Edition of witness with me tanya beckett, here at the British Library in london. Well be looking at five of the most memorable stories from the witness team from the past 12 months. Well meet an archaeologist whos worked on the Terracotta Army site for decades in china. A friend of anti apartheid icon steve biko. And the mother of one of argentinas disappeared children. But first after independence 119117, india was split into two states. One majority muslim, the other majority hindu. The repercussions of that split are still being felt. Mohammad amir mohammea khan, the raja of mahmudabad, tells witness how partition affected his family and his home. I am Mohammad Amir mohammad khan, known as sulaiman to family and friends, the raja of mahmudabad. I am from a muslim family which once ruled a very large feudal estate, including a beautiful palace in mahmudabad in which we still live. But the Indian Government is laying claim to my property, saying that it is enemy property. No one is paying for it, so these days, everything is crumbling. This dispute goes back to 19117. The partition of india into two states, a muslim majority state called pakistan, and a hindu majority state of india. It was estimated that a Million People died, ten Million People were displaced. Some muslims went to the state of pakistan. Many hindus came to india. It was not just the country that was divided. Families were divided, too. In the late 50s, my father took pakistani nationality, and that is when my familys problems began, because when india and pakistan went to war in 1965, the government laid claim to our properties. There was an act of parliament called the enemy property act, which empowered the government to take over, temporarily, the properties of pakistanis. It was notjust our family which was affected. Thousands of families were affected. The properties are worth billions of dollars. But our issue is that only my father took pakistani nationality. I have always been an indian. My mother was always an indian. We had to fight our case from the lowest to the highest court, and in every court, we won. And the supreme courtjudge said that by no stretch of imagination could i be considered an enemy, and considered me the heir to my fathers properties. But then, the government went and changed the laws, and the battle has begun again. I suppose, like so many people in india and pakistan, we are still caught up in the repercussions of partition, and the acrimonious relations between india and pakistan. In a way, ive been forced to live in the past. And, with apologies to yeats, ifeel as if im drowning in a beauty that has long since faded from this earth. Mohammad Amir Mohammad khan there, speaking to us from his beautiful palace in india. Now to one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. In the spring of 1974, local farmers in china accidentally uncovered the site of the vast Terracotta Army. Our next witness is an archaeologist who has dedicated her career to the remarkable life sized figures. News archive its a vast pottery army which is slowly being unearthed from the tomb where its lain for more than 2,000 years. At one time. She still works at the site of the Terracotta Army in xian. In 1977, anti apartheid activist steve biko, leader of the black Consciousness Movement in south africa, died in police custody. Weeks earlier, he had been arrested. Witness has spoken to bikos friend peterjones who was arrested with him. I miss my friend steve biko, and i am forever in his debt. Steve biko is one of the people that originated the new generation of Young Political minded black people. The black Consciousness Movement. We believe in our country there will be no minority, no majority, there willjust be people. And those people will have the same status before the law and they will have the same Political Rights before the law. The apartheid government ensured there was no resistance against its doctrines and against its policies. There was a roadblock, and they then searched the car. They found an identity document which was mine, they then said, who is peter jones . And i said, thats me. He said, oh, and who are you, big man . Thats now steve. And steve said, im steve bantu biko. And we were then locked up together in one cell. The next morning we started getting an uneasy feeling, because there were now more police, and in a convoy of three cars we sped towards Port Elizabeth. In Port Elizabeth was the headquarters of the Security Police for that region. The building has been converted into a block of flats. Steve biko was being walked to his death along this very corridor, a man poised to fill the void left behind after mandela was jailed. We got taken up to the fifth floor, and we were manacled each to a separate window. One of the senior police, a major, came in and said, now i can confirm that you are officially being detained under section six of the terrorism act. That is the act in which you literally disappear. They separated us, i only had a chance to shout steves name, and that was the last time i saw steve alive. Three weeks and three days later, ijust heard a lot of commotion, many, many people singing protest songs, the cell next to mine was being filled with many people. Then this young man told me that they have just returned from the funeral of steve biko, and that was the first time that i heard about the death of steve bi ko. I went to my mat that was my bed, and i then just sat there. With. To me, it was like a huge hole in my soul, just inconsolability which even today would make me weep at unexpected moments. The police said the leader of the black Consciousness Movement had lost his life by accident when his head struck a wall while he was being restrained. Steve bikos family believe he was thrown at the wall quite deliberately by the police officers. Steve bikos death and the brutality of it highlighted like no other event at the time the extent to which the Apartheid Regime would go to protect itself. Peterjones remembering his friend, steve biko. Remember, you can find all of our programmes online. We also have more than 1000 radio programmes on our online archive. In the late 1970s, thousands of young men and women were detained in argentina for their opposition to military rule. Among those who went missing was anna maria. Her mother spoke to witness. News archive they are called the mothers of the disappeared, in the centre of buenos aires, where they hold the same sad demonstration every day they have all had at least one relative who has disappeared. In the offices of the mothers of the disappeared. In 1953, american husband and wife julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair after being convicted of spying for the soviet union. Our final witness is the rosenbergs son, robert. News archive one of the greatest peacetime spy dramas in the history of the nation reaches its climax asJulius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg convicted of transmitting secrets to russia into the Federal Building in new york to hear their doom. The last time i saw my parents was in a prisonjust a couple of days before they were executed in june 1953. I have this very strong visceral sense of a warm and loving family. My father played word games with my brother. I sat on my mothers lap. They were pretending like nothing was wrong, that we would see them like we would see them in another few weeks. My brother, he knew that was wrong, and he wanted them to acknowledge the terrible situation that we were all in. And so he started wailing, one more day to live. Both my parents were children of the depression. They grew up in poverty on the Lower East Side of manhattan. My fatherjulius was an electrical engineer, a member of the american communist party, and my mother ethel was a housewife. My father was arrested in july, 1950, in new york city. My mother was arrested. Both were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage and the government said Julius Rosenberg was a master spy who led an atomic spy ring that stole the secret of the atomic bomb and gave it to the soviet union in 1945. Julius was guilty of espionage, but it didnt have anything to do with the secret of the atomic bomb he had no knowledge of this. And its hard for me to believe that my mother didnt know about what he was doing but there is no credible evidence that my mother participated in it in any way. This was the great red scare, the mccarthy period. The government was saying there was this International Communist conspiracy that was out to destroy our way of life. Fear makes powerful people do very dangerous things. The trial at which they were convicted was a travesty. We now know that the judge had communicated with the prosecution and that evidence was fabricated and the chief prosecution witnesses perjured themselves. The government of the United States used the Death Penalty not as punishment but as extortion. The purpose, as one of the fbi agents said, we didnt want them to die, we wanted them to talk. There was a Worldwide Movement and a Mass Movement even within the United States at the height of the mccarthy period to save the lives of my parents. They were executed on june 19th, a month after my sixth birthday. My brother hung his head. I came in and i knew something was wrong, but i didnt want to hear about it. Even a month after the execution, id say, when are we going to see mummy and daddy . , and he would have to remind me that they were dead. My parents should not have been executed, and we took on a campaign to exonerate ethel. Have we given up . No, we havent thought of that. My brother and i are marathoners and we will keep going. Robert remembering his parents. That is all from this special edition of witness at the British Library, but we will be back soon to bring you more extraordinary moments of history. And the remarkable people who witnessed them. But for now, from me and the rest of the team, goodbye. Hello there. Sunday is set to be another very cold day. We have clear skies which is set to bring us a good deal of sunshine by day but dawn could look Something Like this. A lot of sharp frost around, potential for temperatures close to 15 degrees across the sheltered glens of scotland. So a very cold start with some icy stretches to watch out for as well. A lot of sunshine on offer though as we move through the day on sunday. Lets look at the morning. Across the rural glens of scotland, we will have the coldest temperatures. As i said, potentially to 15. About minus eight degrees by 9am. A few showers for the Northern Isles of scotland. Down across Northern Ireland and northern england, lots of sparkling sunshine, frosty watch out for icy stretches particularly where we have had some showers. A few showers perhaps across the north east of england. A lot of dry and sunny weather towards the south east. Still some cloud drifting around but the wind chill with a brisk northerly wind across southern england and wales. Through the day, it is looking dry, fine and settled after the cold frosty and icy morning. There will be a lot of sunshine on offer from most places. Breezy in the far south but also for the Northern Isles of scotland with one or two showers. Elsewhere, dry but temperatures between to or six degrees for most of us. Sunday also ending on a cold note, another very cold night ahead sunday night and on into monday morning. If youre heading to work early on monday watch out for icy stretches on the roads because even in towns and cities the temperatures will be down below freezing. Just a little mild along the south coast because we will have more cloud filtering in. That will be the theme for monday. The cloud in the south will nudge its way further northwards, clouding over a big part of east anglia, the midlands into wales later on. It will still cold where you have the clout around. Lots of sunshine and northern england, scotland and Northern Ireland, fairly light winds across much of the country, another largely dry day, 2 6, but the cloud thick enough for a bit of drizzle on the south coast. Eventually we lose the blue colour, the cold air mass, and we see something milder creeping in from the atlantic. Ahead through tonight and into tuesday, but eventually some wet weather arriving in the west but actually much of tuesday again dry, fairly cold, fairly cloudy, the breeze picking up from the west. That is ahead of this band of rain which will be mild but went wetter weather from the west as we had through the end of the day. Slowly turning a little more mild with some outbreaks of rain through the course of next week. Goodbye. Welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. Im duncan golestani. Our top stories 30 American Cities are expecting the coldest temperatures theyve ever recorded in the next few hours. Reports from syria say government and russian airstrikes have hit 10 hospitals in the past 10 days. He walked on the moon and flew the first Space Shuttle mission. Astronaut, john young, has died at the age of 87. Hello, and welcome