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A team of international experts has been rebuilding our most iconic ancient ancestors from the bones up - starting with a Neanderthal Continue reading the main story A team of scientists has created what it believes is the first really accurate reconstruction of Neanderthal man, from a skeleton that was discovered in France over a century ago. In 1909, excavations at La Ferrassie cave in the Dordogne unearthed the remains of a group of Neanderthals. One of the skeletons in that group was that of an adult male, given the name La Ferrassie 1. These remains have helped scientists create a detailed reconstruction of our closest prehistoric relative for a new BBC series, Prehistoric Autopsy. La Ferrassie 1 is one of the most important discoveries made in the field of Neanderthal research. His skull is the largest and most complete ever found. The discovery of his leg a...

By Robin Banerji BBC World Service, Bakhchisaray   After persecution during Soviet times, Crimean Tatars have returned to their homeland in Ukraine where they are trying to rebuild their lives. Rustem Eminov, now in his mid-40s, was sent into exile when he was just three-months-old. His family was forced to leave the Crimea and was resettled in far-away Central Asia. It was not until the breakup of the Soviet Union, when he was in his 20s, that Eminov was finally able to live in the land of his birth. Over cups of green tea in a room shaded against the fierce sun, he tells me his story.   Like many Crimean Tatars, Eminov grew up in exile   Now a specialist in the history of the Crimean Tatars, Eminov is the director of ethnography at the Historical and Culture Reserve in the old Crimean town of Bakhchisaray. A handsome clean-shaven man, with a smile on his face and an open manner, my wife and I meet him ...

  Malala Yousafzai is one of thousands of Pakistani children whose education has been interrupted The Taliban's attempt to kill teenaged activist Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan earlier this month underlines the dangers that the militant conflict holds for the country's schoolchildren. Tens of thousands of school pupils have been displaced along with their families from areas across Pakistan's tribal belt on the Afghan border where the Taliban have carved sanctuaries for themselves. Thousands were deprived of an education as the militants carried out a persistent campaign against secular education, destroying nearly 1,000 schools since 2006. Years of military operations in these areas have led to further destruction. While militants have been driven out from some areas, the territory they once occupied has not yet been fully secured under a civilian administration. And many significant sanctuaries still remain, especially in North Waziristan, parts of Sout...