24/02/2013 Reporters

is the world track cycling championship. Now it is time for

Reporters. Welcome to Reporters. This is where

we send out correspondence to bring you the best stories from the world.

In this week's programme: On the front line in Syria, a special

report on the rebels trying to take control of Aleppo's airport. We --

defying the Taliban to get an education. The Pakistani children

whose schools were bombed but still attend. And will be joined

scientists searching for life 5,000 metres under the Caribbean. -- and

we joined. We start in Syria were the UN is warning of worsening

human rights violations and war crimes. The number of people being

killed continues to grow. In such an environment, it is difficult to

assess who is gaining the upper hand but the rebels are making

advances and putting ever greater pressure on President Assad and his

forces. And our correspondent has been inside the main commercial

city of Aleppo and the north where some of the most intense fighting

has been taking place. The night sky over Aleppo trembles with the

sound of war. The toll has been terrible. Parts of this once grand

City have been obliterated. Thousands have lost their lives. As

the fighting spreads, many parts of Syria now look like this. In the

last few weeks, rebel fighters have made key gains here in the north.

Towns, military bases and airfields. The streets have the misfortune to

lie beside their next and biggest target so far, Aleppo International

Airport. Too much has been lost to think of winners and losers but

make no mistake, the rebellion is I can actually see the airstrip on

the main airport building. This is now the key strategic target. If

they take this, not only will it have been a strategic success but

It could deal a fatal blow to their morale and would be a major boost

for us, as well as giving us a great asset. Civilians pay the

highest price for this ambition. A battle for Syria's future that

An army column has been trying to advance to protect the airport. But

the rebels have moved into stop this. The ground bears witness to

This black flag lets everyone know who is living the resistance. We

saw foreign fighters from Libya, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The us

together with Syrian is honest and a dominating the front lines. They

have a reputation for being tough, discipline and brave. Some fear

these men want a hardline Islamic state far removed from what began

as a call for freedom and democracy. Without help from elsewhere, many

Syrians I'm glad of their support. There is mounting success. There is

another reason to worry about what is happening here. A few kilometres

away is the vast military complex that is believed by some to store

part of the suspected chemical weapons store. It is in the

rebels''mac sides. The town has been pounded relentlessly in a

fight that resonance far beyond the borders. Towns like this across

Syria have borne the brunt of much of the fighting and the government

shelling. As many as 170,000 people are living here including refugees.

Today it is empty. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands

were injured. Nobody has saved them. Nobody is interested in their

suffering. The Syrian armour it is -- army can come to the city, kill

people at any time. They kill women, children, four houses, commit

massacres and nobody is interested. Nobody wants to help the Syrian

people. It is two years since this began. Hope that it will or even

can end soon has passed. Syrians feel alone and abandoned by much of

the world. Now we go to a part of southern

Thailand that we do not report from very often. It is close to the

Malaysian border. There are conflicts which have recently

escalated. 16 militants died in February when they attacked at Thai

military base. It is part of the long running anti-government

movement in this region. Some of the rebels want an independent

state. Our correspondent was there. There are distressing images in

this report. This is a land of fear, not smiles. 60,000 Thai soldiers

trapped in a decade-long war of attrition within surgeons who love

all around them but are rarely seen. Last week, the mask slipped. A

failed attack on a Thai marine base left 16 militants dead. Their

bodies were left in the double. Their movement is no longer face

was. Astonishingly, three of them live next door to each other, just

a short ride from the base. A procession of friends and relatives

arrive to console the families. This man has been left with three

young doctors to look after. -- this woman. She knew her husband

was a wanted man. He stayed away. The army often searched her home.

Her feelings are mixed. She misses him, she says. Dismantled me he was

proud that his son had died fighting for his beliefs. -- this

man told me. He will join the insurgents. I tried to stop them,

he said. They do not always listen to me. The dead men were buried as

martyrs to the cause of an independent Islamic state. There

was no emotion. Neighbours seemed to accept their deaths as a fitting

end. The commander of the raid is this man, at 30-year-old with

multiple arrest warrants and the price on his head. He is admired

and his own community. His widow grieves that her young son will

never know his father. She is adamant that his death was worth it

and that his cause is a noble one. How many others in this troubled

region of Thailand feel the same? People rarely speak openly.

Sympathy for the insurgents is certainly strong. This may look

like a victory for they are authorities but they cannot break

the powerful hold that the insurgency as on so many young

Muslim men in this region. There are trying to protect the

insurgency targets. -- those that the insurgency targets. This is a

primary school, believe it or not. Government buildings are seen as

legitimate targets by the insurgents. They killed a teacher

here in front of the children last month. Running this school takes

particular courage and dedication. Many teachers have already asked to

be transferred. TRANSLATION: We are afraid to leave the house. We do

not know what we will phase out in the world. The soldiers are here to

protect us. We should be safer. The soldiers keep doing what they have

done for the past two years. -- ten years. They are patrolling and

hunting for an enemy which is everywhere and nowhere.

Staying in that part of the world, many Filipinos decide to look for

work overseas because of limited job options and properties at home.

For some, far from making their fortune, they find themselves

trapped in a nightmare and forced into slave labour and even

prostitution. In addition, if they had left the Philippines are

legally, many feel they cannot return. Our correspondent looks

These borders are brutally impossible to police so it is no

wonder that the sport, the biggest in the region, is when many

Filipinos try to leave the country illegally and is also where the

nightmare begins. TRANSLATION: I was smuggled by boat to Malaysia

and then flown to Jordan. I was at my employer's house. But then my

treatment got worse. She pressed a hot iron on me once. I said I

wanted to leave but she said I would not get paid. It was so bad,

I left anyway and went back to the agency. But then it was worse. We

were not given enough food. TRANSLATION: I went to Malaysia

with a passport but no visa. The job I was promised gave me a very

low salary. Not enough even for food. I said I wanted to leave but

the company refused to give me back my passport, saying I owed them

money. So I decided to escape. Then I was caught by Malaysian

authorities and jailed for two months before being deported.

local organisation has seen thousands of cases like this. That

is why it has set up a stand at the port and wants to warn people about

the risks of accepting the offer of a job overseas without the proper

documents. It also has a nearby safe house, where people can

receive counselling and talk about their options and employment rights.

Despite the work of charities like this, every day thousands of people

come through ports like this one, searching for a better life and a

better job abroad. But for many of them, the reality will fall far

short of their expectations. The Pakistani school girl shot by

the Taliban for campaigning for girl's education is continuing to

make good progress with her rehabilitation in Britain. In

Pakistan, children are defined the Taliban every day by attending

classes in areas where schools have been bombed. Orla Guerin has been

one of -- been to one of the worst affected areas in the north-west,

where more than 750 schools have been damaged or destroyed in recent

years. A message from the Taliban. They

blew up this girl's primary school under cover of darkness. It is one

of five schools bombed recently in a small community just outside the

city of Peshawar. The militants are trying to teach lessons in fear. We

found that pupils nearby, crammed into a neighbouring school.

Carrying on with their classes. The teacher says, hands up who came

from the bombed school? Lots of little hands are raised. This is

the front line in the Taliban's wall on education. The older girls

have heard about Malala Yousafzai death. She is a role model for many,

like this 15 the world who have -- hopes to be a doctor. Because she

speaks out, we are concealing her identity. TRANSLATION: We will get

our education. We are not scared of these people. We will study with

great determination. How do you feel about the people who bombed

your school? They should be building schools and bringing peace

to Pakistan. Instead, they destroy them. Schools should be built for

girls everywhere. But it is not just the girls who are being robbed

of their classrooms. Other nearby boys' primary, a study in the

shadow of their former school which was reduced to rubble in December.

The damage done was immense. There were three bombs planted and they

brought the building to the ground. What I am standing on is the roof

of the school. 160 boys used to come to classes here but around 40

have not returned since the bombing. The headmaster says their parents

are still -- are too afraid to send them. The headmaster is so worried,

he has pulled a gun. You are ready to use this to defend pupils?

to defend my children and my teachers. We try to teach our

children. Back at the girls' school, classes are over and the pupil's

head for home. Among them, many other young girls who are a study

in courage. The International Book Fair in

Havana is a magnet for Cuban book lovers. It's a rare chance to find

a much-prized foreign title, because Qui Bo has stopped

importing books after the revolution. Local and foreign books

are printed on the island but sold at heavily subsidised prices. --

Cuba. Limited state funds mean there are never enough books to

satisfy demand so all in all the book their place a huge part in

Havana. Havana's International Book Fair is

a big event every year, with books from over 30 countries around the

world. It always draws a huge crowd. That is partly because cupids are

so well educated and because normally it is very hard to get

your hands on a good book. -- Cubans. It is difficult to find

good books. I am not saying the literature is bad but we want to

read other things as well. The prices of the books are very

expensive. We can only find them at the Book Fair. Doing the book there,

even shops like this away from the main venue have been.. They have

had lots of extra books brought in. Published especially because of the

fair. -- have been brought in. Usually they are stuffed with

politics, about Fidel Castro. None are critical. But authorities say

it has nothing to do with censorship, they say it is about

economics. TRANSLATION: It is not about prioritising politics. It is

that what people buy most his children's books, novels and poetry

and we can't replace them quickly enough. If you want people here to

have access to books, they have got to be cheap. We would like to print

more but our finances do not allow that. This is what it means to be

mad about books. This is a huge queue of people because one of

Cuba's best known writers is appearing in the building just over

there. These people have turned out, hoping they can see him and perhaps

get their hands on a copy of one of his books. But I have been told

there are just 400 copies of the novel he is selling today. It is

only $1 to buy but the chances of everyone getting a copy is very

remote. Was it difficult to get the book? Yes. There were a lot of

people there. But I got to get the book. For those who have got a bit

more money to spend, this is some of what is on offer, from an

autobiography to the novels of Doris Lessing. It's a Mexican

company that has poured on of these books. They are selling for about

$5. Much cheaper than back in Mexico. But the trade is so brisk,

Cubans are so hungry for books like this, that it is still good

business for them. The only problem is that it lasts for just ten days

India. In this case, they have to stock up on good books while they

can. Scientists exploring the Caribbean

say they have discovered the deepest examples yet of what are

called hydrothermal vents. Rising from the seabed, they blast out

extremely hot water. Despite these apparently hostile conditions, the

waters support unusual wildlife. This latest discovery was made by a

British research ship. In the war tours of the Caribbean,

a ship named after the great explorer James Cook is about to

explore a world he could never have imagined. Final checks before the

launch of a machine called a crisis. This unmanned submarine is being

deployed to one of the strangers in the deep ocean. -- Isis. The

journey will take it straight down for three miles to the ocean floor.

Admission of genuine discovery. -- a mission. It is going so deep, it

will take three hours to reach the sea bed. Its objective is this

eerie landscape. The narrative means of what it calls hydrothermal

vents. The water coming out of them is very hot. And these events, the

deepest found so far, have just been discovered by this expedition.

-- these events. A video was relayed back to a control centre

onboard. The scientists and engineers are delighted. You are a

little bit humbled and odd. You can just revel in the beauty of it. For

a few minutes, it is not about the science, it is about the wonder of

this part of our planet. Something that has been hidden from us for so

long. It is only in the last 40 years that anyone you these events

existed. They are like me volcanoes. In a cross section, you can see how

cold sea water pushed under pressure on to the ocean floor is

heated up and then forced out. Apparently the hostile environment

is home to highly unusual creatures. The bizarre sight of thousands of

white shrimp jostling in a breathless mass of one of the

events. They are thought to be blind but somehow survived by

eating bacteria. But they are obviously thriving. A sample of

them was collected and pulled back to the surface. Researchers want to

know how life evolves and how the shrimp have acquired something very

useful. We don't think they have functioning eyes but they have a

very unusual organ on the back of their body is, like an early-

warning system for them to tell them when they are getting too

close to the hot fluid that come out of the Jimmy's. The robotic

submarine is now on its way back to the surface. -- shimmies. Every

time it dives, it seems to reveal something that nobody has ever seen

before. These anemone is spotted two days ago may be a previously

unknown species. Been able to study them up by remote control has

opened up part of the world in accessible until now. -- being able.

As the submarine came back, a question was raised. What else is