tonight on "worldfoc" "worldfos" "worldfocus" -- >> u.s. secretary of state hiary clinton pledges to expand america's suppo for somalia's weak interim government. > americans may be busy trading their clunkers for new cars. in theest african nation of benin,e show you the booming business tt brings new lifeto d automobiles. >>spy in the sky. israel launches new kindf surveillance play th can go from backpacto front lines in just minutes. and py poor latvi crusd by the econom doturn, it's snoufring a new problem, british bhelors gone wild

good eveningi'm martin savid savidge. it's been quite a ek for clinton mily, with bill clinton capturing headlinesn north korea thlast two days. today it was hillary clion in africa. e secretary of state was talking tough about islamic extremists in somia and offering toxpand and extend american support to that very tenuous government in that country. sh said the militant there see somalias a futureaven for glob terrorism. in tonight's lead focus,we look at clinton visit to africa and its goa. on t second full d of her african our, secretary of ste hillarclinton was in nairobi, nya. there she honored the victi of th 98 bombings of the american embassies in kenyand in neighbing tannia. torrow is the 11th anniversary of those bombings, which claimed thelives of more tn 200 people up to that point, thembassy

attacks were among the most deadly carried out bal qaeda. today th presence of al qaeda inafrica remas as much a concern as ever. late mrs. clinton met in kenya with the president of somalia. he tveled there because of security concerns in his own country. sh pledged to bolster efforts to fight smallen insurgents linked to al qaa. kristin connell iseporter forlobal post, based in nairobi. >> the main line between hllary clinton' meetinwith somalia's sheikh was an reiteration of e american govement's strong suort of his administration such as it is. but its as mrs. clintonut it the best chance somaia's had in aong time. at least that's the u.s. government view. somaliaens involved behd a movementre suspeed to be behind several plots around e gle. earlier this week, australian authorities arrested seral

men, includi some of somia descent, accuse tem of planning an tack on an australian military base. >> translator: we ve no links at all to the muims arrested in australia this week. the arrests are arab trashy. it's yet anotr trick design to legitimize the war on muslims. >> it's hard to s what will turn thingaround in solia and somalia has really beco theort of preeminent failed state and simply offering a few more guns and a few more arr and a bit of trning and some aid, it's not revolutionary in any way. >> as secretary cnton makes her way thugh africa, enomic velopment and human rights e also expected be high on the enda. afr kenya, she will make ops in south afri and goala, the democratic rublic of coo, nigeria, libia and cape verde. here to talk more about seetary clinton's africa visit, we ar joined by amira

woods. she is co-director of foreign licy in focus at the institute for policy studie and a u.s. foreign policy expert on rica. she joins us fro washington. nice to have you with us. >>reat to with you, martin. >> as sretary clinton mes the prident of somalia, wh are the american goalsthat she will be articulating? and what is smaomalia looking f in return? ? i think secrary clinton is going to articulate goals around security and peaceround the ho of africa i think on the somalian end, there are tremendousoncerns being raised that really the u. is being looked to to prop up a transional government that many see as being imposed really from the outde. ihink cearly what at stake ishat a vernment thatas se as creble was oust by e americans back i 2006 and since then, there's been a succeeng series of govements, transitial govements with more or less problems around credibity. d here again what you is a qst for support and

legitimacy from the u.s. by this new transitional government the in somalia. >> why ishe state of smaa stabl crucial? >>omalia is in a vit area. it's the gulf ofaden through the astf somalia tough which muchf the world tde flows. this is why during the cd war somalia was sh a strategic point tat it also went back and fortbetween the u.s. and the ussrrying to crea pppet state that's would be client states for theirnterests in thategion. i think because that cold war history, you had rlly turns being taken inserting arms and really creatg a ungovernorable space the in somalia beuse of that consta in-flow of ar. so i think the concerns really is that the obama administration unlehing even more armsjust back in may 2009 may create even more instability, may also

create greater anti-ameranism in somalia and elsewhere in e horn of africa >> are we to assume that the threat of terrorism emanating from east africa is pretty much at the top of clinton's agenda? >> well, you know,this whole sk of terrorismhas been a vanneer. nce the bush administration and has continued even though the glol war on terror is not used as a phrase under the obama administration, it has in fa contind in practice und the oba administrion. but benea that venire is a stea interest in real rategic sources, primaril oi uranium, other vital resource that flow from africa, and in particul from east afri. and i think its those interestin addition to the geostrategic placing of solia on t gulf of aden that makes it vital to the obama administrati. >> we have about 20 seconds left. secretary clinton ads to south africa tonight. what can we expect there? >> sectary clinton will be

looking to solidify u.s. interest in trade. south afca has been a big trading partner ofhe united states and thre wille continued interestot only ineng ally enuntering china and other --ther key leadersin this now multi-polar world. >> amira woods. thank you so much forpeaking with us. >> a pleasure. thank you, martin. wehave been read ago additionalommentary today on clinton' visit in some of africa's media including a opinion piece in "t daily monitor,a websi inugda. the writer states,after the music and dancing dd down, we awa eed hillary'sut nss on the real issues that matter to the majity of africans. ll shepeak in pblic on the urgent need of electoral reforms, resct and promoti of human rights in specificay named cotries? will she s what america will to tho regime that's fame the litmus test on goo governance? willhe promise to lead an international effort to olate and toct against all who ve

roed their national treasurie and abused theirowers? >> a court in dia sentenced two men a a wom to dea today forheir roles ithe 2003 terror tack in the city of mumbai. in that attack two taxis blew u wiin minutes of one another, killing 52people. investigators y the three were members the lashkarytibia, banned militant gro that has also bn blamed for the attacks in mumbai that killed 106 ople late lt year. lawyers for ose sentence today said they uld appeal. death sentences in india are rarely carried o. this was ather deadly day for u.s.orces in afghanistan, as casuties in tat war rise sharply. e u.s. military said four marines wereilled when a adside bomb struck their vehicle western afghanistan. in the six da of this month, at ast 15 western tros have been kild in afghanistan.

in the middle east today, a ominent human rights group said thousands of rockets fired from the gaza strip into israe re unlawful and unjustifi, and aunt to war crimes by the hamas leadership in gaa. those attack culnated in the three-week war agait hamas that began late last decber. in his port,uman rights watch said hamas should plicly anunce the rocket attac and punish thoseresponsible. three israeli civilians wer kill by rket fire. and human rits watch said hamas also put palestines at grt list. >> they fired from near civilian areas becae they wanted t prevent israelrom strikin back through t fear of csing vilian casualties. both of those things, fing from a civilian area wh ere is any opportunity no to and deliberately firing fro a civilian area in order to prent counterattacks are serious violations of the ws of war. >> a spokesman for hamas sid today's report is biased in favor of israel

he said hamas did not use the population as human shids and did nofire rockets from populated areas. for more on today's report, are joined by e stork,eputy directorf the middle east and north african dision of human ghts watch and he joins us from washington. good to ha you with us. >> glad to be here. >> hamas today called your report biased and false. what do you ma of their reaction? >>ell, the reactionis pretty typical. i mean our repos, you know, we wor in about70 countries arnd the worl and ican't think of a single me where we criticized a goverent or a governing authory and they saidh, gee, you're right. or, yeah, you got that righ of course theyreact and say wee biased, things like that. when we actually sit dow and talk with people- the people reonsible, in this case ham authorits in dpazia, it's a different kind of convertion. theyon't necessarily admit to the violations we -- we

umerate in the report, but catell yout's a dierent kind of conversation. it's notan unusual reacti. it's the kind of reaction we get from the israeli governmenthen we publish rerts crital of theirbehavior. >> we will talk about that in just a minute. th rocket fire has been going onor years largely now i seems to have seized. why would this report be t on now? >> well, first of al this is part of a series of reports we ha done on the nflict, on the r in gaza that erupted in december, nuary a few mnths ago. so this part of that series and it lks at that sort of window, tha sort of twor three-month ndow of that colict. secondly, it'smportant toote that rocket re has ceased in previous times. in fact, last summerhere was an informal between hamas andsrael and there was virtually no rocket fire unti earlymid-november. so the iue here is not just that it's a pst tense. th issuehere is what ppens in the future. we have no commient yet.

we hope we get it. thers no commitment yetrom hamas that they will not resume this kind of fi tarting civilian aas inisrael. that's what we want. we want that kindf commitment. >> hamas often defen their action bpointing out a great disparity betwn their firepower and israel's firepowe during that you mentioned more than 1,100 palestinians were killed 13shgs israel were killed. how doou react to th? >> alying the ls of war, international humanirian, with all ofhegeneva conventns to an armed conflict situation, it's not aboutcounting casualties. it's about protectsing civilians. it's been directing, investigating violations by all sides to a conflict and pnting out, critizing those actions ich target civilians, which are reesenting indiscrinate attacks agnst civilians, which are toake precaions to protect civilians. we have donehat looking at rily militaryconduct. we do that wit regard to hamas military conduct. >> only about 25 seconds left.

huilan rights watch as you pointed t is critical of rael. and it received some characrizations as being unfair. hodo you respond to that? >> well, again, we wnt israeli bevior to change this ia typic reaction. th reject e criticisms. we are goingo continue to make th where they apply. >>oe stork, thank you very much for joining us. >> thanks for invitinge. as it prepare for a possible future war, israel has unveiled its late wean, a miniure spy plane that can be launched aost as easily as a model airplane i a field. but it's no toy. it's already seeing acon in tw major war zones as weear from matthew calman the media line. >> reporter: an israeli soldr arrives on the battlefield carrying latest tactical weapon inhe military arsenal, a tiny spy in thesky. from his bapack, he produces the smallest, lightest unmanned aircraftet available for the military. it called t skylark, and it can be aembled and launched

withininutes, bringing th ground foes altime visual and thermal imagingof the terrain beyond the next hill. it launches from a simple catapult stuck in the ound. with a wingspan of nine ft, weighing just three pounds and a flight time ofore than three hours, it's a smaller, lighter and more enduring version othe skylark one, an iaeli-made u that logged hundreds of hours with ail libd foes in iraqand afanistan. >> witits object cal yload, its advance avionics, eac one of these cost $50,000 and the israeli my said they're wel worth the money. tom deciderman,he chief instructoror the system said you shoun't judge the sky clark by its all size. >> it' muchsmarte it has ight control computer in it. it looks ea and sime but it's very complicad andt's baseon the concept of autopilot, autonomous flht.

it allows thoperator to fos on the image, focus on the mission, a do all of the flight by itself. it can handle sandy ars like iraq and ghanistan and in israel, very rocky areas. >> reporter: sergeandavid sawyer, commander o the army unit, said t new mini sky claskylark is aeady an important part of their mission. >> it can be used to pl all sorts of operations an even it can rect fire tony given target. th aplane goes 100, 200 meters in the air a goes up to 94 kilometer per hour andhe operator on e ground system like we have here operatethe cara, gives the plane commands. >> reporter: the israeli army hopes the skylarkill give the foes thepper hand in the middleast conflict that ias

ch about tecology as it is out firepower. repoing from theilitary line in t southern base of israel. > as we return to e global econom the bank of england and goble bankdecided today to leave their levels uncnged. the ur pain rate remains at 1% while the bank of engla kept it at 0.5% in an effort to stimulate economic growth. so from britain, ca sales in at country have actuall gone up for the first ti in more th a year. thks in large part to a cash foclunkers introduced by the british gornment. last mon sales were 2 1/2% hier than they were last july. still fothe year so far, british car sales are way do. germany launched its version of a c-scrapping incenve program six months ago.

and now "the financl times" reportan unanticipated problem. criminalit says, have bought up an estimated 50,000 german carseant for the junk keep and transportedhem to western germany and africa. that's 5 3% of the program. they are acsing the german vernment of not controing the scrapping of the ol cars. it tur out there' a huge lashgs jit mt marketor use cars iafrica, especiay those from germany. it's a business that's been in existence for many years and the nter of it is on the west africa nation of ben. as u're about to he in our "worldfocus" spotligh report, the inctives bein oered in cash for cnkers programs are providing some stiff mpetition for ao burs in africa. deutsche wel takes uso the land where old cars are give new life most ofhe time. >> reporter: they roll out of the shis hold, hary any make it on eir own steam. but th're supposed to still have long lives ead in africa.

docked one pie rther on is the sea ahd. it's a giant ship. once a month, the russian captain kes the high seas voyage to benin and back. he transrts cars, nothing else. >> w have0 decks with 4,560 vehicles. >> reporter: cs roll by from all directions towardshe ramp. in betweenthem, a tming army of workers roping them up, king some repairs and takin the cars outside there's a lot of us here, over 5,000. we work for our lebane bosses. >> reporter:his manrdered and purchased 1 of these cars. he takepeks s possession of th personally and check to see that their in one piece. >> tralator: they don't just come from germany anywhere. their numbers are up and growing. reporter: the port superintendent arrives. we ask him what he thinks about

s country becoming a kd of car junkya for europe. >>ranslator: no, no. nobody think that's way. everyone knows it's good business for benin >> reporter: the vehics leave e port late at night. in the day time, theywould paraly the city, 4 1/2 thousand cars. from there they go to parking lots where ty go on sale. what we findhere is is astonishing. cars wherever you ok. 150,000 of them, brands from all over the world. although al haj adore doesn't see it like that. >> they're all from germany, a german. all the cars. >> reporter: they're inig demand because they're robust d dependable. and if they don't arive that robust, they're de robt. this car got here by forklift. >>. >> translator: it's a ni car,

just a bitrokendown. but it wilbe repaired and in a week, we'll put it up fosale. >> reporter: the buyers come mostly fromr-hungry neighboring nigeria. he has been moving cars herefror the ole family works in e business. his cousins shuttle between benin and rmany where they do thr buying. everhing was running sothly until germany introduced the scheme to pay bonuses to drers whocrap their old ca. >> translato it's causing big prlems for us. the govement is paying big prices for cars w normally take. we fay 1,000 to 2,00 euros but th dealer gets 2,000 fromhe state to scrap it, even for a little c worth only 500. now we have buy the big ones, but th're tougher to sell he. >> reporter: b that's not the alers only prlem.

the whip is always at e ready fromhe beginnin because on theay from the dock to the market, t cars really caturn to junk. >> translar: not everyone who comes to the port is dealer. there arplenty of thieves and bandits, too. >> reporte in this neighborhood of sogo, you can buany part of a car that hasn't been blted down. countless secialized thieves wabt by the roaide between the port and the retail space. it's all here fromadios to spark lugs, and it's all stolen thousands make tir living this wa >> translator: evething that is short supply in state shs, we have itten lit, and a lt eaper. >> reporr: and where does the merchandise come from? >> oh, we buy . how e we supposed toknow if it's stolen? if a buyer recognizes part from his own r, we will see it the police station but what ca they prove? >> reporter: the c business is certnly borderline as it

regard the law and it cost me than just mone nerves and hard rk. >> tnslator: there are many acc. many people get kill just ong the 18 kilometers to the sales area. >> repter: once a week, a convoy of cars wit a police escorteadsff to the west t nigeria. it's a thousand kometers to the capital. many make it only a few hundred meters. th are either fixed up on the roadside o given up and have to go back to the parki lot. finally night, the b bachelor party no, it's not the debut of the new tv reality show. although as yore about to see, there is video. it's about a serious problem that has deloped in the eastern european nationf latvia and its capital riga.

it turns out te of thousands ofoung british m are flocking to riga every year to party. the time-honored premarriage ritu may seem harmless enou, bunick mart of itn sws us why residents othe city are nosaying enough is enough. >> repter: this a briti stack party proudly flming emselves trashing a hotel ro in latvia. and on the streets of e capital riga, they're a coon sight, too cmon for the authities. it's th cheap flights and even cheaper er, which attract s thousands of sta through ech year. but common to thecities, these are a double-edged ord. latvia's economy, like many hers, are suffering. it shrunk by 30% in theast two years. urism is important and the st parties help fill up empty hol rooms andput money in the tis of the bars and restaunts.

but there's e issue here above l other which is working the latvians into a fury. this is the city freedom monument, considered sacred by ma vat llatvians, a symbol of t country's frdom and history, and it's cimed by the police thatt's regularly used by drunken brits as a place to ina urate. >> mainly ey say they did not ow the significance of the monument. they did not see the toilet nearby so they pee in the place that seemed appropriateor them. >> transtor: it is disrespectfutowards our natial symbol. it idisrespectful towards r country. they should be punished serely. >> reporte now the mayor of riga has stepped in. he'sgetting tough. wh riga really nts is to wave gd-bye to the duncan reveler and wi open arms enbraca higher class of tourist. buthey're upgainst a colossal industry. this lumber company sent 6000

velers to riga eachear b it says warns each ad every one of them about the pitfalls >> we send probably ten brits a weekend to riga, andhey go to the same bars we and wk out. and the bars take the guys who basically ensu that the brits have. >> reporter: ga said it wants tourism, but perhps not this ki. on the streets tonight, ou special tourist policofficers will t to containny trouble. is a cpromise because running bibusiness out of town may not be practical. >> nic martin of itn. and i think wll leave it there for this thursdayight at "worfocus." a remind that tomorrow we'll have our weekly round table discussion, break down the week's topstories from around the world. and we invite you to suggesthe topics by gointo worldfocus.org and dpping us a note by e-mail or twitr if you prefer.

i'm martin savge in new york. as alys, thank you very much for joining us. we look for you back hereai agn tomorrow and any time on the web. until then, have aood night. -- ptions by vitac -- www.vitac.com