16/12/2012 Reporters

taken ill on another one of their ships -- P& ships -- P&ow

it's time for Reporters -- that's Rebels in Syria tighten their grip

on the city of Aleppo. His life there any better? We have a special

rapport Orla Guerin finds that in spite of legal reforms and billions

of dollars in aid, women in Afghanistan still suffer abuse. And

there's Chinese architects strive to build distinctive tower blocks,

we look at whether they have run out of ideas. Welcome to Reporters.

It's been two years since the Arab uprising began, and in Syria the

conflict continues. The rebels have received a morale boost when Russia,

a key ally of the authorities in Syria, said the Damascus government

was losing control of more and more territory. Moscow is now working on

plans to evacuate its citizens if necessary. With the fighting

continuing, Ian Pannell and Darren Conaway managed to get behind the

scenes of the desperate struggle going on inside the northern city

of Aleppo. In the words of one of its

residents, welcome to free Aleppo. Where mounds of rubbish arise, and

the destitute struggle to make a living. The rebels now control the

large areas of the city, but this is what has become of this ancient

city. Ahmed has lost his home and his job. So every day he sifts

through the filth and the stench so he can feed his children.

TRANSLATION: Life is really bad. There's no work, no money. That's

why I come here to collect rubbish. This revolution was supposedly

about a better future, a better tomorrow. Many of the residents

here still cling to that hope, and they believe the ongoing fighting,

not just in the City but also outside in the countryside, is

worth of that struggle. In three Syria, petrol now comes from a

barrel at the side of the road. -- Free. Three times the price it was

before the revolution. People queued for hours in the cold for

bread. Now ten times more expensive and in short supply. The

bombardment has subsided, but the suffering hasn't. And the fighting

has just moved elsewhere. We joined the rebels on an operation. Running

across open ground to avoid sniper fire. The fighters are laying siege

to an infantry training school. The Free Syrian Army controls most of

the land here, and so the 300 government troops inside know

they're surrounded. No reinforcements are coming. The

rebels have already overrun other bases, and with each victory they

see stronger weapons -- sees. The turret of a tank in front of the

base gives away its position -- inside. The gun is loaded and the

rebels take aim. They miss, and get ready to try again. But a

government fighter jet has been spotted. The fighters have to run

for cover. Although the government has been weakened, it really has

not been defeated, and what we are looking at the moment is a fighter

jet, you can probably hear it, and it has been doing circles around,

coming down to dive, essentially trying to bomb the rebels attacking

this base. That in Aleppo, the sun has set and the streets start to

empty. The power and the water was cut days ago. And as night falls,

the dark and began to consume the city. The few hoodoo remain outside

are still queuing for bread. -- and the damp. They have been shelled

and shot at, and as winter sets in, they are cold, hungry and desperate.

Normal life has been suspended. Families hunkered down for the

night on building sites and in empty schools. Railings for a

washing line. A classroom for a home. Refugees in their own city.

Where children sleep by candlelight huddle together for warmth. It is

hard not to think that like the government that used to watch over

them, they too are under siege. More than half-a-million people

have now fled from Syria to escape the civil war, that's according to

the UN refugee agency. The rear end AGR police those displaced within

Syria No. 2-3 million more. -- the UNHCR. The government in Damascus

have abandoned areas of the countryside to defend urban areas

against the armed rebels. Jeremy Bowen reports from Damascus, where

the conflict has turned the Syrian capital into a divided city.

Damascus is now at the heart of the bloodiest Arab uprising. The regime

keeps the city centre under tight security, that squeezes the traffic

down the main roads. The regime's capital still functions. But the

battle for Damascus is under way. It's happening in the suburbs. This

is Douma, after months of shelling and air strikes. It's controlled by

the rebels who claim they hold around a third of the city. These

were blocks of flats. The laws of war say all sides should

distinguish between civilians and fighters. Almost every building in

Douma or is damaged, suggesting it is all being treated as a military

target. They said they saw the bomb, a barrel of explosive, propped up

in this neck from a helicopter. The regime's blitz is breaking the city,

breaking hearts and lives -- net. It hasn't broken the will of

President Bashar al-Assad's enemies. The rebels have shown that they

have the stomach for a fight. They have shown that they can endure

pain come and they have the conviction that if they don't fight

on they will be killed. The question for them is what more they

will have to do to get the victory that they insist is coming. The

fighters in Douma or, from a group called, say they will do it by

slicing more off the regime's territory. They showed off a big

army base they captured about a month ago. What do you think will

happen to Assad? Killed. He must be killed. How important is it for you

to win the battle in Damascus? very important. It's the capital

city. We will catch the capital city from Assad. In a few weeks.

More than 200 recruits were being trained at the base for the next

stages of the battle for Damascus. Their offices, originally in the

Syrian army, say they defected because the regime killed civilians.

-- officers. They wear the trappings of Islamic fighters, but

deny the regime's claim that they are jihadists inspired by Al-Qaeda.

The trained men showed off what You can see the rebel-held suburbs

and the bombing from the windows of the regime's main military hospital.

The Syrian army no longer gives out casualty figures. A doctor here

says they average around 40 new admissions every day. One of the

new debt was Ferdie ka noot, who served in the Fiat air force

intelligence service. He was killed in June near Damascus airport,

leaving two small children and a widow. The family are away from the

same set as the President and they believe they have no future if he

goes. TRANSLATION: Of course we need the sacrifice, for the country,

for us to live, for the children true grow up, he had to sacrifice

himself. Other men should sacrifice themselves for the sake of the

country -- to grow up. presidential palace looms over

Damascus. Syria has to futures, a political deal between all sides to

build a new country, or a long civil war. The most likely option

is the matter right now. -- latter. A sobering report was released by

the UN recently detailing just how hard it still is for women in

Afghanistan to get access to justice. Violent attacks on Afghan

women are rising, yet there's no sign of a proportional increase in

police investigations and prosecutions. Brutal killings of

women and girls have increased in recent months, along with

assassinations of senior political A peaceful village in northern

Afghanistan now stained by bloodshed. Locals still struggling

to comprehend brutal killings two weeks ago. The bereaved father

shows us the alleyway where his daughter was butchered. Her blood

was everywhere, he says. This is where her throat was cut. Here is

all he has left of the girl who was about 14. Her sandals and her ring.

TRANSLATION: She was the best one at looking after the family. She

helped with the housework and she was kind. Two men have been

arrested, one a relative whose marriage proposal was turned down.

But in a Kabul refuge, we met others who are still waiting for

justice. This 20-year-old says when she divorced her abusive husband,

he killed both her parents and he is still free. TRANSLATION: He

destroyed my life. Every night, I wake up crying. I am worried he

might hurt my brothers. It has been a year since he killed my parents.

He should have been punished by now. In Afghanistan, it is often the

victims who are punished. The UN says women here have continued to

be prosecuted for fleeing violent homes. The UN says there is still a

long way to go for women and girls to get justice. It says there is

widespread impunity for perpetrators of violence. Police

are often slow to investigate cases and reluctant to make arrests of

powerful figures like members of militia and those who can pay

bribes. Lawyers representing Afghan women say the victim is often told

to keep quiet. She is silenced by the police, by doctors, various

people within governmental entity is, unfortunately, to say you

should just accept this. What to say it is not that bad, it is OK.

Mahmood praise at his door that pot might grave -- Mahomed a craze at

his daughter's grave. At least for him, the killers are behind bars.

Many more still search for justice. Cuba's once-thriving should be

industry has begun opening up to foreign investment for the first

time since the revolution more than 50 years ago -- sugar industry. A

British company is the first to sign a joint venture in the sector.

The project will also try to harvest a much-hated we do for use

as a biofuel. -- weed. It is one of Cuba's biggest sugar mills and it

has seen better days but they are getting ready for big changes. A

British company has just signed a ground-breaking deal to invest more

than $15 million -- $50 million to run power based on sugar-cane race.

East German generators will be ripped out and the new plans will

feed green energy both to the sugar melt and Cuba's national

electricity grid. Cuba there lies on diesel-powered power stations

which are even less green Dan Cole and very expensive. On the basis of

the sugar industry alone, they generate -- they can generate 40%

of their crew today. This is Marabou, the huge weight that has

invaded vast swathes of the Cuban countryside, taking over the

agricultural land here and making it impossible to farm. The British

investors see this plant as less of a problem than an opportunity. They

plan to cut it down and used it for biofuel. This was all sugar-cane

land until the Soviet market and world sugar price collapsed. The

challenge for the British team is harvesting the thick, thorny we'd

economically. No-one has been able to do it yet. There is an added

incentive. They have discovered Marabou also makes ideal activated

carbon for filters or even batteries. The war on Marabou has

been declared. There will be a war on inefficiency as well. The funds

spent here will be the first foreign investment in Sugar since

the Cuban revolution. It has taken three difficult years to negotiate

the deal but the Communist government hopes it will help

revitalise a once critical sector of the economy. With this business,

the Sugar Mill will improve, will be able to operate at high capacity

and I think it is possible. If the pilot project goes well, there will

be four more biomass power plants at other sugar mills. First, the

team have to prove they can harvest and how this to -- and an Highness

the Marabou. China has been at the centre of the tall building boom of

the last decade and now boasts more than 200 structures over 200m in

height across 33 cities. But the trend has not been without

controversy. We visited one unusual building project. As Chinese tower

blocks get higher and stranger, the debate is getting fiercer. The

architects of this building say it is a combination of Western form

and Chinese subtlety. Local residents see it differently.

TRANSLATION: We call it the giant pair of hands. -- trousers.

gite trousers is not the only iconic building to have come in for

a barrage of barbed criticism from Chinese internet users complaining

about what they see as increasingly outlandish foreign designs

completely out of keeping with Chinese culture and architectural

heritage. The danger for some cities is that they do not have

this need and they just construct so many high rise buildings as a

symbol. One city constructed 300 high rise buildings. Another

constructed 400. And another 600 and so on. This competition is

nonsense. The Chinese skyscraper is sprouting fast and might soon get

even faster. This took little more than one week and now the company

behind it says it will build the world's tallest skyscraper in just

three months. Heritage is important, some experts say, but so is solving

the problem of China's overcrowded cities. Shanghai has 20 million

people already. It could easily go to 30 million people, 40 million

people. Spreading that out further and further away from a central

core is more detrimental, less sustainable, than keeping things

more dense and going vertical. However, with more than 300

skyscrapers currently under construction in China, the debate

is only going to intensify. Is the country laying the foundations for

a well-planned urban future? Or is it flying by the seat of its

architectural trousers? Returning to the second anniversary of the

Arab uprising. Our correspondent went to Tunisia, where the

uprisings began. She gained a rare access to one of the grand palaces

of the deposed President Ben Ali. The palaces and their contents have

been put up for auction. The proceeds will go to the Tunisian

people. This week, the lavish palaces go on sale along with their

contents. A stunning view of the Mediterranean Sea. President Ben

Ali of Tunisia had both the money and the power to live here. This is

just one of the floors of one of the grand palaces. This is a more

internet -- intimate corner. Several copies of the Holy Koran

and perhaps the last book he was reading, a book on Carla Bruni, the

former French First Lady. But come inside and see what is here. This

huge informal drawing room for entertaining. Lots of personal

mementoes as well. Come and see, if you can, through the paper.

Photographs of the family. Inside, President Ben Ali, his second wife

and their last child. His only son. He also had five daughters through

two marriages. All are covered up now. All of this will go on sale.

Including this glittering collection of prayer beads for

worry beads as they are sometimes known. Crystal, gold and candles

for the lavish entertaining that must have gone on. Ivory, Jade,

even a desert scene for in gold. But this must be for adults. If you

have children, you need a place for them as well. Look at this play

room. Lots of Tories including this special car for the boy -- toys.

This is literally the seat of power or at least one of many where

President Ben Ali lived and worked. Sitting here, you might think he

left yesterday. But it has been almost two years and Tunisians are