±«Óãtv

Panorama has returned to West Africa to once again pick up the trail of migrants who are willing to risk everything for the chance of a new life in Europe.

Following on from my work in Destination Europe in September 2007 and Destination UK in January 2008, I have kept a travel log of the team's experiences.

Over the weeks leading up to our programme,
- which was broadcast on Monday, 14 September on ±«Óãtv One - I blogged about everything from the palpable emotion of a cave that was once used to process slaves being shipped to America, to the delicate negotiations of dangerous border crossings, to a treacherous trip through the barren Sahara that claims the lives of desperate migrants on a near-daily basis.

My work on this topic continues, with Panorama's next installment of the story, Migrants, Go ±«Óãtv! due for broadcast on ±«Óãtv One on Monday, 5 October. In this programme, we examine the Libyan role in halting the flow of migrants to Europe.

The Libyan border and the armed people's region.

There are footsteps on the sand near a common crossing point. The Libyans employ desert nomads who can read tracks like this. "Six o'clock this morning," they say, "three men".

We drive further, and the dunes are like none I've seen before. We ask four of the pickups to drive towards them, thinking the foot of the dunes is about 400 metres away and it'll make a good shot. They head off, and keep going and going until they're almost gone. They are tiny ants on the dune.

It's difficult to film. If you shoot a close up, there is just a wall of sand behind them and you can't tell how vast the dunes are. If you shoot a wide, the vehicles are so small you can't see them at all.
Such is the scale of the Sahara.

In the afternoon there is a radio message. Another unit has made a discovery. We race off again and there on a plain is a group of Africans.

They were caught crossing the border. There limbs are pipe-cleaner thin and they are being given water by the Libyan border patrols. They say they are farmer from Niger.
One of the men looks like a grandfather, with folds of skin around his throat and over his eyes. I ask him how old he is, and he shows me an identity card. He is 41.

It's unclear whether any of them were heading for Europe. They are so exhausted all they can do is sit and wait for the trucks which will take them to a Libyan detention centre.

We have been given rare permission to visit one of these detention centres before we return to Tripoli.

After months of delay and denial, politicians of every hue are now telling us that . As Panorama discovers this week though, they're not quite as keen to tell us specifically .

We are being told that doing nothing is not an option, given a budget deficit that is expected to top £175bn this fiscal year.

So as Panorama attempts to look forward and predict what services might be under threat, we also find ourselves in similar territory if we look back more than 40 years.

In January, 1968, Britain had a Labour Government under the leadership of Harold Wilson that was struggling with a deficit running at £800m.

Much of the debt had been inherited from the previous Conservative government, but difficulties like the closure of the Suez Canal during and the disruption caused to exports by dockyard strikes meant that Wilson's government could do little to keep debt levels in check. . No-one wanted to buy it.

After months of denial and a desperate rearguard action including tax rises and a halt on public building works, on , Wilson announced the devaluation of sterling on the foreign currency markets.

He attempted to quell concern and confusion in a television broadcast by stating: "It does not mean the , in your purse or bank has been devalued." His message did not succeed.

Devaluation was primarily an attempt to boost British exports, but domestically economic problems continued.

In Panorama's 1968 programme, 'Where Will the Axe Fall?' the options on the table were laid bare. You can watch a clip here:

The re-introduction of NHS prescription charges, abolition of free milk in secondary schools and the postponing of raising the school leaving age to 16 were just some areas where public spending was reined in.

Fast-forward 40 years and huge public debt is once again forcing Whitehall to make agonising choices on where that axe may fall.

As Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England said rather aptly last week in the final part of 'The Love of Money' when discussing the latest global recession, there is "no new paradigm here at all, this is something we've seen on many occasions over several hundred years, but the fact that we've seen it in the past and not been able to improve things is a worry. People who think the world has changed, I'm afraid, have not read history."

Last year, Panorama examined the issue of assisted dying through the eyes of Margo MacDonald, the Member of Scottish Parliament who herself suffers from degenerative Parkinson's disease and who advocates legislation permitting doctors to assist in suicides.

In Ms MacDonald offered a deeply personal take on the issue and her own desire to decide how and when her life should end.

As new are issued for England and Wales by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Ms MacDonald wrote her thoughts for Panorama's blog to once again add her voice to this emotive debate.

She is clear that she believes the law on assisted dying need to be decided by legislation, not by court-ordered guidance.

The new guidance comes after the Law Lords ruled that a multiple sclerosis sufferer from Bradford, had the right to know whether her husband Omar Puente would be prosecuted if he helped her travel abroad to die.

Here are Ms MacDonald's thoughts:

"I'm glad for Debbie Purdy and her husband Omar following the DPP's commitment to "clarify" the laws surrounding assisted suicide. But the matter is not sorted.

Debbie and Omar can relax a bit more, although I won't be surprised if their campaign continues, because the law is inequitable and needs to be changed.

Other people in roughly their position cannot go to Switzerland because they don't have the money. Only primary legislation can provide everyone with the same range of choices, and autonomy, should they find their lives to be intolerable.

It is cowardly and cruel to retain the present inequality, and less than admirable to allow another country to provide facilities.

How many of the estimated 115 people who've been helped to end their lives in a Dignitas facility wanted to die in those circumstances, separated from family, friends, familiar things and memories?

As the programme inspired by experience made poignantly clear, people facing the probability of a very stressful episode at the end of life can end up having to precipitate death because of the need to go into the Dignitas facility while they retain the physical ability to self-administer.

If the intention is to legalise dignified assisted suicide for people whose relatives will remain liable to be prosecuted unless they derive no benefit from their relative's death, or where there is no public interest in prosecuting spouses and children, the DPP is simply re-stating the blindingly obvious and consolidating the status quo in England and Wales.

The Scottish Parliament will have my PAS Bill shortly. To institute fairness, and minimise ambiguity and strain from personal relationships should a person with a degenerative or terminal illness wish assistance to die, I've opted for voluntary, professional help, patient autonomy and defined categories."

Ms MacDonald does not stand alone on this issue.

In a statement, the said it too wants a more thorough review of the law. Here is an excerpt from the statement by MS Society Chief Executive, Simon Gillespie:

"People have been given the green light to explore assisted suicide, but without the support of medical professionals their only likely resource is Google.

"Whether society is ready to accept assisted suicide is too big a question for the DPP, for the courts, or for people with a long-term condition to decide.

"That's why the MS Society is calling for a Royal Commission to advise the government on whether legislation for assisted suicide is now needed."

On the other side of the debate, Dr Peter Saunders -- from the -- told the ±«Óãtv he was concerned that the DPP was trying to undermine current laws:

"Our real concern is about public safety. It's about people who are sick or elderly or depressed or disabled feeling under pressure, particularly at a time where families are under financial pressure, health and benefit cuts are coming, who feel under pressure to end their lives so as not to be an emotional or financial burden on others.

What we hope we don't see is legislation being made on the hoof -- a change in the law -- because the will of parliament is very clear."

Panorama have returned to West Africa to once again pick up the trail of migrants who are willing to risk everything for the chance of a new life in Europe.

Following on from my work in Destination Europe in September 2007 and Destination UK in January 2008, I have kept a travel log of the team's experiences.

Over the weeks leading up to our programme, Europe or Die Trying - which was broadcast on Monday, 14 September on ±«Óãtv One - I blogged about everything from the palpable emotion of a cave that was once used to process slaves being shipped to America, to the delicate negotiations of dangerous border crossings, to a treacherous trip through the barren Sahara that claims the lives of desperate migrants on a near-daily basis.

My work on this topic continues, with Panorama's next installment of the story, Migrants, Go ±«Óãtv! due for broadcast in the coming weeks.

On patrol near the Libya-Algeria border

We are in a four-wheel drive and the temperature is in the mid-40s. The air con is not an option because if we need to get out in a hurry, the camera lens will steam up in the heat. So we sheet sweat. The driver is playing traditional Libyan music at full volume. We are in a cavalcade of four vehicles, and we've hit a sandbank soft as dust.
The wheels are spinning but there's simply no traction. Each time it happens, the driver and other patrol members dig them out double-speed and we're off again.

In the afternoon, we come to a rock gully. The uniformed Libyan patrols leap out and beckon me. This, they say, is the most popular route for migrants crossing the border. By the time those attempting the crossing reach this point, they will have walked for four days. I sip water like oxygen.

There are abandoned rucksacks, trousers and shoes. When the migrants run out of water, they begin hallucinating, and then a kind of madness overtakes them and they throw away anything weighing them down.

We come across an African man lying down like he's sunbathing, legs bent at the knees, hands out to the sides. He's got a coloured cloth over his face like he's hiding from the sun. The patrols estimate he has been here for two weeks.

Another mile up the pass, and I can see the Panorama cameraman is struggling. I'm concentrating on each step. I keep my hat on, but any exposed flesh feels like it's been dabbed with acid.

The next African is lying down with the back of his wrist over his forehead, like he's just woken up. One of his calves has been eaten by a jackal.

Every day, 150 migrants cross the Libyan border trying to get to the Mediterranean coast. Most are economic migrants. It has become a pejorative term. But seeing what they have endured in their desperate bid to reach Europe makes you ask yourself - what degree of poverty must they be suffering to attempt to walk the Sahara?

At night we sleep on the sand beneath a biblical sky. The smell of the bodies is still with me.

The former CIA inspector general, John Helgerson, has confirmed that the Bush administration authorised the CIA to use a harsh interrogation method on terror suspect Abu Zubaydah before written legal clearance was given.

This is politically explosive, because the Bush administration has always claimed that it used harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding only after government lawyers had determined they did not amount to torture.

This summer, Panorama, in the investigation Licence to Torture, uncovered its own information that Abu Zubaydah had been waterboarded before written legal clearance came. Former CIA agent John Kiriakou, who led the team that captured Abu Zubaydah and was monitoring the cable traffic on his interrogation from CIA headquarters, told Panorama the suspect was waterboarded as early as May or June of that year.

The controversial government legal opinion that determined waterboarding was not torture was written in August of that year.

The date of Abu Zubaydah's waterboarding is a closely guarded secret that no second source would confirm at the time.

John Helgerson, who has spoken now that his classified investigation into the CIA interrogation programme has been released, made his comments in a recent interview with magazine.

In the interview the reporter stated that Abu Zubaydah had been subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques", as practices such as waterboarding are known, before August 1, 2002. "Did the lawyer who signed the memorandum simply authorise a technique months after this technique had already been applied ?" the reporter asked Helgerson..

"You are basically right" said Helgerson. "There was some legal advice given orally to the CIA that had then been followed up by memorandums months later".

In the course of his highly classified investigation into the CIA's interrogation programme launched in 2003, Helgerson interviewed more than 100 people and reviewed more than 38,000 documents.

Much of his report is still blacked out, but the parts that have been declassified found evidence of a variety of interrogation abuses including staging mock executions, intimidation using a powerdrill and threatening to kill the detainee's children in the event of further attacks on the US.

President Obama's administration has appointed prosecutor John Durham to begin preliminary investigations into whether any of the CIA interrogations of terror suspects were illegal. Civil rights groups are calling for the investigations to probe officials at the highest level, as the White House was closely involved in authorising the CIA's programme.

President Obama, however, has signalled that he does not want to be seen to be conducting a witchhunt of his predecessors in government, and it is widely expected that lower level officials will be the ones under the spotlight for now.

There have been a few developments since our investigation, Britain's Dirty Beaches, into the state of bathing water quality and the problems caused by sewage outflow around the UK coastline earlier this month.

The Environment Agency (EA) announced just ahead of the ±«Óãtv Panorama programme that they had developed to prevent pollution of bathing water. By isolating faecal matter sometimes found in bathing water, the agency is now able to tell whether it is human or animal in origin, identify the source and take action. The EA has dubbed the project 'CSI Seaside'.

On the day of the Panorama broadcast, the EA revealed that they were establishing a . The EA hope the forum will canvas opinion from surfers, swimmers, councils, water companies and pressure groups on those bathing areas where improvement is needed and work together to achieve them.

The EA has also released a video response to the Panorama film called . The EA states Panorama's film, though 'right to highlight this issue, didn't give the full picture'. As the programme is still available to watch, you can make your own mind up.

You could say the programme has made some waves...

Three people have been found guilty of involvement in one of Europe's largest dog-fighting syndicates which was uncovered by a .

Claire Parker, 44, of Kexby Lane, Kexby, Lincolnshire was convicted alongside Mohammed Farooq, 33, of Daniels Road, Bordesley Green, Birmingham. A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was also .

In our undercover reporter, 'Steve' helped expose the trio's involvement in a syndicate that spanned the country. He shed light on how the syndicate was involved with a gang in Northern Ireland which had paramilitary links and supplied the illegal US pitballs. The film was broadcast in August 2007.

Four others pleaded guilty to charges connected to the case.

Gary Adamson, 38, of Ramsey Crescent, Yarm, North Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to
six charges in connection with illegal dog-fighting last week.

Kenneth King, 35, of Main Street, Ragnall, Newark, Nottinghamshire, admitted
eight charges related to fighting banned pit bull terriers during .

Owen Batey, 40, of Cannock Road, Middlesbrough, admitted setting two pit bulls
on each other, being present at a dog-fight and owning a pit bull.

Christopher Burgess, 42, of Longstone Way, Ladybrook, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, was told he would probably receive a community sentence during the same hearing after he pleaded guilty to one charge of keeping a banned dog.

The , who were prosecuting, welcomed the verdict.

Chief inspector Ian Briggs, from the RSPCA's special operations unit, said: "Dog-fighting is a barbaric and cruel so-called sport which belongs in the Dark Ages and horrific suffering is caused to the dogs involved.

"Those that continue to pursue this activity should understand that the RSPCA and the police will continue to bring those responsible before the courts."

All seven will be sentenced on September 25 when we will revisit the story on the Panorama blog with clips from the original film.

In the midst of , some good news from Afghanistan that student following a presidential pardon. His crime? Downloading an article about women's rights for which he , a sentence commuted to 22 years on appeal.

When met him just last month, it was President Karzai's pardon he was seeking, but he was aware how politically sensitive his case was.

"He was careful about what he said to me although his anger and distress were clear after nearly two years behind bars", she said:

So why now? I put the question to Jane fresh from her return from Afghanistan.

"The Presidential election was only a couple of weeks away at that time and it was widely believed that Hamid Karzai was relying on the political backing of conservative religious leaders to win a second term.

"Pardoning Parvez who had been sentenced to death by a court of mullahs in the conservative city of Mazar-i-Sharif was not something Mr Karzai was prepared to do despite the please of the students family. The UN and European governments also lobbied Mr Karzai - in vain.

"Then came the election and now the President is under pressure from the west - accused of widespread fraud and ballot box stuffing. A small concession like authorising the release of Mr Kambash is one way of easing that pressure as the disquiet over the election mounts both in western capitals and inside Afghanistan," she explained.

Despite making the in the UK, Jane checked with her sources in Afghanistan to confirm his release, a check we wanted to make as the news was kept low key over there and Parvez has reportedly left the country for fear of reprisals.

The news of his release was welcomed by who have been campaigning on his behalf. But in some corners Parvez's freedom is seen as a signal of something more troubling.

raises concerns about President Karzai's tardiness in acting, seen as evidence that the lot of women has not improved since the fall of the Taliban.

This view on women's rights was shared by , "the fact that the student must flee in fear of his life because he circulated an article questioning attitudes to women in Islam suggests that the supposed introduction of democracy and eight years of war have delivered scant progress."

The question of life in post-Taliban Afghanistan was the premise for What Are We Fighting For?, which saw Jane Corbin return to Afghanistan to investigate eight years after western intervention removed the Taliban from power.

Broadcast as Afghanistan was going to the polls in an election that could help define the future for women in the country, the unclear election result has left the question of the future for women euqally unclear. The fact that Parvez has left his home country to seek asylum in Europe is disheartening.

"It is a sad reflection of the state of his country today that his life would have been in danger if he had stayed," Jane says. "I remember the bright eyed and passionate young man who shook my hand in the police cell - a mark of his determination not to be bound by strictures against Muslim men never touching a woman outside the family.

"He was determined to bring Afghanistan into the twentieth century and get a debate going on women's rights in a country where eight of ten women suffer domestic violence and 60% are forced into marriage, often as children."

These statistics paint a bleak vision of human rights today in Afghanistan, but for there is not much hope for the future, whether Western forces stay or go.

"Getting one decision reversed isn't going to alter the mindset that produced that decision in the first place. And if altering that mindset is not seen as a vital part of our mission in the country, then our mission is doomed to failure."

Here, the case of one student takes on far greater significance and becomes the embodiment of what the future holds for Afghanistan and the West's involvement in it. It is certainly a now even more so in light of the election fallout.

"Parvez will have to be a voice from outside Afghanistan now but this is the moment to do it as the death toll of British and NATO soldiers rises and the public questions their leaders' support for President Karzai, a man whose government has been accused of weakness and corruption and now fraud," says Jane.

Panorama have returned to West Africa to once again pick up the trail of migrants who are willing to risk everything for the chance of a new life in Europe.

Following on from my work in Destination Europe in September 2007 and Destination UK in January 2008, I have kept a travel log of the team's experiences.

Over the weeks leading up to our programme, Europe or Die Trying - scheduled for Monday, 14 September on ±«Óãtv One - and beyond, I will continue to blog about everything from the palpable emotion of a cave that was once used to process slaves being shipped to America, to the delicate negotiations of dangerous border crossings, to a treacherous trip through the barren Sahara that claims the lives of desperate migrants on a near-daily basis.

Tripoli, Libya

Half the luggage didn't arrive. In a word - horror. No tripod, lights, microphones. So we can't do anything.

Filming permits for Libya are not easy get, so you don't want to spend the first day becalmed in a hotel.

All the buildings in Tripoli are being repainted cream and green in preparation for the Revolution Celebrations. It is since Colonel Muammar Gaddafi led the military coup. His new portrait hangs from state buildings, hotel foyers, even the crumbling antiques shops in the Medina.

Our fixer - the man on the ground who helps to organise our visit - tells me various titles for the Colonel which I had been unaware of: "Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiraya", "The lone Eagle", and my favourite "The architect of the great manmade river".

Early next morning we return to the airport, and thankfully the filming equipment has arrived. We are off to a place very few westerners have been. In fact, the tells me we are the first Brits to see it in at least a decade.

We catch a flight to Ghat, an ancient desert town in the Sahara. The views are Martian. The "sea of sand" drifts to the curve of the earth. Rocky cliffs like the Grand Canyon, then lifeless plains and more sand. Surreal formations: wind-worn rocks stacked like giant skittles.

Ghat airport is busier than expected. There are men in brightly coloured desert turbans,
tribesmen in indigo gowns, women covered from head to toe.

Our welcome party comprises a number of high ranking military officers in desert camouflage, a couple of police drivers, and some Libyan secret service (who turned out to be a lot more personable than their title might suggest). We're off, in cavalcade, along a tarmac road that's hammered by such fierce sun I can't believe it's not runny.

Filming starts tomorrow, along the spectacular border area. We'll be looking for migrants heading across the desert, towards the Mediterranean where they'll board boats for Europe. They have to cross the Sahara somewhere, and this is the most likely place.

In the evening, there's nothing to do but check water bottles, tents, factor 50 suncream and medical supplies. I try to re-read Heart of Darkness but the air-con is thundering away, so go for a jog around town instead, past some 16th century clay houses.

The sun is so low in the sky, even the stones throw long shadows. People peer out of their homes at the mad white man. A police car drives by and gives me a concerned honk.

We are about to embark on a journey to catch up with migrants risking their last breath for the chance of a life in Europe.

Panorama clips have long appeared on You Tube, the most well known of which is undoubtedly reporter .

Now our clips have a home in the form of an official You Tube channel called .

Highlights include the award-winning , and .