>> tight on "worldfocus" -- in afghanistan, complaints of election fraud pour in trig airing stor meeting between hamid kaai and the u.s. special envoy. in japan employment sores on the eve of national elecons there. a youth movement sweeping t country and the part that has ruled japa for decades may be on the way t. in sub-saharanfrica malaria stl kills more than a million people a year. now comes hope of a vaccin that could save countss lives. and sailing so. tonit, a look at two teens and their quest to go aroun the worl alone. in briin, it's considered a challenge. in holland, it could be a se of child abuse. >> from the world's leadg rerters and analysts, here's

what happening from around the world. this is "worldfocu" made possible in part by t followg funders -- major suort has also been provided by the ter g. peters foundation dedicated to promoting fiscal rponsibility and addressing key economic challenges facing america' futu. good eveni. i'm martinavidge. we are going to start tonight th afghanistan, where the death of a u.s. soldier today made this the deadliest month of the eighyear war for american forces. 45 u. troops have been killed so far in gust. itis withhat ackdrop, the escalatingar and its increasing toll that the wa for the results of last week presidential election ha turned increasilytense. we've learned on the dramatic example of that. a fiery meeting in ich the special envoy to th region chard holbrooke, raised

concernsbout alleged election fraud th president hami karzai. kenny of itn puts it in context for s tonight's "lead focus." >> rorter: a president fast losing international support, a suspec and bloody ection, and one ve angry u.s. envoy -- the scene for a fiery meeti where richard holbrooke reportedly took hamid karzai to task and suggested a runf would help legitimize afghanistan's democratic process. the coalion is in a bind. foreign troops enable the first afgh-run elections in30 ars. but at the co of many lives. yet, there's no secretthere are deep reservations about t prident kaai, the man w's claiming victory. politi infghanistan are in a very precario condition. noteast of course, becau in me parts of the coury very, very few people actlly went to vote. anifkarzai lacks legitimy, th risk i that those who uto

be willing tsupport him, will art to look elsewre. and we could fi that t extent to which central government in kabu enjoys any kind of confince in the country's very substanally undermined. >> reporter: how wried is the coalition? well, brtain's ambassaor afghanistan, said rlier this ek that authoritiesere investating more than 200 allegatis of fra. 35o 40 of whi could marial to the utcome of th election, if upheld. >> the difficult isith public opinion here if against the backgrind of increasing casualti, both for us and indeed pticularly too for the ited states. thers aack of confidence in the person who's the president of t country, and then it will nobe very long before people in this country begino ask themselveshat in the devil are we doing there? what purpose e we servi by being the? >> reporter: eyebrows he always bn raised by the political alliances karzai has

forged to try to shore up report across the untry. the les of bek war lord genera dafterman ithe north an karzai's choice of vice president, alleged drug baron mahall mohammed kasseem ca hem. abe in central kandahar on tuesday waa reminder that despite prident obama sending an=e ability in afghantan is still long way off. u.s. commands are warning th still don' have the rources to fight the taliban. >> that was kenny azerasmitn. theris another important election we'be watching this weekend. sunday, japa will select new parliament. and it appears the ruling liberal democratic partywill be ousted for first time in 54 years. prime nister aso's approval ths have plunged over his handling over theconomy. andoday he got mor bad news. unemplment in japan hit 5.7%. its highest level sin world war i. the man hoping to sueed him is

from th opposition democratic pay of japan. it h campaigned on the slogan "putting people's lives first" and hasained traction wth many you people. in fact you may t have known thathere is a youthfulave sweepingbe the janese political lascape. stevehou of al zeera english arting from nara, southwest of tokyo. >> repter: japan's ancient catal of nara is the cy's steep in tration. residents brv rituals passed down for more than aentury ago. change com from -- it with great surprise ten that the new man in the seat of power is just 33 years old. ka gowa becamthe youngest mayor's historin july when pele oy vote him in. the last fur mayors were in their 60s.

>> tralator: i can paint clearly on the message thai would offer a new style of politics and that w in tune to the spiritf the people. they want somebody to take real political action. >> reporter: believing that mood for change is countride. japan's oppositn has deployed with dubs, the prince corps. king-clad young candates with the noon take key seats from the governing party in the nation election. coimo is a 36-year-old nning in tokyo. >> translato i'm trying to create excement. ople are tired of the old style of pitics,but i know i'm fighting tradition >> reporter: jap remains a country still ver much td to itimperial past. a past that haong been -- for s leader for thr wisdom, experice and age. fact these traits used to be a mandatory part of japanese politics re. butimes are changing.

th ruling party's rutation has been marred by ldership druggels. there had been four different prime ministers in four years. add on its ability to pull the economy out of one of the worst ressions since world war ii, and has tned public opinion largely against them. >> translar: oh, it's time for new blood. there are too many old people in politics. >> translator: politics is out ofouch with people. we don't see wh we have much of a say. >> rorter: one of the mayor of nara's pledges iso move politics fm an arena of elitism, and to maket more accessib.'e4 theo takes the interview from a 13-year-oldor her classroom projects. it's perhaps a snapshot of pan's political future. eve chou, al jazra, nara, japan. >>there was some new sign today of warming relations between north and south kore the rth said tha it would

free fourouth korean fishermen detained lastonth after their boat strayed into rth korean waters. beyond that, the two countries havegreed to ho a new round reions last month the firstreunions almost two years. > and there's this, south rea is promoting t idea o seing a joint group of scer fans to next year's world cupn south afca, where both countries will compete turning to the middle eas a seni udi prince wo's had big hand in that country's aggressivefforts to fht rrorism was himself the target of a terrorist attac last night. a suicide bomber blewimselfp outside prince mohammed bin nayef's home. the prin was lightly wound and says that he's more determined than ever to fight rrorism in saudarabia. just last month, several hundre al qaedailitants were convicted inhat country's first known trials. four suspected members of th group.

let's take a deep look now at some of the week's top storiein our friday roundtable discussion. in afghanian, the war's become more deadly than ever and there is talk of sending even more u.s. troops, as the presidential election remains indispute. in the middleast, ran, more tough talk from european leaders about sanction or their possility. will they nvince iran togive up its nuclear program? and we'll als look at some of the big shifts in the global clerk as japan fades, china rises. what arehe imications r the u.s.? joining us is garreutley. president of the levin institute. an then r a foroohr. welcome tooth of you. let'start with afghanistan. we talk about how we'realready -- on track for perhaps the adliest month of th war here in the united states a nato forces, and no this coested

election. and i'mwonderi, it ju seems to be, garrickanother red flag to the u.sabout, what are w doing? >> well, the's the political dimension and the elecons show th inability the government having any effective role there. d there's also he military side. righnow the vote count in whh is going to go on for a few more week and may leado anher runoff pu us into difficult situion. because althgh, yes, we're seei democracy in actn. we'ralso not seeingny kind of, really coident sign that that election resul is going to lead to a more effective governme. so wa are youeft in your hands? not much. >> the united states, what, ey want to see a runoff now? >>well, i thi there's really no good outcome that the stage. karzai, it looks le karzai's going to win and the vote-counting is always a painful processing. t even if he es, he's not an easy candidate for the.s. to support, not onlbecause the elections are being contested but because of his running te marshallahem is accused of being involved in a drug tde and this goes tonother point and problem in afgnistan right now,hichmyq is thathe taliba

is more deeply invved inrug traffickinand drug trade was initially nates recent to and military operations ha found. and that's going to mean mre rest both in afghanisn and in kistan. >> and( united statess doing a total look, agai at the military option. >> aside of what has happened on th political side of things, you're hring interestin words coming fro admir mullen, head of the joint chiefs, saying the r's not going well. talking about mae needing mre troops. general mcchryst on the groun inafghanistan is -- called for studies fromthink-tanks and others, testing at we are ing there military. ishis the right policy? it very unusual, i would say, for military leader to question what they are doing. my suspicion is tha not only the military b people in the white housare starting to y, do we need a policy revw on opposion and strategy a presence in afghanisn? >> and this is a bi thing, not t ofdo we needore troops, do we need to alter the strategy? we're talking out, do w stay

or dowe o? >> well,there's the shadow of lyndon johnson in vietnaas notein the press that lyndon johnson got trapped in vietm. the military jt said, send us more tros, and we'll do the job. the miliry is now saying, in effect, mr. president, you can send more troo and we need more tops. we're not teing you we can do the job anthat's theroblem that obama administraon has to face. >> all right, ather conundrum before the obama adnistration, iran. september, ne month of course. th was sort of the sout deadline that this administraon has said for iran to respond to dialogue, the united states is trying to encourage. wiout a dialogue, i guess sanctions? wherdo we stand on sanctions and can theyreally wo? >> well, it's possible there is going to be -- certainly pressure around sanctions and more sanctions. but my feeling unless you have china and russia onboard they're going to be unefctive and at's because china a russia are key investors in iran'snergy sector and they've actually benefited hugely are not part of e existing sancons just this st spring you w the chinese coming in with the $70 biion oil and gas deal to velop southwestern iran reserves.

russians a selling the iranians -- biions o dollars worth of nuclear technology d radar missiles. littlempetus for these cnt rose. >> they're doing okay? >> yeah. >> andhe other thingbout the sanctions, and of course the idea here is to get the iranians to negotiate aay their nuclear progm. but by enfcing this, are we not also strengthening the hand of thehdliners who right now appear to be teering? >> wel this weekwe're seein al kinds of stepseing taken. were sayingoday and yesterday that yes we should go ahead with e sanctions that the iranians don't behave on the nuclear issue. but wenow as you said a dper andver isible split between the hard-liners and the reformers withli khamenei. the supreme leadersort of trying to bridge t two. and any kind of sanctions e sily going totrengthen the hardiners. so do you back off the nucle issue and potential sanctions whe they can say, look w scared the west and t rest of the wod of

do you push and ad and strengthen the hard-liners. meanwhile this trial igoing on. and who doou end up stngthening? this ia catch-22 of the worst ki. >> we're goi to run out of time and want to bringp what you wre about this week, which is actually japannd a fang japan. we've goan election coming up this weekend. we may see a changing government. we m also see a chan in where japansits in the wod's ecomy. from numberwo to nber the? >> yeah, this is real seismic shiftmen it will probablyake place at the end of thisyear. in the second quarter year, japan's econy contracte by er 15%. this is the wor contraction of any rich ecomy in decades. and wh that means is th chinis going to overtakehem ster within aouple of yes, faster than was initially thought. this iand going to putchina in the spotlightet again. we alrdy than they'rehe 800-pound goril in the region nothe number onerade partner for japan over e u.s. but also as apolitical partner in the region. i think yo can so that with the

u.s./chinatrategic dialogue in july wch made japanery nervou >> japan going numberthree. for the united ates, what is threal iact here? just a psychological hing? we get over itand -- oh a psychogical element t in terms ofubstance and size this is a historic moment. the first time that the indurialized world, the world's coming out of you recession in which wre not going be pulled out by either europe the u.s.r japan. th tradional economic locomotives. we he it is china, asia, in general. i find itnteresting that today, in thworld of ag-2, the u.s. and china, both nations right now their economies are being fueled largely by stimulus prrams. china has one. we have one. how solid, how lasti are these going to be as you indicated? we don'tknow. >> we don'know. an the could be a downturn as result of when tho programs end. but that's going to have to wait for another day. rana foroohar, garck utley. a easure as always.

as this country repairs r a potentially big outbreak of new h1n1 swine flu cases this fa, we want to give you a sense tonight of th toll the disease is king. south amica, where is winter has en hit relatively hard according from figur from t european cters of prevention andcontrol. the virus hadilled 192 people. by this week, th number ha almo tripled to 557. in the u.s., there were 436 deaths aof two wks ago. this week, the nber had gwn to 522. world wide the number of deaths from swine flu hasone up abo 50% in the last two week from 1,851 to 2,757.

for allhe concern about the flu, here is something that might put it in rspective, malaria,he mosquito-borne disease, kills mo than 1 million peopleach year. most of themn sub-saharan afri. tonight, we'reoing to take a closer lookt malaria, the tol it takes and what's bng done about it there is new hope. we report from a repor from kenya in the town ofcyia on the front lines of the battle. the sty was produd by the internationa reporting project, shot and edited ity christina macgillivray and by charvan who narrate is the report. >> reporter: this is the dirict hospitalin rural western kenya and it sers over 120,0 patients a year. like valerie, most of them are young children seeking treatment for mylaria, one of the ading prevenble causes of death in the world. malaria parricides. we've seen itany times every

day. many times every day. at least twic >> reporter: transmitted bmosquitoes. it's most varlious strai are found inub-saharan afric >> 90% of these deathsesere in ildren of 5 years of age in sub-saharan rica. >> reporr: malarias both preventibland treatab. public educati and viral drugs and the use of bednetsre effective approaches but this sub-saharan africa many filies who cannot access theseritical recently, several strains of malaria hve become existent to resisting dications. >> wwere really wondering why it was so hard to get families to spend 50 hillings. that's 60 cents on a bednet. how could that t bepossible? d then when you see how people really struggle for health matters a for school fees and

you realize that f some that 50 chillings is just toomuch. >> reporter: back at district hospital valerie's red blood cell coun has plummed in just a few hours. she's in need of an immediate blood transfion. but in rural clinics like ts e suppls are not always available. >> although we are hopeful. >> reporter: now,or irst timever, there is new hope in the fight agains malaria. participts in the internional malaria vaccination initiative funded largely byhe ll and melinda gates foundation connecd second phase testing of malaria ccine. earlier results from six african countries ve indicated a 50% efficacy re. >> one thingo remember about this vacne is that the rly

studies show if prevented 50%of seve disease, but because we're talkingbout malaria which kil a million chiren every year, 50%s something we think is wth taking foard. andhat 50% shld save tens of thousands of lives. >> the vaccine will couny. it will also improve the economy of t country because a hug dget of the ministerf health stand on treatingnd prevention on malari >> reporre the vaccine could be integrated into a gular vaccine regiment as early as 2013. >> aeal heful time f malaricontrol right ow. is renewed interestrom the international counity and from mistries of health in afri, i think we really e going to see some major inroads in t fight against malar in the next five, ten years. >>e wanteto know more about the challenges of fighti

malaria so we spoke here yesterday withur regular science analyst, michael novacek, the provos ofscience. re in new york. we just had th report that was talking abouthe human tl of laria in kenya. and i guess my questn to ou is, what makes malaria rampant d also so deadly in sub-sahan malaria is a disease that'spread by -- by a parasite and tat parasite thris under certain conditions. arprent in sub-saharan africa you've got a l of people. you'veot a lot of is desk a see the wod we bring you ea night. monday my, cleague, dalji dhaliwal will be here. you'lltill see me one week each month and in repor to come. it's been a pleasure d a privilege. until then asalways, tha you for joininus. have a gd night. and a great weekend. "worldcus" is made poible in part by the following funders --

"worldcus" is made poible in part by the -- captionby vitac -- wwwitac.com majosupport has also been provided by the per g. peterson foundation dedicateto promotg fiscal responsibility and addressingey economic challenges facing america' futu.