20/03/2016 Reporters

From here in the World Newsroom, we send out correspondents to bring

you the best stories from across the globe.

In this week's programme, on the front line in the war

Alastair Leithead joins the rangers in central Africa,

fighting to save the elephants from the ivory traffickers.

30,000 to 40,000 elephants are being killed in Africa every

year, and with only around 400,000 left, it's not going to be long,

As Saudi Arabia stages what it says is the largest ever military

exercise in the region, Frank Gardner is given rare access

This airbase in northern Saudi Arabia is currently playing

host to a whole variety of war planes from different Muslim

nations, and it's the first test of the Saudi-led Islamic coalition.

The Iron Lady of Germany's metal is tested.

And man versus machine - as a champion player is beaten

by a computer, Rory Cellan-Jones asks how concerned we should be

about the future of artificial intelligence.

This is not about the rise of machines - it is about

It's a deadly trade that thrives on Asia's insatiable

Every year, 30,000 to 40,000 African elephants are killed

for their tusks, and now fewer than half a million are left.

Rangers are now virtually fighting a war against the traffickers.

The situation is worst in a number of African countries,

with the Democratic Republic of Congo amongst the most dangerous.

Alastair Leithead joined Rangers in the country's

Garamba National Park, on the front line in the battle

It's tough terrain in Garamba National Park,

where less than 100 Rangers are trying to protect the last

of the elephants, across thousands of square miles of grassland.

We joined one of their foot patrols, to a place where the poachers last

The grass is so high the only way to see a carcass is from the air,

Well, this elephant was clearly killed by a poacher.

There are another four of these carcasses spread all around

They arrived too late to catch the poachers,

30,000 to 40,000 elephants are being killed in Africa,

and with only around 400,000 left, it's not going to be long at this

There are perhaps 1300 elephants left here.

Garamba was one of Africa's first national parks,

and a World Heritage site, originally set up to protect

the northern white rhino, but that has already been wiped

Now they are fighting to save the elephants that are left,

in a place surrounded by civil war and heavily armed militia.

And that's why African Parks, the group managing Garamba,

You must just feel like you're fighting a war against poachers?

I think Garamba is probably today the forefront of conservation

I just don't think there are many other places which have quite

so many threats to one park as we have here.

This local man was arrested after a tip-off, and ivory recovered.

Then reports came in of another attack.

And there are the carcasses, just down there by the river.

Five of them, one of them a baby, and six we have just spotted

a little bit further up the river there.

It is hard to make out from here, but you can see that their faces

have been cut off and the tusks have been taken.

They need hundreds more rangers to protect Garamba.

On the front line of the poaching war, the elephants

Alastair Leithead, BBC News, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Saudi Arabia has been accused of not doing enough to help the US confront

Islamic terrorism in the Middle East.

But the kingdom has been staging what it says is the largest ever

20 Islamic countries have been taking part,

with thousands of troops, tanks and warplanes deployed

Saudi Arabia says it is currently facing two threats.

From the so-called Islamic State in the north, and from Yemeni rebels

to the south, reportedly backed by Iran.

Frank Gardner has secured rare access to the Saudi air force's

operation centre, and this is his exclusive report.

Saudi special forces on a desert exercise close to the Iraqi border.

It is called Northern Thunder, and brings together forces from 20

It is part of a new assertive Saudi policy in the region,

but can Saudi Arabia fight two campaigns in two countries

I know it is exhausting in terms of resources and people.

Today we face challenges in the south and our force

is stretched in the north, deployed since 2014.

We feel our national security is in danger.

Saudi air force jets, like this F-15, have been carrying

out airstrikes in both Yemen and Syria, supported by their allies

like Jordan and Bahrain, that have also sent warplanes

This airbase in northern Saudi Arabia is currently playing

host to a whole variety of warplanes from different Muslim nations,

and it is the first test of the Saudi-led Islamic coalition

The Saudis tell us it has two aims - to confront terrorism and to combat

what they see as Iranian expansionism in the Middle East.

Saudi-led airstrikes on Yemen's Houthi rebels,

widely reported to be backed by Iran, have also killed civilians,

Stunned by growing international opposition to the air strikes

in Yemen, the Saudis agreed to show me their operation centre,

This is what they term the no strike list, a map of buildings

Of all the pictures you see on the map, they represent

the theatre of operation, and if we go to a smaller picture

that will give the restrictions for those targets, which go along

with the law of armed conflict, like the medical services,

certain places, schools, diplomatic quarters...

Saudi Arabia denies its warplanes have ever deliberately targeted

civilians, though it admits there have been mistakes.

The manoeuvres hint at a wider strategic interest than Yemen alone.

The Saudi government want to send a message to the region that it has

the money and the muscle to lead an Islamic coalition against what it

Frank Gardner, BBC News, in the northern Saudi desert.

Finally, it was seen as the ultimate battle between man and machine

and it seems the machine won, this time anyway.

A computer programme designed by Google comprehensively beat

a human champion of the ancient Chinese game of Go.

Winning the match by four games to one.

As Rory Selin Jones explained, this raises new questions

about the power of artificial intelligence over human beings --

An epic contest between man and machine, against an artificial

intelligence programme that teaches itself to play ever better.

At the end of the final game, his face told the story.

Although he had fought hard and even won once,

the machine, Alpha Go, came out on top.

No triumphalism from the designer behind it but instead

As with all powerful technologies, they bring opportunities

and challenges, and we have to make sure that as developers of these

kind of systems, all AI developers around the world,

The technology is finding lots of practical uses.

Better voice recognition software is one.

Cambridge is one of the world's leading centres in the development

At Microsoft's Cambridge research lab,

Scientists here are using this game to test how AI programmes operate

The idea is to teach the AI how to interact with people and objects.

The researchers here insist it is all about collaboration,

We are in control of the technology and can choose different futures.

I think we should avoid that dystopian future of machines

versus humans but I think we should make a conscious decision to create

AI at the deep partnership between humans and machines

This is not about the rise of machines.

One of Britain's leading scientists says the sheer pace of change means

There is a balance between science and science fiction, and we do not

know quite where that lies, but certainly some people

are raising concerns that a computer, as it were,

might go rogue, and if we have the internet of things,

the computer could act with the real world by bypassing human agency,

and obviously if that happened, that could potentially be highly risky.

It was thought a computer would take another ten years to be

AI has brought its potential and risks into focus.

That is all from Reporters this week.

From me, Philippa Thomas, goodbye for now.

Hello again we are still expecting Ouija changes in the Eastern