tonight "worldfocus" -- adly violence in kabul just days before afanistan's nation election. in one ci, th taliban so great, this reporter cann leave r car. >> the taliban are active in this area. >> we'll have rerts from aroundhe country night.

from africa, two very bright ideas, a cell pho chard by solar power and a bottle that purifies drinking water also run by the sun. and wel take you tomman, jordan, where the southwes swine flu is changing smoking bits after sharing thehoocu for ceuries. from the rld's leading reporters and analysts here i what is happening from arou the world. this is "worldfocu" ma possible by the following funders -- >>good evenin i'm martin savidge. as election day afghanistan approaches, tens of thousands of american and british troops there are doin all they c to guarantee the curity of millions of afghan voters. but thetaliban i doing all it n to let them know th are not safe. just today with the election no two days awai talib launched

a series of attks on the catal city of kabul. a suicide car bomber attack a naval convoy in the outskirts of the city. killing sevepeople, woundin

> the center, theewer signs government control are foun sorry, lost modem. >> the taliban -- which is close to anjwi district and one of the many leafls the liban have put up warning peopl agait votingin the election. d thendistributes them in many areas in the outh. and this is why thevery fact thatt's still on thewall, means t taliban is here. and we aret even able to get out of the caro film freely. >> reporter: kandahar ciy, just ke the rest of kandahar province,according to the governme's assessment is high-rk area. elections won't be held inwo taliban-controll districts. attacks arusual here, but not mort strikes. mortars were fir into the

heart of theity days before the vote some people started to thi twice abou voting. >> transtor: we won't the situation is not likethis. we don't wt to risk our liv and the lives our families. >> reporter: but police commanders at thscene of the attack put on a ave face. translator: we give 100% asurance to e peopleandahar to take part in the ections, and iant people to help us prevent any incidents ppening. >>eporter: never before would you see afgn police patrolng in american humvees. authorits are confident the taliban won' be able to sp voters from heading to lling station. >> in casesomething happened, those will be i.d.s. which a difficult. oromeporadic shooting fr outside of the city like from the distris but also we want toinimize those whene send forces to the district as well. >> rorter: the facr naeshing districts of kandahar cityave

a strong taliban presenc and thursday's voting day will show justow tight the noose is around this capital. ina kandahar. next door in helmand province offensive by amican and briti troops has been under way for while. one immiate goal is toush ba the taliban so that more pele can vote thursday buts lindsay hill som, after cades of warfare. remains skeptical about the motives the foreign troopsand fearful of their own safety. >> reporter: coming into lanin what the british call a liberated area. seized fro the talian in opation princess lord. e british ambaador has come from the helmand province deputy goveor to encourage the pple to vote despite talibanthreats. >> from houses an old sovie tank. testament to three decade of war betweenfghan tribes an

factions backed by sundry foreign vernments and groups. we head for the bazar. the ambassador s abandon his flak jacket. people have just returned to t village after fleeing the fiting. they're wary. some are undoubtedly reporting back to the taliban. they tell the visitors that the itish have formed their houses. n't see thisas a liberation, at leasnot yet. >> it'perfectly natural that people want to see what the government can do for them. compared to what the insgency offers. >>eporter: the elders and heads of families have been called t ashura, community meeting. this is all about reassuring the people that the government's in charge. cked by the military muscle bristish. but the talibanre never far

away. i can hear the helicopter and mitary helicopter oveead all the tim beuse the britishilitary know that the talib know exactly where this meeting with allhese important people is being held. it feels a bit lke the 19th century in britain's third military advent neurafghanistan >> my ldiers and i he been have bn sent by your majesty, queen elizath of itain, to he you against your fight against the talib. >> reporter: t deputy governor tes the people ty should vote in this ek's election and that the government will bring development but it doesn't seem to convince. >> translator:ith the situatiolike thisc brout a picture of own father wouldn't vote for him. what's the pot? i'm not going ote. >> reporte the deputyovernor is we practiced in the ancient art of telling foreigners what you tnk they want thear.

>> through the meeting speaking to the lders, we found out that the people e very interested in ting in the election. of cours the taliban is a threat to thpoll but we won't give them a cnce to disturb it >> rorter: under the old soviet tank, there's hate to be gathered. in afghanistan,hey've seen rule byers kings and mmunists, warlords and. >> hadists, now it's demracy. the british say theye here for the long term but say the ambassador a often ead in the helipter leaving behi them small unitnd a tremendous that it wilbe different th time. lindsey hilsum, channel 4 news, heond. headi now little north d west to the province kno as osurea ghan where australn troops erying to ensure tha voting can take placewithout cident. it suggests that even this week's vote goes smoothly,

likely to eure public safety for many years to co. it c sly sara of abc australia. >>eporter:he people oforgon prince are operationor peace but threat of=÷ insurgentttacks is neverar away. auralian forces a being urged to stay in ora gon unt security is stabilized. the deral government will have the final say but will depend on how long it takes for afghan oops to stand on their own. >> it's realifficult question. think -- it's up to five years i thk we meet in t first place. >> reporter: the commaer of the australian task force believes it will b at least five yrs. >> and i think it could take longer. but clearly, i just couldn' put a time fram on it. yeah, in a nutshell it going

to be the long hall rao and in the srt term coalition and afghan force tryg to provide serity for this week's presidential election. thers been a spike inttacks and the are fears that the liban will do all they can to scare rotors away from th polls. >> busing indirect fire, by usg ieds and also probably by suicide attacks. >> reporter: deste the risk, pele rned out. there was a has been security presence for the australian-fundedoject. local counity leaders say security and developmentave improvedp t ora gon still has a long wayo go. it's estimated that 95% the people in thisrovince can't read or write. inweek's presential election will ban important test of publiconfidence as insurgents try to derail stability an democracy. sally sara, a news, ter ron cot. a deeper sense of w afghans his ursday's election can be fou in today's "the new york tes."

the editors o "the new york times" op-ed pagesked several afghans to write about the mood in tir communities. business woman from kabul reflec on the skepticism of afghan elite. st educated afghans will not voteecause they believethere is no candidate worth voting for. the candidates say they fwi ixll roads or cate job buthow? talk is cheap. another, a foer aide worker writes aboutessimism in his hometown. "demoralizatn and despair has arnd kandaharhe says most peopl tell me they will not participate in thursday's presl election. one reason, he writes, is beuse people are disbelieving that hami karzai's corrupt cabinetwillllow not win. not all were ownbeat though. a businessn from pan.

>> valley north of kul says he's fou no one who said that the elections h no value to em. i fe that the real means of democracy are swly taking route in our untry, and that wemay be able to achieve a me peaceful and bter afghanistan. joining usow for some more perspecte on all of the developments in afghanistan as this election approaches mberly marten, professor of potical science at barnard college columbia unersity here in new york. welcome back. >> thank you, martin. it'sood to be back. >> so les talk seriously regaing this'yjez cabut today. is it a sign of what's going to happen on thursd, and is it an indication of the taliban are going to be ableto disrupt this elecon? >> ell, i thi this w edicted and the importan thing to kp in mind is that the campaigns have generated so much excitemt and there are people wh have beenilling alread to risk thir lives and go out and prevent an alternative to the twother alternives that are outhere. yo havekarzai and s war lordcoa.

you have t taliban on th other. that sense of excitemen can contue over the nextwo days then even if there are some people in some warts partsf the cotry who cnnot vo successfully the vote will make a difference >> do you suppos people o were preventedrom votng will be rested by the talin force. >> i thin there will be a contakent affect the entire coury has radio couny the entire country most ofit has cell phone coverage at least during dlight hours and that mea peoplenow what's happening elsewhere the country and when tey see that are peoplere getting excited about these alternatives a they can vote, they will say, why notme? >> why ar people excid? and the rean i askhat isou know you've got a tremenus amountf violence that's taking place. you the talin that is rerging. you have n economy really at all. i me, what i'm sayings the's a lany of reasons not to be enthused about wt's going on >> i thinkou are right. afghanistan y be a chaotic

situation fo essentiall 30 years now but the one sign o hope is is of these candidates like abdullah abdull are gaining populaty and to comut and chalnge the status quo. the former foreign minister we should point ut. >> yeah, exactly. exactly. herobably cannot win the campaign but he can give karzai a run for his mey and he is saying lk we've got to chang nin things. we have to focus on economic development d focus on developing afghan natioal army tt has quality. he is saying w don't want to rely on these war loas, rely on local militias torovide serity in how would you say the.s. strategy is ether rking or not working to the ildup to this election >> some thingsre going very well. it's a real posive sign that now the united stateis pursuing a good counrinsurgency strategy where they say is e one goal to provide serity for the population a to allow economic development to happe by providing that security. some things are noso good. >> such as? >> there's not enugh resource, the's not enou n enough money. and that mean that somehings

are donen the chp and the most iortant one, the ngerous thing is that t united states and its allies are now paying local militias to provide securi for villas. >> but this s a strategy that seemed to rk well in iraq >> aq, the question is still open, but iraq, onemajor differences that in fact,he shaikhs approhed the united states. wasn that the united states said, hey, everybo who wants to bpaid, we're look for people to help us. instead it was a movthat rose up organically in e sunni areas d they said, we want u.s. help. will you help us? but biggest dang here and it's ill an open question in ir as wel is that if you don ha a strong nional army at's not the set by militia kinds of identifications you may never have real security the cotry that allows economic development to g forrd. so i'm doubtful about the ng-term consequences for e poli in iraq as well. it's not been in place forore than a year two in iraq yet. >> kimberly arten, a lot of ground to cover. ank you very much for joinin us and helpi us. >> tha you, martinmy

pleasure. one other note aut the electi. we wanted to dect you to o website, worldfos.org, where u can read the account of e u.s. marine who's helpi train the afgh national army. there a of coue still more than twice as many american troops inraq than afghistan. 132,000 in iraq, 62,000 in afghanistan. but yesterday at least according to the "washinon post" the maki government, if approved would require u.s. forces in troouk whdraw the srt of 2011 they are currently not schedud to pull outntil the end of that year. "the st" says the prime minister appeared to disregard the wishes of the oba administration. in a gesre to the iraqi govement, meanwhile, the u.s. military mayree members of radical shiite militia believed responsible for the ambush a rder of five amecan soldiers in 2007. the account from "t new york times"ays the licy would have once been unthinkable but now underscores how much american interests are ting a

baseat to iraqi ones. inashington today encouragin notes were sounded about it prospects foreace in the middleeast. this following aeeting between presidt obama and egyptian president hosni mubarak. but mubarak said pogressill ly occur if the rift beten rival palestinian oups is healed >> we are tryinto solve the problem betwee hama and the authorities in the we bank because this is quite an important. we should fill theap re. we shod bridge the gap because unless we reconcile their differences, the will not be stability there, there will not be stility ev in isrl. violence will recur. are doing our best to bring about stability. there was other meing of note today in soc, on ussia's black sea. russian president dimitried

med got togeth with shiron pere their topic middle east progr d the peace process. back i isra there were reports that iael has vowed from pressurefromussia and hasalted housing in the west bank. the israeli governmen has issued no constrtion permits the for months. stayi in thegame this global enomy means keeping up with chnology, but in parts of the world where resources can be in short pply, it's often a surprisingly low-tech solution that carries the day. case in point, kea, africa's first cell phone's powered only by the sun recently went on sell ere. the phones wch sell for $40 are expecte to be very popular in the countrs remote rural areas where ectricity is oft in short supply. > and in those rural are kenyanalso face anoer

shorge one th affects 2 billion ople world wide. a lack of clean drinking ter. buts we hear nown this rert from deutsche lle, the combinatn of and plastic bottles turns t to be astoirning efftive tool. one that scntists cannot quite explain bu that offe a simpl solution. >> reporter: this is in sohern kenya. every morni these girls walk to the water hole 2 1 kilometers away. clean drinking wer is rare in rural kenya. a lot o war's also contaminated, full o insect larvae, bteria and viruses. 2.2 miion people die every year acrosthe world from arrh diarea. these plastic bottles are life insurancfor the families here. the wom fill the tnsparent

bottleand place them on the their hu. solar water dinfection. bottles must be exposed to sunlight for at least four hours. >> translator:e've been using thes solar botts for11 ars. the technolo destroys the ger germs. that's h we don't have to boil the water. the wat from soil disinfection tastes better. we don'like the boiled water. reporter: water treated thi way is no long a health risk. ere's a sile proof ohe solar water disinfection. the statistics of a nearby clinic dr. steve is t manager. >> wve had a decrea of bad cases. instead of using the bote in

e solar syste of their cleawat. soccording to our records, for the first lee, weot almost 20% decrea. the mome now i can say we have a 70% decrease in he cases that we have. >> reporter: illness has dropped bywo-thirds and despite the fa that sciensts exactly don't know how solar disinfection works. thiss a swiss aquatic research researers here have been studying the method for year firsclass wants to understand what's happeninto the bacteriand viruses. >>ranslator: is such a simp method that many ople fi it hard to belie that it works in the field tre area lot of oblems expining it to people. the method is so clear and simpleo use that a lot of

ople can't believe it can't do any good. >> reporter:his test is signed toshow how the pathoggensare destroyed. the researche want to know morebout the microbiological backgroundo they can better explain the method. the equipmen measuresow many bacterias survive. e examination shows that the uva sunbeams and sunlight inrrupt the energy supply and the transportrocesses in the bacterial cell, d means dead. theacteria have been destred in 4 1/2ours. >> translator:e've oserved damage to the cell membrane which is aery important pa of the cell. we've observed damage protns which is very important for the viabili of the cells and we've seen tt sunlight hit little t cells right in the center.

>> reporter: photos is a simple but efctive method. re than 2 million people acro the world are usi it to purify the drinking water. >> that report from germa's deutsche welle television. news today tt general moto has found a bareor saab. the swedish car company it purchased in 1989hatas been trying toell since february. only 45 emoyees and only makes 18 cars a yer. ofourse each one of tm is priced as close $1.5 million. the dal is set to clos by the end of the year. and th another economic story worth watching. a new report by the.s. treasury department says th in june, chna cut back it holdings ou.s. securities by more tha3%. the largest reduction in neay nine year expertsay the chinesesell of closto $25 billion u.s. securitiess worried. will increasenflation and reduce the vlue of the dollar. china lds more u.s. government

than quarter countryround the world. we want to close tonight with a couple of hlth stories fromround the world that we expect aren't getting a lotf coverage elwhere. they provide a glimpse of how forts to curtailmoking are taking hold. but only sometimes after fierce resiance. first in tkey where closeo 000 people protested about a ban in bars and truas. claiming it hurt businees. thgovernment says it will not backown from the new law. and when i comes t smoke the hookah or waterpipes are a common se throughout muc the a ab world. the pipes filter tobacco smoke through a butiful water. but as we hear fromour world

partner. heal officials worried about spread of swine f are offering smoks of what they say is a healthr choice. "worldfocus" produc, translat the latest news from the front lines of the hooh smoking world jordan. >> reporter:effort's being made help prevent the spread of coagious diseases arerashing head-on with the hlp of hkah smoks here in amman jordan, but theirrival which is known as disposable healthy hose is ushering in new era of hookah smoking. >> translator: tre are contagious diseas like inflnza and the cmon cold. as this hose, youuse it once and then thr it or aw or you can take it with you. nobody else uses it >> translator: n one else breeds into it but its owne it's fre of germ>> reporter: bu convinced the new, so-cled healthyose will mean good

health for its users. >> translator: changing the hose by itself is useless because at's in the hose will g in the waterpipe. germs or viruses uld survive in it for two to four hours. >> repter: while this debate aboutookah smoking wage, the health department is trying to convce people to change other habi to encourage a healthier lifestyle. they are rommendingta people stop smoking, that they use disposable cups, and to be careful about hugging and kissing. al ara biia, amman. >> and that's al arabyis take to get swine flu a bay and that's also "worldfocus"or a tuesday ght. you caget updates on all of our obal news on our website that's worldfocus.orgnd also love to hearrom you, so drops a line. i'martin savidge in nework. thanks very ch for joining us we'll lookor yo back here tomorrow and atime on theweb. til then have a great night. "worldfocus" was made possible in part by the follow funders --

"worldfocus" was made possible in part by the follow -- captions by vita -- w.vitac.com