26/12/2015 Reporters

future houses might include such a novel ideas. Thank you.

In this special edition of the programme, we are looking

Jeremy Bowen reported from the front line in Damascus as the conflict

ranged and hopes for any prospect of peace faded.

from here, to talk about some kind of a deal to end the war,

but viewed from the battlefield, that looks further away than ever.

The dynamic of war has taken over in Syria.

a West African Red Cross team in their grim and relentless fight

70 years after the Second World War, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes follows

in the footsteps of his great-uncle, the British general who witnessed

the fall of Japanese forces to China.

It is fuelling the world's refugee crisis and fuelling

The conflict in Syria is in its fifth year

More than 250,000 people have been killed and many have

As the world debates whether airstikes are likely to make

diplomacy is drowned out by the intensity of the battle

Jeremy Bowen went to the front line in Damascus, where government

and rebel positions were just 100 metres apart.

His report contains distressing images.

He commands a sector of the front line that runs along a busy

A couple of minutes away is another man, one of the capital's

These men are from the elite Republican guard.

Hundreds of yards of military positions have been carved out

The people who lived here escaped with their memories

The colonel and his men said they are patriots fighting terrorists.

He rejects that they target civilians.

The claim is that more civilians are killed by the Syrian army

We were brought up not to harm peaceful civilians and we only kill

people we see are holding a weapon with our own eyes.

The colonel also said that any civilians near armed rebels must

Its soldiers have not been able to force the rebels further

The army has the heavier weapons - they pound the suburbs held

by the rebels where many civilian still live.

This is what it is like from the rebels on the receiving end.

Until the war ends, Syria will go on exporting violence and refugees.

Its shock waves have rocked Syria's neighbours,

It is one thing about politicians a long way away from here to talk

about some kind of deal being needed to end the war. Viewed from the

battlefield it looks further away than ever. The dynamic of war has

taken over in Syria. Not politics, or diplomacy. Across Damascus, you

can hear the war. Syria is at the centre of turmoil. Power cuts mean

that the nights are dark and so is the future.

From the war in Syria to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Sierra Leone suffered the worst Ebola epidemic.

It lasted for 18 months and killed nearly 4000 people.

More than 4000 others that were infected survived.

The country was declared free of the disease in November,

but it has left a lasting legacy of fear and loss.

At the height of the outbreak, our correspondent spent some time

The body collectors of Freetown getting ready for another harrowing

They have been doing this for months now.

Beneath the suits are teachers, students, ordinary people

who are volunteering to take on those who lost

Talking to the community so they understand why removing

We have to tell them the dangers of this epidemic,

We have to tell them that it is real and they have

The team had been inside to get samples to confirm whether this

was Ebola, but almost every death has to be treated as if it is Ebola.

If it is confirmed, the rest of the community remains at risk.

In the next village, there is a heartbreaking scene -

a three-week-old baby died late last night.

Health workers say it is unlikely to be Ebola, but they cannot

It is very difficult, but we have to do it.

This is how the day ends, at the main cemetery.

The baby is laid to rest with his father offering

China celebrated the 70th anniversary of what it calls

the "Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" this

China fought longer than any other country in the Second World War,

and lost more than all, except the Soviet Union.

When the Japanese armies in China surrendered in Nanjing in September

1945, a young British general, Eric Hayes, was there to witness it.

His great-nephew, our correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes,

In the Chinese capital, the general is arriving to sign surrender. The

war he has lasted eight years, longer than anywhere else in the

world. Sitting a few feet away is my great

uncle, the commander of British Japan's Empire had collapsed

overnight, leaving China in chaos. His first objective

was to get to Shanghai. Most of Shanghai's British

community were still stuck It was his job to find

them and help them. The Japanese commandant

had his office there... Betty was interned here at this

camp, along with JG Ballard, For 2.5 years, she and her family

had been completely cut off And then in May 1945,

we saw American planes in the sky above here, writing

'V, V, V' in the sky. The British community

had suffered greatly. In Shanghai, Betty's future husband

George was starving in a tiny attic. My mother, she had to sell my

younger sister to get money. That morning, my mother

brought us pancakes. We hadn't eaten them

for several months. Suddenly I saw my

mother was not eating. She said, "You are eating your

younger sister's flesh." The end of the war brought another

shock for the British community, For the best part of a century,

the foreign community in Shanghai had lived an extraordinary

existence. Some had made vast fortunes,

but in 1945, it was all The West turned its back on China

and forgot the part it played That is all from this special

edition of Reporters looking Thankfully it has been a lot drier

across the flood affected areas of northern England and North Wales.

However, the rain that fell yesterday has yet to be fully

realised in the rivers and there is still potential for further