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Outlook: Fifteen Minutes to Save a Life

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Michelle Oullette

11/09/2017 GMT

Fifteen Minutes to Save a Life

BBC World Service - Outlook, Fifteen Minutes to Save a Life

RAF pilot Michelle Oulette's dramatic rescue of a badly wounded soldier in Iraq.

British air force pilot Michelle Oulette's dramatic rescue of a badly wounded soldier in Iraq.

This month, Britain's Royal Air Force became the first branch of the British military to open up every role to women as well as men - including for the first time in its history, the close combat unit. The Defence Minister has argued that "a diverse force is a more operationally effective force". Well one woman who might go some way to proving that is Michelle Oulette, who 10 years ago became the first woman to win the Distinguished Flying Cross - one of the top military decorations for bravery. Back in 2007, Michelle was in Basra, in southern Iraq, piloting a helicopter when she had 15 minutes to rescue a severely wounded soldier. She told her dramatic story to Jo Fidgen. 

Now, how do you fancy ants for supper? Not your thing? It's actually one of the delicacies served up by chef, Esben Holmboe Bang at his restaurant, Maaemo, in Norway. Bear in mind that he holds what's known as the holy grail of the restaurant world - three Michelin stars - and is currently the youngest chef to do so. He's actually Danish, but has made it his mission to tell the story of neighbouring Norway through his food. The BBC's Andrea Kennedy went to meet him.

There's a grandmother in Bangalore who loves telling children's stories - so much so that she tells them to thousands of kids around the world. Her name is Sarla Minni, though she's known to her followers as Kahaniwali Nani, the Hindi for 'storytelling granny'. And every week, listeners can expect a new Indian folktale. 

The film Jululu has just won an award at the prestigious Venice International Film Festival. The film follows migrant workers from Africa to Italy, who go and work on the tomato farms there. And it features Yvan Sagnet, who left Cameroon in 2008.  His plan was to go and study in Italy, but he got a summer job picking tomatoes in the south of the country to help pay for his studies - and found himself at the centre of a scandal. He discovered that gangmasters, called Caporali were subjecting migrants to cruel conditions... that tens of thousands of labourers were being exploited.. and that the Mafia was behind much of it. What he did next eventually earned him the highest-ranking honour in Italy. 

There's a cave in Norway that has an overhanging roof  - it's very steep - at a 60 degree angle. And until last week, no one had managed to climb it. But Adam Ondra, a 24-year-old Czechoslovakian world champion climber has just done it, and he's been telling Outlook how he first got interested in the sport. 

(Picture: courtesy of Michelle Oullette.)

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