a new warning from the united states that iran is closer than ever toroducing a nuclear weapon. what does it portend? with presiden obama pushing health care reform, we will take you to china to see how the world' largestcountry cares for its citize. rt two of our signature sees on women in t muslim worl tonit a look iide morocco and how single mothers cope with hostility and sham and from franc we a is th swe flu the kiss of death or the ath of the kiss?

om the world's ading porters and analysts, here's what's happeng from around the world. th is "worldfocus." made possible i part by the following funderon. major supprt has alsoeen provided by the peter g. peterson foundation, dedicated to promoting fscal responsibility and addressing key economic cllenges facing america' future. >> good evening, i'm daljit dhaliwal. almost since it came tooffice, the obama administration has been trying to convince iran to its nuclear ambitio. so r, much of the emphasis has beenn diplomac but verysoon that culd all change. today washingtos chief representative to the international amic energy agency says ira may now possess enough uraniumto make a bomb. the united ates and eupe

have given tehran until the end of this month to stopenrichin u anfrom israel tre have been hints of an even stronger response. the loomingeadline with iran andhat might happen next is our leadfocus tonit. >> iran's foreign minister today presented the world's leading powers with a package of propals. e knoll, to oer assurances atthiran has only peeful, nuclear intensions, but as that was taki place in tehran, amera's envoy to the atomic energy agency said in vienna that the unid states has serious concerns tha iran is close to having the capability to produce a nuclr weapon. glynavis told t internatnal atom energy agency that the ongoing ativity moves ian closer to aangerous d destabilizing possible breakout capacity. just monday, iran's preside mahmouhmadinejad said th

iran would push ahd withts nuclear progm despe international jections. >> translator: for our pointf ew, iran's so-called nucar sue is ove continue our work within the framework of glol regulations and in close interaction with the international atomic energy agency. we will never ney negotie ov obvious rights of the irann. the s angeles times said tay that the package of ideas that the iranians presented in tehran is almost certainlyot going to satisfy the united stes and itsallies. >> in there, there's no reference to t key issue that the west wantto talk about and that t u.n. security counci has brought u repeatedlyhe continued enchment of uraum as well as the devopment of heavy water rctor technolo. >> the uited states andts european allies have threaten iran with more punitive

sanctionsif iran doesot suspend uranium enrichment an israel is closely wching develoents. defense correspondent from channel 10 news of isrel believes that the ntanyahu government will gi diplomacy time to rk, but oly until early ne year. i think thatome time in the beginning of 2010, bot at jerusalem a washington we will have to reasss their position abou iran d theirrethink what need to be done about the nuclear proam. it is no secret at they have a military option against iran. >> for closerook at how the west might resnd to iran, we are joined tonight from washington by far i bors gae ar. thank you for coming on the prram. letme starty asking you, if the we does opt fo hrsher

sanctions what kinof areas will be targeted? >> the most lely option will be to tighten t financia constrainthich is has been relatively successful in the past and we keep on talking about trying to restrict the importatn of soline. that's goingo be quite difficult tdo and the iranians have taken steps basicay compensate for thaby signing an agreement by chavez by having 20,0 barrels per day andat the same timlooking at alternatives for india. >> h would those gasoline sanction b enforced? >> i think it would bedifficult tonforce it. you would have to fd out the refineries tt are selling to the iranians and go tthe refineries and sayf you continue tdo that we will retaliate against you. ocking the straitf hormuz and the entrance to the gulf would really be an act of war and it would be counterproductive inhe long run.

in the past, sancons have nded generally not to work. is tre any reason to believe that is time around they cld be effeive. >> well, sanctions are effecte when everybody is sort of reeing on what they wnt to do. so, for ample, in the case of the aircraft industry, boeing and airbus, europeans and americans havegreed not to sell aircraft to the iranian regi and so e airline indust there has suffered and planes arealling left and ght. however, is questnable whether th's an eective way ofnfluencing the regime and the ople becase they start blaming us for it. th financial sanctions have been -- >> wldn't most irania see through that? >> noton an aircraft sittion. they wouldee through it with th gasoline sically saying, okay, you guys did produce enough gasoline, we're in terrible shape, but if the aircras are fallingfrom the sky because of a lack o components or matenance, that's aifferent issue.

how does the political cnfusion in iran following the disputed presidential eleion cmplicate matts for wester negotiators who want iran to stop enriing uranium and come clean about s nuclear ambitns? >> it complicates ituite significantl in the past theiranian positio is we don't want a bomb and it's against theligion to develope the bomb. we didn't believe them, b an argument would be let's s down and basically pro that that's the se. right now w don't have anybody to sit wn and basical prove that's the case because even if the sreme leer which may not be supreme anymor because he's lost some ofis pestige says that, one i always concerned that maybe,maybe someo is not quite listening to him or the revolutionaryguards are doing things as opposed to what hs saying. so it complicates it enormously beuse we don't know whoo negotie with and we don't kn who to believe.

>> fari-borz gaed ar,hank you very much >>. just where was benjam netanyahu on monday? netanyu's officeaid he was visiting a governmt facility inside israe isrl's biggest newspaper isnow reporting tanyahu was o a secr mission to moscow to convince the rusans to stop selling ams toiran. the russians a suspected of selling anti-aircrt missiles to theranians and those ssiles could be used ainst israeli jets in the event of attack on iran's nuclear facities. we would le to know how you think the obam administration should respo to iran's nuclear progm. shou it try tough sanks or something even stronger? you can tell us wh you tnk by going to the "how you see i seion on the websiteor at

worldfocus.org. from neighboringfghanistan there s news today of a dramatic recue. sthen fowler, a reporte from "the n york times" was freed by british commandos after a raidn a taliban hideou fowler seen hre was kidnapped along withis afghan translator after the two ha traved to northefghanistan to investige an air strike last week that killed some 70 peole cluding a nuer of civilia. british officials sa they can't rule out the possibility that he wa killed by british gun fire. one of the soldiers who took part in the assaulalso died. another hstage situation appearedo be winding down in mexicoity this aftnoon. an aeromexico flight originating in cancun and carrying 104 passengersere hijacked by three bolivi citizening according to mexican med reports. the plane landed at an international airpor in mexico

city where theijackers demanded to speawith xican presidt felipe calderon theend of the day the mexican media was reporting tha most of the pasngers had bee freed. a fe weather stories caught our eye tody. in south ameca, violent thunderstorms resting in a tornado and mudslide swept across northern argentina and brazil killing at least 15 people. at least oneity in brazil remains unreachable as result of thedevastation. in turkey, flash floods have inundatedections of istanbul. a city of some 12illion ople. flooding i turkey haslaimed at least 28 livesince monday with some of theead drowni inside their cars and from northern india, bad weather coupled with taditional waves has led toruel consequences. as a resul of the drought there some farmers have beenelling their wis to make ends et. it's beeneported that wives

can beought for around $2. many of the women are thought end up working r prostitution rings. >>with president obama'sig healthcare speech the political debate here america has shted back to healthcare. so all thiweek we'll be looking at how health care works at other countries ound the world. tonight we any to china where the governmtrecently did away with universal healthcare i far of a syst that relies largy on publicpayments. as melissa chanwith al jazeera english reports from ijing, th has left a lot of people hopinghey don't fall ill. >> reporter: every morning these resints practice tai chi in the park. the exeiseslphemaintain healthndlongevit

for their age they are in excellent health, but thr age group also sees theost hospal visits, smething they caill afford. if youon't have money, you dot have any choice. if you don have money, you don't go see the docr. i haven't,e haven't hadto spend ns ofthousands of doars. >> but that just what you need in china te of thousandsof dollars when things g ong. china once had univerl health care, but the changes that create a market onomy also saw e introductn of a multteared and highly confusing health system. a deceralized, part pratized, sometimes government suidized frankenstein. it's very difficult to keep track of over a billion people's situations, but what information we have suggests the majority of

chinese have no choice, butto pay entirely ou of pocket for doctors and hospitals. >> here's justne emple of the problems with medicalare in china. access. nightmarish long linespot night. some people waiting for as many as ten kays just to the see a specialist. i thk the major challenge is making sure people haveccess to high quality services and so that access tranates into beer health and higher risk protection. >> iernaonal class medal care is, availab, but only f the riest patient the. everyone else cannot know u're sick. e health care system is one of the main reason ye the downry has such high savings rates. th government recognizes the need for reform. so i's pledged t reintroduce

universal health care, butthat will take ars and there's no certaiy it will be successl. the cllenge will be reaching hundreds o millions of people who live in the countryside. even now in areas where ficials have launched rul heal care subsidy, residences say the amount is too small to treat serious illness. and while everyone waits for the 700,000 newlinicsromised by the government and docrs and rses, they can ony do the best thing to keep the ctor away. that'sercise. melissa an, al. zeier a beijing.

now our signature report, part two of our lo this week at women in the muslim world. tonit we want to exple some the pressures that you muslim women face, particularly those who become pregnant ou of wedlock. recently egyptiaborn corresndent holda osman traveled toorocco where she met one such wom and anoth der woman who rescueder and other yog, single mothers o are often shunned, shamed and scorned. >> her daughter fat ima is almo a year old. ke most young moers, maria delights in fa timma. fat ima has never met herrand parents although theyive close by, that's because of sothing she doesn'have, a husband. >> translator: having a child without a father isot aneasy thing. >> when merriam was jt 19 years old and still a stunt, she got pregnan

her boriend refused to marry her and in moroccan society, bearing a child witut being marry side source of dp shame. meryem said e considered suicide. instead, she ran away without tellg her parents abo her condition. >> translator: i felt confused. i didn't know what to do i mean should i go home or go ba? where should i go? i was in a big dilma. >> when it was time to have e ba she was too fghtened to go t a hospital. alough it's rarel osecuted, there is law in e books forbidng sex outside of marriage. >> translar: this isn't europe, tis is morocco. the hospitaleans police and a scandal. >> eventually, she ended up here at doll darity men in, it's a non-profit organizatiothat pports single mothers. meem is learning a skill,

sewing, while fatima i looked after in the center's day care. the centeris the life'swork of 58-year-old aisha a shun. she was a young mother herself. she wasworking as a social worker whenhe ecountered a ngle mother giving her baby. >> translato when i saw her, e was in the middlef feeding her baby and t baby was taken fr her breast and started to cry. i ft hidi my tears and codn't sleep all night. thinking about thatorgue that was forced to give up her baby by socia pressure, legal pressure and enomic pressure and that night i swore to do something so thathis stops. in casa blank amorocco's largest city, with a population of 3 million, about 1,000 women

r year give birth without being married according to one ngo study. solidarity train about 50 women at a timand has hundreds more th legal and social services. the organization lends women money t operate small businesses. it also runs itswn reaurants, and beauty salon. ose businesses havgreat fun. the organizion is also suppord by intnational ngos and thstate. perhaps t most importt thing that she offers is acptance and love. we feel she's like our chilen's grandmother. she helps us and she's someone who is standing by our se. someone wh says to everyone, no, single mother is ot a bad person. she's not a whre. some in morocnociety also kiss approve of tse who help

sile mothers. nine yearsgo she washe subject of a deh threat and religious extremts who said e work was immoral, t she refused give up. it's a decisn her family supported. >> translar: when i was condemned b the religious tremists here in rocco, my husband said to me, yo must keepour head hh. youhave to resist. you don't ha the right to give up there aren't a lot of hsbands who would say tha to their wives pecially in our society. >> ove the years, she has ted me powerful allies. among them,morocco king, dely seen as a supporte of women'srights. in 2004 the king proposed a change to the law regarding family life. morocco toy has some ofhe most liberal laws in the arab worl regardingkwors, marrge and the family. the government sets aside aut 10% of the seats inarliament

for women and about onehird of theuniversity professors and doctors are female. but socieal attitde about pregnay outsidef marriage remain largely uncnged if this ngle mother who didn't want to show her fce from experience. >> iant to saythat the society should change, of course, and i am not against lam, of course, beuse'm a musl woman. im not against islam, but i'm against t ye of the society. although the law provides protection, cultural norms and tradition still works against them. [ speaking foren language ] >> a woman who has a child without being marry dead live normal life insociety. that exists.

on a legal level she can live, but it i true that the societal perction of her is not posive. and the societal attitudthat she most hopes to ange. i think that byhanging the mentality ofpeople, you can't transformsociety. so that the babies who come througher certains can ho for a future that is not haunted by events of the past. holda osmanfor "worldfocus" in casa blanca morocco. >> if you justeard in holda osman's report women in foreign countries often fce obstacles, daisy hn is the funder of the americanociety for musl advance meme. >> thank u very much iffor having me. >> let's tal about wha are some of the otherig soci taboos that women face in the countries d how does it affect their lives.

>> there is no major overarching issue or a taboo that cuts across the entire muslim world. however, there are some major concerns tt we hav mber one, how do we app evenanded justice to muslim won and the issue that you just mentioned, for instance, i n state aouple of things. rape is considered to b a major taboo. if youe raped not only are you a ictim, you're a double victim because you have to rema silee. because you dishonored not only yourself or yr family, but your entire tri. it is exactly the same, is it brhed under thearp get y n't talk about it because you disgrace your family. some of the ways i whichthe conversation was beginning to happen and we' hearing more d more about women tryg to challenge these things. the good news is that there ar many musl women who are exemely articulate and educated, and they a taki a stand. just rectly you heard in sudan

a woman who was wearing trousers and instead of jt, you know, anything der, she invited all of her friends to come toer trial. sohis is an emple of how women ar leading the change in their societies and we don't want theseinds o abus against wen. we want to see women in a dignied role we believe gend e is an irinsic part of islam. >> is religi being used control women's lives d it comes down an overnd over again an it's a question of interpretaon. what are you thoughts on at? >> it is a estion of distort interpretation a it is a question of culture trumping religion, so much so at the tribal custom is upheld more than religiou or islamic law, r se. so in asociety like afghanistan, t way that women are treated there will be very different to how the cultu is

in morocco d how tese isues are diussed andebated and treate >> exactly. the lture informs of how people think o their religion and inribal soeties, women are silenced and wom are kept separatein afghanian. you know women are largely sile and there are women in ghanistan that havetepped in the front and are taking the adership role and these ar the thingshat i'm heful about. >> what about gislation? is there someegislation that you've seen which you were very hopeful for? say, for example, on the sues of honor kilngs which are a problem in countriescross muslim countries inouth asia an n-muslim countries as well. what's beg done to tackle those sorts ofissues? >> you need major stakeholders. wi the government on your side, there is legislation being passed again domestic violence, and this is ctical, t i also kow women's goups

arcombal vannizi together create socialchange. even thgh you ss legislation you need groups on the ground and you need cultural chaions and men's groups to crea a social change in societ >> tnk you very much for joining us on "worldfocus." >> thank y very much for ving me. finally tonigt, sign of e times. they call it a peck on the cheek hello, that is as much a symbol of france as the eiffel ter and red wine. it has been a part of everylp d french le going back generations. fashion models dit and even sentimental ench v.i.p. do it, so when therench government recently suggested that citizens abandon the age-old hat as aay to prevent t spre of swine flu,

many french mennd women were left exclaiming -- shocking news indeed that is "worldfocus" for this wednesday night and visit our website at worldfocus.org. i'm daljit dhaliwal in new york. have a good nighand thank you fojoining us. -- ptions by vitac -- www.vitac.com following nders. >> major suort has also been provided by the peter g. peterson foundatn, ddicated to promoting fial responsility and addressing key economic challenges cing america's ture. ay