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Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

Outlook: Tiger Terror, Brain Operation Violinist, Skateboarders in Afghanistan

A tiger; Brain op violinist; A skateboarding child in Afghanistan

16/11/2014

Tiger Terror, Brain Operation Violinist, Skateboarders in Afghanistan

BBC World Service - Outlook, Tiger Terror, Brain Operation Violinist, Skateboarders in Afghanistan

Brain-op violinist; Facing a tiger; the Aids scientist; Gay soldier; Skateboarding kids

Woman plays violin during brain-op; Facing a man-eating tiger; the scientist who discovered HIV causes Aids; Being a Gay soldier in the British Army; Afghan skateboarding kids.

Naomi Elishuv, an Israeli violinist, played the violin while surgeons operated on her brain. Twenty years ago she gave up her career as a professional violinist, when her hands started to tremble uncontrollably due to essential tremor - a  neurological condition. Recently, doctors operated to try to stop the tremor. They planted a tiny pacemaker in her brain, and asked her to play the violin so they could check they had put it in exactly the right place.    
 
Bengal tigers have killed two people in the last couple of months in the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, on the border between India and Bangladesh. Reporter Candida Beveridge met people who have come face to face with the tigers and lived to tell the tale. 

Nobel prize-winning scientist Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, who 30 years ago identified HIV as the cause of Aids talks about her work and how it has helped people who are HIV positive. 

One of the UK's first openly gay soldier, James Wharton, shares his experiences of coming out in the army.  

And, the charity Skateistan has provided skate boarding parks on the outskirts of Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan.  Many of the children who visit the park are from the Jogi minority, sometimes called gypsies, who are excluded from mainstream Afghan society, and whose families are often poverty-stricken and illiterate. Skateboarding has helped the children learn a new skill and lessons offered as a sideline have improved their literacy.

(Photos: Diving Tiger. Credit: Getty Images. Naomi Elishuv plays the violin in the operating theatre. Credit: Lior Tzur. Skateboarders)

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