tonight on "worldfus" -- >> president obam rerses call for the missildefense systems to europe. weook at what is behind the decision. the war in afghanian turns deadly for italian trps. six are kied in a suicide bombing in kabul. e in pakistan, schools have reened in a former battle ne. we retur to zimbabwe where a ne political era has brght chan and something lacking for so long pe. . >>and our signature series, preservi history, our man in rome shows us how building a subway ia delicate journey through ancient treares. >> frothe world's leading reporters and analyst, he's at's happening from around t world. th is "worldfocus."

ma possible in part by the following funders -- majosupport has also been provided by the peter g. peterson fouation, dedicated to promoting fiscal sponsibility and addressing key economic challenges faci america's futu. good eveng. i'm daljithaliwal. en barack obama came to office,he inherited a coroversial plan from president bush for aissile fense system in euro to be based in the czech r poland. theidea was to counter a perceived threa to europeposed long-range missiles from iran. today, an aboutce. prident obama announced he i dropping that pn for eastern europe. instead he said the united states will develop

alternative pl to counter wt is now perceived as a re immediate threat of short, medium-ranged misses from iran. in tonight's focus, we'll look at the issue in deh starti with today's stement from the esident. president obam announced the administration'slan to shelve the eastern euro missile defense shield in brief appearance at the white house. the president said that the chan was necesry because iran is muchloser to developing short and medium-range missiles an long-range missileshat could t eastern and central eupe. >> the best way to reonsibly advance r security and the security of ou ales is to deploy a missile defense sysm that best responds to the threats that we face and that utizes technology that is both oven and cost efctive. >> facilities for the fense shield were to b located in poland and thezech republic. the missile interceptors

themselves were toe housed atg: base ingorsko, poland while another was to be bld in the brydy inhe czech republic. many people we found to be opsed to the plan. >> it's been very controveial. the village is split in two. >> jan cienski is a reporter. >> the majority of bot po pold and czechs we against it. th saw it potentially bei dragged into a conflict th russia. ruia saw it as a threat to its own security. at one point teatened to taet nuclear misles against th bases. >> the gvernment says poland and the ech republic rongly reported t idea of a missile shie but acknowledged tha today'sannouncement was n

unexpected. >> srtly after midnight, barack obamaalled me to announce his government's decision we were aware of the possibility the u. might bck away and that the u.s. was re-examing the plan. >> hower, in russia, today's ws was greeted as a positive step forward. the kmlin had opposed the missilshield, viewi it as med at russia and not iran. >> with the u.s., we can work t effective measuresthat take in the intest of all sides. we areciate this move by the u.s. president. i'm ready to contie the dialogue. >> for more on the predent's announcement and wh it means for erica's relation with eastereurope andrussia, were join tonight fromashington by heather conley. she's asenior fellow at the nior for strategic a international udies and a formfor former assistant ta secretary of state. the missile thre fm iran

less severe than depicteby the bush admintration? >> today's decision marks the end of a even-month review by the obama adnistration on the missile defee program in ceral europe. it does mean that the obama administration has me a different assessment of th iranian threat vis-a-vis erope and european forces europe. rather thaneeing the threat as long-range ballistic missiles, they believe it's more short and medium-range missile threat, which is why they are really adsting the missile defense program in europe. >> did people he itrong all along? >> well, it's unclear. this is a dramatic chge in direction. 'ssing different tenologies. it'sooking at a different set of threat assumptions. and i think at's a fair question, how could we o be so wrong and swing so -- in such a different direction in only nine months?

>> what about buet ri considerations? did they factor io the prident's announcement and wh is a new shield if there i one, wt is thatigz.!ñ likely to cost? the budget did factor int theequatn. the obama administtion had two main proems with the bus administration's missile dense plans. number one, cost. number two, th actual technology, thuestioned the ficacy of the technology itself. thereeeds to be exoration undertaken bycongress to see at are the budget rami ramifications of this ne system. again, te administration is aring it's aster, it's more cost effective d i think we'll have to get into the details to see if that, in ft, i true. >>the defense shieldas a hu irritant for russia. cane now expect me cooperation from moscow on difficul topics like sations

against iran? do moscow haveny leverage whent comes to iran? >> ts is very unclear. i don't beeve there was any thoughtin the obama adnistration toconnect this decision today on missile defee to gaini any additionalussian concessions. and fact, that played out. e russian foreign nister lavrov issued a short stement saying that on iran,ussia did not believ that there is any appropriatemechanism to crease or enhance sancons against iran so i don't believe there's a quid p quo. it does eliminate a maj ísfk7ó

in ou "how they seit" segment,e want to share with you the reaction of some italianso the loss of the soldiers in afghistan. onhe website of the newspaper "la stampa," o reader wrote, six people died, i sorry. they are soldies, they knew they w going to afghistan d n club med. th knew what th would earn and at they would risk. someommented on the mission. one said, there's t a lot of nse in staying to the targets for the taliban. at this point it is tter to rern home. it is a senseless mission. you can't bring democracy to those who don't want it. if the americans lt in 1943 at the first death, hitler would have won or stalin. today, the taliban would win and th would not be content only with afghanistan.

for more perspective on this, we are joined byn itali jonalist, alessandra baldini. she's new york bureau chief r the italian ne agency ansa. thank you very much for coming the program. >> thank you for havingme. >> alessandra, will this attack mean that italiansill begin to view vry differently now? >> it has already happened in the last pasthour. there has beenalls for rapid thdrawal of the oops, not just by the left partie but insi the maority, inside the governmentcoalition,he nohern league which is one of thstrongblocks of the government coalition cald for troops back home by christmas and prime ministerberlusconi never said that. >> what about itian cizens? how ofn does the subjectf the war comep in italy's restrants and afes?

is this something ty feel very strongly about compared tohe aq war? >>heraq war was very much present in eryday life of the itians. afghanista is more remote and s not been much discussion on the reet vel. although now when you haveive bodies comg back, it's going to be huge. morrow's newspapers will be full with stories like six, seven pages, just devoted to afghanistan. >>ight. and president obama'spparent determinion to push ahead with the missioin afghanistanow is thataffecting how italians, the italian government es him, his admistration? >> italia love president obama. and i don't think at the insistence o going on wth the r in afghanistan is going to affect the viethat italians ha of the administration. but if the president id that his euroanllies should mmit moretroops to the fort

in afanistan, would theens nd more forces? that would be a very diffult decision for pre minister berlusconi >> what do you thin would be palatablfor the italians? maybe sending people that will work on the bac line. logistical support, police support, training rather than being on t front line. okay, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. saying with afghanistan, president hamid kzai defended his integri of the country's presidential election today. he also admted for the fir timehat there was fraud by govement officials who support him but said that therwas fraud as well by tho supporting his mai oppent. the final but unsatisfied count gives karza more than 5% of the vote. but observers say that aut one-third of the votes were suicious and should be examined for fraud.

rzaialled on them to respect the votes of t afghan people. >> almost half of the country was under attack. ndred hundreds came on sites allver the country. people even then came out and voted. that's whai'm seeking, a respect for the bravery of our people t come and vote. of coue, fraud and if it committed, it s to be inveigated. but inveigated fairly and without prejudice. >> walso want to know w you see it with so much at stake in afghanistan. heres tonight's question -- should the ited states demand a recount or accept the results ofhe electi in afgnistan? you catell us what you think by going to t "hoyou see it" sectn on our website at worldfocus.org. also in afghanistan, a presential commission issu a statementoday on that u.s. air

strike earlierthis month wh two hijacked fuel trucks, an attack oered by german forces. the commsion sid that 69 taliban milants and 30 civilians were killed in the attack. it says that wle nato ed in thembing, ] ] the taliban were also to blame for pting civians at risk. italled it an inhune act in neighborinpakistan, officials are reporng that two top militts were apparently killed i recent ameran missile attas. in the country's northwes tribalon. the attaswere in north waziristan and wereaunched from unmned aircraft. officialsaid in one attack,n al qaeda operations chief w pantly killed. in the other, top militant from uzbekistan is thought to have been killed in another area of e northwt, the swat valley, things are still tenstwo mont after the military drve the talian frompower.

there has been repos of dozens of killis of set lgs of scores, possibly involving the pakistani militar and the middle of all of this, t children have been going backo school for the rst ti since the fighting broke out in may. if you've just senyour kids back to schooln recent weeks, consider what it is like for those in this report from kamal haidar of al jazeera english. the children of swat valley are back at school. despit the damage and the twisted mel, four teachers and students are returning in large numbe numbers. re than 500 schools were destroyed in the clashes. some don't have any windows anymore, others are missing desks. but for thestudent, t ma thing is they're suming their edation. some are even heing to clear thrubble.

most kids hope their schoolill be repd bore the onsetf winter. >> we e hoping we will be able to continue our edation. >> on the outskirts of the capital of minra, girls sit under the shad of a large tree for their lessons as their scol building is still unsafe. 150 schools in swat have been destroyebut the will of the people remains strong, alng wi their determinati to lea as normal a lifes possible. some hools cannot be used by its stunts. but even he, a boy flies kite. the rsh winter is aproaching andit will be to cold to use thtents. for now, the priority is to bud as fast as possible and hope tat peace in the valley is a lasting one. kamahaidar, al jazeer sl

islamabad. the killing of a suspected rrorist connected to a long string of dadly bombing from ind near. he was noordin mohammad p. he died in gun fight during raid on a hideout in central indosia. st recently noordin was tied to t july bombingsf the jw marriott andhe ritz-carlton hotels in jakarta. he was implicated ithe bali bombings that killedore than 200 peop on the island resort. we want to return tonight to

a story that hasn't gotten much attentiolately, theituation in zimbabwe. over the last year, we have repoed on the many probls facing that country southern africa econic colpse, food shortages, an epidemic, just to cite some of the troubl. but things have begun take a turn for the better.@s(0 an ga gaygan. >> ty chose to celebrate th tenth anniversary of the movement for democratic change in zimbab's second largest city. andost here beeve the change is needed. >> wnearly died. we hadust -- we're just moving eletons. but now ere's life. >> on thetreets of the cy, the economy is slowly grinding

forward again jo are being created rather than lost. and there's foodn the shees. in t past 12 month there's been a noticeable change of attitude here. many people are no loer worrd or fearful of robert mube. do you think he has the ability to make change? >> yes. look athese people. ey are here for him. >> i'm not going to stand whilthe violence continues below. m not going to snd by and watch is happen. >> the prime ministeras the ll backing of the european union. 's refusing to eld to robert

mugabe and remove sanctions until more is done to implement the agreement. >> thesere effectiveeasures scific persons, specific companieand that this is a matter that has to be resolved. >> i zimbabwe' government ils to resol its difference, internional community is likely to continue withholng investment. drew gaygan, lateline. . >> finally tonight, our signature story, we conclude our sees on prerving story, with anoer look at rome. actuallyhat's going on under rome. if you take t subway toork in this cotry, you ll know that a tunnel is aretty remarkable place, b that is not the cse i re where they ar building a brannew subway

line and they keep comi across remnants of the ancient st. orldfocus" special coespondentartin seabungle is our guide. >> i might just be the most famous fountain on the planet. it draws milons of tourists everyear because according to local legend if you toss coin over your shoulder into the water, someday y will return toome. next time these peoplecome back, tey might consider looking under thfotain. they're acally standing or sitting onncient rome in ruins. down below the2,00year-old aqduct is sll supplying water to the founta. there are allorts of treasures from the days of theoman empire. >> digging undergund, romes uslly -- 50 meters under the

streets. in this part of rome, now we are near in the ceer of the -- >> imane then what happened back in the 1960 and '70s when rome's two subway line were drled right thrgh the center of the city. >> it was destroyed very portant monuments. >> and the digging machines are back. now rome is builng a third subway line, le and everyone iolved in this project isware thetakes are high. theeople building the line don't wa a repeatf what happened when the ol subway

lines re put in. >> there was no preservationf archaeolical findings. they found tunnelling during the tunnel was destroyed. >> this time, it will be differt. the mero c le will be cut deeper, below the lers where the buildings an artifacts are usually found it's the stion and ets to the strt level that pose a challenge. and for this project, t final word retsith rome's supentendent of archaeolo, ange batini. we are working with the engineer he says. and we have dided to reduce e number of stations. and potential stations ar excavated by archaeologists before any work starts. take the caseofhat recoizable square in the center of the city.

chaeologists have been at i here for over a ar now. this area has been inhabited since ancit times, so there are severalayers of histo here. these arehe remains of ancient roman walls, from e second centura.d. the challenge for theeam he is to presve allthese things d somehow find an exit from thesubway statn that will be in the cter of the piazza. a challee for geovany bute's dedicated toinding a resoluti. >> it'assault of a cake with different layers t the question is that it important that the's not only one layer but all the layers, maybe wh a big section. >> nobody questions theeed for a trd subway linin this city. th existing lines are overcrowded. >> it's not poible for th public transport andor people

in general. honestlyi don't know when we can havthe third line. i hope as soon as psible because wneed it. >> it's clearly a tradeoff the cty is choked with cs in close proximity to precus monuments. digging uderground is a risk, but if it gets cars off the road and with little money f new scientificexcavation, sme archologists see the builng of metro c as an opportunity. >> modern street, there is a part of the city that today -- who knows? by theext time these coin-tossers do come back, there may be a new subway line and new artifacts to see. thats "worldfocus" for this thursy evening.

you can tell uwhat you think this thursy evening. you can tell uwhat you think logging on to8 wqj/u'5áuáiju m daljit dhaliwal in new yor for the enti "worldfocus" team, ha a great evening. for the enti "worldfocus" team, ha a great evening. see you tomorrow. -- captns by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>"worldfocus" is made possiblen part by the foowing funders -- major support has also bee provid by the peter g. peterson fndation, dedicated to promoting fiscal reonsibility and addressing key onomic challenges facing america's future.