:00:00. > :00:00.future houses might include such a novel ideas. Thank you.
:00:00. > :00:31.In this special edition of the programme, we are looking
:00:32. > :00:35.Jeremy Bowen reported from the front line in Damascus as the conflict
:00:36. > :00:46.ranged and hopes for any prospect of peace faded.
:00:47. > :00:49.from here, to talk about some kind of a deal to end the war,
:00:50. > :00:54.but viewed from the battlefield, that looks further away than ever.
:00:55. > :00:59.The dynamic of war has taken over in Syria.
:01:00. > :01:07.a West African Red Cross team in their grim and relentless fight
:01:08. > :01:13.70 years after the Second World War, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes follows
:01:14. > :01:16.in the footsteps of his great-uncle, the British general who witnessed
:01:17. > :01:22.the fall of Japanese forces to China.
:01:23. > :01:24.It is fuelling the world's refugee crisis and fuelling
:01:25. > :01:38.The conflict in Syria is in its fifth year
:01:39. > :01:42.More than 250,000 people have been killed and many have
:01:43. > :01:57.As the world debates whether airstikes are likely to make
:01:58. > :02:01.diplomacy is drowned out by the intensity of the battle
:02:02. > :02:04.Jeremy Bowen went to the front line in Damascus, where government
:02:05. > :02:06.and rebel positions were just 100 metres apart.
:02:07. > :02:07.His report contains distressing images.
:02:08. > :02:12.He commands a sector of the front line that runs along a busy
:02:13. > :02:17.A couple of minutes away is another man, one of the capital's
:02:18. > :02:29.These men are from the elite Republican guard.
:02:30. > :02:32.Hundreds of yards of military positions have been carved out
:02:33. > :02:37.The people who lived here escaped with their memories
:02:38. > :02:47.The colonel and his men said they are patriots fighting terrorists.
:02:48. > :02:51.He rejects that they target civilians.
:02:52. > :02:54.The claim is that more civilians are killed by the Syrian army
:02:55. > :03:09.We were brought up not to harm peaceful civilians and we only kill
:03:10. > :03:17.people we see are holding a weapon with our own eyes.
:03:18. > :03:24.The colonel also said that any civilians near armed rebels must
:03:25. > :03:38.Its soldiers have not been able to force the rebels further
:03:39. > :03:45.The army has the heavier weapons - they pound the suburbs held
:03:46. > :03:52.by the rebels where many civilian still live.
:03:53. > :04:02.This is what it is like from the rebels on the receiving end.
:04:03. > :04:07.Until the war ends, Syria will go on exporting violence and refugees.
:04:08. > :04:09.Its shock waves have rocked Syria's neighbours,
:04:10. > :04:36.It is one thing about politicians a long way away from here to talk
:04:37. > :04:40.about some kind of deal being needed to end the war. Viewed from the
:04:41. > :04:45.battlefield it looks further away than ever. The dynamic of war has
:04:46. > :04:59.taken over in Syria. Not politics, or diplomacy. Across Damascus, you
:05:00. > :05:03.can hear the war. Syria is at the centre of turmoil. Power cuts mean
:05:04. > :05:07.that the nights are dark and so is the future.
:05:08. > :05:11.From the war in Syria to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
:05:12. > :05:13.Sierra Leone suffered the worst Ebola epidemic.
:05:14. > :05:17.It lasted for 18 months and killed nearly 4000 people.
:05:18. > :05:20.More than 4000 others that were infected survived.
:05:21. > :05:22.The country was declared free of the disease in November,
:05:23. > :05:25.but it has left a lasting legacy of fear and loss.
:05:26. > :05:28.At the height of the outbreak, our correspondent spent some time
:05:29. > :05:36.The body collectors of Freetown getting ready for another harrowing
:05:37. > :05:42.They have been doing this for months now.
:05:43. > :05:47.Beneath the suits are teachers, students, ordinary people
:05:48. > :05:50.who are volunteering to take on those who lost
:05:51. > :06:02.Talking to the community so they understand why removing
:06:03. > :06:09.We have to tell them the dangers of this epidemic,
:06:10. > :06:15.We have to tell them that it is real and they have
:06:16. > :06:33.The team had been inside to get samples to confirm whether this
:06:34. > :06:38.was Ebola, but almost every death has to be treated as if it is Ebola.
:06:39. > :06:44.If it is confirmed, the rest of the community remains at risk.
:06:45. > :06:48.In the next village, there is a heartbreaking scene -
:06:49. > :06:53.a three-week-old baby died late last night.
:06:54. > :06:56.Health workers say it is unlikely to be Ebola, but they cannot
:06:57. > :07:08.It is very difficult, but we have to do it.
:07:09. > :07:13.This is how the day ends, at the main cemetery.
:07:14. > :07:16.The baby is laid to rest with his father offering
:07:17. > :07:27.China celebrated the 70th anniversary of what it calls
:07:28. > :07:29.the "Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" this
:07:30. > :07:38.China fought longer than any other country in the Second World War,
:07:39. > :07:41.and lost more than all, except the Soviet Union.
:07:42. > :07:45.When the Japanese armies in China surrendered in Nanjing in September
:07:46. > :07:48.1945, a young British general, Eric Hayes, was there to witness it.
:07:49. > :07:51.His great-nephew, our correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes,
:07:52. > :08:10.In the Chinese capital, the general is arriving to sign surrender. The
:08:11. > :08:11.war he has lasted eight years, longer than anywhere else in the
:08:12. > :08:13.world. Sitting a few feet away is my great
:08:14. > :08:16.uncle, the commander of British Japan's Empire had collapsed
:08:17. > :08:24.overnight, leaving China in chaos. His first objective
:08:25. > :08:29.was to get to Shanghai. Most of Shanghai's British
:08:30. > :08:31.community were still stuck It was his job to find
:08:32. > :08:38.them and help them. The Japanese commandant
:08:39. > :08:41.had his office there... Betty was interned here at this
:08:42. > :08:49.camp, along with JG Ballard, For 2.5 years, she and her family
:08:50. > :08:55.had been completely cut off And then in May 1945,
:08:56. > :09:01.we saw American planes in the sky above here, writing
:09:02. > :09:05.'V, V, V' in the sky. The British community
:09:06. > :09:14.had suffered greatly. In Shanghai, Betty's future husband
:09:15. > :09:22.George was starving in a tiny attic. My mother, she had to sell my
:09:23. > :09:30.younger sister to get money. That morning, my mother
:09:31. > :09:34.brought us pancakes. We hadn't eaten them
:09:35. > :09:42.for several months. Suddenly I saw my
:09:43. > :09:44.mother was not eating. She said, "You are eating your
:09:45. > :09:56.younger sister's flesh." The end of the war brought another
:09:57. > :09:59.shock for the British community, For the best part of a century,
:10:00. > :10:05.the foreign community in Shanghai had lived an extraordinary
:10:06. > :10:10.existence. Some had made vast fortunes,
:10:11. > :10:13.but in 1945, it was all The West turned its back on China
:10:14. > :10:26.and forgot the part it played That is all from this special
:10:27. > :11:09.edition of Reporters looking Thankfully it has been a lot drier
:11:10. > :11:12.across the flood affected areas of northern England and North Wales.
:11:13. > :11:16.However, the rain that fell yesterday has yet to be fully
:11:17. > :11:17.realised in the rivers and there is still potential for further