21/09/2014 Reporters

Calais. More than 1,000 paratroopers have made parachute jumps to mark

the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Arnhem in World War Two. Now on

BBC News, it's time for Reporters. Welcome to Reporters. From here in

the world's newsroom, we send out correspondence to find the best

stories. In this week 's programme, on the frontline against Islamic

State. Jim and new joints Kurdish forces advancing in Iraq. `` Jim

Muir. Regaining the ground that they lost is proving a difficult job. The

BBC Moscow team investigates in Ukraine and their equipment was

tampered with. Someone cleaned the hard drive from my computer. Caught

on camera. Andrew Hardy asks whether putting the Oscar Pistorius trial on

TV turns it into a media circus. It may well have been in the public

interest for all of this to be televised. What about Justice? Is

this the source of a deadly virus. We travelled to Saudi Arabia. There

is believed to be a strong link between camels, antivirus, but it is

not clear how it jumps to humans. The bright lights of Atlantic City.

Nick Bryant visits the real`life Boardwalk Empire. He finds there are

too many casinos are not enough numbers. And the man who gave up

everything to found Pakistan's biggest private welfare

organisation. It is everyone's responsibility to take care of

others. That is what being human means. They are the frontline on the

ground against what has been called the biggest terrorist threat facing

the world. Kurdish troops are trying to regain the town of Mosul. Jim

Muir Centre for the story. To the skies of northern Iraq at dawn,

American jets providing air cover for the latest offensive against I

guess. Down below, Kurdish forces prepare for action. American dreams

were also upset, but this time they and the jets were just keeping

watch. `` drones were also up there. On the ground, the firepower was

coming from the Kurds. This is the objective. A village on the plain

leading to Mosul. Kurdish forces advanced moving beyond their old

lines. Be prepared to move on the village after the bombardment. From

this position, you can see how it works. Americans in the sky are

providing reconnaissance and airstrikes in some situations.

Kurdish forces on the ground bombarded with rockets. Despite that

of the ground forces preparing to move in, regaining the ground they

lost so swiftly to the Islamic State is a difficult job. On the other

side of Mosul, Kurdish forces are pushing forward. They recaptured the

nearby Mosul down nearly a month ago. Pushing forward has been

painful. The militants have a good technique, he says. They disappear

and launch surprise attacks and they leave many forms behind, so we have

to be careful. It takes a lot of information and planning to drive

them out. Another victim of the IS incursion, coexistence between

Iraq's communities. This village was abandoned and partly demolished by

the Kurds for retribution. This man was suspected of working with the

militants. The other side of the coin. Thousands of Yazidis from

Sinjar. They were driven out by IS. The day may never come when they are

able to go home. Back on the front, the Kurds keep up the attack. The

progress the image shows how hard it will be to eliminate the rest of the

militants. The official line from Moscow is that none of their forces

are involved in Ukraine, unless they go on holiday. When our team went to

investigate, our team was beaten up and the camera was smashed. It is

not clear who was behind the attack, at the BBC has launched a protest.

Steve Rosenberg reports. This woman tells me about the brother she calls

a Russian hero. he was going away he sounded kind of

scared. He said, I will be heading south`west. I did not understand. To

south`west Ukraine, he said. I thought, he meant the Ukrainian

border, stay safe, I told him. Three weeks later her brother was dead.

Killed by an artillery shell from Ukraine, one official said. Another

claimed he'd died while doing military exercises.

TRANSLATION: I asked that official, do you believe what you're telling

me? No, he said. So why are you telling me this, I said. I just want

to understand how my brother was killed.

Perhaps not everyone here is keen on the truth. Later that day, we were

attacked by at least three men as we were getting into our car. They hit

our cameraman, smashed the camera and drove off with it. We did not

expect our day to end here in the hospital. We are here because our

cameraman is having X`rays and is being checked out. Someone clearly

did not want to see our material broadcast. After four hours of

questioning at the police station, back in the car we realised our

equipment had been tampered with. Someone has cleaned the hard drive

on my computer. Luckily we had made copies of the

material. State`controlled media admits Russian soldiers have been

killed in Ukraine. But Russian TV portrays them as volunteers who have

taken leave of absence to go and fight.

Those independent Russian journalists brave enough to conduct

their own investigations face threats and intimidation.

TRANSLATION: They say there is no war. They say our soldiers are not

involved. So who is to blame for his death? How did this happen? I am

tortured by this question. It is a simple question, all she wants is an

answer. The Oscar Pistorius murder trial has been one of the most

watched in history. Was it right to allow the cameras into the

courtroom? Was it prejudicial or simply a spectacle? Aalborg has been

trying to find out. `` our reporter. A trial or a circus? The world's

media outside and cameras inside and what proves to be one of the most

watched courtrooms in history. There is even a 24`hour Oscar channel. The

South African authorities were keen to show the public justice at work.

I think it got people talking and interested in the judicial process.

Has it got all South Africans interested? Probably not. It is

interested those who have access to the various mediums of

communication. That's not true of all of South Africa. I

I am satisfied so far. I think that justice has been done. An ordinary

person would not have been put on television. It gives you an interest

in justice. It may not have been in the public interest for this to be

televised, but what about the legal team? We were not able to call a

number of witnesses. The legal team of Oscar Pistorius said they were

not able to call some witnesses because they were scared off. The

judge said that some of the witnesses were influenced by

watching the trial on television. The fact that this created much

media attention, especially soon after the incident and the fact that

it became a topic in many homes did not help. This is a claim much

discussed at this middle`class in Johannesburg. Students analysing the

case and the coverage blow by blow. No other person is having their

trial televised. It puts a strain on any witness. They may well... His

defence team may well point to this in applying for an appeal, if indeed

he is convicted. You know that the same thing happened to Reeva's head.

It exploded. The trial has made for some good viewing, or bad or worse.

In South Africans have been that justice system at very near its

best. How many other courts will follow suit and allow in the

cameras? Mystery virus with no known cure is

spreading fast. What a cases have been found in many parts of the

Middle East and northern Africa. Usually after travel through Saudi

Arabia. Officials are doing all they can to avoid an outbreak of the

disease in Mecca, where more than 2 million people are expected to

attend. Is this the key source of the deadly

MERS virus? Camels are prime suspects for passing the disease to

humans which is why health officials are taking samples from these prized

animals. There is believed to be a strong link between camels and the

virus but very little is known about how it jumped from animals to humans

and that is worrying scientists. The virus is fairly harmless in the

animals but in humans it can cause pneumonia and kidney failure,

killing nearly a third of those infected. But the real problem began

when patients ended up here. Poor infection control measures in

hospitals like this one meant that when a MERS patient arrived, the

virus spread quickly. Doctors admit that staff were not washing their

hands between patients or wearing masks properly which means they were

helping to pass the virus on. It wasn't until a year and a half into

the outbreak when the King sacked his health minister over his

handling of the crisis that things began to change. Now hundreds of

hospital staff are trained in infection control and the number of

MERS patients have fallen dramatically from hundreds in the

spring to very sporadic cases now. Deep breathing for one minute. But

still relatively little is known about MERS. The government has

advised people to wear protective gear when handling camels especially

if they are sick. But at this market, we did not see anyone taking

much notice. We have intense overcrowding. This is an excellent

medium for the virus to spread. But the government is reassuring

pilgrims. MERS is not an issue in Saudi Arabia. We do our best and we

are continuing to do all we can do to have a safe Hajj for all our

guests. The outbreak may be under control for now but the World Health

Organization says the situation continues to be a public health

concern. It's a gambler's paradise, with too

many casinos and not enough gamblers. For decades, Atlantic City

was the east coast's Ansett to Las Vegas but over the past eight years

revenues have halved, forcing a third of the casinos to close their

doors. Nick Bryant travelled to New Jersey to find out if the bright

lights of Atlantic City are fading for good.

Atlantic City once called itself America's playground. The problem is

that not so many Americans are coming here to play. This was the

scene at one of the venues, the Trump Plaza. It became the latest

casino to shut its doors. Ruth Hardrick was one of the thousand

workers laid off. She had been a card dealer for 26 years. 26 good

years. Most of it was good. The last couple of years, a little

nerve`racking, but I stayed because I was happy here and it was a good

house for a while. End of an era. Yeah. Along stretches of the famed

boardwalk, dancing neon has been replaced by funereal black. Over the

last eight years, casino revenues have plummeted by nearly 50% and one

third of the casinos are shrouded in darkness. Atlantic City once enjoyed

a casino monopoly not only here on the north`eastern seaboard of

America, but east of the Mississippi River. Neighbouring states like New

York and Pennsylvania have relaxed the gambling laws and that's

saturated the market. There are too many casinos and not enough

gamblers. It's been agonising to watch for Donald Trump who, 30 years

ago, saw Atlantic City as a rival for Las Vegas. More recently, he has

distanced himself from the casinos that bear his name. Casinos are

opening all over the east coast and in the end they will cannibalise and

kill themselves. It's sad for Atlantic City, because I know so

many people there. To this day. They are wonderful people. Now, they

don't have jobs, so it's a very sad thing. But, to say that Atlantic

City is dying would be to compose a premature obituary. The good times

continue rolling at this upmarket casino that has just enjoyed a

record`breaking August. Even the most pessimistic forecasts have

Atlantic City at a $2 billion market, the third biggest in the US.

But it isn't dying, it is changing dramatically.

be made by casinos offering more than just gambling, like shows and

good food. More famous names are likely to go. And, more employees

will make this lonely walk. 60 years ago, Adbul Sattar Edhi gave

up everything to dedicate his life to improving the lives of

Pakistan's poor. Now his charities the country's biggest welfare

organisation, running schools, hospitals, ambulance services. He

has also set up homes around the country which are believed to have

rescued 50,000 orphaned Pakistani children. 'Glee' bull went to

Karachi to meet the man many see as a living state. `` Aleem Maqbool.

The emergency services have a tough, often dangerous time here, but for

the most part, it's not the Pakistani state that fund them. Most

ambulances bear the name of the extraordinary man behind them, Edhi.

Now, nearly 90, Adbul Sattar Edhi is perhaps Pakistan's most

well`respected figure. For some, he's nothing less than a saint. For

the last 60 years, he has dedicated his life to helping others.

TRANSLATION: Simplicity, honesty, hard work and punctuality is key to

our success. It is everyone's responsibility to care of others.

That's what being human means. If more people thought that way, so

many problems could be solved. The foundation he started is now one of

the biggest welfare anywhere in the world, involved in

an impressive array of charitable work. As well as the ambulances,

there is one more thing that really does symbolise the foundation run by

cradles left up and down this country for Pakistan's unwanted

babies. helped around 50,000 Pakistani

orphans like these. It's work Adbul Sattar Edhi started with his

greatest supporter, his wife. But there was opposition to the

orphanages from religious hardliners. TRANSLATION: We used to

find a lot of dead babies left in gutters and rubbish dumps, so Edhi

said, we will have cradles for people to leave them in. But,

extremists said that, by looking after the children, we were

encouraging people to have babies outside of marriage. We had so many

threats. We still do today. But the Edhis persevere, and many of the

children they saved go on to help others. This man doesn't know who

left him at the orphanage as a child, but he now works for the

charity himself. TRANSLATION: Maybe, without Mr Edhi, you would find kids

on every street corner, picking up rubbish. They have given us so much

support. If, God forbid, he wasn't around, I wouldn't have been

standing in front of you today. Together, the Edhis have won acclaim

for their women's refuges, food kitchens, clinics for the mentally

ill and their training of tens of thousands of nurses. Adbul Sattar

Edhi is becoming more frail, but his passion for humanitarian work is

undimmed. His legacy as one of the greatest Pakistanis to have ever

lived is already assured. That's all from Reporters for this

week. Goodbye for now. We have had quite a mixture of

conditions up and down the UK recently. Some places have been

relentlessly grey, others humid, with under storms. Today, most of us

in the same boat. Sunshine and it will feel pretty fresh. A lovely day

to be out and about. A couple of showers close to eastern coastal

areas but there won't be many of those and they will fade with