:00:05. > :00:15.is the world track cycling championship. Now it is time for
:00:15. > :00:28.
:00:28. > :00:32.Reporters. Welcome to Reporters. This is where
:00:32. > :00:37.we send out correspondence to bring you the best stories from the world.
:00:37. > :00:45.In this week's programme: On the front line in Syria, a special
:00:45. > :00:50.report on the rebels trying to take control of Aleppo's airport. We --
:00:50. > :00:57.defying the Taliban to get an education. The Pakistani children
:00:57. > :01:01.whose schools were bombed but still attend. And will be joined
:01:01. > :01:08.scientists searching for life 5,000 metres under the Caribbean. -- and
:01:08. > :01:12.we joined. We start in Syria were the UN is warning of worsening
:01:12. > :01:17.human rights violations and war crimes. The number of people being
:01:17. > :01:21.killed continues to grow. In such an environment, it is difficult to
:01:21. > :01:26.assess who is gaining the upper hand but the rebels are making
:01:26. > :01:32.advances and putting ever greater pressure on President Assad and his
:01:32. > :01:36.forces. And our correspondent has been inside the main commercial
:01:36. > :01:41.city of Aleppo and the north where some of the most intense fighting
:01:41. > :01:47.has been taking place. The night sky over Aleppo trembles with the
:01:47. > :01:52.sound of war. The toll has been terrible. Parts of this once grand
:01:52. > :01:58.City have been obliterated. Thousands have lost their lives. As
:01:58. > :02:03.the fighting spreads, many parts of Syria now look like this. In the
:02:03. > :02:09.last few weeks, rebel fighters have made key gains here in the north.
:02:09. > :02:14.Towns, military bases and airfields. The streets have the misfortune to
:02:14. > :02:19.lie beside their next and biggest target so far, Aleppo International
:02:19. > :02:28.Airport. Too much has been lost to think of winners and losers but
:02:28. > :02:35.make no mistake, the rebellion is I can actually see the airstrip on
:02:35. > :02:40.the main airport building. This is now the key strategic target. If
:02:40. > :02:50.they take this, not only will it have been a strategic success but
:02:50. > :02:50.
:02:50. > :02:57.It could deal a fatal blow to their morale and would be a major boost
:02:57. > :03:02.for us, as well as giving us a great asset. Civilians pay the
:03:02. > :03:12.highest price for this ambition. A battle for Syria's future that
:03:12. > :03:20.
:03:20. > :03:27.An army column has been trying to advance to protect the airport. But
:03:27. > :03:37.the rebels have moved into stop this. The ground bears witness to
:03:37. > :03:44.
:03:45. > :03:50.This black flag lets everyone know who is living the resistance. We
:03:50. > :03:54.saw foreign fighters from Libya, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The us
:03:54. > :03:58.together with Syrian is honest and a dominating the front lines. They
:03:58. > :04:04.have a reputation for being tough, discipline and brave. Some fear
:04:04. > :04:11.these men want a hardline Islamic state far removed from what began
:04:11. > :04:19.as a call for freedom and democracy. Without help from elsewhere, many
:04:19. > :04:24.Syrians I'm glad of their support. There is mounting success. There is
:04:24. > :04:30.another reason to worry about what is happening here. A few kilometres
:04:30. > :04:35.away is the vast military complex that is believed by some to store
:04:35. > :04:42.part of the suspected chemical weapons store. It is in the
:04:42. > :04:49.rebels''mac sides. The town has been pounded relentlessly in a
:04:49. > :04:53.fight that resonance far beyond the borders. Towns like this across
:04:53. > :05:00.Syria have borne the brunt of much of the fighting and the government
:05:00. > :05:04.shelling. As many as 170,000 people are living here including refugees.
:05:04. > :05:10.Today it is empty. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands
:05:10. > :05:19.were injured. Nobody has saved them. Nobody is interested in their
:05:19. > :05:26.suffering. The Syrian armour it is -- army can come to the city, kill
:05:26. > :05:31.people at any time. They kill women, children, four houses, commit
:05:31. > :05:38.massacres and nobody is interested. Nobody wants to help the Syrian
:05:38. > :05:44.people. It is two years since this began. Hope that it will or even
:05:44. > :05:53.can end soon has passed. Syrians feel alone and abandoned by much of
:05:53. > :05:57.the world. Now we go to a part of southern
:05:57. > :06:03.Thailand that we do not report from very often. It is close to the
:06:03. > :06:07.Malaysian border. There are conflicts which have recently
:06:07. > :06:11.escalated. 16 militants died in February when they attacked at Thai
:06:11. > :06:16.military base. It is part of the long running anti-government
:06:16. > :06:23.movement in this region. Some of the rebels want an independent
:06:23. > :06:30.state. Our correspondent was there. There are distressing images in
:06:30. > :06:35.this report. This is a land of fear, not smiles. 60,000 Thai soldiers
:06:35. > :06:40.trapped in a decade-long war of attrition within surgeons who love
:06:40. > :06:44.all around them but are rarely seen. Last week, the mask slipped. A
:06:44. > :06:50.failed attack on a Thai marine base left 16 militants dead. Their
:06:50. > :06:54.bodies were left in the double. Their movement is no longer face
:06:54. > :07:01.was. Astonishingly, three of them live next door to each other, just
:07:01. > :07:06.a short ride from the base. A procession of friends and relatives
:07:07. > :07:11.arrive to console the families. This man has been left with three
:07:11. > :07:16.young doctors to look after. -- this woman. She knew her husband
:07:16. > :07:23.was a wanted man. He stayed away. The army often searched her home.
:07:23. > :07:28.Her feelings are mixed. She misses him, she says. Dismantled me he was
:07:28. > :07:34.proud that his son had died fighting for his beliefs. -- this
:07:34. > :07:41.man told me. He will join the insurgents. I tried to stop them,
:07:41. > :07:44.he said. They do not always listen to me. The dead men were buried as
:07:44. > :07:50.martyrs to the cause of an independent Islamic state. There
:07:50. > :07:56.was no emotion. Neighbours seemed to accept their deaths as a fitting
:07:56. > :07:59.end. The commander of the raid is this man, at 30-year-old with
:07:59. > :08:06.multiple arrest warrants and the price on his head. He is admired
:08:06. > :08:10.and his own community. His widow grieves that her young son will
:08:10. > :08:16.never know his father. She is adamant that his death was worth it
:08:16. > :08:21.and that his cause is a noble one. How many others in this troubled
:08:21. > :08:26.region of Thailand feel the same? People rarely speak openly.
:08:26. > :08:30.Sympathy for the insurgents is certainly strong. This may look
:08:31. > :08:34.like a victory for they are authorities but they cannot break
:08:34. > :08:42.the powerful hold that the insurgency as on so many young
:08:42. > :08:47.Muslim men in this region. There are trying to protect the
:08:47. > :08:51.insurgency targets. -- those that the insurgency targets. This is a
:08:51. > :08:54.primary school, believe it or not. Government buildings are seen as
:08:54. > :08:59.legitimate targets by the insurgents. They killed a teacher
:08:59. > :09:04.here in front of the children last month. Running this school takes
:09:04. > :09:10.particular courage and dedication. Many teachers have already asked to
:09:10. > :09:14.be transferred. TRANSLATION: We are afraid to leave the house. We do
:09:14. > :09:19.not know what we will phase out in the world. The soldiers are here to
:09:19. > :09:24.protect us. We should be safer. The soldiers keep doing what they have
:09:24. > :09:33.done for the past two years. -- ten years. They are patrolling and
:09:33. > :09:38.hunting for an enemy which is everywhere and nowhere.
:09:38. > :09:42.Staying in that part of the world, many Filipinos decide to look for
:09:43. > :09:47.work overseas because of limited job options and properties at home.
:09:47. > :09:50.For some, far from making their fortune, they find themselves
:09:50. > :09:54.trapped in a nightmare and forced into slave labour and even
:09:54. > :10:00.prostitution. In addition, if they had left the Philippines are
:10:00. > :10:10.legally, many feel they cannot return. Our correspondent looks
:10:10. > :10:15.
:10:15. > :10:19.These borders are brutally impossible to police so it is no
:10:19. > :10:24.wonder that the sport, the biggest in the region, is when many
:10:24. > :10:28.Filipinos try to leave the country illegally and is also where the
:10:28. > :10:36.nightmare begins. TRANSLATION: I was smuggled by boat to Malaysia
:10:36. > :10:41.and then flown to Jordan. I was at my employer's house. But then my
:10:41. > :10:46.treatment got worse. She pressed a hot iron on me once. I said I
:10:46. > :10:51.wanted to leave but she said I would not get paid. It was so bad,
:10:51. > :10:58.I left anyway and went back to the agency. But then it was worse. We
:10:58. > :11:02.were not given enough food. TRANSLATION: I went to Malaysia
:11:02. > :11:08.with a passport but no visa. The job I was promised gave me a very
:11:08. > :11:12.low salary. Not enough even for food. I said I wanted to leave but
:11:12. > :11:17.the company refused to give me back my passport, saying I owed them
:11:17. > :11:22.money. So I decided to escape. Then I was caught by Malaysian
:11:22. > :11:28.authorities and jailed for two months before being deported.
:11:28. > :11:33.local organisation has seen thousands of cases like this. That
:11:33. > :11:37.is why it has set up a stand at the port and wants to warn people about
:11:37. > :11:42.the risks of accepting the offer of a job overseas without the proper
:11:42. > :11:46.documents. It also has a nearby safe house, where people can
:11:46. > :11:52.receive counselling and talk about their options and employment rights.
:11:52. > :11:57.Despite the work of charities like this, every day thousands of people
:11:57. > :12:02.come through ports like this one, searching for a better life and a
:12:02. > :12:11.better job abroad. But for many of them, the reality will fall far
:12:11. > :12:15.short of their expectations. The Pakistani school girl shot by
:12:15. > :12:19.the Taliban for campaigning for girl's education is continuing to
:12:19. > :12:23.make good progress with her rehabilitation in Britain. In
:12:24. > :12:28.Pakistan, children are defined the Taliban every day by attending
:12:28. > :12:33.classes in areas where schools have been bombed. Orla Guerin has been
:12:33. > :12:39.one of -- been to one of the worst affected areas in the north-west,
:12:39. > :12:42.where more than 750 schools have been damaged or destroyed in recent
:12:42. > :12:48.years. A message from the Taliban. They
:12:48. > :12:52.blew up this girl's primary school under cover of darkness. It is one
:12:52. > :13:00.of five schools bombed recently in a small community just outside the
:13:00. > :13:06.city of Peshawar. The militants are trying to teach lessons in fear. We
:13:06. > :13:14.found that pupils nearby, crammed into a neighbouring school.
:13:14. > :13:19.Carrying on with their classes. The teacher says, hands up who came
:13:19. > :13:24.from the bombed school? Lots of little hands are raised. This is
:13:25. > :13:32.the front line in the Taliban's wall on education. The older girls
:13:32. > :13:35.have heard about Malala Yousafzai death. She is a role model for many,
:13:36. > :13:41.like this 15 the world who have -- hopes to be a doctor. Because she
:13:41. > :13:45.speaks out, we are concealing her identity. TRANSLATION: We will get
:13:45. > :13:50.our education. We are not scared of these people. We will study with
:13:50. > :13:54.great determination. How do you feel about the people who bombed
:13:54. > :13:58.your school? They should be building schools and bringing peace
:13:59. > :14:04.to Pakistan. Instead, they destroy them. Schools should be built for
:14:04. > :14:10.girls everywhere. But it is not just the girls who are being robbed
:14:10. > :14:14.of their classrooms. Other nearby boys' primary, a study in the
:14:14. > :14:19.shadow of their former school which was reduced to rubble in December.
:14:19. > :14:24.The damage done was immense. There were three bombs planted and they
:14:24. > :14:29.brought the building to the ground. What I am standing on is the roof
:14:29. > :14:33.of the school. 160 boys used to come to classes here but around 40
:14:33. > :14:42.have not returned since the bombing. The headmaster says their parents
:14:42. > :14:48.are still -- are too afraid to send them. The headmaster is so worried,
:14:48. > :14:58.he has pulled a gun. You are ready to use this to defend pupils?
:14:58. > :15:01.
:15:01. > :15:06.to defend my children and my teachers. We try to teach our
:15:06. > :15:13.children. Back at the girls' school, classes are over and the pupil's
:15:13. > :15:19.head for home. Among them, many other young girls who are a study
:15:20. > :15:25.in courage. The International Book Fair in
:15:25. > :15:29.Havana is a magnet for Cuban book lovers. It's a rare chance to find
:15:29. > :15:32.a much-prized foreign title, because Qui Bo has stopped
:15:32. > :15:37.importing books after the revolution. Local and foreign books
:15:37. > :15:41.are printed on the island but sold at heavily subsidised prices. --
:15:41. > :15:48.Cuba. Limited state funds mean there are never enough books to
:15:48. > :15:50.satisfy demand so all in all the book their place a huge part in
:15:50. > :15:55.Havana. Havana's International Book Fair is
:15:55. > :15:59.a big event every year, with books from over 30 countries around the
:15:59. > :16:02.world. It always draws a huge crowd. That is partly because cupids are
:16:02. > :16:08.so well educated and because normally it is very hard to get
:16:08. > :16:15.your hands on a good book. -- Cubans. It is difficult to find
:16:15. > :16:20.good books. I am not saying the literature is bad but we want to
:16:20. > :16:25.read other things as well. The prices of the books are very
:16:25. > :16:29.expensive. We can only find them at the Book Fair. Doing the book there,
:16:29. > :16:35.even shops like this away from the main venue have been.. They have
:16:35. > :16:39.had lots of extra books brought in. Published especially because of the
:16:39. > :16:44.fair. -- have been brought in. Usually they are stuffed with
:16:44. > :16:50.politics, about Fidel Castro. None are critical. But authorities say
:16:50. > :16:54.it has nothing to do with censorship, they say it is about
:16:54. > :16:59.economics. TRANSLATION: It is not about prioritising politics. It is
:16:59. > :17:03.that what people buy most his children's books, novels and poetry
:17:03. > :17:08.and we can't replace them quickly enough. If you want people here to
:17:08. > :17:14.have access to books, they have got to be cheap. We would like to print
:17:14. > :17:19.more but our finances do not allow that. This is what it means to be
:17:19. > :17:22.mad about books. This is a huge queue of people because one of
:17:22. > :17:26.Cuba's best known writers is appearing in the building just over
:17:26. > :17:31.there. These people have turned out, hoping they can see him and perhaps
:17:31. > :17:36.get their hands on a copy of one of his books. But I have been told
:17:36. > :17:40.there are just 400 copies of the novel he is selling today. It is
:17:40. > :17:45.only $1 to buy but the chances of everyone getting a copy is very
:17:45. > :17:51.remote. Was it difficult to get the book? Yes. There were a lot of
:17:51. > :17:58.people there. But I got to get the book. For those who have got a bit
:17:58. > :18:00.more money to spend, this is some of what is on offer, from an
:18:00. > :18:06.autobiography to the novels of Doris Lessing. It's a Mexican
:18:06. > :18:10.company that has poured on of these books. They are selling for about
:18:10. > :18:14.$5. Much cheaper than back in Mexico. But the trade is so brisk,
:18:14. > :18:19.Cubans are so hungry for books like this, that it is still good
:18:19. > :18:24.business for them. The only problem is that it lasts for just ten days
:18:24. > :18:26.India. In this case, they have to stock up on good books while they
:18:26. > :18:30.can. Scientists exploring the Caribbean
:18:30. > :18:35.say they have discovered the deepest examples yet of what are
:18:35. > :18:40.called hydrothermal vents. Rising from the seabed, they blast out
:18:40. > :18:44.extremely hot water. Despite these apparently hostile conditions, the
:18:44. > :18:52.waters support unusual wildlife. This latest discovery was made by a
:18:52. > :18:56.British research ship. In the war tours of the Caribbean,
:18:56. > :19:03.a ship named after the great explorer James Cook is about to
:19:03. > :19:08.explore a world he could never have imagined. Final checks before the
:19:08. > :19:17.launch of a machine called a crisis. This unmanned submarine is being
:19:17. > :19:22.deployed to one of the strangers in the deep ocean. -- Isis. The
:19:22. > :19:29.journey will take it straight down for three miles to the ocean floor.
:19:29. > :19:34.Admission of genuine discovery. -- a mission. It is going so deep, it
:19:34. > :19:38.will take three hours to reach the sea bed. Its objective is this
:19:38. > :19:43.eerie landscape. The narrative means of what it calls hydrothermal
:19:43. > :19:49.vents. The water coming out of them is very hot. And these events, the
:19:49. > :19:55.deepest found so far, have just been discovered by this expedition.
:19:55. > :19:59.-- these events. A video was relayed back to a control centre
:19:59. > :20:04.onboard. The scientists and engineers are delighted. You are a
:20:04. > :20:09.little bit humbled and odd. You can just revel in the beauty of it. For
:20:09. > :20:14.a few minutes, it is not about the science, it is about the wonder of
:20:14. > :20:18.this part of our planet. Something that has been hidden from us for so
:20:18. > :20:26.long. It is only in the last 40 years that anyone you these events
:20:26. > :20:29.existed. They are like me volcanoes. In a cross section, you can see how
:20:30. > :20:33.cold sea water pushed under pressure on to the ocean floor is
:20:33. > :20:38.heated up and then forced out. Apparently the hostile environment
:20:38. > :20:42.is home to highly unusual creatures. The bizarre sight of thousands of
:20:42. > :20:45.white shrimp jostling in a breathless mass of one of the
:20:45. > :20:49.events. They are thought to be blind but somehow survived by
:20:49. > :20:53.eating bacteria. But they are obviously thriving. A sample of
:20:53. > :20:58.them was collected and pulled back to the surface. Researchers want to
:20:58. > :21:03.know how life evolves and how the shrimp have acquired something very
:21:03. > :21:07.useful. We don't think they have functioning eyes but they have a
:21:07. > :21:10.very unusual organ on the back of their body is, like an early-
:21:10. > :21:16.warning system for them to tell them when they are getting too
:21:16. > :21:21.close to the hot fluid that come out of the Jimmy's. The robotic
:21:21. > :21:26.submarine is now on its way back to the surface. -- shimmies. Every
:21:26. > :21:30.time it dives, it seems to reveal something that nobody has ever seen
:21:30. > :21:35.before. These anemone is spotted two days ago may be a previously
:21:35. > :21:41.unknown species. Been able to study them up by remote control has
:21:41. > :21:45.opened up part of the world in accessible until now. -- being able.
:21:45. > :21:51.As the submarine came back, a question was raised. What else is