i can't go back. hey. yeah. [ laughs

tonight onworldfocus" -- >> iran test fires a missile capable of hittingsrael and u.s. militarybases, upping the ante for this week crucial showdown between the west and iran overts nuclear progrm. europe's biggest econo gets a nudge to theight and angela merel and her allies sweethe german elections. what will it mn for the united states? tonit we take to you a scenic vaey in pru where cocaine is king and lol villagerhave teamed up with terrorist group to keep the military and police out. and o sigture story focuses on the fill la peens an life after t americans.

the derture of u.s. forces leftmpty base bus the story hasilver, youould say even, goldining. from the wor's leading reporterand analysts, here's at's happening from arnd the worl this is "worfocus." major supporhas been provided by rosalind p. walter, andhe per g. peterson foundation, dedicated to promoting fcal responsibility a addressing key econic challenges facing america's fure. and addition funding is provided by the foowing supporters -- od evening. i'm martin savidge. thks for joinings. i'll be with youll this week. we're going totart tonight with the ltest develments in what hasecome a growing war words between thunited states aniran just days befo they'r scheduled to hold their first direct negotiations in three dades.

that meani among iran, the u. and otherorld powers is set for this thursday in geneviera. today iran said it was ready for any miliry threat and tested its longest range miseyes whic have a range of 200. they teste shorter ran missiles or the weekend. en's foreign minister said the tests have nothingto do wh e disclosure th iran developing a second enrichment plant. it seemed bowl sistering iran's position going into ts week's talks. rort gates said yesterday the american aim is to get iran to resume negotiations o its nuclear ogram. >> a then if that doe't work, then i thk you begin to move in the diction of severe sanctions. and their economic oblems are fficult enough that i think that severeanctions wouldave the potentiafof brinng them to change tir policies. >> in tonight'sead focu we ben with the heightened tensions betweenran and the

west wit this repor of carl dinnenf itn. >> reporr: according to iranian tv, this is the shahab 3 missile. it was testedarlier today during operation great prophet four. shahab 3 has been launced before, t this varnt appears to hava longer range. toy's launch has an added edge in the light of last week's revelations of new iraan clear facility nearthe city of qom. e iranians keen to poinout there is no nk. >> translator: the main purse ofhe missile tes is of a defensive nature. we've made progress in missile technology, so we need to rform such test just like the other countries. there's link between the missil maneers and our peacul nuclear activities. >> reporter: but the ran of the shahab 3 carly now threatens israel. add to that the expanding nuclear prograand theranian presidt's professed desi for

israel to be wipedff the map, and it's clear that israel's response to this will be key. there is likely tobe an element of positioning in iran's weekend military maneuvers. on thsday, iranian oicials willeet representativeof the inrnational community to discuss a proposed de over iran's nuclear proam. firing missiles, testg missiles is not a serious response. but onhursday they'll met the representatives of t six countries leading negotiatio with them. and we expect a serus response to the offer that we have put on the table. iran will be treateds a normal countrwhen it starts behaving 5z normal country. >> reporter: theissile launches over the last couple o ys, well publicized as they have been, may have been as much about negotiating strength as about military strgth. >> that rert was from carl dinnen of itn. by the way, iran's news agency is quoting a british media reporthat says isrli jets would be permitted to use

saudi air spa t launch any tack on an's nuclear facilities. the plan was scussed in a meetingn london. all this week in a series of intervie, we are going to be tang a look at this growing isis surrounding iran's nuclear progra and western reats to impose harsher sanctions against iran. tonight begin with a view from the arab world. joining us for that is ghassan shabaneh, an assistant profsor of middle st and international studieat marymount manhattan colleghere in new york. welcome back. >>hank you, thank you. >> the perception, i suppose, the way outo frme this, seems at we have not heard mch from arab nations when i comes to sancons against iran. is th inkralt? >> it is not curate. the egyptians and theaudis will be more than happ to s some sanions impos on iran. today in newspapers,oth newspapers wrote about the

subject and both are i agementith the western -- with certawestern measures to impose harsher sanctns on the iranian regime but they're a little bit raid of military strike because they fe that mit not get us wherewe want to be. >> is it safe to say that arab nations do not want to see a nuclear armed iran, and if so, why no >> i would say that on this point, theyrians and the libyan might t mind it or maybe would like t see it. the sdis andhe entire gulf, the egyptians, yemeis and jordanians would like to not see a nuear iranecause it wod change thealance of power. and there's a religus element in the arab world. most of thoseountries that i ve counted in the arab gu have a lot of shiites among th. iraq, for emple, 65%, saud arabia %,yemen 90%. what if of those shiites if iran

obtains a nuclear bo say come prect us,ive us re human rights, maybe they will see an intentio by them to secede. >> so thi would b very worrying from saudi abia who have those large population >> all of thos countries are in fear of iran becauseofthe shiite minorits in their countries. >> what influen do these arab nations, if any, have ove iran >> i would say aside om sir ya, why syria? it is ruled by a site minority. and also their relations with hezbollah, iran would ke to maintain a goo relatiship with hezboah. the ly key to that is syria. sya and iranian relationships are th closest inhe arab world. bedes that no oer arab country is willing to give iran the cover or the leeway thatt seekin the middle east. >> do you think if the united states asked tt syria would somehow tr to use its influence

withiraq? >> i thing the pice will be the golan heights a the sheeba farm. ifhe westernersouldpressure israel tsign a peace agreement with ria, then we see the syrians more willing to use their leverage with the iranians on the nuclear weaponnd also onhezbollah. >>ll of this sms to go back to the question of wheer israel mayr y not he nuclr weapons. and that is an issue for much of tharab world as ty facehe prospect of iran th a nuclear weapon, right? >> yes, indeed. i believe this ought to be looked at from two lars. the first i the arab pple or the arab street. the arabtreet is very gered by teir governments us or statements the utter because they're not talking about an iseli nuclear bomb, ten they're talking about potential iranianuclear bomb. when it comes t imsing sanctions on israel o asking isel to open its facilities for inspections, we don't see the ars are willg to askthe west t be as harsh or as critical or as open on tir

dema as they are o iran. >> ghassan shabaneh, we appriate it. thank yo >> thank you, r. the day after germany he national elections,hancellor angelaerkel said today she hopes to hava new governmen in place by the beginning of noveer. yesterday's te for members of the lower house of parliament gave merkel a comfortable center right majority. that's strong performae by the pro biness freedoms who will become the key partn in merkel's alliance. ashe prepares for the second ur-year term, she made it clea she will continue to seek conssus as gmany weathers e economic crisis. now,oining us for a closer look atgermany'slection is nikolaus piper, a senior correspondent re in new york for suddesche zeitu, one of germany' largest daily newspape. welcome. >> good to be hee. >> normally in time of economic

turmoil like ofourse the rest of t worldndgermany is seeingthe governments that were in power often voted out, but that was not the case. >> i mean,ermany was s that angela merkel h no chance to become not chancellorecause she could continue with the current coalition as with the social democrats, the cente left, or she cou go to t cent right with the eedoms. that was her favorite coalition and that's wt she'll do now. sot was a very stable situation. >> so there was nooubt that she would come back chancellor, just under wh fo of governme? >> exactl yeah. >> nowhis government, this new one, appears toe more conservative. >> yeah, that's ght. and it will be me market orientednd -- but the difference for t outside world will be not t big. >> lete start with this. because iner remarks toy, chancellor merkel smed to

praise the benefits of stimulus spending. anif we go back a couple of months -- and of cour this country has done a great deal on that -- there seemed tobe some criticism coming fro germany a least the thought of stimulus spenng. is that a chan? >> i wouldn't say so. there is a misterpretation in the plic about the german stimul plan. it was a hugetimulus plan. by germn standards, it was the biggest wever ha butt's right that the german government was little behind e curve for a whi, but it was only, let's say, four or five weeks, an after that, when they realid how bad the situion was, they made a very, very big stimulus package. it's n as big in the united states b it's b rman standards it's big. and you have tonotice thatin germany, t welfare state is much stronger than in the united ates. the welfare state is in itself

isstabilizing the business cycle. right. it helping to sort of ease the economic impact. >> exacy. >> how do you thinkthis new government -- or will the relatiship withhe unite states chae? both inow we enact, workwith one another and alsoin afghanistan where there' a rge military commitment? >> i would say in the shor term it's just more ofhe sameou will get. there's no distance among demoats and freedoms with regardto the united states. when it comes to ghanistan, the situation isunpredictable if things goery bad there, i think it wl be difficult to sell the war in germany.due to very pacifist countrynd therefore, the war extremely unpolar. we even don'call it a war. we call it a humanirian

interventi. what's only part of e story. e other part of the story, it's a war. so there are some open questions. >>ikolaus piper, thank you very much for joining us today. >> thanks for having me. in switzerland the laer for film director roman polanski said today that he wll fight american attempts to extradite him to the unid states in the sex case that go back more than 30 years. the 76-ar-old directoras arreed saturday on arrival in zurich to reive a lifetime achiement award from a fi feival. polanski pleaded guilty in californ to having sex with a 13-year-old rl in 1977 t en fled to fance before his sentencing. french officials have expressed astonishmentver thearrest, e calling it a bit sinister. we'd like to know what you think of thi case. our question tonight, should ron polaki be extrited to the uted states to face sentencing in a case tha's now more than three decades ol? u can giveus your opinion by going on to the "how you see it"

section of the homepageof the website and th's worldfocus.o. >>britain's royal navy has made its biggest ug seizure ever, capturing ship f the coast of sth america carrying cocaine worth almost $400 million. the operation first dsclosed today took plac earlier tis nth off soutamerica. a britisfrigate captured the fiving boatnd discovered more thab200 bales of cocai hidden in secre compartments. the crew was arrested and the boat later sunk by gufire. of coue, a good dealof e cocaine that ends up in brain and elsewhe is manufactured in soh america, in peru. weant to take youhere tonight for a rare lo inside peru's cocaine industry. it's a region contlled by the

maoist guerrilla movemt known as the shinin path. our reportis by jen wivell of itn a shs just how ingrained cocain is in the culture ere. >> reporter: this is t center of cocaine production, the peruvian jungle and whe most of britain's cocaine is mafactured. in macation pits cmists mix coca leaes with acid to make cocain in its purist for >> translator:ere we're placing it in tanks with kerosene so the ug will start cong out. here the checals are mixing and curdlingith the drug as it stirred. >> reporter: according to the united nations offe on ugs d crime, peruvian tffickers t away th exporng 282 tons of cocaine last year making peru the wod's number onexporter. >> most of the cocaine that is produced i colombia goes

towards the north american market. and mo of the cocai that is produced in peru is now headed towards the european market. >> reporter: unlike growing cocaine in colombia, in peru it's legal. the companyhen selt to workers wh chew on the leaves help them acclimatize to the hi altitude. but enaco ensures that 90% of the crop is sold to drug traffickers and soldat almost ice the government rate. >> translar: i began growin alternative ops, legal oducts. it wasn as cost oductive. it waseading me to poverty. now t price improved for otr oducts, then it wouldn't b necessy for me to be making this drug. >> reporte here in t valley of apurac and ene rivgs cocaine production is way of

life here authority ces from the ns of the shining path the former guerrilla army that rrorized peru inhe '80s and '90s. self-defense uits comprised of peasants who were originally armed by the peruvi government to fht the shining pathre no working alongside tir former enemies, getting rch on britain's appeti for cocaine. >> translator: authorities d't come into the area, apart from e local ones we vote for. but the police jt don't enter. they don't come. of course they fear being attacked by the shining pa. that's whyhey never patrol this area. >> reporter: over the lastix mont more than 50 soldiers haveeen killed tryi to gain control ofhis one valley. with coca even being dri on the door ste of this army base in pihary, it appears that me elements of the military have already lost tir appetite for a fight. >> translator:f course, cocaine pruction has increased and the shining path participates in the whol process of its production.

they yieldit, grow it, they oduce coca base plus they giveecurity though tose transporting out of e area. >> reporter: there are som crs other than coca grown in thisoverty stricken valley, but fomost farmershocolate and sugar just d't c it financially. whil europe's demand for cocaine shows no sign of reachinghe end of the line, ma believe the onl way to crack the cocaine trade here is economic development. >> one mre notefrom soh america. in case you missed it this weekend, there was an unusual summit of 30 south americanand african leaders. the so-called south south summit was held in venezela and was led by president hugo chavez and ammar gadhafi of libya. it addressed a rae of concer from hunger i africa to the economic crisis and climate change. gadhafi suggested creating a natury of the south and calling it sato. avez cited a new area ofnity between the countries as his

cotry signed agrments to work on oil projects wh at least fivefrican nations. in 2 -- in the philippines it is described a as the worst flding to it willhat country in 40 years. dozens are missing afte a tropical storm hit over t weekend. a stte ofalamity was declared in manilla and 25 provinces. 16 inches fell in just 12 urs. today e army, police, cilians and u.s. tops ntinued the search and rescu effort. >>and that takes us to our "signature story toda the american troop presence in the phippines is just a fracti of what it s fore two major u. military bases cled down almo two decadesago. the years since, a stunning

transformation has taken place, turning thos bases literal free the ash heap history in thring economic entprises. "worldfocus" special correspondent mark litkehows us how that was accomplisd. >> reporte this is the hub of operations during the vieam war. reporter: for this woman, every day is a walk through history. >> that you can fort. >> rorter: she's the curat of the clark air forcease muse, formerly headquarters for e u.s. 13th air force, st north ofmanila. back en, she a well loved aid anspeech writer for a stng of american commander >> the good old days >> reporter: for aricans who served here at clarkand at the near naval base,hey were the good o days indeed. the most stregically important u.s. bases in t pacic. clk and stubing were a projection of americanilitary powe deep into asia.

the plippines one of the best r & r pts. t it all came to an abrupt end in the early 1990s with two amatic events. an expsion of filipino nationalism demandg an end to the u.s. military pesencehere. and an most simultaneous exosion of neay mount pinatu which buried the bases undetons of voanic ash. the amecans were gone within a year. and nearly everyone assumed that clark and stubingere history, too. ll, just look at themtoday. the philippines has managed pull off a conversion of the bases rdly anyone thought possible. now called freeport zones, clark and stubing operate today der the flag of the philiines and are bustling with econoc activity. compies fromjapan, korea, europe, canada and en the u.s. have come t set up manufacturing and pduction wheilipino firms hve mod in withhoppingmalls, using,

casinos, tourism. it is pouring millions into the philippine economynd might even help this country beme another one of tse famo asiantigers. and there literall are asi tigersere now as wel. but me on that later first -- meet filipino setor richar gorton. >> i've been a mold brker since i s a d. >> reporte he wasayor of the stubic bay town wn the u. navy sailed away for good. that's him on the right signing overthe final handover papers. >> we were very, very glu we were looking rward to the day tat we would see our lives, you know, suddenl change overnigh these are people grew up with. i mean, t whole base i gr up with. >> reporter: gordon was not gog to let stubing bay sink. he talkedthose left without jo into a volunteer army to preserve and prect what the

u.s. army left behind. he kt preing the cenal govement to get involved. $10 billion in abandoned infrastructure was simply too good to waste. it took a couplef years but the philippine governmen finally realized what a gold mine i had. today present gloria arroyo puts the iortance of the freert zones at the top ofer onomic agenda. remindingveryone tat tey a nowery successf filipino operions. with a skilled, well educated englisspeaking work force, low opering cost and tax incentives stubg and clark have now brought in nearly $6 billn in foreign investment providing three tim more jobs than the u. military days. and the u.s.ow paysbout a llion dollars a year for ship repair, maintenance and supplies. the u.s. aassador says it makes good enomic sense for both countries. >> an interesting shift i think for us, to we put into stubing, it's easy,

it's conveent, the facilies are all there. >> reporter:herever there are former u.s. bases of course there are also the base towns which were sodependent o them. well, they, too, have had to learn how to adapt to life without the americans. although the are some old habits thatreclearly hard to shake. anla city right oside clark is asaunchy as ever. but now instead of u.s. slors, there are tourists from australia, korea, china. local officials say ty're not happy with th, bu the red light dirict remains a big source of jobs and cit income until e economy matures, which it is doing. more legitimateusinesses are now sproung up. construction jobs are plentiful. and the d clark nway is now ficially an international rport bringing in a new wave of tourist for otherpursuis. spts and leisure activities at clark.

eco-tourm in the junes of subic. swimming wh whale and dolphins in subic bay itself. all that isn't enugh, there arthoseigers we mentioned. at a disy-style ngle safari, one ofhe pope lar new attractions. it is certaly not what anyone uld have imagineds the americans left17 years ago. and though she mies the old daysover crk field -- >> that's an emotional one. >> reporr: -- she says she couldn't bhappier. clark, su birks ic, are now all yours. >> yes, yes. >> reporte how does that make yo feel? >> pride, pride. >> reporter: for "worldfocus" this is mark litke in the philippines. >>that's our program for a monday nig. a minder to share your opinions with u by going to worldfocus.org. i'm martin savge in n york,

thank you very much foining us. we'll lookor you back here tomorrow and a time on the internet. tomorrow and a time on the internet. until then, have a goonight. -- captio by vitac -- www.vitac.com major support fo "worldfocus" has been prided by rosalind p. walter and e ter g. peterson foundation, dedicad to promoting fiscal responsibity and addressing keeconomic challenges facing americs future. and additional funding is ovided by the following supporters --