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From Our Own Correspondent: Weekend Edition 24 Aug 2013: Crossings

24/08/2013

Weekend Edition 24 Aug 2013: Crossings

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Weekend Edition 24 Aug 2013: Crossings

Stories of war, intrigue - and show business - from Aleppo, Hanoi, Minsk and Los Angeles

Historic flashpoints and beloved landmarks in Syria, Vietnam, Belarus and the USA. Tales from Aleppo's only crossing, Hanoi's Long Bien Bridge, Minsk and Los Angeles' stairs.

Pascale Harter presents a programme of stories about historic flashpoints and beloved landmarks from cities around the world. Hannah Lucinda Smith describes the dilemmas of dicing with death (by sniper's bullet) at Bustan al-Kasr - the only spot where Syrians can cross between the regime- and rebel-held areas of Aleppo. In Hanoi, Petroc Trelawny takes a stroll amid the hectic traffic and commerce of historic Long Bien Bridge. David Stern's been pounding the pavements of Minsk - to meet residents who remember working with Lee Harvey Oswalk during the Soviet period. What was the man later identified as John F Kennedy's assassin doing in Belarus at the height of the Cold War? And Zeb Soanes is in Los Angeles, exploring a little-known aspect of the city's geography: its network of public stairways. Built to open up the hills to property developers, in the days before car ownership was simply assumed, these hidden pathways are now enjoying something of a revival.

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