Ö÷²¥´óÐã

There will be plenty of celebrations at the World Service this week - both on and off air.

In December 1932 the Ö÷²¥´óÐã World Service schedule featured long talks directed at specific parts of the Empire but here at Outlook we currently do things slightly differently - thank goodness...

So on Wednesday - the station's actual birthday - we're going to have a bumper fun quiz featuring superstars of the Bush House newsrooms: Veronique Edwards, Seva Novgorodsev, Robin Lustig and Julian Marshall.

There'll be plenty of hooters and hilarity and Fred Dove is hoping to catch out Robin Lustig with a few silly seasonal questions. Ho ho ho!

	Cupcakes prevent any arguments about who's going to cut the cake!

In the build-up to the day we'll be continuing with our series on Me and the Media. On Monday you can hear an interview with the captain of the Ghanaian football team, Stephen Appiah, and on Tuesday, Raisa Melikhova - a Russian woman who asked President Putin a single question on live TV.

You can see videos of Stephen and Raisa and others in the Me and the Media series on the 75th anniversary website - if you click on the link below.

Just so you understand that we haven't become totally birthday crazy...

On Monday there'll be an interview with Iraqi broadcaster Amal al Mudarris who was presumed to be dead following an assassination attempt in Baghdad earlier this year - but has recently turned up alive in a hospital in Damascus.

And we'll also be hearing from British former crack addict Sharon Simms whose addiction became so bad that her children were taken into care. Now she works to prevent the same thing happening to other addicts.

On Tuesday we have another item about children: we'll be hearing from Ghanaian Joe Asakibeem who set up a charity Afrikids to stop children being killed because they harbour 'evil spirits'.

On Thursday we'll be making a rare visit to Southern Thailand, and Anton Foek will be visiting a town in the American mid-west that has become home to thousands of Somalis.

And on Friday we'll be hearing from Gustavo Moncayo, who's son was kidnapped in Columbia 10 years ago and who is now attempting a 500 kilometre walk to call for reconciliation with the kidnappers.

So... altogether now... Happy birthday to you Happy Birthday to you....

Contact Outlook