>> bbc world news is presented by kcet los angeles. funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, the newman's own foundation, and the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. >> what is it like in the midst of the surge in afghanistan? our team is with british troops. rebuilding the global economy, leaders of the world's richest nations look for inspiration in an italian city destroyed by an earthquake. the city chiefs of urumqi promises to death for anyone

convicted of murder. coming up later for you, from stem cells to life, british researchers make human sperm in a laboratory. water everywhere but not enough to drink in palestinian villages in the west bank. hello to you. british and american forces are enduring one of the bloodiest weeks since they deployed. the country must prepare for many more casualties. the seventh british soldier has died in seven days. a major assault against the taliban as underway.

our correspondent and cameraman have been on the front line with british troops. >> this is a brutal struggle where the line between life and death has become a dangerous affair. chasing an enemy who has chosen to stand and fight. [a gun shots] >> pushed back. pushed back. -- push back, push back. >> british and afghan soldiers slowly inch through the town. hundreds of troops with almost

limitless firepower throwing everything they have at the insurgents. the taliban attack again and again. [gunshots] in the last few minutes, british troops have come under fire from the taliban and you can hear the response coming from a helicopter gunship in the sky. the progress is slow because of the threat from bombs. every step must be made carefully. the british army is dependent on metal detectors. having slowed them down, the taliban open fire.

this area is riddled with insurgent bombs. >> fire and whoin the hole. gunshots] >> these devices are the greatest danger to troops and the taliban are laying more and more./ every day they must face their demons, catching brief moments of rest. we spoke to the soldier about the dangers. a few days later, his friend was killed. >> it could be anyone. i did not know what to do. i stood there in shock.

it was mad. it happens. you have to get on with life, no matter how low you are. >> it is wearing but we are well protected. we are very determined. with every casualty comes more determination. >> hundreds have fled the fighting. people must be persuaded to return and back to the government. this is a huge task with no guarantee of success. today, this became a temporary

camp and one more family left. the soldiers occupy the house. the foreign troops are dangerous guests and the taliban know where they are. the insurgents have ensured another bloody summer for british sources. reinforcements have had to be called in. [explosions] >> anyone with any weapon, man. >> there are weeks of fighting ahead. they must achieve something that most afghans have never known -- peace. >> the commander of u.s. marines and southern afghanistan has warned that there is an urgent need for more afghan security

forces and civilians to back up the offensive against the taliban. 4000 marines launched an operation four weeks ago and only about 630 forces are with them. the greatest danger is the unrelenting heat. missile strikes in trouble areas of pakistan have intensified. they are thought to be coming from on manned american drones. -- unmanned american drones. 25 were killed on wednesday. police say that tear gas was fired in kashmir to break up a violent protests. protesters were incensed at the death of the student who died supposedly at the hands of police. a saudi and iranian court has handed down a judgment to the

first trial of an al qaeda militant. more than 330 on trial were given the death penalty. leaders of the world's richest countries have gathered in fact waquilla. leaders are meeting their on how to rebuild the financial system in the wake of the crisis. >> hardly the glitzy than you that you see at a summit. the earthquake zone is still littered with rubble. it is still precarious. there was smaller earthquakes here on friday. emergency helicopters are on standby to airlift the leaders out of just in case.

for the prime minister, it is an opportunity to showcase the damage. this afternoon, president obama went around the town. the italian leader's own reputation is under fire due to sex scandal and that the preparation for the summit has been chaotic. one guest left before the event had even begun. the g-8 leaders are writinarriv. [inaudible] the main question is how to deal with the world economic crisis. round-table talks have brought progress.

britain and the u.s. insist that the stimulus packages are necessary. angela merkel is advocating for an exit strategy. for the first time, they agreed the rich countries should bear the brunt of global greenhouse gas emissions and pledged to limit global warming to not more than two degrees celsius. >> this is the first time this has ever happened. this is very significant that even during a difficult time, people want to look forward. this will be a huge part of economic development in the future. we will be more certain about what we intend to do. >> president obama is no longer dragging his feet on climate change unlike president bush. the next that this to go beyond g-8 and get other major nations

on board. >> president hu jintao left early to return to china and where his government says that the western province of xinjian is now under control. we have one of the few journalists in the provincial capital, urumqi. >> of thousands of paramilitary troops arrive. they want the locals to know that the of government is in control. for many han chinese, their presence brought relief. >> the people here don't dare to step out of their home. what we can do now is to be on guard, even if i want to go out and do some exercise, i feel scared. >> president hu jintao or

arrives in beijing. he has cut short his trip to the summit. his government states its reputation on stability and he said he had no choice but to return. it is mostly in the muslim uighur part of the city where the soldiers were deployed. soldiers are now deployed all around the uighur neighborhoods. some are carrying automatic weapons. local han chinese are now clearing from the streets. all around this area, the neighborhood has been sealed off. >> as urumqi heads for another

night under curfew, vigilantes' have taken to the streets. the troops still have not brought peace to the city. >> the chinese police have detained a senior executive of the mining group rio tinto. he has been held and he is accused of spying and stealing state secrets. a company that supplies of third of the medical isotopes will be offline. people are scrambling to find a new isotopes which are used to make a diagnosis. kim jong-il appeared in a public event. he looked ill and gaunt. police in south korea and the

nine states are investigating a series of cyber attacks on government websites. this is described as coordinated and sophisticated. >> all american knows for sure is that it has been attacked. it is a virtual attack that targeted u.s. web sites. he your at that the treasury, te public websites have come under enormous pressure. someone, somewhere, is trying to cause them to crash. >> the attack against our state website started on july 5th. it is still on going but it is much reduced right now. >> investigators says it comes from a network of computers of homes and offices worldwide which have become infected with

the software. someone is using that to send millions of messages. we don't know who is doing this. the south korean government announces that the north koreans are responsible. experts say it is hard to identify any perpetrator. the u.s. faces more and more of these attacks. >> every day you see waves of side receives trolling for information. -- cyber theives trolling for information. this includes foreign intelligence services and organized crime. >> the secure networks have not been penetrated. investigators said it is as if there has been a riot on the internet. we don't know what point is

being made. >> coming up for you, is this me going to isn -- is this going to make men redundant? the retired general credited with turning the country around looks set for a second term. this is the second fully democratic election in indonesia. >> after counting the votes, unofficial results so that over 50% of indonesians' picked a box number two suggesting the incumbent has won a second term. early this morning, indonesians voted.

no reports of violence. turnout was low. the big issues, the economy and corruption. just down the road in a poor part of town, this bridge is a home that shelters and fees an entire community. for them, election day is just another day. for millions of indonesian's, life is a daily struggle. they have the highest poverty rate in all of asia. what they want from their new leader is some small improvement in the quality of their lives. this man has lived here for the past five years, he fishes not for food but for scrapped that he sells. >> if the government cares, they should give us jobs so that we

can improve our lives. since i don't have a job, i have to live here. >> for the next president, reaching out to the disenfranchised is a huge challenge. so far, promises from politicians have provided little comfort to. -- little comfort. >> british and american forces in afghanistan are enduring one of the bloodiest weeks since they were deployed 8 years ago. human sperm created from stem cells. this is an important step to overcoming mail infertility. not everyone is convinced that fully developed sperm has been created and there are ethical concerns. -- this is an important step to overcoming male infertility.

>> the sperm were created from embryo extend sells frozen in this tank. -- and embryonic stem cells frozen in this tank. they did this to steady male infertility. the average sperm count was 120 million per milliliter in the 1960's. it is now 60 million. nearly 50% of couples seeking fertility treatment have problems with sperm quality. >> if you can understand the maturity, this will enable us to understand fertility. for a while, we could have treatment. >> some biologists doubt the

human sperm created our functional but such research is crucial. -- ouare functional but search research is crucial. some say that it is immoral. others say the research should be welcomed. >> male infertility is a distressing problem for the women that want to have children with those men. this would be a wholly beneficial use. this is one of the interesting examples. people are groping around trying to find a problem where there is not one. >> three years ago, mice were created from laboratory sperm but many had health problems and died. it is clear this research has a long way to go.

if the technique is perfected, a law would have to be changed to allow human sperm to be used to create life. >> still to come, paying a high price for water. why it is risky and expensive for some money on the west bank. -- for so many on the west bank. there was the premier for "harry potter" in london. there was enough magic to keep everyone happy. ♪ >> every aspect of this film has been carefully planned for months. the weather is the one thing they could not control.

with torrential rain, it was more like "harry potter and the half-soaked prince." as if by magic, j. k. rowling appeared and the rains let up. she was not planning to give press interviews and then she decided to do just one. she told me about the enthusiasm. >> it is amazing. it makes me feel wonderful. >> compared to previous films, the character of perry is more relaxed -- of harry is more relaxed. >> circumstances forced him to mellow.

someone said it was like a hormone bomb had hit all works -- hit hogwarts. >> the previous films have made billions of pounds. it could overtake james bond as the most successful series of all time. >> would you pay good money for dirty water? that is what many palestinians in the west bank are finding that they have to do according to the u.n. and several humans rights groups. >> muhammed is sick with chronic diarrhea. this is not the first time. he and his family live in a village with no running water, no sewage system, no prospect of

getting either anytime soon. his mother told me she is desperate. >> i am angry that my son is sick. the doctor says it is because of the water. we'd buy it from outside and i don't know where it comes from. i give it to my children even though i know it is contaminated. what else can i do? >> many villages have little or no running water. israel controls most of the territory, it keeps 80% of the water here according to the world bank. this is not enough. >> we have just come across this water tanker. this is what many families used to get water. they say it is contaminated but they have their choice. it is either this or no water at all. >> palestinians paid privately for this water and it cost them

dearly. on clean wateunclean water make. >> this is very expensive and we need this money for other things, electricity, food, clothes. we have to find water. >> finances have dried up. palestinian villages traditionally depend on farming. for that, you need water. israel says it is not to blame. palestinian planning is. they claim that the village never applied to join the water grid. human-rights groups disagreed. >> this has much less water than the israelis. water is scarce. the little that we have is

distributed unequally. >> a palestinian farmer shows the lush fields of an israeli settlement in next door. religion lies at the heart of this conflict. there will have to be a resolution to this conflict. >> you will get much more on this and all of the news on bbc.com. >> bbc world news was made possible by kcet los angeles. funding for this presentation was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, the newman's own foundation, and the john