tonight on "worlfocus" -- >> the libyan nonvicted of bombing pan flight 10 over lockerbie,cotlanscotland, is see on compassionate grounds. s justicedone? inspections lou nuclr visirs to visit a nuear reactor. what were those inlss likely to havlearned? toght afghan es voted.

we focusn issues including wideread government corruption d taliban contrl. plus we ok for the poe for voter fraud. and an enduring vironmental ystery, disappeang bees. w londoners are trying to d something about . good evening, i'm mart savidge. we beginonight with a story that raises fundamental questions. >> when i see -- ther we are. thank you. >> how do you balance the two the questions ca to mind today afr scottish authorities

confirmed th had freed the libyan man coicted in onef the worst terr act in modern times, t bombing of pan am flight 103. th incident ov lockerbie, scotnd, shortly before christmas 1988 killed all 9 on board and anher 11 on the ground. authorities say they freed t man because he dying of cancer. beuse this decisionaises such pfound questions, we made it our lead focus tonight. damon green of itn has our report. >> reporter: this used to an aircraft, an for those who boarded as passengers, the was no way out. today e man concted of blowing a passenger jet into fragments and violently ending the lives of all 270eople on board, learned he ll be free to le out his remaining days in peace. >> it is my decisionthat mr. abdel sset al megrahi, convicted in 2001 for t lockbie bombing, now

terminally ill with proste cancer be released on compassionate grounds and be allowed to returto libya to die. >> reporter: the dtruction of pan am flight 103 remains o of the bloodie terror attacks ever launch at the west and one which was iediately blamed on liby at the timef the lockerbie bombing, the naon was a pariah state, internaonally shunne accused of sponsoring terrorism. its leader a figure of ha in thewest. it was onlafter 15 yea of sanctions that liby finally admitted it carried out the bombinand paidompensation to victims' filies. and thin a year, tonyblair was visiting tripoli to show th relations were bk to rmal, a controversial al enabling prisoners to be trsferred between the nations was also ageed, and at the same time trade deals we being struck the day after the two leaders met, the bp announc it s spending half a billion pounds to search for oil i libya. >> should a killer be freed

amst in a obal war on terr? this morning wll talk to outraged family mbers of his viims. >> reporte today's decision by scottish mbers has caused controrsy, especially across the atlantic, where officials have said publiy has megrahi should die in a scottish cell, noat home with his family. the government inestminster alwa said it was for a scottish mnister to died. >> this was a decion for him and him alone, and this decision, cause it deals with criminal justice, up to the scottish gernment. for thateason, it is up to him. >> reporter: many wi say an act of cpassion for a dying man is an accessible way end this affair. others say it's a mercy h never showed his to victims d never deservedimself. damon green, itn news. as you can imine, the scottish decision is plang to decidedlyixed reviews. the announcement w carried in the capital of libya, which is typically, and it was iled by me liyans. >> transtor: this is great news for all libyan people and

r all of the people around t world who care f justice. >> but a spokesman for the relatives of the bmbing viims, bert ammerman, whose brother diedn the plane bombg, ridiculed the decision. >> we've just released a man convicted massaing 270 people. we'v given stateponsor terrorism victory, and the families have to watch all of this and 20 years later, th is the last sad chapter in th odyssey. >> did the scottish authorities make the right decion? tell us whatou think about siting our website. that's wodfocus.org. we wld be interested to hear your opinions. there is wordonight of a poteially important development in the staoff between iran and the internationa community over iran's nlear progr. diplomats in vienna tell the assoated press that u.n. inspectors were allowed last

week to vsit iran's new narly completed nuclear reactor. insptors from the inrnational atomic eney agency werealso allowed to expand their moniting at another iranian uranium richment site. for more on this, we're joined by charles fergon, a senio fellow with the council on foreig relations and an expert on nuclr nonproliferation. thank you for being th us. >> tanks for hing me on the show. how significant is this decision for iran to alow u.s. inspecto to visit its new nuclear reactor? and we should conrm which reactoare we talking abt? >> it' a research reactor, but it can be used to make weapons-grade plutonium. d that's why this is a high significance and it's very significant iran is allowing inspectors access because inlsers haven't had adequate access to thsite for several months or up to a year. >>o what would the inspectors have learned in their time ere? and i dot know how long they re given. >> don't know how long they were there eitherut i would imagine

what they really want to learn he designnformationf that reactor. are there places where they can put safeguards technologies so the inspectors hve greater confidence iran is not gng to misuse that react tore mke weapons-great plutonium. >> so would they g inhere with some rt of detection devices or are ty just looking with their trained eye to spot pieces of equment? >> well, a this stage because the rctor is not operating, it probably won't opete for another w years, they are not going to be taking envirmental samples. they cou do that. they cld take wt are swipes and analyze fopresence of plutium. but i think this stage what they want to do i think is mainly look visually,and also get blueprints a also if the anians were cooperative,o work with em are there places they can put monitoring device, caras, tags and seals, to have confidence iran is not misusing this. >>t's also been reported that the inspectors wergranted

greater u ran yam rights at the natanz site. what is the significant that? >> thas very significant of th because the worls been ve focused on what'soing on at the natanz uranium facilit at's where iran getting the clostoast making nuclear weapons materiel. if iran left a onproliferation system, they could make weapons gre uranium in a mter of a few onths. now, that would beaybe just one bo's worth of material, so it's likely they will stay within a fawn priferation regimeor some period oftime until theyave a greater brk-out capality. >> so all of thi taken together, what ds this tell the rld about iran's intenti intentionshen it comes to any nuclear weapons progra. >> well, i thi it's not a coindence that at the same time iran is allowing inspectors access tthe iraq reactor site, at the iaea allegedly is sitting on a report detailing the exte of its knowledge on iran's nuclear activities.

the associated ess reported almost at the same me this particul news story broke that the owe bayb the currenteneral woer willing to rease this re or wait until his successor take oefrz to release this report. >> so a positive sign? >> i think so. i think i indicates tat iran is still sensitiv about their public imagi, despite the fact that ahmadinejad still the president of irn. he's still very hardline and the supreme leader khamenei i still hardline. so ihink that's sething we might be able to use to our advantage. >> charles ferguson, tnk you so much r joining us night. >> you'rwelcome. turning to afghanistan, and today's mu-anticipated presidential election. early this morning, prident meed karzai cast his ball at

a pollingtation in kabul. afterwards, he ld up his instinct finger, a fraud prevention measure, twards the taliban. the taliban thrtened to cut ofthe finger of anyone caught voting. abduah abdullah cast his vote amid violce. in kabul, gunmen exchged fire among agroup of two men with suicide bombers. across t couny, more than o dozen peop were said to have been killed in election-day violence. alof this cmes as aew poll americans shows a slight jority, 51%, now say the war in afghanist is not worth fighting. anand gopal is a reporter for "t wall street journal" based in kabul. >> reporter: the mood i kabul was very tense. ere's been a lot o attacks in cent weeks and even today in kabul,here were a numr of attacks across the city. and the streets are mostly deserted. there's a lot of police

eckpoints. storesere closed. and, therefe, we saw low mbersoing to the pollshan we would seeotherwise. the primary reaso for theow turnt is because of the security situation. basically, half the country the governme has very little contls, extremely violen the taliban has a lot of sway. they artargeted a numb of pollg places, foexample, a province in neighboring kabul lastight, they burnedown polling cents. today they rocted a bunch of lling centers. toy in kabul they dispatched suicide bombers to aack the centers. so people mostly wted to avoid thatnd they wand to stay away onlection day. because lowturnout isll in the areas which would normally support karzai, because they are all posthumes. if they don turn t to vote, it mayive a ost to his

rivals. it may give enough of a ost buhelp narrow the gap and force a second round. >> of course, with much attention focused on th elections in afghanistan, many internationalournalists are using the occason to take a look at the conditions in that country. just what has america's ally, had karzai, accomished during his five years in office? it's a matt of considerable interest in germany, whichas 4,000 troops in afghanistan. is karz doing a good job? not according to this story by germanese deutsche velia it's a how they see it report. >> reporter: many afghans ar unhappy with histyle of governme. he's been criticized for hnding official positions to powerful warlds. the organizaon transparcy internationasays afghanistan is one of the most crupt countries the world. translator: the governmentin kabul is only interested in its own survival, as long as it

reins rife with corrupon and nepotism instead of concentrating on deliveringood leadership, it will only beble to survive wh military help from weste cotries. >> reporr: efforts to build e country have made sme progress, t more slowlyhan many had hoped. afghanistan has received billionsf euros in aid, including $550 million fr germany. but half of afghan sils still l below the poverty line. >> translator: given tchoice between e west and its litary potential or the taliban, who give people job diributing weapons and pay them to carrout attacks on international troops, many people choose the taliban. they want scurity and a liveliod. >> reporter:he fact that women can stand for electi now gives theimpression that they enjoy more freedom,ut the ality is very different. females are again being excluded

from theducation syem. hamid krzai see to have achiev littl but yet few doubt he wilbe re-ected. >> there a hundreds of inrnational observers in afghanistan tryi to ensure todas voting is free and fair. but even beforeit got under way, qstions had been raised about whether there would be widespread fraud it's an importanquestion gien how much t united states has riding on the outce of the vote. for that reason, we wanted to share this investigative report by james bays of al jazeera english. it was fed earlier this week. >> reporter: the are in effect votesor sale. al jazeera washown these voter regiration cards in the provin ofost in eastern ghanistan. these rds allow people into lling stations to vote. they have names buno photographs. the man sling him, whoidn't want his face filmed,ell tlus were 200 in total,he price

about 00 u.s. per card. >> translator: there werno restrictions from e election commsion for these cards. any man cango and ask for the cards, saying, i hav a number of wome in the house. you could get as many as you want. that's how i got 200 of the cards. thousands other peoplere doing e se thing. reporter: in the neighboring prince, pactar, this man who actually claims to wor for afghanistas independent eltion commission,howed us 0 cards. he says in total hhas about a thound. >> translato i've t these cards because i know tre will be a lotf frau i know i will be able t sell them. it's crime, b everyone is doing it. >>eporter: it is clear this is a nationwide probl. in just the la few ys, al jazeera journalis have been offered cards f sale in six different pronces of afghanista there is a reason why this fra is so easy, becae of the coervative nature offghan soety, women don't have to

have their photographs or their i.d. cards. we raised what we fod with afghanisn's independent ection commission. >> we found one location 200 i.d. cards for sale. how concerned are yoabout this? >> i acceptt that some of the people receive more than one batc in some cases, the release other batches, and that s another decisi. because they were not abl to ke their photos. the lies didn't let us. >> rorter: they are worri abt irregulariieregularities. >>t will be a risk for fraud, for sure. and n't think it should have an influence on the final result. and that is theeason we are saying from the very beginning,

in order to build the confidence wi the afghan people, that we are in theposition to denounce anyttempt of massive fraud. >> reporter: b will election nitors be able to discover i fraudulent cardsike these are being used? the deterioratingecurity siation means tat they will almost certainly not be present at every polling stion. jas ba, aljazee, kabu and a followup to last night's lead ory, those bombin in baghdad that killed nearly100 people. today the iraqi government detained 11ecurity offics. they've accused them of negligence. primminister nuri al maliki has also ordered a ful security review. itas the worstttack of its kind since american forces lled out of iraqi cities nearly two months ag we wan to ta a step back

annow at an international environment and scientic ministry, whh over time might have far more imications over anstory we're reporting tonight. i'malking about the disappearance of be around the world. it's a development that raised great concerns because bees pollinate an estimed 0% of thcrop that's e oursource of food. now so londoners are trying to do something about i barbara seraofl jazeera english has their sry. >> reporter:heancient egtians kept beehives 5,000 years ago and nce then, bees have provided man with hon and wax as well as the crops they pollinate. but sothing is troubling the efficien creates. across europand north america, bees have been disappearing at an alarming rae. inhe uk last year, a third of all honeybees di. it's a woying situation, and britais first professor of beekping is trying to find the solution to the plig of bees.

that's what it's all about. >> the two main things threatening bees are diseases and lost of forest, so we're focused on tse particular things. wee trying to breed disease-sistant honeees. we areooking at the control of specific pests of honeybeesnd we're also deteining where the honeybs of foraging. man is certainly responble for probms farming now so tensively that vast partsf the country arfull of plants but not any plants that are any good to bees or insts because there are not flowers. >>eporter: their numbers y be dwindlg across the country but there isoneerhaps surising place where bees are thving, and that's lonn. colonies like thisne have been springg up across t city's rotops. these beehives are on top of the department store in pickly and the honey made by its bees is

then sold in the sp. for more and me londoners, te declining numbs are deciding keep bees. lison and brian started four years ago. their hive is the garden continue can host up to 50,0 bees and they l seem to be dog well. >> the's more variety for the bees to eat in the city. so you have the rks, you ha the railwaysidings, you have peop's gardens, you hve the treeshe road. where the countryside you might just ha fieldf oil seed rape or othercrops, and they sayhat hey in the city just tastes much, much nicer than honey from the couryside. >> reporr: it'easy to forget th bees don just make honey. they're responsiblfor pollinating mo than 90% of th crop that'se rely on for sfsfoo food, om apples and prs to broccoli and tomatoes. albert einstein reportedly sa if these we to die out, humanity would follow in four

ars. the honeybeesn't dying out st t, but ying to tell us somethi about our impa on the environment. barbara sera, al jazeera, london. >> for mo about the very worrisome deine in the bee polation, we are joined once again tonight by michael novacek. he is the provost of ience at thamerican museum of natural history. welcome back. >> nice to be here, martin. >> we've heard about this problem actually f a number of years now, the shnking bee population around thworld. we know how much theee population has actlly declined? >> we have a good sese in europe, for example, the striking stistics in america that we're getting hvy colony loss. i think the estimtein the film was 30% inurope. so this isveryserious. butwhy? ve we figuredout eactly what'sausing it? >> the maer of cause. as this fil says, some ofhe suspects are infectioudisease the lack of pnts, divsity of plan that provide foo for bees. but 's really there's more of a mystery to is. what wre talking about is a

collapse o coloes that are just d to the loss of adults, the disappearance of adult bees, worker bees. and why? well, a nmber of suspts. infectious disease, may a vis. maybe the bees don'have the immuneystem that allows them to resist that. there's even some though that the genetic -- the genome iso narrow in these bee populations cause they intereed that theit adapti, they're not flexible for these invasions of inctious disease. there was that quote in the story that sai you know, if the bees had died off -- this is albert einsteiumans would follow within fo years. is that serious? is that really -- >> well, -- it's a poeti way of putting a very serio problem. because think of it thisay, you know, be are the champions of the insect llinators. pollination is what drivesthe modern ecosystem, and is really what the basis is for the crops anthe food that we depend . anif you -- bees alone,

honeybs alone, account for about $16 billion a ar in america in terms ofrop producti. so you could have -- this were permanen if these tings weresustained and permanent, then you cod have very catastrophic cosystem, agrilture and economic results. >> are there things we sould be doing, human i mean, to try to somehow help the population? >> the film talks aboutrban -- the development o urban beekeeping, and tt's a ni trend becae it takes advantage of all of the -- ironically, all of the pla diversity that you ve in ties. and it also teacheseople a littleore about the importance of bees. but is isn't going to do the trick. what we have to do is scientific attack t problem in these agriculture syems outside of cies. studies in genomics, studies in adaptabili of bees to the chges are key he. >> michael novacek, as like say, u are the b sneeze.

thank you very much fojoining us. >> nice to be here aga. we want to clos tonight with another story which,ike our fit from scotland, makes us think aut otland, makes us think aut the value of human life and about our own connection to history. it's about thextraordinary effortgoing on in eastern france to unearth and idenfy the remains of hdreds of australian soldiers killedore than 90 years ago during world war i. stephani kennedy of abc australia hasthis report. >> reporter: for thr months, a team of archaeologists and anthropologists have unrtaken painstakinwork. deep down in this cleland, they brush add way e soil and unearthed the remains o schools of soldiers from wor war i. >> we foundas far as i understand it, 222 solders' remas have been recovered from sites, and about30 of those have been completely in t

mortary with al of the artifas associated with thm. >> after the top section o soil was remod,rchaeologists use small tools touncover e burns. e bodies were buried by their german enemy. they were buried sometimes in the same direction, and sometimes head to toe. it tells me the german were buryinthem in an oshge and spectful way. >> reporter: and the germs have returned mo than just bones, crucifis, rings and belt buckleses. they're all ucial clues in a jigsawuzzledentifying the soldiers. >>t's the traces dna found in teeth and bone fragmentshat hold the key to giving these lost solders ba their names. thnext stage inlves matching th dna to samples from living relative >> they're verchallenging samples but the is sufficient dna from a good number of thes samples for us t move on and take samples from a of the remains. >> rorter: so you're

optimistic there will be matches? >> o yeah, very on the miss stick. >> reporter: this is ambitious project has tract someday criticism. the are concerns that the remains mayave been mpromised. >> t project is not in crisis annever has been in crisis. the project is on trk to achieve what it is we expect it to do. >> reporter: across the roada new commonweal cetery is under nstruction. it ihere this army lost a history for over nine decas will finally be laido rest. stephanie kennedy, abc ews, furmel and that is orldfocus" on a ry busy thursday night. always, we encourag you to visit our website wrldfocus.org d drop us a line. i'm martin savidge. thank you so much for joining us. we willook for you back here tomorrow night and any timon the web. until then, good night -- captio by vitac -- www.vitac.com