Jazz band hijack

John Jairo Velásquez Vásquez, a.k.a. ‘Popeye’ is something of a local hero to many in the Colombian city of Medellin. He’s stopped in the streets and asked for autographs and selfies. His celebrity is undiminished after spending 23 years in jail.  In the heyday of the infamous Medellin drug cartel, he worked for Pablo Escobar as a hit-man, he still says he enjoyed the job in which he tortured and murdered literally hundreds and so, not everyone sees him as a hero.

When in August 2014, ISIS invaded regions near Mount Sinjar in Iraq, the terrorists killed and abducted thousands of local Yazidi people many of them women and children who they sold openly at slave markets. The captives have had no one they could count on for help until one man decided to take on ISIS.

The Egyptian village of Al-Ur is now known as “The Village of Martyrs” because in a day, 20 of its residents died. They had all gone to Libya to find work but were kidnapped by ISIS and on February 15, 2015, beheaded for their Christian faith. They are now mourned by family and friends but also honoured as saints.

According to official statistics, two people are killed by Police in the USA, every day. With the proliferation of mobile devices with cameras, cases against law enforcement have become easier to prove but that hasn’t stopped them happening. Miguel Francis-Santiago meets people who have been personally affected by abuses of authority.

Ten years after the Beslan tragedy, some of the victims’ families write letters to the only terrorist alive today who participated. He is serving a life sentence for the horrific crime he committed in a prison in the Arctic Circle. They have a lot to tell him. In Beslan, young former hostages talk about their lives.

Café Sheroes, in the Indian city of Agra, is more than just a tea shop: it’s a place that brings acid attack victims together, helping young women start new lives after their faces have been ruined maliciously, often by unsuccessful suitors.

ISIS oil trade documents, testimonies of local civilians and captured ISIS militants: RT Documentary crew visits Syrian oil town of Shaddadi just ten days after it was liberated from ISIS. Exclusive results of RT Doc investigation. 

Refugee camp Dar Es Salam in Chad is a safe haven for thousands of Nigerians fleeing violent attacks by Boko Haram. This militant religious group has been destroying villages in Nigeria and killing indiscriminately. Those who escaped the terror are looking forward to rebuilding their lives, when a few camp newcomers bring fear and anxiety to this place.

In the turbulent Russian region of Ingushetia, terrorism feeds on naive young recruits and it is often only their mothers that can convince them to abandon the teachings of Islamic fundamentalist zealots.