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When Rot Sets In

Stories of dangerous decay: it's boom time for Turkish fortune tellers; famine wracks South Sudan; IEDs rock Mosul and Iraq; confronting the weevil ruining Portugal's palms

Pascale Harter introduces stories of hidden perils and dangerous decay from around the world. In Istanbul, Louise Callaghan finds that it's boom time for Turkish fortune tellers, as their clients try to see a way through the uncertainty of the present as well as the future. Alastair Leithead, in South Sudan, reveals how he's wrestled with the question of what to tell global audiences about the country's current civil war and famine. Colin Freeman witnesses the harvest of death and injury around Mosul, in Iraq, produced by buried explosive devices left behind by Islamic State fighters. And Margaret Bradley listens carefully for the telltale munching noise which betrays the presence of an invasive weevil - which is now wrecking palm trees across Portugal.

Image: An Iraqi counter terrorism soldier holds up detonators for a suicide bomb after making it safe during the offensive to recapture the city of Mosul from Islamic State militants, on October 23, 2016 in Bartella, Iraq. (Carl Court/Getty Images)

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23 minutes

Last on

Sun 5 Mar 2017 22:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sun 5 Mar 2017 02:06GMT
  • Sun 5 Mar 2017 09:06GMT
  • Sun 5 Mar 2017 10:06GMT
  • Sun 5 Mar 2017 22:06GMT