tonight on "worldfocus" -- u.s. commandos kill a leading al qaeda militant wanted for bombing an israeli hotel in kenya. we'll examine how the united states is doing in the war on terrorism. human rights activists protest a new law in indonesia that would have adulterers stoned to death and lead to the caning of others who drink or gamble. in britain, bringing up baby. with almost a year of paid parental leave. now mom and dad can divide it. and our signature story. a new series, preserving history. we will take to you to the parthenon and greece's effort to

regain precious statues it says were illegally taken. >> archaeologically tantamount to murder. from the world's leading reportysts, here's what's happening from around the world. this is "worldfocus." made possible in part by the following funders -- major support has also been provided by the peter g. peterson foundation, dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibil key economic challenges facing america's future. good evening. i'm daljit dhaliwal. president obama says that while afghanistan is not vietnam, there are dangers in not having clear goals on afghanistan and not having strong support from the american people. but polls show support for the war decreasing. the chairman of the joint

chiefs, this country's top officer, told congress today that more u.s. forces in afghanistan are probably required. but afghanistan isn't the only battleground in the fight against extremists and terrorism. there are developments as well tonight in pakistan and somalia. all of this is how we start with tonight's lead focus. intelligence officials have described him as one of their most wanted terror suspects, and late yesterday it was reported that saleh ali saleh nabhan was killed in an attack that took place in southern somalia. nabhan, a kenyan with links to al qaeda, was said to be the ringleader of the 2002 bombing of a hotel in the kenyan resort of mombasa. 13 people were killed in the attack. he's also believed to have been behind an attempt to shoot down an israeli airliner that had taken off from the mombasa airport the same day.

the rocket missed the airplane. u.s. officials say american forces were involved in yesterday's raid perhaps signaling a new willingness by the obama administration to use troops inside somalia. somalia has been the scene of heavy fighting in recent months between a transitional government backed by the united states and an islamic militant group al shabab, connected to al qaeda. it has also been reported that somalia has become a destination for al qaeda militants fleeing the fighting in places like pakistan and afghanistan. despite nabhan's high profile, some downplayed the broader significance of his death. >> we question whether it would be a very significant event in somalia itself. what it will do is i think it will certainly make al shabab leaders much more cautious when they're operating because obviously the united states has very precise intelligence about their movements.

>> as for afghanistan, president obama responded to critics of his policy in an interview published in today's "new york times." taking issue with the notion that the war could be fought without large numbers of ground troops, obama said, quote, i assure you that if that were the case, you wouldn't see 68,000 of our young men and women deployed in afghanistan. there is also news from neighboring pakistan. today's "new york times" is reporting that pakistan's army may be responsible for scores of reprisal killings against suspected members of the taliban in pakistan's swat valley. in may, pakistan launched an offensive in the swat valley aimed at driving out the taliban. according to the article, the systematic nature of the deaths has led human rights groups to conclude that the pakistani military is behind many of the killings. pakistani officials deny any

involvement by the military. for more on u.s. efforts to fight terrorism, we want to turn to a man who specializes in the subject. he is juan zarate, a senior adv strategic and international studies in washington, d.c. he served as deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism during the bush administration. so how significant are the killings of individual al qaeda leaders like saleh nabhan? >> this i think was a significant event. saleh nabhan was a longtime senior al qaeda lieutenant who helped to run their east africa operation. in the context of his current activity, he was really one of the key figures who was trying to utilize a lot of the activity of the al shabab movement, the radical islamist movement there in somalia and turn and use it and leverage it for al qaeda's broader global agenda. these kinds of individuals are the accelerants to make these

local groups more globally relevant and dangerous. >> don't new leaders just emerge? >> they can and they d i think what's important, though, is when you have somebody like saleh nabhan who was a longtime member of al qaeda responsible for the embassy bombings in kenya and tanzania, the mombasa attacks in 2002, these are special and important people for the organization because they've got deep ties. they're trusted. they've got the cachet to build the training camps and the local infrastructure to actually then operate well beyond the region. and so it's very hard to replace a leader like that. and the fact that the -- this administration and the prior administration continues to take out senior leadership, not just in east africa, but also in the pakistan and afghan border region, the pace of that matters because you start to deplete the bench which is not as deep as one would think. >> from a military point of view, how is the obama administration conducting the so-called war on terror

differently than the bush administration? or do you not see any real qualitative differences? >> well, this is an interesting case study because i think this is actually potentially more aggressive than the bush administration was in somalia. what the press reports indicate is that navy s.e.a.l.s actually operated on the ground to kill saleh nabhan and his compatriots. and so in a sense it's a bit more aggressive. and in a sense, i don't think there has been a fundamental change in how the counterterrorism activities, the day-to-day work, the killing and capturing of individuals, the defense against plots, i don't think much of that, frankly, has changed. i think there's a fundamental continuity. >> just very briefly, where do you think that the united states and its allies stand in the war on terror eight years later? >> well, that's a great question and a difficult question to answer. i happen to think that al qaeda

itself, al qaeda as an organization as we've known it, is much weaker now. it has been degraded. its key leadership is on its heels. if you look at how they talk to each other, they speak publicly. it's an organization under stress. you have leaders like saleh nabhan continuing to be taken off of the battlefield. that's good.f is being attacked from within. people are asking what has al qaeda brought us? is their ideology legitimate, is it moral? all of this is important. that said, you've got afghanistan tipping in the balance here.z you've got other places like somalia rife with conflict. and so this is a long-term battle and struggle against a movement and an ideology that is not yet vanquished. >> all right. juan zarate, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. we also want to hear from you, how you see it. our question tonight -- is the united states being aggressive enough or too aggressive in its

efforts to combat international terrorism? tell us what you think by going to the "how you see it" section of our website. you can find that at worldfocus.org. from elsewhere in the muslim world, a judge in malaysia has ordered a muslim man to be jail and whipped six times for drinking alcohol in violation of islamic law. the man pleaded guilty to drinking liquor at a restaurant. in july, the same judge sentenced a malaysian woman to a caning and a fine for drinking beer in public, sparking public outrage. that takes us to another story on strict islamic law known as shariah. it comes from indonesia, the the province of aceh, where a tough new law governing personal behavior has just been passed. for more on that story, here's gavin fang of abc in australia. >> reporter: afternoon prayers in aceh's capital banda aceh. it is a deeply religious part of

indonesia, islamic teaching reaches far beyond the mosque doors into the very laws that govern the province. on monday, the local parliament passed a new shariah-based crime bill that would make stoning to death the punishment for adultery. homosexuals, rapists and people caught gambling or drinking will face 100 lashes with a cane. >> reporter: the new laws are due to come into effect in aceh in a month. aceh has special autonomy. but human rights groups say jakarta can and should intervene to have the shariah bill overturned. >> this bylaw is introducing, legalizing a very cruel method of criminalizing people which

has a lot of possibilities on the criminalizations of innocent people. then the central government should take a very firm action. >> reporter: but jakarta may not have to interfere.ñ the shariah crime bill was one of the last acts of aceh's old parliament. and the political party partai aceh, which will dominate the new parliament to be sworn in next month, says it may revise the legislation. >> reporter: aceh's governor is also believed to be against the law. gavin fang, "lateline." in baghdad, the iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former president bush to protest the war in iraq was freed today.

muntadhar al zeidi says nine months in jail which was deeply embarrassing to iraq's nuri al maliki who was standing next to bush at the time. today al zeidi accused iraqi security forces of torturing him with beatings, whippings and electric shocks. he promised to reveal the names of senior officials in the government and the army who he claims mistreated him. also in iraq today, vice president joe biden arrived in baghdad for an unannounced visit to meet with iraqi leaders and to show that the white house remains focused on iraq despite increasing attention on the war in afghanistan. this evening, the protective green zone in baghdad that is home to the u.s. embassy came under fire as four mortar shells were fired into the area. it is not clear if biden was in the embassy at the time. a united nations fact finding mission issued a harsh report today on the three-week

war in the gaza strip. it said that both the israeli government and armed palestinian groups committed actions amounting to war crimes and may have committed crimes against humanity. the report said that the israelis used disproportionate force against palestinian civilians and in some cases intentionally attacked them. it faulted the palestinians for rocket fire into southern israel, saying that caused terror, death and physical and mental injury. the report said that neither israel nor the palestinians had carried out credible investigations themselves. when it comes to taking time off after having a child, the united states lags behind many countries. while federal law protects jobs, it does not require paid leave. and many companies provide six

weeks of pay or less. but consider this -- in britain, parents can now take up to a year off divided between both parents if they wish, and for most of that time the government will pay them as we hear in this report from jenny wivell of itn. >> reporter: who's pushing the pram? at the end of the pregnancy, traditionally it's been the mother who's left holding the baby. but changes could result in more fathers staying home. currently fathers only get two weeks paternity leave while new mothers can take up off to a year off work. under new proposals that year's leave could be divided between the parents with the father taking a maximum of six months off work. this won't cost the government any extra money though as payment remains the same. nine months of statutory paid leave and three months of unpaid leave. >> it's dependent on the mother going back to work and, therefore, there's a transfer of that leave to the father. >> reporter: these plans have angered employers who claim that

extension of paternity rights will be hugely disruptive. >> with regard to maternity leave, whether mom or dad, it's not the leave, it's not the pay, it's the administrative nightmare that's involved especially for a small employer trying to juggle all the pressures on the business. with the extension to the fathers taking six months off, then that involves two employers cross-checking with each other. and that can be open to abuse. >> reporter: compared with labor's 2005 manifesto which outlined plans to extend maternity pay to cover an entire year, today's proposals are a letdown for new mothers. they are to be the first casualties of an inevitable government spending squeeze. working as a journalist in the united states is generally a

pretty safe profession even though at times some people may not like what they hear or read in the media, but in russia, it can cost you your life. the committee to protect journalists in a report out today says that 17 editors, reporters, photographers, columnists and a publisher have been killed since 2000. in only one case have the killers been convicted. the cpj says critical media coverage is effectively silencing discussion on sensitive subjects like corruption and human rights abuses. and for more on this, we are joined by joel simon, who is the executive director of the tee to protect journalists here in new york. joel, good to see you again. >> thanks for having me. >> why aren't more killers of russian journalists being brought to justice?pr >> in our report we examined a number of reasons, conflict of interest, incompetence.

but the overarching issue is a lack of political will. the putin/medvedev government is not fully committed to investigating these murders. until they are, we will not see justice. >> complicity? >> it's possible. it cannot be ruled out. a number of the journalists who were killed were looking at national security matters. they were looking at the interception between corrupt government officials, the mafia, the organized crime in russia and so there is a lot of concern about possible government complicity that must be examined. >> how does this affect the quality of information that russians get and how does it affect their democracy and the way that journalists are able to write about important stories around corruption, around crime in russia? >> well, democracy is based on having a citizenry that's fully informed. that's not the case in russia. you have the print media has been marginalized, there's essentially been brought under the control of the government. and what's left is a small kind of elite print media that reaches a small sector of the

population in moscow and journalists for that print media that write about national security issues, that write about the conflict in chechnya and the north caucasus, that write about human rights issues, they fear for their life. >> when you bring out reports like this, is the russian government paying any attention? >> they're paying attention, absolutely. our delegation in moscow met today with investigators who are looking into these cases. i talked to our people on the ground there. i understand the meeting was somewhat frustrating. but the point is we're having a dialogue. we're talking to them. they know about our concern. they know about the level of international concern. we hope to see some progress. >> let's move on to cuba and vietnam where we're seeing a growing community of bloggers. how are the governments, how are people in those countries reacting to the growth of online journalism? >> it's very interesting. there's no question that the internet is in some ways harder to control than traditional print media, for example. and there's a new generation of bloggers emerging in both countries. it's larger and more vital in vietnam, it's smaller and more

incipient in cuba. in vietnam, what we're seeing is the government really is gettinb concerned about this and cracking down. in cuba, we're keeping a watchful eye. this is really a new phenomenon in cuba to see how the government responds. >> joel simon, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you so much for having me. talking about cuba, president obama has extended the u.s. trade embargo on that country for another year. a move that was expected even though there has been a lot of talk in the administration of trying to improve relations. the president has reached out to cuba by easing travel and financial restrictions on americans with families on the island. finally tonight our original signature story, the first of three reports this week on preserving history and the challenges involved in doing so.

this summer we went to greece to take a look at the long dispute over some of the world's most famous sculptures. the problem, as the greeks see it, is simple, the sculptures were stolen from the parthenon almost 200 years ago and brought to britain. but the british say their rightful place is just where they are in london. "worldfocus" special correspondent lynn sherr take us to one of history's great battlegrounds. >> reporter: you cannot take a bad shot of the parthenon. from any angle in any light. it's an architectural icon, a temple of marble commissioned by the statesman pirocles durins the golden age of ancient greece. 2,500 years ago it embodied the peak of democracy and artistry. today it remains a symbol of modern greece, still reigning over athens from the acropolis. but centuries of wars and neglect have left their mark. something is missing from this picture. some things.

they belong here, a parade of sculptures comprising the frieze that once encircled the inner building. here 92 carved panels depicting scenes from greek mythology. here on the pediment free-standing statues of gods and other mythological beings, some of the statues have just disappeared, some have been removed from display by the greek government. but most, more than half the surviving total, are in the british museum in london. the source of the longstanding international debate. the marbles here were acquired from the parthenon by lord elgin british ambassador during the ottoman empire, then carted across the seas and purchased by the british government in 1816 for £35,000. today they're priceless. depending on your point of view, lord elgin either rescued the sculptures from the crumbling parthenon and removed them to a safe place legally or -- >> he just cut the marbles..ç-

he just took the marbles away. and i think archaeologically it's tantamount to murder. >> reporter: greek culture minister is one of many vocal greeks and non-greeks who say the el begin or parthenon marbles were stolen and belong back in greece. the controversy has been raging for centuries but was reignited this summer with the long awaited opening of the new acropolis museum in athens. this earthquake-resistant structure with climate controlled galleries and state of the art surveillance means that for the first time greece has the means and the space to preserve and present its heritage. >> it's like music, like a concert. >> reporter: museum director dimitrios pandermalis gave us a private tour of the sun-bright the parthenon sculptures.cated

you can look up at the actual building, then walk around the carvings that once adorned it in a space that echoes the original dimensions. for the first time in modern history the parthenon frieze along with other works, has been reassembled, pieced together with both originals and reproductions of those lost or in other museums. the originals glow with a honeyed patina of real greek marble. the missing pieces are cast in flat white plaster. the contrast has been deliberately played up. look at this half and half. a perfect example. >> the head is in athens, the body in london. the tails of the same horses in athens. look at this here. >> reporter: the word they use here is reunification, not return. because they believe the pieces belong together like a family, that the fragments need to be seen as a whole in context. and at a time when questionably acquired artifacts are being

repatriated by museums around the world, greece says it's not about getting every greek sculpture in the world back. these are special. >> well, imagine the states being under occupation and somebody takes the head of the statue of liberty, and then takes the torch from the statue of liberty, and one is placed in london, the other is, i don't know, in romania, the other in the states, wouldn't the americans feel offended?dp; >> reporter: the opposing argument goes like this -- the parthenon isn't just about 5th century bc athens, and it's not just for the heirs of pirocles. it belongs to the world. it has global significance. keeping its treasure spread out guarantees an even grander audience for these very special work of antiquity. millions of people view them in london each year says the british museum, insisting their acquisition was entirely legal. the museum also points out that six other museums possess some

of the works, too, and in an e-mail message to "worldfocus" they noted, there are no plans to return the sculptures. but that hasn't stopped a steady stream of protests from marble reuniters across europe. their facebook pages boast more than 150,000 supporters, and this summer its founder tried to organize a protest in the shadow of the parthenon complete with fire-breathing statues. last spring he smuggled a video camera into the marbles gallery at the british museum to make his case. >> this is a shameful affair. we're fighting to get the marbles back to greece. do what you can to support us. >> reporter: the museum has also been the site of a sing-in by greek students. and an influx of flyers championing their cause. throughout the millennia it served as a temple, a treasury, a fortress, a christian church, a mosque and a munitions dump. today it is still a battleground as the struggle over its sculptures shows no sign of

fading away. i'm lynn sherr for "worldfocus" in athens, greece. and tomorrow we will go to rome where they are struggling to preserve all of the discoveries that are being madeg struggling to find the money, that is. and that is "worldfocus" for this tuesday evening. i'm daljit dhaliwal in new york. for me and the rest of the "worldfocus" team, thank you so much for joining us. we'll see you tomorrow. bye-bye. "worldfocus" is made possible in part by the following funders -- major support has also been provided by the peter g. peterson foundation, dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibility and addressing key economic challenges facing america's future.