Malawi says it has documented evidence of rape sexual harassment and the torture of women by police in the town where an officer was recently killed during opposition protests Here's our Africa editor Will Ross from what the victims say it appears that the police set out to humiliate and torture people who lived in the area where the officer was killed last week the respected Malawian rights group N.G.O.s gender coordinating network spoke to 3 girls in him Pingu who say several policemen entered their home ordered them to strip naked and then raped a 16 year old in the bedroom in another home a newly wedded woman was stripped and sexually assaulted doors were kicked in and tear gas thrown inside his children head the police say the allegations are being investigated but the NGO also wants Malawi's Human Rights Commission to take action to female astronauts will make history shortly with the 1st ever all women's space walk Christina cook and Jessica Mir will float out of the International Space Station to replace defective equipment more than 200 people have carried out space walks since the 1st one in 1965 but only 14 of them were women and they have always been accompanied by men. Demonstrators in Lebanon have been heading towards the presidential palace on the 2nd day of protests over the government's handling of the economy the Prime Minister Hariri canceled a cabinet meeting and promised to deliver a speech on the disturbances the demonstrations appear to have been triggered by a plan to tax calls on Internet messaging services which has now been scrapped but there's been rising wider discontent over deteriorating economic conditions and new austerity proposals. B.b.c. News the British prime minister bar's Johnson is attempting to drum up parliamentary support for the BRICs a deal he secured in Brussels ahead of a crucial extraordinary setting on Saturday the government says it maintains friction is trade within Ireland and between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom a deal proposed by the previous prime minister Theresa May was rejected 3 times by parliament speaking to the b.b.c. The shadow finance minister for the main opposition Labor Party John McDonnell said this one was even worse we won't vote for anything about makes our constituents of our country poorer by any assessment that's what this deal will do it will introduce checks barriers our border is worse than Tories amazed because it removes those commitments that she was willing to offer about a level playing field to protect workers' rights environmental standards and consumer rights so it's a very bad deal the Mexican authorities have been forced to release a son of the jailed drug lord man after ferocious gun battles between gang members and the security forces in sin a lower state they said they freed of video guzmán Lopez to avoid further violence he was seized during a routine patrol in the city of Can video footage showed heavily armed members of the Sinaloa drug cartel firing on police with vehicles bodies and burning barricades strewn across the street. The ashes of a former leader of China who was forced from power during the time of Timmerman protests have been laid to rest 14 years after he died his Michael Bristow the remains of jealousy and were buried along with those of his wife in a quiet so many Beijing watched by the police he follows years of negotiations about what to do the ashes between Mr Jealous family and the Chinese government which has written the former leader out of official history Mr Jr was general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party a position now held by he Jinping he was ousted in 1900 for disagreeing with other leaders about how to resolve the Tiananmen protests he spent the rest of his life in the House who guessed b.b.c. News. Was the 5th force them to was not worship at national language services as I did you know aside the b.b.c. World Service dot com slash the few for the. Sweaty bear and thank you Olga is she there for opening our ears for the 5th floor today arguer is a journalist with b.b.c. Russian one of the many language services that make up the b.b.c. World Service. I'm David and man are coming up a Vietnamese reporter interviewing a Vietnamese student for b.b.c. Vietnamese a so why are they speaking in Polish and the sinister names given to cellblocks inside Ethiopia's notorious prison it's called Siberia because it was the coldest bloke off there all the blokes the other bloke is called. There were different wooden items their own which torture was done on the inmates and if you survived Tarla bet then you might be moved to Sheraton is that right they got that name because it was the best blog that there is that through Luckily of course more to come from Kalki than later in the program now this week b.b.c. Africa t.v. Reported on the big challenges of getting medicines and health care to Kenya's masses Mburu and to people they're often on the move herding animals through semi arid hilly savanna lands so how do you get medical supplies and treatments safely to these remote areas where doctors and nurses have turned to using 4 legged to multi terrain vehicles also known as camels Christian and yet he did the story so it's a place where even getting water for the community there they still depend on their Kummel to make sure that they get water to them because a very dry area they're noble holder on that area and no health care medical facilities they leave in my yard so you're going to do. Like for one hour you find one minute which has a big huge family you drive again for another hour bump into another one the same man yet to explain money and so many other is the home stayed for the most side the symbol community so they build their houses use in cow dung so they lay it out using cow dung and some sticks and all that is so when you go that the show you where the man sleeps the head of the homestead then there's a kitchen there's a place where their women and the children sleep then they have a cruel fall where their animals sleep so that's pretty much so this is very rural Kenya and very simple eyes and very remote to her very very rural really simple even before you find a shop like that's then hide off so for them really they do not know anything else but just that life there my nutters their cows their women their children and that's it so even Motor Vehicles arrest side yes very very sad and I guess that all means it's a challenge getting medical care to these people yes it is and just even when we were driving in we just saw one health care facility it was shut down the gates were locked it wasn't functioning and that is the only health care facility that we saw and we drove for 4 hours straight so if someone is sick and they need to walk to that health care facility you can only imagine if driving is 4 hours and I don't know how long it's going to take them to walk the report you've done for b.b.c. Africa has come up with a solution you've seen a solution what is that solution there people who decided to use the Kummel that these people really really treasure to be able to take to them medical supplies so they're told camels that this organization uses and they load them up with different medicines and all that because a Cummins can be able to trust that and defend to rain and be able to take medicine to the people so that's a solution that is there right now. So the camels carry the medical supplies or do they carry the doctors and nurses as well so these comments are very special and I wanted to like I ride one camel and I was told no no they don't carry human beings not unless you're very very sick and you can't walk these comments are only used to transport the medical supplies and when you look at them it's a very very huge load so they Kyrie the different medicines they organize the commons in different ways so the ones that start carry like drugs like paracetamols and all that then the ones in the middle which have refrigerators inside the boxes carry the vaccines in the ones at the back carry different utensils and the pens because people have to go come in so that's how they organize the whole truck so you followed and filmed one of these camel caravans here yes I date so when they're very alone one of crack of dawn and when we got there they had just arrived to do their 1st set up for the 1st my data and people set up the whole camp together and put up the tents the men were working in the kitchen area making food for the people who are going to eat over lunch hour and then the doctors were now having their own separate meetings and the Cummins had been taken to a near nearby area to go feed I just saw the whole process come into live and at around 1 pm People started getting treated they create a huge circle with all the tents just like creating the circle and the kitchen in the middle and also where the kitchen is the Kummel sleep right next to where the kitchen is so that pretty much is how to set up looks like so when the camels and medics arrive at the homestead the man yet is what's the scene like so they have different stages because of how the separate people are so the mothers of the children come during the day the men come around 4 pm 5 pm when the sun is about to set then the more runs so the more and that the young boys who are yet to get married come later tonight and there's a reason for that so I remember we went to bed like at 10 pm and around one am I was woken up and stayed there the young man morons who've come now to get treatment . Do you want to film this and I said Of course yes I want a film that when I interviewed them I asked why do they come this lead at night they say because it's a taboo for them to interact with mothers and children before they get married and also they are looked at as people who are like warriors so they shouldn't get seek like it's a taboo to see a moron seek so they have to come late into the night who provides who provides the camels and who do accept to them there's a lady who donated them what she used to do with a camel was to take water to the community then after some time the government was able to get boreholes with many different areas so people now actually school get water the yes they will check but at least it will get water so she donated them and she sayed this will be good for the county to be able to take medicine to different people so now different N.G.O.s usually fund these people who are left are the come out so these guys are cool coming Hundley as they like form for gentlemen who on the commerce they were donated to them so now their work is to preach to different N.G.O.s and just see if they can get funding to just keep this going what are the camels like of a lovely. First day when I got there was really really afraid so I took out my phone and I wanted like take a picture with one of the camels and when I stood like just right next to it it just kept on behaving as if it wanted to hit me and kick me with one of its huge massive food and I talked to the guy who talks to them so he has a language and he communicates with them and he said no no no no no just actually just I'm like really really close to it I'm going to talk to it and I just had him just we had we had sounds that I cannot even manage to be like. True he just kept on talking to the different comers and they come in just to them I took my different selfies and just throughout the day I just kept on trying to like study them and observe them so the man would talk to the camels he actually calm them down so that you could take yourself as they listened to him and he told me he's been with them for so many years he knows them by name he knows how to talk to them he knows the one that is extremely stubborn he was just telling me how come it's a very very gentle animals you know and he told me how which was amazing I didn't know this that they only take water once in 2 months the same seems to be quite a skill being a camel mind yeah we're wasting our time he has done this and we really unskilled people. Right but what about the dangers other dangers for the clinics for any of these clinics or for the camels Yeah so even at night when I'm going to sleep I remember when I asked him just made a joke and said hey watch out for the hyenas and. They say sometimes they get attacked by wild animals hasn't happened recently but it's like that's their biggest fear because when they took some time before they reach the next this nation they'll go into the night and they still have to do the trick so their biggest biggest biggest fear is wild animals and also the hush the rain sometimes can be overwhelming even for the doctors themselves and also the doctors interacting with these people who are extremely sick and sometimes end up becoming sick as well so what you're doing the story you were staying where at night we come to what's it like for you as a reporter there we're actually going to do a story and you know this isn't a hotel with shower in comfy bed is it this is like a tent in a sleeping bag you know what's it like at 2 am or 1 am when you finally put your head and so I'm an extremely adventurous person you can see that when I was looking at this whole story I was so excited to see that these companies involved because a fascinate when we drove when we drove down we slept at a beautiful lodge into the national park but the 2nd night now we had to go in and sleep and comfortable night so I went there was in my driver my cameraman I'm a producer and I say this is what we're going to do we're not going to leave tonight to go back to the lodge we need to come here because we also need to see the whole experience you know the beauty of this story I feel for a journalist it's also when you experience it it's one thing to just go and like record you know an interview in the morning and ask how was that night and yet you were not there so when I'm asking how is the night when I'm talking to the doctor just saying how was the night and how does it feel when you get company night of actually experienced it I've heard the sounds in the middle of the night of hide the different dogs barking around the area the camels in the middle of the comps right making them amazing little noises to have the whole night in the morning in 6 am The sunrise was. Beautiful and just getting that even on my little camera was just everything it was amazing to beautiful and just to hear the kitchen come up and then cuttin and all that I think that was a beautiful experience for me as a journalist Christine and Gerri taking us behind the scenes of her report for the what's new program on b.b.c. African a t.v. The camels that bring medical supplies to nomadic communities in Kenya and that's also up online if you just joined us on a web page b.b.c. a 5th floor Kenya's camelback clinic You're listening to the faithful in our regular series my hometown where we ask our colleagues to take us home and share their childhood memories Here's David o. B.b.c. Korean who grew up in the South Korean capital Seoul near the Han River which flows through many of his memories also his memories the smell of home which for him is kimchi a spicy vegetable pickle. You know. Very fomented but my grandmother makes clear liquid kimchi don't putting. By me the dumplings met together it's a mix of the kimchi and opening somewhere that Summers reminds me of. My favorite food tastes the British record the rice cake is a berry and. Sticky Rice berry tree is mixed with a chili paste and very spicy or so Berry Street is a kind of charred fruit when you're a kid you eat every 2nd weekend with unseeing and very chipper as you were clearing . When you ask me what do you think about your hometown Perth image that comes to my mind is apartment buildings so it has lots of lots of opportune moments. So I was building this up. This is very special to me it's an apartment but behind there is nothing but the mountains and horses close to liberal high labor so I have a very good memories with my father my brother my father used to take me to this one member which is quite different than nowadays because at the time we could go fishing and or so camping cooking in nearby the honeybun Nowadays it's not allowed anymore but when I was a kid my father have a really good barbecue trade and we have a really good times so I have really good memories and also with the times honey both frozen and we could see skating on her neighbor preseason very special. But it's no more possible at the moment but I did miss the time there was more nature for instance my parents and I every weekend on Saturday morning backside of the house there's a small mountain we can get fresh water from the mountains we can it was kind of polluting for my parents and I go to where there are some pressure or to pull week and I missed the time it was very special but this hole has literally changed over the past 20 years and when I went back for a visit to our story apartment building has now changed into more than 36 story buildings and the area is now blocks of high rise buildings and apartment building so I cannot go fishing and it will still in part time Miss. David always childhood soul and a very different city from the one today thank you there were a few surprises in the outcome of Poland's elections last weekend with the nationalist Law and Justice Party winning a 2nd term by a comfortable much. But what surprise some of us was seeing at the Emmys journalists our own sanguine in Poland to cover those elections it turns out there's a fairly big Vietnamese community there around $50000.00 strong so when did they start arriving in Poland and how do they feel about the election results then Dean has inserted into this because he was also there 30 years ago Poland under communism had a very long history of socially friendship with Vietnam and I was one of those Juden sent by the government in Hanoi to study law it was so university and with me there were 25 to didn't so every year you imagine seem to seventy's every year North Vietnam and then unified Vietnam which sent about $2530.00 students to Poland so did you as a student in Hanoi choose Poland to be a destination No we were had no choice the government selected you and select the country you had to go to to study so hundreds a year was sent literally sent to the Soviet Union then to Mongolia to Cuba and we were the luckiest group who ended up in Europe and part of the I would say Soviet empire Why did you feel lucky because Poland was rising Hungary some some of my friends and you have in Budapest some of them went to Berlin and we then found out we were on the right side of the history because many of my colleagues ended up in Vladivostok Kiev. The aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and some of them ended up in some way on the steps of Mongolia I'm not saying not a great country but what can you learn in Russian language something useful for Vietnam being in Mongolia but wasn't there a culture shock for you coming from subtropical Vietnam very much Poland Yes the autumn was nice but the winter was very harsh It's like minus 25 I remember on the shelves in the shop. We had Bessie Cola and. Nothing else because Poland made a politically but economically it was still very behind other countries like the trickle Slovakia society or Hungary and let alone the West and what about in comparison to Vietnam where you came from a communist Vietnam did Poland feel behind didn't want to be about it now because Vietnam since $986.00 they launched Chinese style reform which is a lot about the economy without Way to go liberation but in Poland they did a reverse told they did it with the politics 1st and then they slowly taking steps to reform the economy and actually they are now much more successful than Vietnam so the trip for me to cover the elections is quite sentimental because and I advised. Actually this months 30 years ago I can revisit my Also university buildings and talk with people who were born after I arrived. The. First time voters like you say many young get in these voting you and in some of them we have a clip here of you doing an interview with a new one and this is about whether they feel intimidated by the rise of right wing politics in Poland. So. What I think it was or was she was saying a Seems the Law and Justice Party of peace came to power about 4 years ago. Attitude and even racisms have been out there in the open and her parents. Who are working in a business in water or were considering if they are living in the wrong country and they wanted to go back to Vietnam. Well she was Money 2000 so total in the new Poland but she said she hasn't experienced any direct assault or attacks but she heard from almost every Vietnamese person there at some point they lie they are called Chinese which is quite but order to feel Polish language are yellow skin she was born in Poland she's perfect in Polish but obviously she looks to be at the meet so see strongly feel so different I know is there you are not speaking Vietnamese Now this is an Indian will be received and in his your Vietnamese you're speaking to a Vietnamese Polish person but just beginning polish as I was studying in Poland so I had to learn Polish. Language you are your clue Sonny convincing to me what about her didn't she speak Vietnamese we interviewed her bit about cuisines and about her family in Vietnamese Well obviously. Was growing up in Poland so the language of a child she cannot discuss the politics of racism of the elections in Vietnamese language so for your audience you then had to voice over In Vietnamese No we will subtitle her in the video but obviously we can keep some of the Vietnamese language sounds and they get a conversation going I think the younger audience in Vietnam now they are actually very tolerant to monthly language that product by the b.b.c. So what the young Poles he spoke to you how did they respond to these feelings you know about racism rising obviously also is much better than other smaller towns the environment where. Students of liberal attitude to European Union to the world different from the small town to. Groups of young POWs who are shouting Poland for the Poles be good bullish but. A good Believe person means you must be white you must be. Catholic if you are not even Catholic you are not a good Polish so it is pretty scary and the government in Poland last 4 years. On You Tube on Polish media allowed those militia groups marching through war so young man with torches at night they had about 30000 people so they imagine how scary it was for my fellow Vietnamese who are living there so how do you get accepted into Polish society I mean you have to become a Catholic some of them converted to Catholicism in Poland my friend you have a friend who converted to yes yes and he was converted from what while he was the leader of Vietnamese community use. Center studies so he was brought up as a communist and then somehow he fell in love with a country of the new country and he converted the but has that made a difference is he more accepted now because he converted to capitalism I think so I think obviously he he has a Polish Catholic French so they go to. It is the sacred mountain in central Poland the pilgrimage takes place every summer my friend long or he has been on that been going as have been when he's been there many times is a lot of Vietnamese food there now I took a. Camera man from the b.b.c. Tom Hayden and he spent 2 days. In Warsaw so there's plenty of it now yes and going back to Poland now 20 years after he left was there anything in particular you know that you thought I forgot all about this I missed this some corners of. Poland before the change for me is the subject of nostalgia but it was so has been developed into a very modern city people go by. By their mobile phones you know no longer cash in hand in shabby shops when I was there for 2 years ago so but a. Headstocks compared to Vietnam in Vietnam now we have so many problems because the government refused to liberal. Politics What was the response of the audience b.b.c. The enemy's audience online to the election then new report as they were surprised to hear that one Vietnamese. Also had the right to vote actually overseas Vietnamese on the day hold we had responsible they had no right to vote at all so this was something quite different then here going to have a different Polish speaking as. A journalist with the enemy still plans to come on the 5th floor we're going to be talking about the story behind names like Trinidad St Lucia Custer Rica and Cuba in the 2nd half so do stay with us there's more to come after the latest news and these messages. Distribution of the b.b.c. World Service in the u.s. Made possible by American Public Media with support from Fidel the investments taking a personalized approach to helping clients grow preserve and manage their wealth more and more it for the Levy dot com slash wealth for the bloody brokerage services l o l c And by c 3 dot Ai addressing the world's most challenging problems of the convergence of artificial intelligence io t. Inelastic cloud computing more and more at c 3 a I. Still to come the Caribbean dreams of Christopher Columbus' a b.b.c. Mundo reporter gets inside his diary it's late traveling with him you know the kids he started describing they knew were all there said paradise on earth likely award to the color green of tree is the war me. He was so like overwhelmed with the things that he was seeing heroic adventurer or hapless geographer Christopher Columbus after the latest news he was the news with Jonathan I's art the Spanish city of Barcelona has ground to a halt with a general strike underway and large protests trains have been halted and roads blocked by protesters outraged by the prison sentences imposed this week on separatist leaders a major demonstration is underway outside the city's university there's been sporadic shelling and gunfire in northern Syria day after Turkey accepted the u.s. Demand for a temporary halt to its offensive against Kurdish targets Turkey agreed to a u.s. Request to suspend operations so long as Kurdish fighters leave the border area a human rights group in Malawi says it's documented evidence of rape sexual harassment and the torture of women by police in the town where an officer was recently killed during opposition protests the NGO gender coordinating network says the police went into the area to investigate the killing and in numerous homes forced young women to strip naked there's growing international concern about the situation in Guinea where at least 9 people have been killed by police during protests this week demonstrators have taken to the streets to oppose plans to amend the constitution to allow President after condé to run for a 3rd term in office 2 female astronauts are about to make history with the 1st ever all women's space walk Christina cook and Jessica Mayer will leave the International Space Station to replace defective equipment more than 200 people have carried out space walks since the 1st one in 1905 but only 14 of them were women and all of them were accompanied by men. Demonstrators in Lebanon have been heading towards the presidential palace on the 2nd there are protests over the government's handling of the economy the unrest was triggered by plans to tax calls on Internet messaging services Pakistan has been given until February year to comply with an internationally agreed action plan to combat terrorism financing or face being blacklisted by a global watchdog the Paris based Financial Action Task Force last year placed Pakistan on a grey list of countries with inadequate controls over money laundering b.b.c. News. That's true 5th thought that was just like David I'm on your side of the language services and the lies you have to cover him apart a b.b.c. World Service truck or a 5th floor collapsing. And thank you. B.b.c. Past 2 for bringing us up to speed for the 2nd half of the 5th floor Bash is one of our language services for Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan. Coming up House of timber Sheraton and Siberia the meanings behind the names inmates gave to Ethiopia's the most notorious prison but 1st these are the voyages of Christopher Columbus or Crystal Cologne as he's known in the Spanish speaking world he sailed west to go east believing rightly that around world should bring him to his destination but there was a continent in the way and on 12 Tobar $4902.00 his 1st trip from Spain here arrived in the Caribbean and it looked like paradise Columbus began naming and claiming territories on behalf of the Catholic monarchs of Spain let's hear from an earlier era n.t. Of b.b.c. Mundo because for this year's anniversary she decided to make a short list of the many places renamed by Columbus and a few that escaped his revisions Why did an earlier want to do this we wanted to do something different so I started reading his diaries to find inspiration to know how he was sinking in and about the planning of the trips so I will stay scattering that there were many names that he gave to islands to capes to rivers that he was discovering So the 1st island that Columbus visited in the new world let's say is so to be in the Bahamas side Salvador so this is a 1st name that he gave to an island historians still do not agree about which one is it right now. Here no but in his diaries he mentioned that the natives call it the Hani and there is an island there today called San Salvador but is it the same one well there are a lot of discussion if it is the same one that said food there so then he continued given names to the places that he visited and well you will find really it's a very very hard job to match and the places that he name with their real names that you can find today and there are literally hundreds of places big and small but coming back to this list of yours and number 2 is Costa Rica Why did the name of Costa Rica rich Coast Well he probably thought that he would find gold there because he saw the natives show a need to know the way they dressed Yeah but there was no gold in Costa Rica at that time says gold came from Colombia these themes come up time and time again the quest for gold and also this believe that he was in the East Indies in Asia and that comes up in your 3rd name Cuber Yeah yes he rode to there in the hysteria that he thought you will see Pongal see Pango is a name that many European and Chinese people refer to Job and and that time so he thought that before reaching the indies like he was you know he's mine was the purpose of these trip he thought that he ridged see bangle but think the numbers rename it do on Spanish probably because drawn off that steel was the Spanish King's daughter but in the end it was Cuba he 1st refers to the island as a whole because that's was the name that the native gave to the Territory he started calling Cuba because he was like that. These journeys the 4 ran trips between 4953 these journeys were very much sponsored by the Catholic Mannix of Spain Ferdinand and Isabella do you see a lot of Catholicism in the place names that he chose yes. Sure Castlereagh names are present in the majority of the selection that he made so the minicabs Amiga a school like that because he visited the island for the 1st time in a Sunday Domingo in Spanish but it came for a lad to write is their dues Germany can't lead to then. For example so Lucy That's right St Lucia Zander she at so she visited the island on December the Certina which is the day of signed Lucy in the Catholic Church then another example so Trinidad and Tobago is this southernmost Thailand in the Caribbean and Colin is named the main island Trinidad because he sees 3 mountains there when he was in his boat so he thought Ok this is the perfect this is a tree that this is a treaty in Catholic Church you publish this story on Friday the 11 the day before Columbus Day with 9 place names but the revised version I'm looking at as 10 so what happened well in the meantime there was a reader that sent being a traitor and and she told me why didn't you include Puerto Rico I still think it well because we can only include every place that Columbus visited because he would be like a book oh we're going to publish a book in the website but then a set but part of it is very important so I had to include it so I updated the story and the story with Porto Rico is funny too with the name because when Columbus and he 1st name were 2 Rico to a bay in the north of the Adler and then he put another Catholic name sound one son John to the rest of the n. But then when the time went by things changed I'm Puerto Rico begin the name of the whole island sound one became the name of just a capital and Puerto Rico itself translates as it's like reach port. But we don't know exactly why he call a that we don't know if the was exactly as he saw in Costa Rica right now Jamaica is on your list Jamaica doesn't sound like a Spanish name to me so that didn't come from Columbus did it that's right Keefe is gave the island the name of the hour another Catholic name but it happens something similar with Cuba the translation of the natives won the battle let's say to Columbus name the people in Jamaica or call it like yam a car with a y or make out with a x is like he said all the trouble and say Ok let's call it make and you can see that in the diaries that it's very clear that he called it how make it to that island What's it like reading those diaries if they difficult to read now and do you get kind of more insights reading them into the mind of Christopher Columbus' Well it's like traveling with him you know because he started describing yes the New World us a paradise on earth and he started scribe in the clear world to the color green of trees the warmer and you know I live in Miami so I kind of feel that how he felt when he was traveling and discovering these new world and yet his arrival in that Paradise marked the beginning of the end for that paradise for so many people that's another version of history isn't it yeah I mean there are no this question about his role his story many people say who he was and genocide another people said no he was just a simple person that was lucky enough to see all this wonder I don't know what kind of judge him in that way I think and by when you read his diaries you feel that he was he was so like overwhelmed with the things that he was seen inside the diary of Christopher color. An earlier entity is a journalist with that Spanish language services b.b.c. Mundo she was speaking to me from Miami I'm David man are you listening to the 5th floor now straight to jail or just visiting. B.b.c. America was recently invited inside Ethiopia's most notorious prison macula it's in central and is a barber and until recently the kind of place where political prisoners and of a dissenting voices would be tortured and silenced it was closed down in 2018 shortly before Prime Minister Abbott I am it came to power now he's made sweeping changes releasing thousands of prisoners and encouraging a new freedom of expression in Ethiopia and now there are plans to turn the former prison into a museum why. The exact year when it was established is not clearly no one but it's been operational it is the period when. It was in power after that it became really notorious during the Marxist Rigi in the eighty's and then in the ninety's when the government or worse through the Marxist government continued using this fast are the details soon center for inmates in the prisoners with sensitive issues which means that over the past almost half a sentry many of the opposition figures drawer loyalists are writers bloggers activists does have at one point or another spent time in that prison says the kind of place that when you mention its name it sort of breathed a 1000 size is that right yes yes that's right whenever somebody measures the fact that certain person how to spend time in Mark allow either Association that's immediately for mid used to be that that person was tortured or held you know the human condition Now you wrote about this prison around 3 years ago and with quite some detail which to get the details from about 3 years ago I used to work for a magazine. At the standard in Ethiopia I wrote it with my colleague who himself spent time in the prison used to be a member of a collective of progress and that got him in trouble and he ended up spending some time there and this article that you wrote it's actually in titled Michael are we why is Ethiopia still running a torture chamber from the past and you describe these blocks which are divided into South Siberia and Sheraton 1st of all what is Siberia it's called Siberia because it was the coldest bloke off there all the blokes so whenever prisoners or inmates or needed to convey something or when they were needed to give up some of their friends they were taken that ended since it's very cold the current 100 the coldness there in the understanding was it would be easier to get accommodation out of them there were some sales that the prisoners rightly called it which is a literal translation of dark rooms and they were called that because there was no light getting into the cell is it was completely dark the other bloke you know which has several rooms he's called. Which can be literally translated as a house built out of timber basically but it wasn't the only thing that was made of wood in that particular block isn't that the place that some people describe as a chamber of horrors with all kinds of things made out of wood or so to touch it suspects Yes that's right they were beatings and there are different tools they investigators used on the inmates to get convictions out of them so there were different wooden items thier own which torture was done on the inmates and if you survived if you endured a towel a bit then you might be moved to Sheraton is that right it got its name from a does have about the most luxurious or till the Sheraton and it got that name because it was the best block that there is so if one of the prisoners is taken to that bloke he or she used to consider himself or herself as lucky because it's much better than the other stuff of course so what is it like now now in 2019 in the. Those are being closed to prisoners but opened up to journalists who were all invited in and what's it like inside then now there were many journalists many government officials in many members of the public but also people who were present there they came and what they found out was many of the rooms many of the cells many of the investigation units they were painted over yellow for the colors and it didn't have any of that vibe or that atmosphere of fear that history of portrayed that history of tremendous pain it didn't have any of it we could still see some of the writings on the worlds because the prisoners stay in a scrape them on the wall itself so even if it's painted over you could still read some of the things that they wrote over the years and you met a man there who was also revisiting his detention that's right his name is tough he was taken from his hometown in northern Ethiopia in the 1980 s. And he spent about 4 years there and many of the people he was imprisoned with they just disappeared so his assumption were everybody's assumption is that they were either killed or they died during our investigations so he was very emotional and he was describing how it was like it was small rooms and some of the rooms there were like certain people together and even as many as 70 he said they were given food only a while said they and there was no sun they had only 15 minutes break for bathroom he said it was a very traumatizing time and he said he is glad that he was fortunate enough to come and see it as a visitor rather than disappearing like some of his core prisoners says some people might say not really white washing history but maybe yellow washing history because if there's no signs of a very little signs of what happened in there now it's not really going to be a museum if they've stripped it out of its history yes they have a plan to make it a museum but for now it doesn't look anything like a detention center that may need people in Ethiopia feared one thing that. Chocolate me at the time which I hadn't thought before was the fact that this facility is right in the middle of a discovery is just by the side of the main road in the center of the city looking like any other ordinary building and people are walking by then they're driving by then there are bars and so on in my magination I heard about these things like since I was childhood and my mind initially was very scary very dark this fantastical place but it was difficult to associate all the sinister things that are associated with it was the fact that it just looked like an ordinary norm are building right now how do people feel though I mean are they just glad it's shut or are there concerns that no one was really held accountable so it's a combination of both when it was shut down there was a lot of joy but at the same time as you rightly say there aren't any people held accountable for all these atrocities also be there were some people who are very cautious about the fact that even if this particular facility is closed as long as people are taking to other facilities with their rights abused it doesn't make any change whatsoever it's just a change of locale so having covered the story of this prison going back years yourself what do you feel about turning into a museum yes I was glad that there was an interest to make this notorious prison center into prison me more real museum because all this history all these stories need to be preserved for the future generation to give us lessons I was a bit disappointed by the way they tried to go about it by the way that they didn't try to preserve all those stories written on the walls but overall I'm glad that it's closed and it's my deepest hope that facility like this one exists and I need your p.r. Or anywhere else close you want facilities not just the house or it's just stopping the act itself is what we should all be striving for and that's Calcutta and you better tell of b.b.c. America speaking to me from his base in the Ethiopian capital at this hour. You've been listening to the 5th floor roller coaster ride of stories from the B.B.C.'s international language services and if you just joined us don't miss out you can listen again online and also don't forget our podcast and this week it's the lead story from Kenya about how camels are used to bring mobile health clinics to remote communities there and there's a little lesson there also in how to speak to camels to search for b.b.c. If you can also find many of our previous episodes there including this one on Mahatma Gandhi in London the city he came to know after persuading his family to let him leave home here's a taste of that interview with the B.B.C.'s Gargan suburb well he got mad at a very young age when he was 13 when he was around 18 years old they had their 1st child and at that time family friend had told Gandhi Why don't you go to London why don't you go and study law now his mother was very unhappy she didn't want him to leave his wife and baby and go away to London and then what Gandhi did in order to convince his mother he said I promise you I'll stay away from 3 things alcohol women and meat Finally she agreed because the records show that he kept his promise Yes he did he reach London September 18th 88 and tried very hard to fit in to learn the British culture the customs and during his time in London he was in London for 3 years studying law he also loaned French English chemistry and Latin now the police were Gandhi lived in London which we visited is called 20 barons Court ruled and even today if you visit this block of flats you can see a blue plaque which says Mahatma Gandhi lived here as a law student and to hear more from Gaga visit our 5th floor web page now time to witness history which remembers the life of Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2412 years later in 2016 Alex last spoke to her daughter. My mother was often asked. How can you do she said. She said what needed to be done was so compelling that I had to do everything. With she grew up surrounded by nature surrounded by the beauty of nature when. Daughter She grew up in the highlands of Kenya which she considered to be the most beautiful part of this world she described in such a vivid terms encounter with tadpoles Rapids around rocks and she would spend hours in forget that she had been sent to fetch water and she would spend time playing with the environment I think that had a lot to do with it I also remember her describing her mother being a farmer her mother grew all the food that they ate and she had a small piece of land within her where she asked my mother to grow her crops and my mother enjoyed so much interaction with the soil. It was clear early on that when Gary meth I was very bright she goes away to school to university out in the United States and she comes back and joins the university as a very young member of academy staff. She got her Ph d. In veterinary anatomy and became a professor at the University of Nairobi during her work she noticed that population growth farming and deforestation thing a dramatic effect on rural I knew. She was struck by the issues that were being presented by women who were very much like her mother they were talking about lack of fuel having to walk hours to fetch firewood lack of water and lack of nutritious food and everything they described she felt was connected to a degradation of the landscape and so why not plant trees she asked them discussion with the country women is what treated me because they were describing a situation that was completely different from what I had experienced as a child Professor Wangari Mathias speaking to the b.b.c. In 2007 and so I could see and I could experience from their descriptions that something very drastic was going wrong with our environment what it was no longer clean as I knew it the soil was disappearing and so reversed we have Brown during the rainy season instead of rain water being retained in the forest and coming to us slowly in the form of rivers now the water was rushing downstream because there were no bid there was no vegetation to go to the water so these descriptions give me the inspiration where I told the women let us plant trees she founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977 to help women plant trees and at the same time. Begin to understand how to heal the land themselves it's 50000000 trees now and counting but very quickly the green movement became more than just about planting because we had a extremely dictatorial government and we had a one party system public land was being possible doubt to the friends of the administration of the day and so protecting these spaces necessarily becomes political one area that was under threat was the Karuna forest on the. Very It was protected by law and it became apparent that the land being illegally sold off and developed. In the Green Belt Movement went into action planting trees and confronting the developers. Current forest was by far one of the scariest battles it was vicious we invited members of the public to come and help us plant the trees but I think what is happening now is that people are showing a lot longer because nobody knew. The forest is actually destroyed what. One plant protesters set fire to buildings and equipment used by the developers all contractors hired thugs to protect their plots and attack protesters and Gary has self was clocked in the head but then they were there with the full knowledge of the police so we have yet to find. The government she got very physically hurt she was in hospital but she survived and so whenever she survived she knew it was time to go back and finish the work of saving the party. The battle to save went on for years to make the Green Belt Movement one saving career a forest fund Arima thought I also turned her attention to saving the only green space in downtown Nairobi guru Pog she became involved in other human rights campaigns to the Green Belt Movement and. Mothers of political prisoners of the day chose to stage a city in part a hunger strike and these mothers decided they would sit there for as long as it took to get their children out of jail and my mother decided to wait with them and so they said they would wait as long as it took I have no idea where these policemen are taking me now. I have done nothing to challenge the president and the party of the day that was gutsy she was beaten up threatened and arrested numerous times she pressed on you know for us we this was our mother so we just saw her as normal barefoot walking around in the kitchen eating dinner with us we tried to to to stop or we tried to say well why do you really have to but she was not to be stopped I mean she was so resolute and you know for us as children I have to brothers we always saw her come back home so we knew she'd come back we got used to the fact that she came back she was part of the opposition coalition that swept to power in 2002 she was elected to Parliament and even as a deputy Environment Minister then in October 2004 a boat from the blue. An ecologist from Kenya has become the 1st African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize got a mother has spent more than 25 years fighting deforestation. Just didn't believe that it was her I think for a while there she probably thought maybe. They don't know but it was one of the most amazing moments to see her enjoy. The spotlight in the platform you know where she'd never before I think the whole day she sort of spent saying. I didn't know anyone was listening when I was called to be informed that I had one I had no idea whatsoever what was coming and then you you almost don't believe it actually it is impossible to understand the impact it would have on your life if you took a conservation message around Africa and around the world then suddenly she became ill all her life my mother was healthy and so when she was 1st diagnosed as well very intense a stage 4 ovarian cancer then it was quite a shock. My mother died on September 25th 2011. She left quite a legacy I think certainly for us as Kenyans as women as Africans I think the fact that one woman from the highlands of Kenya could be such a potent force for change remains one of the most inspiring pings from. Each of us can do something it doesn't have to be big and the little things we do eventually will create this wave of change. The. Daughter of Wangari closing the 5th hour on the b.b.c. Support for Alaska Public Media comes from listeners like you thank you. You're listening to can ask a Anchorage Alaska Public Media f.m. 91 point one connecting Alaskans life informed. It's 12 o'clock g.m.t. I'm Jackie learned and this is the newsroom from the b.b.c. World Service the city of Barcelona has been brought to a standstill by Catalan separatists protests and a general strike they say they want negotiations we need talks discussing about a democratic solution which could be the only solution to this conflict there's been sporadic fighting in northern Syria despite Turkey's agreement to suspend its military offensive against Kurdish forces now the Turkish president says the Kurds are withdrawing the Kurds have been confirmed that the Australian authorities have launched an animal cruelty investigation after a television report showed the alleged mass slaughter of race horses for their meat that regulate actually states horses as active and ricing when in fact that they were slaughtered months months and months ago in midst and right now 2 NASA astronauts are on the 1st ever all woman space walk those stories here on the news room from the b.b.c. This is the b.b.c. News Hello I'm Jonathan Izod the Spanish city of Barcelona has ground to a halt with a general strike underway and large protests against the prison sentences imposed this week on separatist leaders there's a major demonstration outside the city's university with hundreds of thousands of other protesters from across Catalonia due to converge on Barcelona later in the day Guy Hedgecoe is that activists have blocked roads in many parts of Catalonia today and thousands have been demonstrating on the streets some tourist sites such as the center of the family a basilica.