> tonight on the "worldfocus" -- a wave of explosions pummel baghdad killg and wouing hundreds. what's happening to the security america has spent and sacrifice to bringabout? how to measure success in america's other warn afanistan. ares its first progress report. we'll take you airborne to look a an extraordinary effort by the u.s. military to save lives in t middle of the war, welcome aboard anir amlance. d germanyants a million ectric vehiclesn the road by 2020. we'll plug you in on how they plan to do it. fromhe world's leading reporters and analyst here's what's happeni from around the rld. this is "worfocus." made possible, in pa, by th following funder--

major support ha also been provided bthe peter g. peterson foundatio dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibity dddressing key economic allenges facing america's future. >> gd evening, i'm martin savidge. if youoke up this mning and turnedn the news you might have felt a sense of discouragement aut what you were hring outf afghanistan and iraq. more tha5,000 american trps have die in those two countries nce troops were ployed to afghanistan in the fall of 2001 and iraq in e spring of 2003. and huneds of billions of dollars have been ent but all the years later neher country tonighseems especially secu. we'll take youo afanistan in a moment. there was more vience there day on t eve ofational elecons. buwe begin tonight in iraq with a story that by now is familiar. oncegain today a series of bombings in baghdad killed dons of iraqis. it was the worst incident. the latest violce in iraq,

that's our "lead focus" tonight. n's carl dinnen takes us there. >> repter: this is the fir big test of iraq's new security regime. tw months arch u.s. forces centers, the insurgent have made a deadly aack onbaghdad. one exploon was felt b a nference of tribal chiefs meeting at a supposedly secur hotel. this was the moment. as the dust and debris fe from the ceiling some hurriedly left the room, others srted defing rigious slogans. the taret had been the nearby foreignministry. the blast was apparently s big it left crer three mets' deep a ten meters across. least a dozen peopleere killed there

a truckomb also destrod pt of a idge nea the finance ministry which was tarted in as witharia in norern baghdad. at least 18 peop were killed there. and more than 200 injured. across the ci there have been at lea six bb and mortar attacks. hospitals have been inun and the latt information suggests that at lst 75 people haveeen killed and more than 300 injured. >> after carl dinnen file that report the death to in baghdad rose agin. it's now said that at least 95 peopleere killed. seral hundred were wounded in today's attacks. nowo afghanistan, wher 41 candidates icluding the incumbent, hamid karzai, a viagare if theresidency in elections now lss than 24 hours away the taliban contues to do all it can to make its presence felt on the e of voting. in kabul militants with ak-47 and nd grenades took over a bank and exchaed gunfire with

policeefore beingkilled. the taliban claimed today that 20 armed suici bomber wearing explosive vests are now in kabul. as we've be reporting, the united states isstepping up efforts to improve securityn afghistan. there are now 62,000merican oops in that cntry andhree more werkilled there tay. morehan 160 americans have died so far this year whi has us wondering, what will be the measure of their success? as nick scer of al jazeera english reports, it's a question the oba administration has been thinking about aswe. >>his is not a war of choice. a war of necessity. those whoattack america on 9/11 are plottingo do so again. >> reporter: they are callin afghistan, obama's war,and this week the americanresident was seing it again. polls suggest suort for the u.s. troop prence in that down at around40%. to fit that growing skepticism, obama last march

omised to show vote meurable progress with benchmarks of 50or so metrics. >> going forward, we'll not blindly stay the course. instead, will set clear metrics to measure progress and hold ourselv acountable. >> reporter:.s. casualty numbers willlmost certainly figure on a list of metrics. so likely will numberson overall security and civilian casualties. secret now, the metrs will soon be made puic every three months becau afghanistan advisers to obama say publicity is their main purpose. >>rying to convins american ople that they suld send eir sons and daughter in harm's way is not an easy thing to do. the aerican people are, i my judgment, prepared to do that only if they are confident that the straty that's bein pursued is a workab strategy that will lead to the desired outcome. >> but you can also jt ganize the numbe to pduce the desirable results the

illusionf it as the saying goes there are lie, dmn lies anstatistics. while the metrics han't been released yet, there's still a danger of misleing the public. >> i think anyoneotivated to use numbers will u them to try to make their storiesound better. >> reporter: researcr jason campbell vised the u.s. government, the military, diplomats, and aide workers on the metrics' dea. he points out thatast esidents have misused the concept. >> we've certainly learn the hard way o a number of occasions. ke, first, picng the wrong meics can do as in vinam, where we decided simply count the number of dead vietcongand basically tie our idea o prress to that and learn very harshly that thatas not the se. we would continue toill many etcong and ultimately were failing. >> reporter: campbell says the most impornt numbers ll be the oesshowing what the afghan people think. while the u.s. andhe current

government are increasingly unpopular, t taliban is even more disliked, th popularity rangs never going bond the single digits, at leastor now. nick sper, al jazeera, waington. whetr th violence in afghantan and iraq can be brought to an end anyti soon is a question on ny peop's minds. nora bensahel is a senr of polical scientist at rand corporation an expert on american efforts in afghanistan d iraq. and she joins us from waington. thanks vymuch for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> many peoplef course are wonderg has our involvement in iraq and in afghanisn, in terms of lives lost d money spt, been wortht? ani guess the question to you is, has it >> well, i think that the two nflicts are very different and has had different sets of . the war in afghanistans very clearly tied to what happened on september th, 2001. those attacks were coordinated andlanned from afghan territy. ando thobjective of tha

operation ha really been to ensure that ther is no more talin presence in the country that can facilitate somethi like that happening again. vaik much rkier queson. after the invasion and the initialationale for thear dn't seem toold up with t lack of weapons of mass destruction being fod, it became a very different tuation there. the real questi there for the future is the extent to which the aqi government i going to be able to sand on its own feet >> all right, wel, t's deep with afghastan first. the obama administraon has said tha it's goingo measure progress using what are clled metrics. first of all, whatre they? d what do you see as the most important metrics? >> the objective that president obama hasset out march 2009, after a strategy review that was conducted after comi into office, said that u.s. objectes in afghanistan shld be to counter rrorism and unter the insurgent that is being led by thetaliban. what that means is th afghan government has toe ab to control its own terriry. and at the moment, it doesn't.

the southern part othe cuntry has largely been absent. international forces hve largely beenbsent from the south since theeginning of military operatis ere. and so that has been the real focus of militar efforts tre in the pas couple of months. >> what would you see as a satisfactory resulor end pint for thu.s. mission in afghantan? >> i think that t satisfactory end point is havin the aghan governme be able to control its own territory. i think tat at is the -- an obctive which the presint has stated very clearly and without thatere's no guarantee that other folks including the taliban, al qae remnants, soon and so forth, won't be able to come back in and tablish a safehaven for operations. >> all right, wellthen, let' go back ttoday's bombingsn iraq. these attacks have increased in rent weeks. ishat a sign tha not much has really changed there? >> the fact that t attacks vencreased in rece weeks was predicte by u.s. surity forces and analysts looking a the situation. because u.s. forces had agreed

to pull out of the major iraqi ties at the end of june. and it was anticipated that as on as the u.s. foeswent away, at the insurgents in iraq would tryo target iraqi serity forces as a way of showing the weakness of the iraqi governmentnd tryinto advanctheir own politica agenda. if those -- tse types of attackcontinue onor a prolonged period otimesay over month, think it wil reveal things abouthe ira government capacity but for now i think it reveals th there are folks in the insurgency that are disfected with the ira government who are trying to allenge it and using theseattacks as a way of demotrating lack of governme pacity. >> nora bensahel, orry, we are out of time. ank you very much for joining us tonight. >> thank you. > american troops in afghanistan are not only fighting the warthey are also fightingto save the lives of inred soldiers and civilians caught want inbattles there. "the new york mes" patrick barth spent a weekwith the unit with the 168th american air ambulance corpse he has tir story from theront lines in thisn-depthreport.

our "spotlight" stortonight. >> reporter: jalalad, east of afanistan, an afghan policeman shot in the stomach i an ambush by taliban insurgents. an afghan civilianith his legs shredded by alandmi and two soldrs seriously injued byan ied explosion. these are just somehe injues that have to dl is with on a daily bas. >> strong ctral pulse. ice are reactive at three millimeter >> insurgent attacks in afghanistan are now the highest level sincehe fall of the taliban in2001. during one week alone in june, there were00attacks against coition forcesnd afghan infrasuctures. d rick practices and the flight crews from california and wyoming are used t putting their lives on the line to save others. for onyear this national grd un has been flyingevacuation

missns out of jalalabad int some the most dangerous combat mountain the tradition back to vietnam. the medevac air ambulance attached to thdivision represents last line o death tween life and ath. whenev they are dispatched the race starts against tt golden hour. that cruci period of which patience hances of survival have diminished. >>s we were coming in we had to circle the area because we had aircraft ovhead firing into some cations. weere not immediately aware of the exact landing zone so we we kind of in the holding pattern. and so far as we knew,there were stilltroops in contact, which means they were tang in enemy fir when you stepped out, they do what y call 5 and 25. you check your immediate ar so u're not steppingon an ied or any other type of-- you know, any device. the patnt has received a significanwound from an rpg,

rocket-propelled grenade blas takingff a lot of the flesh of his upper arm. >> he had a lot of blood all over him. we had a ve short ight. he was still bleing. and ihad to put a second turniqtte on him and tried to get a rapid set of vitals, y know heart rate, spiration, pulse mmetry. asuch as a could get inaybe a six or seven-minute flight. >> reporter: the next night line came. serious back injuries. little inforti. frequent don't know what to expect as theypproach the poinof injury. >> right now with three vehicles the road. 0931. would like you to ld on the road, if ssible. 've blocked off a section with two humvees. about 100 meters long where

there's traffic. >> there are times when i see my guys g out and i wonder is that ing to behe last time i see him. sometimes i out and i think is ts is last time anyones going to see me? sometimes youo out and y know it's ahoist mission and there are bad guys runng around outthere. andou wonder, wha --hat will they say to my hildren? you know, are tey going t get that knock on the door? and itdoes weigh heavily you sometimes but what you dos you focus and you do ur job and u talk to your friends. >> there e peopleut there who want to kill us and tey wanto killy pple, my countrymen. i feel iave a peonal responsibility. i don't know why. i don't knowhy i get worked up about it. anyway iave a pernal

responsibili, obligation to e guy on the ground. the guy who is there riski his li every da to te my family back home. and i'mgoing to do what can do to pull him out and if someone's stding in the way of his sety, like i said, it a bad day for them. afanistan's people are often caught in the css fire of the w between taliban and western troops. and a new report out today from the humanirian organization oxfam says that one-third of the polation is now at risk fr another enemy, hunger. oxfam's aide workers say that the u.s. alonepends $100 llion a day for mility operations in afghanistan, while all internional aid combined

adds up to just $7 million a d for humanitarian projects. joining us now for more on tt va representative of oxfam, shannon scl sh scribner for oam america which is based in washington. thanks for being with us. >> thas for having me. >> how b is the hunger tuation in afghanistan? >> r cotry thatsed to be considered thebreadbasket of the region, it'sretty bad. a third of afghans are food insecurer at ri of hunger. and it just meanshey don't have enoh calories on a given y. and 80% of afghan rely on agriculture to survive. yet instments in agculture have been very slim with less than 5% going to the agricuure sect nosnooun what about lck of health care,ack of sanitation? >> tse are certainly problems as wel while we have seen some improvements in expanding ucation and health cae, a lot more needs to be done.

securitys the number one isue foafghans. just yesrday we had 20 people killed across the country and ght outside of kabul, there was a suici bomb that kled tenpeople. but in addition to that, the life expectancy in afghanistan is only 45 years of age. evy 30 miutes, a womanies due to pregnancy and delivery colications. we hav aillion children and ha a million men who are lnourished and we ve 250,000 people that he been displaced duto the conflict. >> wel do you think it'll ever be possible to adress the sues of stability without, first, addreing the issuesf poverty and infrastrucre? >> i thinkhey both go hand in hand. while addressing theecurity situatn on the ground,e have to do a bett job at delivering aid, getting it to the people based othe people's need and also addressing thumanitarian issues throughout thecountry. your group has expssed concerns about what you call the militarization oaid works. what do you mean by that?

>> inafghanistan, the milary, thugh provcial reconsuction teams, are developing a large amount o sistance. and wle that may make sense in the south and the east, it doesn't make sense inthe north and the west where there's more curity. and that for two reasons. rst, it puts afgans at risk. if ty're seem to be associed with internationalforces, they can be tgeted by insurgents and oxfamdid a report last year owing that every four day, three afghans are execute fo collabating with the vernment or international forces. but it also bngs up questions about sustainabilit how susinable are the growths going to be if the military foes aren'test placed? and also get that communit buin, which is essential f sustnability and ngevity of programs on the ground. >> shannon scribner, thank y very much for ining us this eving. >> thank you

despite a long history of secret baing law, swzerland's gianubs bank today agre to turn ove records from thousands of u.s. customer's aounts to the ternation intern revenue service. the i.r.s. suspects that accounts are being ud to evade paying taxes in t u.s. >> thughout europe an here in the u.s., consumers are lining up for more fu-efficient cars and while the prose of a steady supply of fully electic ca it's still a ways f. inermany the govement has set a w goal of ving 1 miion battery ran cars by 2020. >> reporter: a batte charging cable is i a pick pump. th could be the future of driving inermany. this electric minis just one

example. al german carmakers are investing in the developnt of electr cars. the demand i there. a surveyhows that 1 in 5 potential caruyers is laying his or her purchasentil electric hicles become widely available. ma countrieslready have incentive schemes to encourage people t buy lectric. japan offers the most generous subsidies up to 4707 euros. britain introduced its n scheme. ukuyers sooneligible. if the united stes, buyers can claim a tax credit of up to 5,300 euros. in germany, buyers currely getn. t the government sayt will subsidizthe purchase of th first 100,000 carseginning in 2012. that ro from germany's deutsche welle tv. nd one more sto from europe, that is truign the times. zerland is gaining gound and italy islosing,s the bord between the two countries

shifts 164 yard because of a meltg glacier. the warmer climatemeans the fil stop of a sk lift on a mountain here in the famo ma horn is n in swiss territory. in anothr sign th north korea may betarting to open up to the rest of t world, that country's leader kim jong-il, se condolees to thefamily of former south korean prese prident. he won t nobel peace pri. american. >> jayo jintao arved day. jintaoietnam veteran has

diabetes,sthma andccording to his ex-wife suffersrom postraumatic stress disorder. he was sentenced to seven yars ha labor after aizarre incidentn may when he swam across the lake of a home of the detained democcy leer suu kyi. suu kyi's sentce was extended anothe18 months. jintao's release fr prison. s allowed a ra visit tohe secretive country and t first time a u.s. senior politician had access countrs reclusive leader and a possible sign tha relations between the u.s.nd the mitary regime that controls burma might op up. tonight, wve got a glise insi burma an excet from the late edition of "wide angle." called "eyes of e storm." it's the storyf children orphaned by cyclone ngis last year a storm that kied more than 130,000people. and left million homels.

>> reporter: these kids are on their own now. a parentless fam leech three. when the storm hithey were out playing while their parents coed at their home.

>> reporter: nargis smashed bua's largest city and flooded the deltao the south killing 130,0 burmese. it left some million people meless. in the aftermath, burma state television proclaimed that evything was underontrol and that the gup of generals who rule the countr were lding a welliled relief effort. the primeinister reassured the nation. eyewitnesses saiotherwise. >> translator: aer the stor

those victims who survived had nothing to eat o drink for days. there were many who we sitting and waiting for food and died of starvation. >> reporter: this burmese man goes by the alias zoo. he has to hideis real edentity because he practices a trade that is virtually illegal in burma, independe journalism. >>ranslator: they sent in soiers with no food or rations for themselves. the soldiers atette food at was donated to the victims by people in the neighboring areas. while victims were suffering, theoldiers ate theirfood. theyidn't have anything with them, but gunsnd pots. >> che your local listings for "wide angle" and al find it online atpbs.org/we angle and that's "worlocus" for this wednesday. i'm rtin savidge in new york. as always, thankou very much fojoining us. we'llook for you back here again tomorrow and anyti on the web. until then, have a good nit. "worfocus" is made possible, in part, bthe following fuers --

"worfocus" is made possible, in part, bthe -- captions by vita -- www.vitac.com major support has also been prided by the peter g. peterson foundation dedicateto promoting fiscal responsibility and addressingey economic challenges facing erica's future.