tight on "worldfocus" -- > in aq, friday prayers turned deay as bombs explode near five shiite mosques in baghd killing more than two doze worshipers. china ease its one-child per familypolicy. onight we look at why the most populist country itheorld is suddenly worried why i fast population aging in britn its court has ruled it i illegal for a husband to kill its wif tonight ook at thecase that weighs life, death d love. and from thestudios that broughtou such music legends, as the beles, get rea for the nexinging sensation, the pope.

> from thworld's leading reorters and analyst here's what's happeni from around the world. this is "worldfocus." made possiblen part, by the follow funders -- > good eving, i'm martin savidge. for u.s. troopsnd ira civians, this has been onef the least,that's right, lst deadly months since the war in iraq began sixears ago. in fa, a senio u.s.ilitary office has broken rks with s prrs and president obama sayin it's time f the,000 declarvictory in iq and go home. but then there e days li today,hen a seri of bombs exploded near five siite mosques in badad, killing at ast 29 peple. and shatterng the rception at lest for now that ira is a ch safer place tan ued to be. in tonight's ead focus" the latest violencin iraq,hat it says about surity and the american missi as i wis

down. >> the deadliest today's atacks took place in the northern baghdad neighborhood of al shaab. according to iri officials a east 24 people were killed d 17 wounded in e explosion ofa caromb near a shiite mosque. worshirs had gather at t mosqueor friy prayer the scene outside spoke to the carnage. prayer rugs were stained with bloodscores of shoes littered the ground. with all today's attacks having takeplace at shiite mosques, those atcks are seen as an attemp to reignite sectarian fighting between shiites d sunnis. ernesto lon don yeah in baghdad for the washington pos" >> caller: inhis particular case the attacks appr to be designed to ang a follow worship, it's movement. this is the political bloc that for manyears controlled the biggest shia militia in the count. so it could bean aack signed to try to get asmuch mitia to retiate against

nni. and t start sectarian violence again. >> despite today's attack iraq has been relatively calm in rent months. so much so that elier this eek after meeting wi iraqi ficials, u.s. secretary of defense robert gates, raised e prosct of accerating the americawithdrawal from the country. currently, there e about 130,000 u.s. forces there. it's also thout that today's attacks willot result in an increased presence by american troopson iraqi streets. at the end of st month, amecan troops withdraw from majorrban areaselocating to se camps. >> caer: i don't see any signta the is any desire from the government or from the united states military to have the american return to the city in anyiven way. that could carly change. but so far we have seeno evidence that anybody is pushing for that. >> more on today's violencen what it means, we are joined

on again byichael wahid nna who follows iraqclosely. is a fellow wi the fouation herin new york. we were just reporting that this is he least deadly mnth for civilis and for military peonnel, the month july. and i'm wondering just the significancef today's attacks. how bad are theyn that contrast >> wel, we'rlike 3 see some bombings and some leve of violence in ir for years to come. and i'm pleasantly prized athe transition, i terms of iraqi supremacy in tes of securing urban centers. ando i don't think this is going to have an apprecble impact on u.s. andiraqi planning that the point. because, agn, they ven't had strategic impact. they haven't had dermined or threatened the iraqi gornment at this point >> "the neyork times" is also reporting day that there was a senior american mility adviser in baghdad who essentially sa theime had come f the u.s. to deare a victy in iraq and to go home. is tha reastic? >> i think more importantly is

that that me raisesots of imts and perhaps breakss out of a bit of complacency in rega toraq policy which has been somewhat driven by--olely byime lines and hasn't thought about the bigpicture. about the cost of the u. prence. the potentiafor ineased frictioon the ground. th limitations o what the s. can do. i me, it's not our country. the iraqis are increasingly sovereig making decisions, and i think it's imrtant that we think about whate nt, the u.s. fronc lookike and whether wean afford to have asmaller presence and perhaps sht to a more diplomatic approach and that might be a way to create a more sustainable framework for u.s./iqi relations going forward. >> it definitely seems tt ere's been a snificant change since the implentation of thnews status of forces agreement. and that if i readouright, prance the lnger we stay,the eater the opportunity for theto be disagreements between our two governments. >> well, i meaart of it is public posting.

's an election year. maliki and the government want to be seen as the providersf secuty. and they wan to be seen as naionalist leaders. and so there's definitely going to be some friion but there al real friction inerms of the iras taking ntrol of their ountry. an frankly that should be something that we should be happy to see. and we should b taking bigger than taking him bridge at rhetoric. and obviously there is some awkwardness right now inerms of defini proper les. utmilitaries will intera and sohere is gointo be some tensn and those are things that cou increase in the future and maybe undermine the relationship and the interactn between thunited states and iraq going forwardly. >> quickly,ecretary of defense, gates, said at perhaps w could accelerate the withdrawal of troops next year. is toy's bombings, arehey lily to change that thought >> i don't thk so. not if serity lels are maintained thathe -- at these types of levels. i don't think we'll see a rethink. agn, they haven't had strategic effect.

overent, iraq the at the e momt. >> michael wid hanna, thank u very much. >>hank you. this week washington, the obama administrion highlighd the gre importce of the u.s. relationip with china. especially economic matters. chinais, after all the biggest lender to the united states economy but while 200 cinese economic officis were in washgton, chinese authoties continue to crackdown on human rights groups back me. in one move, a prominentlegal scholar was taken in custody, and he hasn't been herd from since. and it didn't stop there, ase hear from melissa chanf al jazra english. >> reporterthe center isn organation that helps people fig discrimination in china. its operated for yea. but wedneay on, the thorities showed up, unannounced, to collect evidence and investigate suppos illegal

activities the problem? the publition of th oice's newslter. it has apparently not ben cleared by the government. >> translator: i suspect our andiscrimination activities have ofended many people including g erations, common officis and wealthy businessmen. >> reporter: it's e latest blowo the handful of organizatio in cha that push for soci change and justice. here at the center, they fight discriminion against womn, gays and hiv carriers. ross town, another organization under fire. a legal aid office specializing on man rights issues. last week, police marched ino confiscate mt of the compute and office eqipment. many ofhe attorneys he have had their licenses voked over the last fewmonths because of their wk. >> translator: e find sl on

the legal office and t possibity of our closure would be alow to civil soc also sends a clear signal to other organizations fighting for human rights in the public interest to be more carefl. it's very worryg. >> repter: these kbroups are china's social conscience. the ones who he families such as those who babies were sickeneby toxic mlg foula or raise the profile ofeasant groups. over recent months the government has embard on what appears to be a coordinad rategy to clamp down on these organizations. the campaign seems to b working. >> translator: most rghts layers are based in beijing and ov the last few months,'d sayhe affec has been huge. i'm gessing about 70% of rights atrneys have been harassed. >> rerter: the authorities are

using technicalies to handicap orgazations. in the se of the lawcenter, officials have launched a tax investigaon. and say the office is no properly restered. what many suspect ishat this is china sencing organizations that highlight difficult issus. ocober 1st,is the 60th anniversary of the chinese republic of china. a very official date. toeal with rights lawyers and ngs. the asslt on these institutions means tt after the dust ttles, it if the government succeeds, then there maye no one le to fight fo the publ interest. missa chen, al zeera, beijing. two othertories from cna worth noting. their rare sclosure on family blan planni. 13illion abortio are performed in cna each ar, more thanny other country. it said the rl number could be even much hire cause many

abortns are performedutside of hospitals. the reasonsinclude poor sex edation andchina's long-anding, one-child policy. butow are there signs that china maybe relaxing that policy, as weear from t eagleton of abc in auralia. >> report: china's trying to almost half its population of 1.3 billion by cutting the birthrate. since the one-child poli was introduced in 1980, the have been few exctions to the re, but limits parents to single offspng, but the hree-decade eeriment with social engineerings comingat a cost. a rapidly ing popution. translator: it's inevitable that would happen, but we have to avoid the aging socie issue of getting too bad. if it goe too fa we cannot pr the buen. >> reporterthe problems most acute in affluent cities where there a longer life exptancy and a higher cost of living. now in shanghai, couples are being couraged to have second child. as long as both pants are from

one-child families. the move's giving hope to millions of budding chine rents. just hader fir child and already wantsanother one, even though she livesin beijing and her husband has two bthers she tnks the vernment will ant he wish in three o four years. >> translator: hopefully th government's policy wille more lexible and it will b easier for to vey second child. >> reporter: but archites of the one-child policy, like professor,ay that's not like. he says t governmen's main goal of population control at any cost hasn't changed when the law was first pased. >> tranator: to advocate for the one-child poli is not t perfect option. but in order quickly decrease the bithrate, it's either tat or nothg at all. >> reporter: getting the populati target of 700 million's goingo take anher 70 years orven mor if life expectancy continues to rise.

tom eagleton, abc ws, ijing. >> on tonht's blogwatch" we see thatot everyone is hap with relaxing the one-chld poli onshanghai po chinese news website one writeasks -- on rld financial marking today stks closed higher on mjor exchanges, in asia, whe they were down slight fleeeurope. hers how the day ended on wall street. ending a month that sabroad gains on e world's stock rkets. from britain, a story that struck us about desions on life and death. he issue's assiste suicide involving a woman wi multiple

sclerosis w eventually plans to end h fe at a clic in switzerland. question, would her husband be proscuted for helping h when he return yesterday? government a groundbreaking judgment the house of lords ruled that must arify its positionn the matter. itreported on the ruling jot leaving the how was lordfter he landmark victory. it's taken two years of legal attles and many disappointmes to get here. >> of course i'm relieved. it's lke -- is like lifting a huge great weight. >> reporter: dy has not bn fighting f a change in the law. this i not a battl for her right to die. instead, she wants the law clarifie she suffers fro multle scrosis and when t team cos she wts her partner to help her trel afwrud d but assisting auicide is a crime and it's up to t director of public prosutions to decide whether or no to prosecute, and unl now, he's kept his reasons

secret. but today the lords have ruled that will change. the ddp must write and publish a n policy. >> the fact at he's, now going to be looking at that and coming up with a olicy, it mean i don't have to make decision while i'mtill physicallyble to do -- to -- with myselfr whatever. reporter: both high court a the court of appeal had previously ruled it wasup to arliament to change the law unassiste suicide. butthelords have now deced with debbi the director of public prosecutions have said he will publh an interim poly on unassisting suicidey abroad by the endf september and then en for nsultation. one former lord chancellor sai the ddpis effectively creating new la >>lready the director of public prosecution's been sang, i'm notoing to prosecute the compassionate assister of the loved one, but what this judgment is doing is

saying, rig, if that's deftor position, if that's the sition in practice, let's reflect it now,in policy statements th ve to be given -- >> reporter: about 1 people he ended their lives at the clinic in switzeand. most helped by others. and so far none of those have been prosuted. although people have been questioned by the police. back in 2002 diane campaigned for a cmmitment that fectively none assisting a suicideould beprosecuted. but ts that case the house of lords ruled agast her. thi latest rulng will only apply to those helping pple traveling abroad. >> the fact mak my lifelonger is perfect. such a huge weight lifted. >> it gives her an opportuty to relax. anpportunity to, you kw, enjoy more life. fight with e. >> but there is still not much time for fighting. debbie ds notnow exactly when the pain m.s. wll

compel her to travel to switzerland to life, but uling today, she says, means sheill travel wit her partner and that will dey her decision tgo. in this week's roundtab discussion wee going to take a look at the united states and how it doing with some of its major foreign polic initiate itches. with continuing turbulence aft last month's presidential electionow will iran respond to the u.s. deadli for making its changes in its nuclear prram? after the u. andsrael ld lks this week is there any real hope for abreakthrough in dispute overettlements? and aer this week's meetings with chinesofficials, where is thatelationship goin we're joined, once again tonight, by susan cha. foeign editor "the neyork times." and gideon rose, managing editor "foreign affairs" magaze. welcome back t both of you. >> thank you.

>> i'm going to beginith a quote. >okay. >> the subct matter is iran. it sounds ke a bit like a game show. whosaid this? they donot understa thatour relaonship is based on affection. based on ith. nd is a father/son relationsh. deon? >> i hav absolutely no idea. >> mahmud ahmadinejad, as he was responding about what was a very turbule wek. a there has been gat porting about this divide that appears to be blooming betwe the supreme leader and mahmoud ahmadinejad. w bad is the political situation in ira >> you know everybody who watches thi says that th dot know exactly what's goin to hpen next. that is clear this was a major turning point in the hiory of theislamic republ. and it can'tgo back to where it wa before, but it's also likel that the ultimate playingut of thecrisis will take a much nger time frame. and you're n going to see any major change right aw. so it's goingo destabilize the repuic in the long term, bu

probably n in the short term. >> the meantime, sun, the united stas isnxiously awaiting to hearomething back the overte that the obama administtion has made. e weikely to heaanything? and if we do, are we likely to like what we hear? >> i think at, to be honest, any journalistho predicts anything about iran right now uld be foolh. it very unstable, i thnk, as gideon said i ree that iran is in a tumultuous period. it's not that this rgime is going to mplodeut it may not be able to function. the factualism which is endemic to iran is even wors and i thin it's possible, you know, early signs we that the iranian regim before this election, was intrigued by the obma overtures. it wasn' clear they were gog to respond in way tatunit states would fd acceptable but they were interted. so the question is if they're able to so of pull together and paper over sme of these

dierences, what wll the response be? gain, some people have suggestea posh compromise that would aow some measure of enrichment supervised by,ay the iaea. but it's unclea that iran will be fficiently organized to offer anything in t short term. >> right they're all trying to hang on to their jobsand hang onto th countr what's u.s.upposed do then? >> well, really watch and wait. mae itself ready for tas. try to be constructiv but not push the situation too hard o too fast and not do anything rash. basicly, stay out of ts one and let i play out and see wh's going on. makeure there are real clear red lines to establi what we will n tolerate t otherwise see wh ppens. >> theissure continues. >> it does mov forward so you nt to say that one of your red lines is -- well, the first red line is getti to the point of

aponizati weaponizion. second red le that you can't oss is weaponizing, but --nd essentially -- but watch tis pl out for another f months at least i wouldsay. >> alright, let'surn to isra and the u.s. with the big meetings th took place if israel. e stumble block still appear to be and a very difficult torn on the side of the u.s. israeli sue, the settlement on th west ban is tre anyign of a breakthrough? >> my sense in speakingo actuallyur state department correspondent mike lan ler at in the short term w don't expect any immediat breakthrough. thobama administration did signal a real clearreak if the fraumz. auch toughe line on the settments. called a tal freeze. had is played verypoorly in rael. and in fa as an op-ed pece in "the times" pointed out this weeand apparently the obam administration s listening thers a sense that president obama may not have explainedhis caseirectly enough to the israeli people. beuse it's gotten people's backs up. at same time of course that has

me value when you are trying to pro to the arab world that you're moreeutral but they may have put themlves in a little bit of a short-termbox because on the one hand havi putut a very, very clear hard line about the tal free, it mak it difficult to compromise wiout suggesting to e arab wor that onceagain fro their perspective thenited states dsn't take a hard enough line about isel. >> who's going to be first in his? >> well, yoknow it's an inresting question, whether they realize just -- whether the oba administration realized just how tou they we being and justhow strony they were handling this issue -- >> you don'tthink they kne no? >>ell there, might ha been so misuerstanding about just how tough they should and they mightave blundered into a slightly larger crisiswith israel than they want to or intendedo get into. onhether hand, ihink what the isyales a starting to wake up to is th there is really a new guy town and the last two admistrations -- both clinton andush jr. -- soou have

essentially 16 years of american poli that was very, very, ver prosrael. and this n one, there's a litt bit more hands-off. we're going back, to esntially, bush one and caer, in which the israelis are basically going t find that theyon't always g their way and they d't always have a friend in the white use who is absolutely going to take everything the israelis say as face vae. >> i want tourno china real quk before we run out otime. another big week ofmeetings there. wheris this relationshi going e s. and ina? >> i thi right now what we see the administration strate is emphasizing the ecomicaspects of the relationship. over human rights, political issue and ihink they're acceuating the positive because right w with the economy being so uncertain and china such a bieconomic engine. about foreign exchange rrency djustments and so on and trade issues so they're acceuating

the positiv in meetings this week. and putting on he back burner some of the more troubling issu. >> and what arthe troubling issues? >> the troubling isues are, disputes over jt how each side is going to play its currency and its reserves and economic policies and domest stimuluses. but this relationip will go well. frankl iran, israel, tse are important but chronic and somewhat low-gde policies. the u.s./china relationship is going toe the defining feature of international politics in the next several decas. it has to go we because the consequences of it gng bdly are horriblfor everybody. will go well. >> so e president said it, thatt would define the ctry. >> and here was being more rrect. >> gide rose and susan shera, thank you bothor joining us. >>hank you. finally tonig he i no stranger to performing, though

he himself m notee it quite that way, but fact is he has appeared before millions. mostly speaking, b sometimes singing. and now a well-knownrecord label h signed him. he's none other than tan pope den dict xvi. gavin records wil feature him on a rord called alma mater featuri the pope'singing prayer supply the po's vocals from previouspeeches and speeches. record t accompanimentin london's abbey road studios. the studios course of players the place that famous micians cord almost all of their aums. two the beatles. pa mccartney. will the pope achief rock star paul asis previous predecessor paul benedict iidid?

'll have to see. and on tt no that is "worldfocus" here in friday evening and this wee if youissed any of this week's programs, you c catch up wi them again by going to o websit that's worldfocus.org. i am martin savidge in new york. as always, thank you ve much for joini us. we'll lookorward toeeing you back here on monday. until then hav a great weeken "worldfocus" is made possible, in part, by the follow funders -- "worldfocus" is made possible, in part, by the follow -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com