupert is a human rights activist and journalist while Kristin is a developmental psychologist...

It is December 2007, and China is preparing to host the Olympic Games. At a vocational college in the Beijing suburbs, twelve hundred young women are in training to be volunteers. The competition is intense: successful applicants are required to be ...

From the ashes of the Soviet Union, Russia has again risen to world power status, with money, oil and attitude. The country has embraced capitalism, flinging its door open to all the luxuries that money can buy. Yet dark forces remain, and democracy is ...

Spring arrives in Siberia as life stirs beneath the snow that has smothered it for half a year. Lake Baikal - the world's largest body of fresh water, more voluminous than all the North American Great Lakes combined - freezes so solidly that locals ...

Two o'clock in the morning, a railway siding in Kazakhstan. The guard dogs' barking is incessant. Glaring search lights bounce off the silvery cars of an armoured train as a crane lifts its heavy cargo aboard. Spooks lurk in the shadows, gun-toting ...

Since the days of the Tsars, territorial disputes have flared between Russia and China, pitting the world's largest country by landmass against its most populous nation. Until two decades ago, the Chinese were a welcome source of low-wage ...

The Tuva Republic, in the far south of Siberia on the border with Mongolia, is a remote and inaccessible land of mountains, forest and steppe, inhabited by wolves, bears and snow leopards. Shamanism is the local religious form and the people, many of...

In another comprehensive rethink of the country's economic trajectory the Chinese leadership has decided that for the economy to continue to grow at its present rate it needs to move 250 million rural dwellers into newly constructed urban ...

Do we have an idea of what teenage girls want from life? What do they like and dislike about their lives? What are their hopes for the future? Karen Robinson's project in association with Newcastle's Side Gallery is an attempt to get beneath the skin of...

The world's largest convention of computer enthusiasts, simply called 'The Gathering', takes place in Norway. Over five thousand young people come together each Easter, some travelling long distances, each carrying their own computer equipment to the ...

According to the UN's Human Development Index, Norway is the best place to live on the planet. It certainly seems to be one of the best places to be a baby. In contrast to most European countries, the Norwegian birth rate is a healthy 1.9. Norway's ...

The shout was 'Azadi' - 'freedom!' In August 2009, hundreds of thousands of Kashmiris took to the streets in the largest popular protests in nearly two decades. Frustrated with the bloody, brutal stalemate between the Indian army and militants local and ...

In winter thick ice covers the lakes around Oslo. In March 2009, a hardy group including some of the world's best freedivers carved a hole in the ice and dived deep into the freezing waters below.The Oslo Ice Challenge was the first officially recognised...

On the morning of December 26, 2004 an underwater earthquake measuring nine on the Richter scale triggered a series of tidal waves which caused devastation when they struck dry land. Twelve countries were affected by the tsunami and the United Nations ...

A couple of months short of his fourteenth birthday and weighing in at a mere 35 kilograms, William Kalfoss does not show any signs of fear as he stands at the top of the Midtstubakken ski jump, preparing to fly through the air at 85 kilometres an ...