>> tonight on "worldfocus" - >> sucss, form president bill clinton makes a sprise visit to north korea and wins the release oftwo american journalis but hi tal with north kean leaders didn't stop there. in australia, police say they have broke up a terrorist plot in which extremists pla to invade a military base and kill until they tmselves are kild. we will tell you who ty say i hind the threat. in sud, what th woman is doing is consideredso scdalous that she's being put on trial, andould be flgged. will tell you why. andn german there is no ignoringhe 800-poundgore ail in the womb, now when she is holdg a brand-new baby. we will explainhy this birth means souch. fromhe world's leading reporters and analts, here is what's happening from arou the worl this is "worldfoc." made possibl in part, by the following funders --

good evening, i'm main savidge. there is maj news out oforth koa tonight. two american journists, ea lee and laura ling, who were arrested imarch while reporting along the border of china and north koa, have been rdoned. tt annncement came la this afternoon an formerresident bill cnton made an unannounc vit to north korea, and en held a serie of high-level talk, including rare ct with north korean president kim jong-il. well wit dramatic news of the parning of the reportermade headlinetoday the formers meeting withorth korean official hi far greater implications. the clinton visit and analis of it, that's our "lead cus" toght, beginning with "worldfocus" prucer feliciano. >> reporter: the former president was greeted wit warm handshakeand flowers as he arrid in pyongyang today.

the fact that clintonas greeted at the airprt by north korea'shief nuclear negotiator and then had a re meeting wi north koreaneader suggested that his talks went well beyond his effos to free the two reporter in fact,orth korea's state control media described them as hang exhaustive tal covering wide range of issues. leon sigal is a north korean expert the sial science resear couil. >> the obamaadministraon's position i the release of th o women is separate from any negotiation but when bill clinton goes there's no way to do separationd the clinton visit, i trust by seeing kim jong-il, even thoh he is not speaking behalf of the u.s. vernment, will open th way, i trust, to having bileral lks, which is the k to getting somewhere with t north koreans respecting their soheir independence. 's an imptant signal. >> reporter: the ite house says tt clinton did notarry a message from president oba

to e north korean lear. ntrary to reporters bytate media. >> this was a private mission that we weren't ingto comment on. while the former president was on the ground in north korea and as a result of that, i don't have anything more t addn this a this time. >> reporter: however,he former presint's visit comes in the midst of an international standoff between washington and ongyang, over north koa's nuclear program north korea has expressed a stro interest in one-on-one negotiations wi the oma admistration. but itays it w't return to t so-calle six-party talks volving north koa, china, japan, south rea, russia and the u.s. >> they've gotten themselves trapped in increased isolation. that not helpful to their -- ultimately. we,n the other hand, need stop them fromaking nuclear weons and ssiles andefls them. and th only way do at is to engage with them muchore

deeply thane've ever tried to d >> this isot the first time former amerian president's gone to north korea to netiate. in fac 15 years ago, during bill clint's first term, former president mmy carter went to north korea to negotiate on an earlier stando on nuear weapons. forore on this curre effort and th role of former american presidents in internatiol crisis situati we're joined by thomas whan. an associate professor of social science at boston universy and autho of "a higher rpose: profiles in presential ourage." he joinss from bosto the north koreans seem to like starpor when it comes those who come to pay a visit. so i presume that what bill clinton brin, as opposed t you knowormer vice psidents or formeembers of the adnistrations. >> rht. it's always good that if you havehat starpower, you know if you have a george clooney why nd a ted dansony to fix things that bl clinton is probab th most popula fure on this

planet a this particular moment. and tell us about some of the other ex-presidents who've been sent on diplomatic missions. we mentioned of course jimmy carter, what about him >> well, jimmy carter played a really importt role in bringing about aemocratic free elt in nigggia following the sand anista fall several years ago. at the same tie, richa nixon played a k role andelp lessening tensions beten the united stes and china following tiananmen ce. the bush admintration had sent him on tha mission. so i think presides can play a very iortant diplomac role here in terms ofasing tensions and geing certain american foreign polynterests onhe ground. >> h it always worked out,r had their bee gaffe >> well, ihink that president carterade a major faux paw recently when heried to interject himself in the israeli/palestian dialogue. nd he ended up alienating

israel, d reallyaking the siation far wor than iwas when it -- when he first began. >> we've only g about0 seconds left. but i wurprised by howhis is actually policy that goes back someme. i mean, al the way to theodore roosevelt? >> well, theodore roosevelt represented the united states a the ste funeral for the king of englandat the beginning of the 20t entury. and during his funeral, you h all of the crowned heads of rope just beforethe outbreak of worldar i. and it washere that theore roosevelt prively came to the conclusion that wa was coming, d of course he was right. >> he was. thomashalen, thank you very much for joini us tonight. >> you're welcom >> there's anotr incident invoing americans ing held in this se by an. ey were said to be hiking in the kurdish regio of northern iraq fourays ago wen they parently wanderedcross the border and then we arrested near t town of mry ban by irian authorities, toy

iranian television swed pictures o joshua fattal o oregon andhane and sarah schoud. in afghastan, a sca in theapital of kabul day. ju over two weeks bfore that country's poid presidential election. officials said at least eit rocks slammed into the cityf daybreak, at least one of them heading from fire fom the embassy. three civilia reported wound theockets were fired t show that theovernment of president hamid kari cannot guarantee security in the capital. it was believed to be thefirst roet attack in the afghan capital in six mths. in the cty of betehem on the westban an important meeting today about the future of theiddle east peace process and a poible palestinian state. r the first timenore than 20 yea, members of the ruling fatah partyled by paltinian

president, mahmoud abb as in the stheast australian city of mel brn today, hdreds of pice swept through 19 house, arresng four young men in wt they say was a plot to blow up a lae army base outside of sydney,he capital. the officials id the men we som alia an lebthese descent. porting from the "lateline" program of abc in ausalia. >> reporte across mbourne police searched 19 differen pperties. australihead police, the victor police, isoand other agen who were part o one of t biggest investigations i this country. >> well, potentially this wou had en, if able to be carried

out the mt serious attack on australi soil. >> reporter: this mobile cmand centern melbourne north was used to coordina the efforts of more than 400officers. since janua, surity aencies have been listeni into phone calls and followi people. there are no claims that a weapons have bn seized, but police will alge they've prevented a mor attack. >> police wi allege that the men were planning to carry out a suicide terrist took adefense establishment within australia involving anrmed assaultith automatic wepons. the detai of the panning indicated thelleged offenders we prepared inflct a sustained aack on mitary rsonnel until they happens is were killed. >> reporter: and a hea guard encounter vicles were taken to the melbourne offices of the austailian federal poli. auorities say they'll be searchingome homes overnight. in court, t crime prosecutors ay one man, is being arged with conspiring to do acts in

eparation for a terrorist act. lice clai anotheran went to somaliaetween february and july of this year. they say he was overheard telling others about his traing at a military camp. the court heard allegations that one of those beingnterviewed engaged in frontline combats in somalia. the alleged comwas t army base in sydney. itesoldiers inuding those invold in -- when police suspected the terrorist attack the prosecutionold the courts at withohammedatah capred on surveillance footage they say he was fmed where the army ba. police als claim to have sent a text message fr fatal i which e says, quote, i strolled around. the army base is easy to enter. police went there, impt was imminent.

sharia describes himself as a community elder. he says the soali community supportsustralia security agencies. >> were lucky becau we are living i stralia now. we a in somalia where there isno law andrder for almost 20 years. therefore, we ar very happy thathe police and the -- people are doi their jand let us see what it ces out. >>eporter: the court also heard police will submit evidce phone calls de between somef the suspects and othersoverse. "latelal pirates hav releasia pat hav rease said a germa containership and i crew. the ship was captured 4 miles off ofhe coast of somalia and the crew were heldor rans . well, yesterda thewners of the ip paid the pates almost $3 million. we have more on tis tonight

from gmany's deutsche welle. >> reporter: after mnths of iting the owner othe -- can finely breathe a sigh o relief. all of the crew members are in good hlth and doing well >> translator: iwas an almost unbearable me for the crew and theiramilies. i think none of cs imagine how stressf the situation must have been for them. >> reporter: the cw was held in captivity with little to eat or drink a no medicine. according to media reports, the pites carried out mock executions of their hoages. the gern government has expressed relief at their re >> tnslator: once they arrive in mombasa, the crew, including the five germans among them, will be flown to tir home countrie i hope that with their families, they'll on recover fr the strain of the pasteeks.

>> reporr: european union naval officials say a ransom was dropped fromfrom a small plane from the pirat on ard of the ship monday morning. the hostageakers cfirmed this to news agencies. expected in kenya onthursday. >> that was deutsche welle why is somalia increasingly becoming a security of authorit welcome back. >> thank you. >> is today's latest if auhe police of these militants that have be linked to somali and apparently to al qaeda, an indationhat tho tt sympathize with al qaeda in somalia are now being exported? in other words, going tother countries to create trouble? >> it's bit more complicated than that. you kow there are some significant somali despate mmunities, you know around the world, including paces like australiand here in the united

states. concentrateostly in minneapoli what you have is especiallyith the aresting ofsoli, the arresting of australians of mi, the young women, despera counities, back into somalia, receivi -- and in some cases fighti on the side of some of the groups that eage in the conflict in that country and then going back into their host communities and the arresting of auralia, a clear demonstration of the challenges of havinghis huge desperate commuties that are iolved in the conflict. directlyr indirectly. t in this case we are seeing direct involvement witgroups with terrist links like al shaab. this is a very worrying tre that keeps law enforcement and intelligence agenes in this country -- >> wl, you mentioned minneapolis, and that i a case of course of gre concern the u.s. the belief is, what that they go to somalia, receive se sort of

traini and then would come backin this case to the u.s.? >>ight. >> and cod possibly carry out a terrorist attack. >> right, most of th generation i amicans. so -- buthey still havehis affinity, or they still have this linkages with somalia. so they go out there, get trainingand then eventually they com back to thi country and you know onl them, theare the only ones whonow what kind of activitie but the worrying thing about this trend is we saw wha happened in london with the attacks the, where the folks o carried out those attack re pakistan, fouh genation pakistanis, who followed t same end, trendin pakistan and came back. this is quite a worryi trend but thenhe bigger issu is, hodo you deal with this without actually stigmatizing the entire commuty? >> well i wa to bring up secrety of state hillary clinton. shs heading to africa. she's going to meet wth the presidt of somal. what do you pect to come out of that? >> well, ihink this is quite ignificant because far we

haven't seen the administration policy on the broader -- including somia. and wh may be, you know, what we probably hope to see out of this visit is the beginnings of seeing the policyf the current administration on deal with the somalia situation. so far in e past month it has been faiy quiet from the administration. but quite certain that this visitill be the bginning of something moreositive and more proactive onhe part of the administrati. >> thank you vy much. >> thankfor having me. also a femaca ale female journalist went o trial today in sudan for violatinghe dress code in that country which adhereto a strict sbrpgsz ofslamic law. dozens of women protesd outside othe court in khartoum the capital. red tear gas. seen here in her home was among 13 women arrested a month ago in a cafe of the -called order of

public poce. ten of the werelogged at a police station. and y twowomen decided to go on tria her dress code crime, wearing a pair of pants for which s fas 40 lash. and from india, a human rights gro charged today tha theolice system in that country needs some jor overhaul to meet internation andards. human rightsatchsaid that while india is modernizing rapidly the police coinue to use old thods including abuse and teats. it said the poce sometimes detained pele illegally, torture and kill spects and refuseto investigate crimes against the politically powerful. thindian government had no immediate response. was the british government complicit in the torture of terror suspects in a secretork

conducted by wtern intelligent agencies ovethe last eight ars? that questiowas raised after the release of a paistani man ben yan mohammed from amecan custody at guaanamo bay, cuba. when mohammed returned to britai he sued the governme in a test case ciming the intelligence ageny, miify was involved in his investigations while government aims its got nothing thard a paliamentary commissn is now calling for independent vestigation as we hear fromandrew thomasf itn. >> reporter: british interrogators quesoning uspects abroad ether just aftemistreatnts or ring bouts of it. questions for u. authities to fout beamin mohammed while he was ld illegally at guantanamo bay. handed over by states known to have tortured those they got it from. thosare the accutions of uk torture that are swirling about. thecommittee of mps and lords are set out to awer three questions. is compcity and torture

legal? having defined complicity, they deci it is. dohose things the government agencies accused of amount to such complicity? again, the commiee decide they dso are the accusatns true? on this, the committee was stumped. and tat's thecommittee's beef. that the government has obstruct their inquiries leaving itnable to tell whether th ausations have credibily. this report don't pull its punches. acuntability of a security and intelligent servic it says, is woefully defient. ministers, o, have been termined to avo parlmentary scrutiny. the report says behind a wallf secrecy. >>f they hav't done anythi wrong there's evidence that they have or all we have is allegations at the moment. no way to -- i think the poblem is the blanket denia not going to deal with the smo that is emerging from what appears to ba growing bon

fi. what we don't know are tere any flamest the botm. >> reporter:he government says that ministers arecuntable for parliame flapd deny uk security forces torture and say they conmn in other countries, to but intelligencegathering, they y, is a glol siness. to preve furthertrocities like7/7 and made preemptive arrests to foil pls. information cn't always discounted becse of its source. there's balance, they say, between human rights and the serity of the british people. >>'s a principle at stake here and we lose our moral authority in t world when we -- when we work with and cooperate with regimes that use torture technies. there is an absolu purpose in the e of rture, in this country an internationally and that's the case fo several years. the les of the game ve not changed. the ruflts game wiot change what have happen is those rules have appearedo have broke jean the han rights committee havecalled for an independentinquiry of eass of complicity a torture, tha theyhope, the gvernment won't

able to duck. >>some global health notes tonight. mecal officials in chinare trying t stop an outbreak o pneumonic plague tt has kied three pele. it's goi on in a fming community 10,000 chin's northwest. dical workers are disinfeing the areand killing rats and insect and flees which c becarr causes pneumonic plague. that can kl people within hourif it's not properly treated. onhealth issue we've been trying to highght here is maternal health. each year more than a half million women acrosshe wld die whe giving birth. most of them from developing countries. in haiti, the situation is desperat as violence, brit cal chaos, and insufficient

international aid have hampered even the mt basic health cae. teresa boa of al jazeera english traveled to port-au-prince to see how suspecting mothers are coping. we waryou the story contains some graphic imagesf child birth. >> reporter: giving birtin haiti, the country wth the highest maternal mortity rate in the western hemisphere. is eight mohs' pregnan and like most of the births here, er's is premature. st. catherine hospal is the ly place where women in the slum can g some kind of assistan. but the facity lacks medicines, syringes and other basic elements to ease their pain. lo at the statef our nursery, says is nurse. it's a embarrassment. haiti is highly dependent on internional aid, but it is in aces like thisne where money ner seems to be enough.

her baby died during deliry at home. by the time she made it to the hospital she could hardly ve. this is e second baby i ha lost, she told us. most othe wom here ctinue to deler their babiest home because theyannot afford to come toospitals likethis one and eventhoughhey're supposed to be free, these women are telling us that tey have to pay. thiseapon owed us her bi. -- her ll. >> tnslator: we were charged for th medicines but we are poor and weannot pa if youon't pay, you do not get assisted. >> reporter: when otheromen try to share their sries w were expelled om the hospital these men. we were told, thewere hospital security. hardships for itn women are coined to the ospital. u.n. studies show that 50 of women living i slums have been raped. many of these children arethe

result she is 20 years old. shwas raped by a man on her way home. >> translator: my father asked meo throw the baby away,ut i said no. my father kicked me out from my house as if it's my fault. we never wt to the police. >> repter: rape would only make a criminal offense in hai in 2005. but so far there's beenittle enforcemt of the new law. it about domation of the m ov the woman. the man feeluperior andthinks that he can whatever that i want. this is our main proem, fighting for women rights and help them get respect. reporter: lack o bas health care and a highrisk of violence, both high prioties for inteational organizations rking in thiscountry, but re improvemen that could make thesewomen's lives eve a litt bit better. stieem a long way off.

jazeera, port-au-prince. >>you can fine more on manitarian conditions in hai including our earlier signature series and an intview with the country's prim mister. on our bsite, that's wodfocus.org. finallytonight, a follow-up a story that you mayave seen last year that made adlines around the orld. the sceneas a zoo germany, where gorilla, whos baby died after just three months from an infection. d she was seen mourning the youngster for days in a remarkable displayof affection. while two days ago that same re ail naed gana gave birth again. is time to a daughter. zoo officls describe the baby as healthy and live latched to her mother's pair of joy. as one headlin saw it gana the gorilla goes gaga over new by. >>that's "worldfocus" for a tuesday evening.

for much more on our news and to watch the program on the w, go to our websi, that's worldfus.org. i'm martin savid in new york. always, we thank you for joining us. we'll look for you back here tomorrownd anytime on the web. unl then, have a good night. "wldfocus" is made possible, in part, by e following funds -- -- captio by vitac -- www.vitac.com