>> tonight "worldfocus" -- iran annoues thefirst trials for those arrested for protestinthat country' presential disputed election. meanwhile, anger is growg over allegations ofabuses over political prisoners. housands ofsouth african goverent workers take to t streets to proteslow wages. cape town a johannesburg are hardest hit with many of those pret turning violent. puttinghousands out of work, folks hope at tourism uld help thatountry hrough. now that industr is in tuble. where did l of the tourists go?

from the world's leang reporters ananalysts, here is what's happening from aroundhe world. this is "worldfocus." made possible, in part, by the following funders -- good evening, i martin savidge. >> though it said in the past headlines in the past f weeks the political tuoil in iran continues to unfold. hundred o demonstrars were imprisod. an their trtment many would say mistreatment in the weeks since the disputed presidential election is w te subject of intense international scruny. iran's official media reported today that of those detained will be put on trial as early as this coming ekend. though, the huge prests were overwhelmingly peaful, in some cases even silent,he demonstrators ar accused by the iranian auorities of carrying outbombings and of attacking paramilitary basij forces.

roger cohen of "t new york times"as one of th last western reporters in tehran. >> t regime in iran is tryi desperately to demonstrate it case thatestern agents we in some y responsible for bringing 3 mlion people out into thstreet. th is a completely fantastical char. but idea behind what would really ount to show trils in my view would be to somehow prove thease that this whole upring was not spontaneous which is wha i saw when i was in tehran. a sponneous upring. i agine if therials are held that theill be coictions. t ion't think that the tries will in any wa calm the anger at is very wide pd, not only now overhe election itself but er the very violent and ruthless amp down. ithe meantime robert worth of "the tis" reported today that the's growing outrage iiran, even ang

promint conservatives about the alleged abuse of protesters since theirarrest. he wrote "some prisers say they watched fell dtainees beingbeatened to deat by uards in overcrowd stinking holding pens." others sa they had their fgernails ripped off or were forced to lickfilthy toilet bowls. more brsed corpses had been returned to families in rcent ys and some hospitaofficials tve td human rightsworkers th they have seen edence thatwell over 100rotesters haveied since the vote. f more on the situatn in iran, we're joined oncegain b ervand abrahamian. a distinguished professor of history at city uversity of new yo. profeor abrahami was born in iran and haswritten eensively about . ank you for joining us aga. >> thank you f having . >> we just heard nat conservativesre now speakg outbout the severe mistreatment of the political prisoners. why is all ofhis outrage coming from conservave politians who we normally would think o supporting the regime? >> there's always been a strain

between the conservaves. i wld describe them pragmatic conservatives. and more of evangelical conservatives like ahmadinejad. there's been no love loss between them. d i think this present crisis is actualy aggrated that difrence. >> and is this tspokenness on their part likely to invigora theoppositn? >> it wll but ihink what mo seriou it will show to getin the parliament, a conservative lock to rk th ahmadejad is going to be difficult. beuse these conservatives, ragmatic consertives, will not go along with ahdinejad's decision, his choice of minters. it's going to cause fragmeation in the politial elite. >> so far as thesebuses that allegedly he been cnducted by the governmenn these isoners, why would

conservaves who obviously favor the crackdown be bothed thenby the tactics? >>well, you have to rember, o of the candidates running against ahmadinejad was a conservave. and it's a relative of oneof his advisers that was killed the other day. and he'd been demons against the rging of their elction. so you obviously had denstrati demonstratn, people who support the conservives. of crse the majorityeople in the demonstrations wer the eformers. which ere must have been conservatives theretoo. >> and wh do you make of th aouncement that 20 of these detainees are now goingto be putn trial? >> well, this is an old tact of the regime, which is that you get people to come t television to confess you cris. here the would-be crimes is that they we hard. in spite. ty were atached to foreign elements that nted to bring a

partof the revolution. and in this case, probablythe nk would be with the brish and the bbc. >> finally,omorrow marks the 40th day sin the death of neda, the female protester who was shot and killed. moe dem strakdss are plnt. wh is the signicance of 40 days? >> it s both religious and political signifance. regious, this isthe day y mon the dead in the middle east. politically, the islamic revolution 7879as born around day commemorations of the day. and the oppositio hereopes to sort ofrepeat that revolution. of course, i thinkhe fference here is that e regime does have might, military might if it canunleash again the opposition. but clearly theeople in the -- making decisions are very much influencedby 7879. >> ervand abrahamian,hank you very mh. iran and russ are in the mid of thr firstoint name

military exercises. ships and helicopters are acticing of what iran calls a maritime exercise exerci in the caspian sea. a lak stretching between russia and northern iran. experts say the cspian sea exercises icheganyesterday may rk a newlevel of cooperation beeen the two countrs at a time when the united states is tryi to isolate ir from its pursuiof nuclear weapon there was new unrest today in southrica. poli there used tearas and rubber bullets to battle demonstrator protesting poor pulic services. violentdemonstrations have flared up all over the cuntry dung the past two months and as we hear now from al jazeera english the roots ofthat violence gback many years. when the government began promising help for the poorst

communits. >> reporter: hnting for troublemakers onfoot, dep inde the township. ots are fired ofhe suspects as police continue tir sweep. it amenacing reminder resints that all is not well where they live. >> guys are throwing stones a making fire. and when close to you they wan to kill you. so a groupnd they make noises. so be careful. >> is not over untilhe culprit are caught. terrified, a young mother finds cover in a rubbish dump. the policeman hel her take the baby to safety. in the end, some of t stone throwers are arrested. youg, unemoyed men who say they areprotesting because they are tired of empty promis made their government of a better life. this is one of aew communal tapsn the area. st people don't have water in their homes. >> i stay inhe squatr camp.

no ater, no ilet, no electricity and i stggle. i go to work. i'm going to work. it's not ght. 's not safe no so don know what's going on. make a plan. governmt must make alan. >> not pushes home about 60 liters o water. she do this every day. these familiesre stillaiting forgovernment hoing promised to them in 1994. close t 3 milln home have already been built but millions more still need decent accommodation. the burning tire, thenrest on the streets all signs of public disnent and frustration. these protestseep happening on and off every week. had is what you se on the streets. garbage strewn all or the place. as many as millions of south afcans live in abject povey and the gap bween the rich and poor kps getting wider, people living intownship could continue experiencing cidents

li this. hara mattasa, al jazeera, thoko township. south africa are blog budings the recent protests. alvin an engineer and fathe of two, ites from the city of johannesburg. "there is a worryi factor about the recentrotests, and th is the vionce, mayhem and hooliganism that accompany them. it is almost as i the south afcan society cannot demonstrateithout resorting to some sort of violence some people aue itomes from the aptheid past where people learnt toe violent because the apartid regime was violent. and there was me violce in nigeria today. thousands of people have now fled their homes in the muslim north of that country arch police and soldiers attacked extremis groups over the region over the pt few days. ozens of people have been represented a scores of militants we reptedly kild. the count's esident claims e situation's under control. 12 of niger's northern sates are under islamic law.

t southern part of that country is primarilyhristian. n kenia,here is news that a fiber-optic cabl may bring better access to the internet andhat's kng that country'economy. as we repoed from nairobi last year, kenyans havstruggled with odated and very slow dial-up connections. only 3% othe population even uses the internet as result. the new high-speed broband nnection could triple intern use overhe next two years. in dar es salaa the capital cy of tanzania, a brand-new nk delp women open their first branch this week. the tanzania women bank will require only a $2 deposit to openp anccount unlike most other banks in the count. customers wilnot be to own prerty. oir to he other assets begin nking. officials hopto build a network of women banks across the countrynd sure to mention me and their money are welcome too the world hlth organizatn confirms it is in discussions with sou africa about ho to handle any possible outbrea of the h1n1 flu during

next year' world cupoccer tournant. south africas expecting up to half a million visitors during the event next june. that country s already reportedore than 100 cas of h1n1. >>more than 800 people have died from n1 world wide p a as we loo ahead the fall, countries in th northern hemisphere are going to gear up for a possible new outbreak. as we've reported,there's already been explosion in the number of cases in britain. and as we hear now from deutsche wee, german busineses are alread taking precautio to tryto keep theirorkerswine flu-ee. >> reporr: deutscha telecom employees disinfect their nds at the dispensers. a sure sign that german industry the threat of swine flu seriously escially those companies wit international links. deutscha teleco also provides its emplees wh brchures. other companiesre ung different methods.

enrprise software giant s.a.p. is holding video conferences insteadf having executives make international trips. aircraft manufacturer airbus has opped an antiral drug taiflu. offering workers free of charge antiflu vaccines this october. swi flu could prove enormously pensive. >> tralator: right now it's difficult calculate the extent of t damage bcause the nber of the cases ist so hih. should the nmber increase significantly,owever, we could be looki at damages of tens of billions. >reporter: the world's alth organition has warne that went next t years,he h1 virus uld infect billion people. president oba began the week by calling the relionship between cna and the united stes "as importt as any

relationshi in theworld." wrapping upwo days of talks i washington, leaders of the delegations close the talks with a promise to cooperate more closely on economiissues. >> i want beginby just underoring the importan of the actins china and the uted states have taken together to help bring theorld economy back from the ed of the most acuterisis we've seen decades and to bin to lay the foundation for fincial repair and gbal growth again. >> translator: e two sides recognized thatt this crucial, criticatime when the global economy is movingut of the crisis a toward recovery, to stmulate economicrowth remains aop priority r cha/u.s. cooperion. >> somebody who has been following this week'talks in washinon between the obama administration and the cnese has been nichas lardy a senior fellow wh the peterson istitute with ternational onomics. the chairman of the peterson

institute. peter peter son has a separate foundation. thanks very much for being wit us. there's been a perception that the inese are growing skitti about investi so much money in america. wa the treasury cretary able to convince them about the soundness of the u.s. economy? >> well, they seem to be persded of the sndness of the dollar both todaynd going forward. but you know what th -- at least that's what the said. but they reay think of course isard to know given the perspective large u.s.udget deficits going forward over the next several years. they certainly have reason for concerniven the large volume of dllar holngs that they ha now. >> and i guess the queson comes to you, do youhink that the cnese are really convinced that th obama administtion will take sts to cut the deficit once our economy' finally back on its feet? >> well, that was certaiy the message fr sectary geithner and chairman bernanke. they both addressed this question slitly different ways.

mr. geithner talkingbout reducinghe budget deficit. substtially by 20 or 2013 -- not 2010. b by 2012r 203. and mr. bernank spoke about the various so-called exit straty, whichasically means the duction of fedupport for lending and other financial activies in the u.s. economy. however as said, these are perspective ans. in some cases, they have to be approved by the congress whh may prove difficult. and the real probl for the chinese is that tey really don't have too much choice. if they didn'tbelieve these plans, what would they do? they could sell tir dolla now. that would precipitate what they're trying to avoidhich is a decli in the value the dollar. so kind ofaught twain rock and a hd place i would say. >>rade issues,hey were also on the tle. the americanhave been concerd about what they see as efforts bthe chinese to undercut amecan exports. any movementthere? >> well, they bth pledd to not apt protectionst

measures. i think each side was tryinto expln that its policies were not discriminateory. that the buy american program was consisnt with our w.t.o. obligatn. chinese, of urse, is not a participantn the government procuremt code that governs thosetransactions, but they id that they were open and not scriminating against u.s. a otherforeign goods. >> how do you e the economic lations between these two countries elving ove the coming month and years? >> well, i think it's a complicated relationship. both sies benefit substantlly. it's a very important trade relationship. it isbviously -- you questionsndicate very, very important the financial side as well. i'm hoping it will come more balanced a we increasesavings here a are not going intoebt in order finance such a b trade deficit. our defici has been coming down the past cole of years and there are now indations that the chinese surpluss also shrinking substantially. so we may he a somhat more balced relationship than in the recent ast.

>> nicholas lardy, anks very much for talking with us. thank yo. one otheritem from cina tonight. e vice president of the supreme people's court says china willtart executing fewer people. more than 60 crimes are punishabley death here. amnesty iernational estimates that asany as 1,700 chinese were exected last year. dramatically fewer tn a dece agactually. by comparison, 37 americans we ecuted in 2008. spanishauthorities are blaming the baue separatist group eta for a car bmbing that injured as many as 50 people in morng. the bomb went f in front barrac civil guard police officers and their families in the city of rgos in northern spain. eta tically phones warnings of its attacksiving time for

evacuatis but there was no warningtoday. throughout spain there are more warning signs that the economy is yet on the road to recovery. the mmer tourist season iouh sls peak month but as we hear inur "spotlig" story fromeutsche welle tevision it's turning out too much too iet on the towns of the beachesf spain's pectacular costa brava. >> reporter: he sys sunon a sandy beat are its greatest assets. the local counser and hotel oer monitor the mediterraan ter quality and doests be make the town attractiv for holidaymakers. but they're in shor supply this year, like everywher on the co costa brava. >> translator: even ba in may a june, it was already cle that th wouldn't ben easy season tt people were staying away. now on the beaches, it looks like ther are lots of touris.

but in coarison to the evious year, it's clear that fewer people are here. >reporter: visitor numbers have droed by some 15%. and for those who live from tourism, the rest the year looks blk. we can't do anything. it's in the hands of the tour operators. we t to make things as pleasa as possible for people, but for us there's nothingleft. ts of familiessed to come. now it's almost all young peopl and there mostly budget tourist many hotels are tryingo fill thei empty rooms by offering dcounts and all-inclusive lidays. but manyritons and germans are staying home this year leaving some shop owners and oer businessesfacing bankrupt. to minimize losses th chamber maids are alternatingshifts and the chefs start work later. the hotel employees fear th

is bad year mightean the ed for thehotel. >> tnslator: it's sad. i've worked here for so many years. i see how serious and worried the owners re. this i like a home to me. it's home. >> reporter: all acrossspain, people a concerned about their futuref tourism with visito staying awa in drove many tourist are are feelinghe pinch and it's not clear whether they'll be able to cope with theising number of employed. > translator: we're tryi to offer assistce to develop new busisses and projects, thereby, catingnew jobs. and we want to facilite vocational traing to make it asier for people in the town to nd new jobs. >> reporterfor the untongue

youngsvery requiry at the reception desk gives thecause for pe. ey're taking the initiative and keeping in contact wit regular visitors >> translator: otheroliticians always say things will be all right, but that's not true. august is just ound the corne andwe're still n full. we can no longer recoup this year's losses. but what worrs us more is that the cris will continue. >> reporter: they y it's the small hotels that have made the costa brava eat. they hope the extra personaled rvices they provide will help them ride out e current crisis finally, we have an excerpt tonight from the late edition of the pbs series "wide angy. "it's called "contesnt number two. p p"he story of an

arab/israeli teenage member the druze relion. but there' acatch. the ss isrl pageant includes a bathing suit competition and appearing that way inublic could disgrace her famy and even put her in danger. >> the pliminary selecons for miss israelake place behind closed ors. duah's coach, jack jaakov waits for the results. >> reporter: duah's motheris

supportive. but miss israel presents a dilem. it requiresher daughter pear on stag on television in a swimsuit.

check yourlocal listings for "wide angle" tonight an you can also fi itnline at pbs.org/wideangle. i'm main savidge in new york. as always, thanks for ining us. we hope t see you back he again tomorrow. he web.ll look for you anytime til then, have a good night. "worldfus" is made possle, in part, by the following funders -- "worldfus" is made possle, in part, by the -- captio by vitac -- www.vitac.com