31/08/2014 Reporters

Now on BBC News it is time for Reporters.

Hello and. We'll bring you the best stories from across the word. In

this week's programme. Syria's child brides. Girls who have escaped the

war and face a life of forced marriage. Refugees here tell us

there is an organised trade in young girls involving Syrian brokers and

men mainly from the Gulf states. On shaky ground. The Californians

digging deep for water amid their worst drought in a century. We are

standing should be under water. This is just a fraction of its capacity.

It is a third lower than it would normally be at this time of year.

A test of characters. We ask if new technology is making Chinese people

forget how to write. Ron and beauty. We meet the south

Korean women turning to the gym rather than plastic surgery. Some

people at Miami. Other people might think, what is fact. They are

saying, she must be transgender. I had that. And muggy see, muggy do.

The mischievous macaques getting too close for comfort. Imagine escaping

the horrors of Syria's civil war, only to be thrown into the life of

hell as a child bride. According to the UN that is happening to more and

more girls from Syria, some as as well. Child marriage rates have

doubled since the start of the war. And now nearly a third are being

forced into early marriages. The UN says most families marry them off

because of poverty. Born into exile. This girl is just a

few hours old. A child of a refugee camp. `` boy. His weary mother was

married at 16. The war in Syria took her home and her childhood. The

midwife gives her a quick lesson in motherhood. She says she would

rather be doing lessons in school. But her parents made her get

married. This young mother who asked us to conceal her identity was

married at 15. She now has a treasure water. `` treasured

daughter. It is wrong for a child to raise a child, she tells me. There

are so many family and financial problems. Soon she may lose her

daughter. Her husband is threatening to take the baby away, because she

wants a divorce. The camp is an expanse of the dispossessed, a place

of interrupted lives. Families look for ways to safeguard their

daughters. Some Syrians have a tradition of early marriage. But for

others, war changed the landscape. Like this woman, an orphan learning

to be a housewife. She fled Syria with her extended family. When she

had to share a cabin with male relatives, she was married off at 13

to her 19`year`old cousin. A year later she is pregnant. TRANSLATION:

I am scared of having a baby, because I feel I will not be able to

look after it. I wish I could have continued my studies and become a

and not gotten married so young. Outside the camp in a nearby city,

many teenage girls are a fact of lead being sold. Refugees tell us

that isn't organised trade in young girls, involving Syria and brokers

and men mainly from the cold state. The men make the donation to needy

families and then ask, do you have daughters Mark West have an age

group in mind. He wants girls who are 14`15, sometimes even 13. This

girl, who does not want to be named, was married at 14 to a

50`year`old from Kuwait. She is struggling to support her son.

TRANSLATION: Usually a girl's wedding day is the happiest day of

her life. But for me it was the saddest. Everybody was telling me to

smile or laugh. But my feeling was fear. I was very scared. Her mother,

a war widow, had seven other amounts to feed. She told me she gave away

her daughter in return for more than $14,000 because she was desperate.

But said she would not sacrifice another child this way. Back in the

camp, a Bright on her wedding day. She is only 13. Because of the

conflict in Syria, there were no big celebrations. It looked like she was

playing at dressing up. Young as she is, marriage is no longer just a

game. California is suffering its worst

drought for a century. Apps are running dry, the authorities are

drilling deeper and harder to search for groundwater with little success.

We report from the Central Valley, where scientists have predicted that

the traditions could become the new rule. Kurds months ago, Olivia's

taps just ran dry. `` two. Now only a comes out. She is

one of hundreds of households affected, depending on neighbours to

share. They cannot afford to keep deeper wells. And it is hard for

farmers as well. This rate is digging a well 400 metres deep. It

costs nearly $500,000. Without the rain, tapping groundwater is the

only way to keep crops alive. But with unregulated drilling, nobody

knows how long it will last. And a lot of farmers want wells.

California's Central Valley is one of the most of agricultural areas on

the planet. Around 80% of the world's Ahmanson and here. But the

trees need water. And the farmers say the government must build more

reservoirs. They have done a great job of increasing the population of

California but have paid no heed to the infrastructure it takes to

support the doubling of the population. I cannot tell you if it

is climate change or it is just a new normal. I cannot predict it. I

will not make any decisions based on guessing what the weather is going

to be for the next ten years. NASA satellites are tracking groundwater

reserves around the world. The data shows California is in big trouble.

It is really bad. We are having a tremendous loss of groundwater in

the Central Valley. I expect it will axillary because of the severity of

the drought. I absolutely expect this will become the new normal. We

are `` where I am standing should be under water. It is just a fraction

of its capacity. It is a third lower than it would normally be at this

time of year. Until these reservoirs fill up again, the farmers of

California's Central Valley will continue to rely on precious

groundwater to feed their crops until there is nothing left.

It was not many years ago that parts of northern Ireland were known as

bandit country, and area with a reputation as an IRA strongholds

that the British Army regularly patrolled. For a time that notoriety

puts many tourists off. That region is now undergoing an economic

reticence. Across the countryside you will see...

Of the past. This is an area of outstanding natural beauty. And an

area with many links to the legends of Ireland. The place is just

bursting with this and legends. But this is not just the place

associated with mythology. For decades it

It's bizarre to find such hate and violence in a beautiful,

active here throughout the Troubles, which gave it the

would have been covered with flares, barbed wire, general purpose

Andrew Rodding is a Church of Ireland minister but in the early

South Armagh. We are in a stunning part of the world, but terrible

things have taken place here, done by all sides. It was the 1st of May,

1992, a good soldier friend of mine was killed. In fact, it was only in

the last couple of months I went to his grave. Some reminders of that

time of conflict remain but this is an area trying to build a new

reputation. Heritage Lottery Fund has given almost ?1 million for

projects to promote and protect the great wilderness. It's

natural beauty. To tag it with Bandit Country sours the whole taste

of this area. This is where roots of Ireland began. Attempts to

attract visitors to this area were badly damaged

make the most of its rich history. Traces of past entries can be found

everywhere. Vancouver, Canada, is 100 years old. Here, it's thousands.

And many who come searching through this area

but the roots of their families. People are blown away, they love it.

genealogy. It's so old. The money from the Heritage

be used to restore and to conserve. It is a decade since the army left

these hills. Now the aim is to open them up to everyone.

It has 85,000 characters and can take years to learn the basics.

Chinese is probably the world's most difficult language. But many Chinese

consider the creation of their calligraphy to be one of their

primary divisions to civilisation. But if the advent of keyboards and

technology threatening to make Chinese writing history? It seems

many are forgetting how to write their own language.

Millions in China tune into this television game show every week.

It's like a spelling bee, but these young contestants must write Chinese

characters by hand. Every stroke, every dash, must be in the correct

spot. After two tense rounds, this 17`year`old is bumped from the

contest. I wanted to compete before I was too old, she told me.

Contestants typically spend months studying dictionaries to prepare for

the show, but they're an exception. All over the country, Chinese people

are forgetting how to write their own language without computerised

help. There's no Chinese alphabet, instead each word is represented by

a symbol or a character. There's more than 85,000 of them. But the

smartphones and computers used every day here have eliminated the need to

remember how to write many of those characters. The result? It's

possible to recognise characters without remembering how to write

them. How serious is China's so`called character amnesia? We

conducted a little exam of our own. This man struggled with the

character for "thumb". Others had a tough time writing "toad". Easy to

spell in English, but tricky to master in Chinese. And no`one could

write this famously difficult word: "sneeze". But there's still hope for

the humble paintbrush. China's Education Ministry wants childrent

to spend more time learning how to write. At this Beijing Public

School, students practice their calligraphy every day inside a

special classroom. TRANSLATION: Teachers and kids are remembering

how to write together. It's common even for teachers like me to forget

how to write certain words. On warm days, practice takes place outdoors.

A lesson, the schools teachers say, not just in learning how to write,

but in this busy, changing China, learning how to slow down.

Preserving Chinese traditional culture, before it disappears.

From preserving traditional Chinese culture to changing old`fashioned

stereotypes in South Korea. Traditional images of how women

should look have dominated for centuries but times are changing,

with more women turning to the gym to achieve the body beautiful. Lucy

Williamson went to meet the beauty queen turned bodybuilder at the

forefront of the new groundbreaking trend.

Competition is part of South Korea's national DNA. For her challenge,

Jeong Yeon Soon chose bodybuilding. A former beauty queen, she was

inspired by pictures of the well`toned pop star Madonna and went

bodybuilding titles. Some people bodybuilding titles. Some people

admire me and then other people might think, "Oh, what is that?" You

know? "A woman should be feminine, small," you know? They say, "She

must be transgender or..." LAUGHTER. I heard that! Harder than the

workouts or other people's attitudes is the diet. Boiled chicken, potato

and vegetables five times a day without any salt or flavouring.

It is so tasteless that to get it down Jeong Yeon Soon blends it down

into a kind of chicken shake and drinks it. How does it taste? Brutal

enough by itself, she says, but in a society that prizes group activities

and fitting in, it can be even harder to justify never meeting

friends for dinner. Men and women traditionally have quite separate

roles in Korean society. Women are often viewed as being less driven,

more focused on marriage and friendship, and they are often

judged on their physical appearance. For women, choosing bodybuilding as

a career goes against almost every social norm there is.

This is what Korean women are meant to look like. Small and slim, with

no perceptible lumps or bumps. So powerful is this message that

Koreans spend millions of dollars a year on plastic surgery, embracing

procedures such as whole`body liposuction or the surgical removal

of calf muscle in a bid to slim their legs. But something is

changing. In South Korea, calf muscle reduction was very popular.

Now, the trend is changing from the very slim body to a very hamonious

and healthy beauty. In Korea, healthy beauty is becoming more

popular and is becoming more a main theme. Nowadays, he says, more women

are heading to the gym to lose weight rather than straight to the

plastic surgeon, partly because Korean celebrities are themselves

becoming more toned and physically fit.

Few are looking for the kind of muscles Jeong Yeon Soon has

achieved. Real bodybuilding is still a lonely life for a woman like her,

she says. But at least it's a little less lonely in the gym.

They are one of Gibraltar's greatest tourist attractions but they are

becoming a bit of a nuisance. The monkeys are cute but some say they

are causing mayhem and getting too close for comfort. So, the

authorities are trying to find some of them and you home. Tom Burridge

went on the trail of Gibraltar's cheeky monkeys.

They live on top of the rock. Give me five. They know the locals, and

amuse the tourists. LAUGHTER. He is looking for food. But in search of a

meal, the monkeys are venturing into town. Great if you are visiting. We

just came out of our hotel to do some shopping and we didn't think

we'd see a monkey perched up on the ledge in the middle of the street.

I've heard about them but didn't think we'd see them at all. I'm

really happy. But the monkeys have a taste for what humans can provide.

Some are getting in the swing of urban life. How often do they appear

at the school? At the moment about three times a week. And they have

become a nuisance at the school. In the past three months we have had

hauled packs of monkeys coming down with a Lido, with a male, and lots

of babies. `` poll tax. Some are cute but some are aggressive and

threatening. It also's 200 monkeys spent the vast majority of their

time up on the rock. But the authorities are working to stop some

of them venturing down into town. They are very clever. Just like

humans, you can offer them a banana or a Mars Bar. They will go for the

Mars Bar. At the moment a lot of resources are being put in to

providing sort of more open spaces for them so they can forage in the

rock, and prevent them from going down. There is also a large effort

in trying to push them from the town, up into the nature reserve.

They are also working to control their numbers. 30 monkeys will be

exported to a safari park abroad. Gibraltar's monkeys are thought to

have travelled here on ships several centuries ago and have become an

important national symbol. Their numbers were culled several years

ago but that's not part of the solution now. Some of these guys and

girls will soon have a new home. From their current home they can see

Africa, where their ancestors lived before. Gibraltar's monkeys are an

asset but, sometimes, some of them are nuisance neighbours, too.

That's all for Reporters this week. From me and the team, goodbye.

Welcome to the last day of the three months which meteorologists referred

to as summer. Actual weather doesn't take a huge amount of notice of

that. August has been cool and wet. In the week ahead, still a hint of

sun around. There is a former hurricane bringing stormy conditions

for Sunday in