:00:05. > :00:14.taken ill on another one of their ships -- P& ships -- P&ow
:00:15. > :00:23.
:00:23. > :00:29.it's time for Reporters -- that's Rebels in Syria tighten their grip
:00:29. > :00:34.on the city of Aleppo. His life there any better? We have a special
:00:34. > :00:41.rapport Orla Guerin finds that in spite of legal reforms and billions
:00:41. > :00:46.of dollars in aid, women in Afghanistan still suffer abuse. And
:00:46. > :00:53.there's Chinese architects strive to build distinctive tower blocks,
:00:53. > :00:58.we look at whether they have run out of ideas. Welcome to Reporters.
:00:58. > :01:02.It's been two years since the Arab uprising began, and in Syria the
:01:02. > :01:06.conflict continues. The rebels have received a morale boost when Russia,
:01:06. > :01:10.a key ally of the authorities in Syria, said the Damascus government
:01:11. > :01:16.was losing control of more and more territory. Moscow is now working on
:01:16. > :01:19.plans to evacuate its citizens if necessary. With the fighting
:01:19. > :01:23.continuing, Ian Pannell and Darren Conaway managed to get behind the
:01:23. > :01:28.scenes of the desperate struggle going on inside the northern city
:01:28. > :01:33.of Aleppo. In the words of one of its
:01:33. > :01:39.residents, welcome to free Aleppo. Where mounds of rubbish arise, and
:01:39. > :01:44.the destitute struggle to make a living. The rebels now control the
:01:44. > :01:50.large areas of the city, but this is what has become of this ancient
:01:50. > :01:54.city. Ahmed has lost his home and his job. So every day he sifts
:01:54. > :02:02.through the filth and the stench so he can feed his children.
:02:02. > :02:08.TRANSLATION: Life is really bad. There's no work, no money. That's
:02:08. > :02:11.why I come here to collect rubbish. This revolution was supposedly
:02:11. > :02:15.about a better future, a better tomorrow. Many of the residents
:02:15. > :02:20.here still cling to that hope, and they believe the ongoing fighting,
:02:20. > :02:25.not just in the City but also outside in the countryside, is
:02:25. > :02:29.worth of that struggle. In three Syria, petrol now comes from a
:02:29. > :02:35.barrel at the side of the road. -- Free. Three times the price it was
:02:35. > :02:41.before the revolution. People queued for hours in the cold for
:02:41. > :02:46.bread. Now ten times more expensive and in short supply. The
:02:46. > :02:56.bombardment has subsided, but the suffering hasn't. And the fighting
:02:56. > :02:57.
:02:58. > :03:05.has just moved elsewhere. We joined the rebels on an operation. Running
:03:05. > :03:09.across open ground to avoid sniper fire. The fighters are laying siege
:03:09. > :03:13.to an infantry training school. The Free Syrian Army controls most of
:03:13. > :03:18.the land here, and so the 300 government troops inside know
:03:18. > :03:22.they're surrounded. No reinforcements are coming. The
:03:22. > :03:27.rebels have already overrun other bases, and with each victory they
:03:27. > :03:33.see stronger weapons -- sees. The turret of a tank in front of the
:03:33. > :03:41.base gives away its position -- inside. The gun is loaded and the
:03:41. > :03:46.rebels take aim. They miss, and get ready to try again. But a
:03:46. > :03:55.government fighter jet has been spotted. The fighters have to run
:03:55. > :03:59.for cover. Although the government has been weakened, it really has
:03:59. > :04:03.not been defeated, and what we are looking at the moment is a fighter
:04:03. > :04:06.jet, you can probably hear it, and it has been doing circles around,
:04:07. > :04:14.coming down to dive, essentially trying to bomb the rebels attacking
:04:14. > :04:20.this base. That in Aleppo, the sun has set and the streets start to
:04:20. > :04:28.empty. The power and the water was cut days ago. And as night falls,
:04:28. > :04:32.the dark and began to consume the city. The few hoodoo remain outside
:04:32. > :04:38.are still queuing for bread. -- and the damp. They have been shelled
:04:38. > :04:44.and shot at, and as winter sets in, they are cold, hungry and desperate.
:04:44. > :04:48.Normal life has been suspended. Families hunkered down for the
:04:49. > :04:54.night on building sites and in empty schools. Railings for a
:04:54. > :04:58.washing line. A classroom for a home. Refugees in their own city.
:04:58. > :05:03.Where children sleep by candlelight huddle together for warmth. It is
:05:03. > :05:10.hard not to think that like the government that used to watch over
:05:10. > :05:13.them, they too are under siege. More than half-a-million people
:05:14. > :05:20.have now fled from Syria to escape the civil war, that's according to
:05:20. > :05:25.the UN refugee agency. The rear end AGR police those displaced within
:05:26. > :05:31.Syria No. 2-3 million more. -- the UNHCR. The government in Damascus
:05:31. > :05:35.have abandoned areas of the countryside to defend urban areas
:05:35. > :05:41.against the armed rebels. Jeremy Bowen reports from Damascus, where
:05:41. > :05:47.the conflict has turned the Syrian capital into a divided city.
:05:47. > :05:52.Damascus is now at the heart of the bloodiest Arab uprising. The regime
:05:52. > :05:58.keeps the city centre under tight security, that squeezes the traffic
:05:58. > :06:04.down the main roads. The regime's capital still functions. But the
:06:04. > :06:09.battle for Damascus is under way. It's happening in the suburbs. This
:06:09. > :06:16.is Douma, after months of shelling and air strikes. It's controlled by
:06:16. > :06:23.the rebels who claim they hold around a third of the city. These
:06:23. > :06:27.were blocks of flats. The laws of war say all sides should
:06:27. > :06:32.distinguish between civilians and fighters. Almost every building in
:06:32. > :06:37.Douma or is damaged, suggesting it is all being treated as a military
:06:37. > :06:42.target. They said they saw the bomb, a barrel of explosive, propped up
:06:42. > :06:48.in this neck from a helicopter. The regime's blitz is breaking the city,
:06:48. > :06:51.breaking hearts and lives -- net. It hasn't broken the will of
:06:51. > :06:56.President Bashar al-Assad's enemies. The rebels have shown that they
:06:56. > :06:59.have the stomach for a fight. They have shown that they can endure
:06:59. > :07:04.pain come and they have the conviction that if they don't fight
:07:04. > :07:11.on they will be killed. The question for them is what more they
:07:11. > :07:16.will have to do to get the victory that they insist is coming. The
:07:16. > :07:20.fighters in Douma or, from a group called, say they will do it by
:07:20. > :07:24.slicing more off the regime's territory. They showed off a big
:07:24. > :07:30.army base they captured about a month ago. What do you think will
:07:31. > :07:37.happen to Assad? Killed. He must be killed. How important is it for you
:07:37. > :07:47.to win the battle in Damascus? very important. It's the capital
:07:47. > :07:56.
:07:56. > :08:00.city. We will catch the capital city from Assad. In a few weeks.
:08:00. > :08:10.More than 200 recruits were being trained at the base for the next
:08:10. > :08:10.
:08:10. > :08:15.stages of the battle for Damascus. Their offices, originally in the
:08:15. > :08:19.Syrian army, say they defected because the regime killed civilians.
:08:19. > :08:25.-- officers. They wear the trappings of Islamic fighters, but
:08:25. > :08:35.deny the regime's claim that they are jihadists inspired by Al-Qaeda.
:08:35. > :08:38.
:08:38. > :08:43.The trained men showed off what You can see the rebel-held suburbs
:08:43. > :08:49.and the bombing from the windows of the regime's main military hospital.
:08:49. > :08:53.The Syrian army no longer gives out casualty figures. A doctor here
:08:53. > :08:57.says they average around 40 new admissions every day. One of the
:08:57. > :09:01.new debt was Ferdie ka noot, who served in the Fiat air force
:09:02. > :09:06.intelligence service. He was killed in June near Damascus airport,
:09:06. > :09:09.leaving two small children and a widow. The family are away from the
:09:09. > :09:15.same set as the President and they believe they have no future if he
:09:15. > :09:20.goes. TRANSLATION: Of course we need the sacrifice, for the country,
:09:20. > :09:24.for us to live, for the children true grow up, he had to sacrifice
:09:24. > :09:28.himself. Other men should sacrifice themselves for the sake of the
:09:28. > :09:34.country -- to grow up. presidential palace looms over
:09:34. > :09:39.Damascus. Syria has to futures, a political deal between all sides to
:09:39. > :09:47.build a new country, or a long civil war. The most likely option
:09:47. > :09:50.is the matter right now. -- latter. A sobering report was released by
:09:50. > :09:54.the UN recently detailing just how hard it still is for women in
:09:54. > :10:00.Afghanistan to get access to justice. Violent attacks on Afghan
:10:00. > :10:03.women are rising, yet there's no sign of a proportional increase in
:10:03. > :10:06.police investigations and prosecutions. Brutal killings of
:10:06. > :10:16.women and girls have increased in recent months, along with
:10:16. > :10:20.assassinations of senior political A peaceful village in northern
:10:20. > :10:28.Afghanistan now stained by bloodshed. Locals still struggling
:10:28. > :10:34.to comprehend brutal killings two weeks ago. The bereaved father
:10:34. > :10:41.shows us the alleyway where his daughter was butchered. Her blood
:10:41. > :10:48.was everywhere, he says. This is where her throat was cut. Here is
:10:48. > :10:54.all he has left of the girl who was about 14. Her sandals and her ring.
:10:54. > :10:58.TRANSLATION: She was the best one at looking after the family. She
:10:58. > :11:04.helped with the housework and she was kind. Two men have been
:11:04. > :11:10.arrested, one a relative whose marriage proposal was turned down.
:11:10. > :11:14.But in a Kabul refuge, we met others who are still waiting for
:11:14. > :11:24.justice. This 20-year-old says when she divorced her abusive husband,
:11:24. > :11:29.he killed both her parents and he is still free. TRANSLATION: He
:11:29. > :11:34.destroyed my life. Every night, I wake up crying. I am worried he
:11:34. > :11:40.might hurt my brothers. It has been a year since he killed my parents.
:11:40. > :11:47.He should have been punished by now. In Afghanistan, it is often the
:11:47. > :11:52.victims who are punished. The UN says women here have continued to
:11:52. > :11:59.be prosecuted for fleeing violent homes. The UN says there is still a
:11:59. > :12:02.long way to go for women and girls to get justice. It says there is
:12:02. > :12:07.widespread impunity for perpetrators of violence. Police
:12:07. > :12:12.are often slow to investigate cases and reluctant to make arrests of
:12:12. > :12:16.powerful figures like members of militia and those who can pay
:12:16. > :12:23.bribes. Lawyers representing Afghan women say the victim is often told
:12:23. > :12:27.to keep quiet. She is silenced by the police, by doctors, various
:12:27. > :12:33.people within governmental entity is, unfortunately, to say you
:12:33. > :12:40.should just accept this. What to say it is not that bad, it is OK.
:12:40. > :12:47.Mahmood praise at his door that pot might grave -- Mahomed a craze at
:12:47. > :12:52.his daughter's grave. At least for him, the killers are behind bars.
:12:52. > :12:56.Many more still search for justice. Cuba's once-thriving should be
:12:56. > :13:02.industry has begun opening up to foreign investment for the first
:13:02. > :13:07.time since the revolution more than 50 years ago -- sugar industry. A
:13:07. > :13:12.British company is the first to sign a joint venture in the sector.
:13:12. > :13:22.The project will also try to harvest a much-hated we do for use
:13:22. > :13:23.
:13:23. > :13:28.as a biofuel. -- weed. It is one of Cuba's biggest sugar mills and it
:13:28. > :13:35.has seen better days but they are getting ready for big changes. A
:13:35. > :13:42.British company has just signed a ground-breaking deal to invest more
:13:42. > :13:46.than $15 million -- $50 million to run power based on sugar-cane race.
:13:46. > :13:49.East German generators will be ripped out and the new plans will
:13:49. > :13:56.feed green energy both to the sugar melt and Cuba's national
:13:56. > :14:04.electricity grid. Cuba there lies on diesel-powered power stations
:14:04. > :14:10.which are even less green Dan Cole and very expensive. On the basis of
:14:10. > :14:15.the sugar industry alone, they generate -- they can generate 40%
:14:15. > :14:20.of their crew today. This is Marabou, the huge weight that has
:14:20. > :14:24.invaded vast swathes of the Cuban countryside, taking over the
:14:24. > :14:28.agricultural land here and making it impossible to farm. The British
:14:28. > :14:35.investors see this plant as less of a problem than an opportunity. They
:14:35. > :14:41.plan to cut it down and used it for biofuel. This was all sugar-cane
:14:41. > :14:46.land until the Soviet market and world sugar price collapsed. The
:14:46. > :14:51.challenge for the British team is harvesting the thick, thorny we'd
:14:51. > :14:56.economically. No-one has been able to do it yet. There is an added
:14:56. > :15:02.incentive. They have discovered Marabou also makes ideal activated
:15:02. > :15:09.carbon for filters or even batteries. The war on Marabou has
:15:09. > :15:13.been declared. There will be a war on inefficiency as well. The funds
:15:13. > :15:17.spent here will be the first foreign investment in Sugar since
:15:17. > :15:20.the Cuban revolution. It has taken three difficult years to negotiate
:15:20. > :15:27.the deal but the Communist government hopes it will help
:15:27. > :15:34.revitalise a once critical sector of the economy. With this business,
:15:34. > :15:39.the Sugar Mill will improve, will be able to operate at high capacity
:15:39. > :15:44.and I think it is possible. If the pilot project goes well, there will
:15:44. > :15:49.be four more biomass power plants at other sugar mills. First, the
:15:49. > :15:56.team have to prove they can harvest and how this to -- and an Highness
:15:56. > :16:01.the Marabou. China has been at the centre of the tall building boom of
:16:01. > :16:07.the last decade and now boasts more than 200 structures over 200m in
:16:07. > :16:16.height across 33 cities. But the trend has not been without
:16:16. > :16:22.controversy. We visited one unusual building project. As Chinese tower
:16:22. > :16:28.blocks get higher and stranger, the debate is getting fiercer. The
:16:28. > :16:32.architects of this building say it is a combination of Western form
:16:32. > :16:42.and Chinese subtlety. Local residents see it differently.
:16:42. > :16:42.
:16:42. > :16:47.TRANSLATION: We call it the giant pair of hands. -- trousers.
:16:47. > :16:50.gite trousers is not the only iconic building to have come in for
:16:50. > :16:54.a barrage of barbed criticism from Chinese internet users complaining
:16:54. > :17:03.about what they see as increasingly outlandish foreign designs
:17:04. > :17:07.completely out of keeping with Chinese culture and architectural
:17:07. > :17:11.heritage. The danger for some cities is that they do not have
:17:11. > :17:18.this need and they just construct so many high rise buildings as a
:17:18. > :17:24.symbol. One city constructed 300 high rise buildings. Another
:17:24. > :17:30.constructed 400. And another 600 and so on. This competition is
:17:30. > :17:38.nonsense. The Chinese skyscraper is sprouting fast and might soon get
:17:38. > :17:42.even faster. This took little more than one week and now the company
:17:42. > :17:50.behind it says it will build the world's tallest skyscraper in just
:17:50. > :17:57.three months. Heritage is important, some experts say, but so is solving
:17:57. > :18:02.the problem of China's overcrowded cities. Shanghai has 20 million
:18:02. > :18:06.people already. It could easily go to 30 million people, 40 million
:18:06. > :18:10.people. Spreading that out further and further away from a central
:18:10. > :18:16.core is more detrimental, less sustainable, than keeping things
:18:16. > :18:20.more dense and going vertical. However, with more than 300
:18:20. > :18:25.skyscrapers currently under construction in China, the debate
:18:25. > :18:31.is only going to intensify. Is the country laying the foundations for
:18:31. > :18:38.a well-planned urban future? Or is it flying by the seat of its
:18:38. > :18:44.architectural trousers? Returning to the second anniversary of the
:18:44. > :18:48.Arab uprising. Our correspondent went to Tunisia, where the
:18:48. > :18:54.uprisings began. She gained a rare access to one of the grand palaces
:18:54. > :18:59.of the deposed President Ben Ali. The palaces and their contents have
:18:59. > :19:07.been put up for auction. The proceeds will go to the Tunisian
:19:07. > :19:16.people. This week, the lavish palaces go on sale along with their
:19:16. > :19:21.contents. A stunning view of the Mediterranean Sea. President Ben
:19:21. > :19:26.Ali of Tunisia had both the money and the power to live here. This is
:19:26. > :19:33.just one of the floors of one of the grand palaces. This is a more
:19:33. > :19:40.internet -- intimate corner. Several copies of the Holy Koran
:19:40. > :19:46.and perhaps the last book he was reading, a book on Carla Bruni, the
:19:46. > :19:51.former French First Lady. But come inside and see what is here. This
:19:51. > :19:56.huge informal drawing room for entertaining. Lots of personal
:19:56. > :20:02.mementoes as well. Come and see, if you can, through the paper.
:20:02. > :20:10.Photographs of the family. Inside, President Ben Ali, his second wife
:20:10. > :20:18.and their last child. His only son. He also had five daughters through
:20:18. > :20:23.two marriages. All are covered up now. All of this will go on sale.
:20:23. > :20:31.Including this glittering collection of prayer beads for
:20:31. > :20:40.worry beads as they are sometimes known. Crystal, gold and candles
:20:40. > :20:46.for the lavish entertaining that must have gone on. Ivory, Jade,
:20:46. > :20:51.even a desert scene for in gold. But this must be for adults. If you
:20:51. > :21:01.have children, you need a place for them as well. Look at this play
:21:01. > :21:04.
:21:04. > :21:08.room. Lots of Tories including this special car for the boy -- toys.
:21:08. > :21:13.This is literally the seat of power or at least one of many where
:21:13. > :21:17.President Ben Ali lived and worked. Sitting here, you might think he
:21:17. > :21:23.left yesterday. But it has been almost two years and Tunisians are