:00:00. > :00:17.collapse. Now on BBC News, Reporters.
:00:18. > :00:27.Welcome. From here, we send our correspondence to give you the best
:00:28. > :00:32.stories from across the globe. This week, the journalists branded part
:00:33. > :00:36.of it is held by the Egyptian authorities. We report on a court
:00:37. > :00:43.case C Net crackdown on freedom of speech.
:00:44. > :00:46.-- seen as a crackdown. Behind these walls, the three men are sharing a
:00:47. > :00:52.cell. They are allowed to exercise for one hour a day. Central
:00:53. > :00:55.Africa's Muslims under siege. Andrew Harding reports on the villagers
:00:56. > :01:00.torn apart by revenge attacks by Chris -- Christian militias. This
:01:01. > :01:07.was quite a big village. More than 6000 people. Now, this is all that's
:01:08. > :01:12.left. As California suffers its worst drought in a century, we
:01:13. > :01:15.question why farmers are effectively transporting billions of gallons of
:01:16. > :01:21.water. Rio's mean streets. We report on
:01:22. > :01:30.whether Brazil's pacification programme will make it safer.
:01:31. > :01:37.And forget robo humans, we investigate how the future world of
:01:38. > :01:41.work robots might be much smaller scale.
:01:42. > :01:47.This has been a complete mystery, as to how a creature with a brain the
:01:48. > :01:51.size of a pinhead can process that information.
:01:52. > :01:54.It is the case campaigners say is symbolic of the Egyptian authorities
:01:55. > :01:59.sweeping crackdown on freedom of speech. Three Al Jazeera journalist
:02:00. > :02:06.went on trial this week, accused of broadcasting false news in joining
:02:07. > :02:08.or assisting the Muslim Brotherhood, class as a terrorist group in
:02:09. > :02:16.Egypt. They say they were doing their job. The three include an
:02:17. > :02:22.award-winning Australian journalists. They are being held in
:02:23. > :02:25.one of Egypt's most notorious prisons and many believe the prison
:02:26. > :02:31.and is a message to all journalists to toe the government line.
:02:32. > :02:39.A heavy media turnout to cover the media on trial. The venue, the high
:02:40. > :02:43.security prison column -- complex where the journalists have been held
:02:44. > :02:47.for two months. Relatives came to show support, including the brother
:02:48. > :02:55.of the Australian correspondent Pete Greste. Mentally he is strong.
:02:56. > :03:00.Obviously he is prepared for a long haul. He actually warned yesterday
:03:01. > :03:10.that they aren't out until they are out and, until that occurs, they are
:03:11. > :03:14.holding out well. Entry was strictly controlled and we were not allowed
:03:15. > :03:18.to bring our cameras in. Many believe freedom of speech in each of
:03:19. > :03:23.these also on trial here. Inside, the three journalists, Mohamed Adel
:03:24. > :03:29.Fahmy, Baher Mohamed and Peter Greste, appeared in metal cages. Al
:03:30. > :03:34.Jazeera insists they were just doing their jobs and telling all sides of
:03:35. > :03:39.the story. The journalist deny allegations of aiding or joining the
:03:40. > :03:44.now banned Muslim Brotherhood. During a break in the trial, the Al
:03:45. > :03:48.Jazeera journalist gave us a gripping account of their conditions
:03:49. > :03:55.in prison. They said they are locked up for 23 hours a day, denied access
:03:56. > :03:58.to newspapers, TV and writing materials. They say they haven't
:03:59. > :04:02.been given a chance to properly prepare a defence. They hadn't seen
:04:03. > :04:06.the evidence against them. Today in court, there was no translator for
:04:07. > :04:12.Peter Greste. Senior officials say the Al Jazeera team will get a fair
:04:13. > :04:17.trial and, as long as journalists abide by the law, they won't wind up
:04:18. > :04:20.in the dock. In Egypt we have more than 1000 correspondence,
:04:21. > :04:31.representing more than 200 agencies and media. -- correspondents. None
:04:32. > :04:38.of them have been exposed to that because the abide by the law.
:04:39. > :04:43.Several other defendants appeared in court, complaining of being kicked,
:04:44. > :04:46.beaten and tortured in custody. One said he was only told about the
:04:47. > :04:49.trial how was before it began. The case was adjourned until March the
:04:50. > :05:00.5th. An exodus of Muslims from villages
:05:01. > :05:04.in the Central African Republic is under way. They are fleeing to
:05:05. > :05:09.neighbouring Chad and seeking refuge from attacks by a Christian militia
:05:10. > :05:14.known as the antiblack. The militias say they are taking revenge for
:05:15. > :05:26.atrocities against their communities by Muslim militants.
:05:27. > :05:31.-- anti-balaka. The vigilantes have just left the village. Now it is
:05:32. > :05:37.time for the Muslims to bury the dead.
:05:38. > :05:44.They are weeping for the local mayor, killed during the night along
:05:45. > :05:49.with his son and another boy. This man is overwhelmed. And there was
:05:50. > :05:59.his over brother and a rare voice of tolerance in a nation consumed by
:06:00. > :06:04.rage. -- older. He had held the job for 14 years. But he died here, tied
:06:05. > :06:13.up, shot and hacked to death aside his son, outside the mosque. All but
:06:14. > :06:20.a handful of local is have now fled into the bush. We are scared, he
:06:21. > :06:25.says. Where are the French to protect us? We have been abandoned.
:06:26. > :06:31.This was quite a big village, about 6000 people. Now, these are all that
:06:32. > :06:34.are left. Less than 100. What they desperately asking for is some
:06:35. > :06:43.international peacekeepers to come and stay here and insure that they
:06:44. > :06:46.are safe. -- ensure. French troops are beginning to push into the
:06:47. > :06:51.countryside and reinforcements are coming but not fast enough to
:06:52. > :06:57.protect every was the community now under siege. As for the killers, we
:06:58. > :07:04.found these men close by. Members of the Christian militia group known as
:07:05. > :07:07.the anti-balaka. They are high on drugs and delighted about their's
:07:08. > :07:13.death but they say it wasn't their work. TRANSLATION: It's good he
:07:14. > :07:16.died. He was a Muslim. We don't want any of them to remain in this
:07:17. > :07:25.country, even if he was a good man. He was a Muslim. No surprise then
:07:26. > :07:32.that there are scenes like this. A crowd of Muslims scrambling for food
:07:33. > :07:36.at a military airport. They have been waiting for weeks, for a plane
:07:37. > :07:43.abroad. The roads are still too dangerous. They are hungry and
:07:44. > :07:49.desperate. Some talk of a lawn war to come. -- lawn war. A Muslims will
:07:50. > :07:57.seize back half of the country. For now, they want to get out.
:07:58. > :08:02.California is suffering its worst drought for this entry. While many
:08:03. > :08:07.farmers are unable to get the water they need, one crop, with voracious
:08:08. > :08:13.thirst, is booming. It is called alfalfa, a form of hay being sold in
:08:14. > :08:19.bulk to China. But because it needs so much water, people say it is like
:08:20. > :08:22.exporting many billions of water from California every year. Alistair
:08:23. > :08:27.Leithead went to meet the farmers who are making hay while the sun
:08:28. > :08:31.shines. The reservoirs of California have
:08:32. > :08:37.been turning to dust. After the driest year on record, the state is
:08:38. > :08:42.suffering an historic drought. This drought has a far reaching impact.
:08:43. > :08:47.He would have green grass here on the hillside, anywhere from four to
:08:48. > :08:53.eight inches tall. So, he has to buy hey, forcing him to sell one fifth
:08:54. > :08:58.of the herd. But in another part of California, the fields are a wash
:08:59. > :09:04.with Colorado river water. Farmers here make a wildly year-round sun
:09:05. > :09:11.shines. It is alfalfa. A low value and thirsty crop for animals.
:09:12. > :09:16.Increasingly a moneymaking export. The fastest growing market is China.
:09:17. > :09:22.The alfalfa hay is compressed into smaller bales. Wrapped for
:09:23. > :09:29.transport. And loaded into containers. America's trade with
:09:30. > :09:33.China means many of these come back empty, and filling them with Hague
:09:34. > :09:39.makes them cheaper to move alfalfa to Beijing that a neighbouring
:09:40. > :09:43.valley. -- with hay. Critics say it is like exporting water. We look at
:09:44. > :09:48.how much water is being exported through alfalfa, what you see is
:09:49. > :09:53.about 100 William Gallas of water per year, just from California. --
:09:54. > :09:59.billion gallons. It is a huge amount. Enough for about 1 million
:10:00. > :10:02.families, one years supply. They have always used flood irrigation
:10:03. > :10:07.here, where there's no real incentive to conserve water. This
:10:08. > :10:10.man does what he can but he says the exporting water argument is
:10:11. > :10:15.nonsense. He makes profit and sees this as the best use of his water.
:10:16. > :10:19.The cities use 70% of their water to irrigate the golf courses. If you
:10:20. > :10:25.talk about inefficiencies, is it more efficient to use water for a
:10:26. > :10:28.golf course? For the movie stars? Or more efficient for 120 farmers to
:10:29. > :10:33.grow crops and exported and create this mass economic engine that
:10:34. > :10:36.drives the country? In a land where there is little, cattle farmers
:10:37. > :10:43.disagree. John objects to the cost of pay. That's nothing compared to
:10:44. > :10:51.the resentment we feel when Hague is exported overseas. -- hay. It could
:10:52. > :10:55.be here and utilised. We need to start thinking about other things,
:10:56. > :11:00.other than making a dollar. But money does persuade people to save
:11:01. > :11:04.water. In LA, there is a subsidy to replace thirsty lawns with desert
:11:05. > :11:09.plants. It helps but urban areas can do a lot more. This is the Los
:11:10. > :11:13.Angeles River. Essentially just a big drainage canal. When it rains,
:11:14. > :11:19.this fills up with water, which flows right out to the sea. Tel 40
:11:20. > :11:23.has to balance the demands of urban users, the environment and
:11:24. > :11:28.agriculture. -- California has to balance. Many people are questioning
:11:29. > :11:33.the sustainability of the place is a wash with water doing well out of
:11:34. > :11:34.exports. It is a global market but water is a finite resource and they
:11:35. > :11:47.would like to keep it flowing here. If you like your football, you will
:11:48. > :11:50.know its just five months to go until Brazil host the World Cup and
:11:51. > :11:56.security is still a big issue for the authorities. Until recently,
:11:57. > :12:01.most of Rio 's shanty towns where a no go area for most people but a
:12:02. > :12:06.much-publicised pacification campaign has changed that. Some
:12:07. > :12:17.people may find images from this report disturbing. They call this
:12:18. > :12:22.the jungle. It's just a stones throw from the city 's famous Copacabana
:12:23. > :12:28.beach. Until recently, most of Rio 's shanty towns were no-go areas for
:12:29. > :12:32.the police. But a much-publicised pacification programme of putting
:12:33. > :12:35.permanent police here has not been universally welcomed and shootouts
:12:36. > :12:42.are common. Even here, the favelas have never been properly pacified.
:12:43. > :12:47.It's not easy. The graffiti here says no entry to the police and over
:12:48. > :12:51.here, it says death to the police. Armed drugs gangs are still in power
:12:52. > :12:54.here and in recent months, tensions between them and the police have
:12:55. > :12:58.come to the surface. The local police commander says that after the
:12:59. > :13:06.local death of a senior gang member, he and his men became
:13:07. > :13:11.targets. TRANSLATION: Many people associated with the gangs blame us
:13:12. > :13:16.when somebody dies. The reality is they are the ones trying to kill us.
:13:17. > :13:21.Violent crime is again on the rise in some parts of Brazil. The number
:13:22. > :13:25.of guns and the extremes of wealth and poverty result in some shocking
:13:26. > :13:32.and brazen attacks, like this recent bike jacking in Sao Paulo. As the
:13:33. > :13:37.video runs on, the assailant is shot by an off duty policeman,
:13:38. > :13:45.highlighting another problem, that of summary justice and vigilantism.
:13:46. > :13:50.In another part of the city, Douglas 's parents show me the spot where
:13:51. > :13:56.their unarmed 17-year-old son was shot dead from a passing police
:13:57. > :14:03.car. TRANSLATION: As he lay there, he kept on asking, why me? Whiny?
:14:04. > :14:07.The police say they only shoot to kill if their own lives are in
:14:08. > :14:12.jeopardy but at least five people died every day last year at the
:14:13. > :14:17.hands of police in Brazil. Not the sign of a mature developed society,
:14:18. > :14:23.says one senior prosecutor. We need to grow like a nation. We need to
:14:24. > :14:33.grow like our economy. We need to grow our society. We don't get to
:14:34. > :14:37.this with the kind of violence we have today. With the world 's focus
:14:38. > :14:42.on Brazil, the immediate response has been to flood the beaches and
:14:43. > :14:45.tourist spots with armed police. It might provide security for the World
:14:46. > :14:49.Cup but this country has more substantial issues with violence to
:14:50. > :14:54.overcome. As Rio prepares for the World Cup,
:14:55. > :14:58.the Winter Olympics in Sochi come to a close this weekend and the race is
:14:59. > :15:05.already on to see who will be hosting the Winter Olympics in
:15:06. > :15:12.2022. China, which hosted the summer games in 2008, is hoping that its
:15:13. > :15:17.joint bid between one northern city and the capital city of Beijing will
:15:18. > :15:21.bring it Winter Olympics glory. Eight years from now, China wants
:15:22. > :15:28.these mountains to be hosting an Olympic Games. It hopes it will
:15:29. > :15:34.inspire a new generation of competitors in a country not known
:15:35. > :15:42.for its winter sport. But the bid faces an uphill battle. We will just
:15:43. > :15:47.carry out a small experiment. It normally takes two minutes for the
:15:48. > :16:07.men to finish a downhill ski event. Let's see how long it takes me to
:16:08. > :16:13.ski down the slope. By my reckoning, I did that in under two minutes and
:16:14. > :16:16.what you have to remember is that professional skiers will probably do
:16:17. > :16:20.it up to three times quicker than I can. If you want to hold a downhill
:16:21. > :16:30.event, you will probably have to find a bigger hill. On the slopes,
:16:31. > :16:33.there is no shortage of enthusiasm For the bid. This woman says it
:16:34. > :16:39.would be wonderful to watch the Olympics on her doorstep. This boy
:16:40. > :16:44.says that if the bid is successful, he will come here every day. This
:16:45. > :16:48.may look like a winter wonderland but this is only the second time it
:16:49. > :16:54.has snowed this winter. All of this is artificially made. Look at the
:16:55. > :17:00.surrounding hills and they are almost completely bare. It begs the
:17:01. > :17:07.question, can you host a Winter Olympics without any real snow? The
:17:08. > :17:11.resort 's PR manager says it won't be a problem. It's cold enough here,
:17:12. > :17:21.she says. We will just use artificial snow like in Sochi. 200
:17:22. > :17:25.kilometres away from the mountains is Beijing. If the bid is
:17:26. > :17:28.successful, the capital will host the ice in events such as skating.
:17:29. > :17:34.That does not include cycling on ice. Over the past few days,
:17:35. > :17:39.pollution has hit hazardous levels. While Beijing cleaned up for the
:17:40. > :17:45.Summer Olympics, in the winter time, the pollution is worse, making it a
:17:46. > :17:51.much more difficult job. China has shown it can host a spectacular
:17:52. > :18:00.Summer Olympics but many see the bid for the Winter Games as something of
:18:01. > :18:04.a longshot. Now, for anyone who has been
:18:05. > :18:10.anticipating a future often seen in science fiction movies, with robots
:18:11. > :18:13.looking like us, you could be waiting for a while. Scientists say
:18:14. > :18:16.the next generation of robots will be much less lighthouse and more
:18:17. > :18:26.like smaller creatures fish and aunts. -- like us and more like
:18:27. > :18:33.smaller creatures like fish and insects. In the 1950s, this is how
:18:34. > :18:39.we imagined robots would be like in the future. 60 years on, this is how
:18:40. > :18:46.they have turned out. It looks like a toy car, but actually, it's an
:18:47. > :18:50.intelligent robot that can see and learn. It's navigating its way
:18:51. > :18:57.through this obstacle course all on its own. This is the ant they are
:18:58. > :19:01.based on. Research teams sent several weeks studying it in Spain
:19:02. > :19:08.and based on what they learned, this is what they made, a robot that can
:19:09. > :19:12.make its way through rough terrain. This is an ounce 's eye view of the
:19:13. > :19:19.world. As you can see, the picture is coarse and simplified. Even so,
:19:20. > :19:22.it is an awful lot of visual data and it has been a complete mystery
:19:23. > :19:29.as to how a creature with a brain the size of a pinhead can process
:19:30. > :19:32.that amount of information. You imagine these robots as ranges that
:19:33. > :19:39.can go out and monitor changes in pollution levels, for example, and
:19:40. > :19:44.that are autonomous and indeed can actually learn as they are out there
:19:45. > :19:49.and change their behaviour according to what they are encountering. The
:19:50. > :19:53.problem with building humanoid robots is that they are too
:19:54. > :20:03.complicated. Better to focus on something more simple like fish. The
:20:04. > :20:06.inspiration is a group of organisms, a group of fish, that live in the
:20:07. > :20:14.rivers of the Amazon. Those rivers are very murky and as a result, they
:20:15. > :20:18.have had to evolve a different way of sensing and that is electro
:20:19. > :20:24.sensing. This is the robot fish. A camera on it shows how it avoids the
:20:25. > :20:30.coloured obstacles. It's using electric fields to build up a
:20:31. > :20:34.picture, rather like radar. In murky waters, it can be used to assess
:20:35. > :20:41.damage in oil spills. It's too dangerous for divers and cameras
:20:42. > :20:46.cannot see. These robots are based on termites, working together to
:20:47. > :20:53.build a nest. And here is one based on a grasshopper. It seems that
:20:54. > :20:58.increasingly, robot builders are drawing their inspiration from the
:20:59. > :21:02.animal kingdom. If you have ever tried to build a robot yourself, you
:21:03. > :21:07.cannot help but be amazed when you look at a simple animal and how well
:21:08. > :21:14.it interacts with the world, how many competencies it has, how
:21:15. > :21:20.robust, low powered and adaptable it is. There is a lot we can learn. No
:21:21. > :21:28.robot servants to look after us in the foreseeable future. Some might
:21:29. > :21:31.say thank goodness for that. That is it from Reporters for this
:21:32. > :22:01.week. Goodbye for now. Wind and rain feature in the
:22:02. > :22:05.forecast for the next 24 hours. Heavy rain across Northern Ireland,
:22:06. > :22:12.western Scotland and northern parts of England and Wales. Certainly over
:22:13. > :22:13.the higher ground of Western England and Wales, it will be