>> tonight on "worldfocus" -- a double truck bombing tears through on a shiite village in northern iraq, while a string of blasts hit baghdad. the new wave of violence leaves some 50 dead. the top american commander in afghanistan gives a gloomy accounting of the war after eight years saying the taliban have gained the upper hand. preparing for the big one. japan's the most earthquake-prone country in the world. something that tokyo was reminded again today. tonight, a look at how that city is preparing for the worst. and china rising. our signature story looks at how all across africa, china is

increasing its influence and its image. is that a good thing or bad? from the world's leading reporters and analysts, here is what's happening from around the world. this is "worldfocus." made possible, in part, by the following funders -- good evening. i'm martin savidge. we're going to begin tonight with iraq, where for months, the iraqi government and the u.s. have been sending the message that the security situation has steadily improved. american troops, 132,000 of them, are now in a support role. and in recent days the government has relaxed security in baghdad. but once again today, there was violence. a wave of it killing at least 48 people and wounding more than 250. the attacks were in a town near mosul in the north and in baghdad itself. the continuing violence and why it's happening, it's our "lead focus" tonight. we start with hoda abdel hamid of al jazeera english.

>> reporter: ely morning in iraq and dozens of people are already confirmed dead in various attacks. each underscoring one of the many conflicts that still plague the country. in baghdad, officials say five bombs went off. the deadliest one targeted day laborers waiting for a job. one of the bombs was in hay al amel in the west of the capital, one of the few areas where sunnis and shias still live side by side. the bomb was hidden inside a cement bag, says this man. moments later, a second blast, further north in western baghdad, also killed day workers, this time in a predominantly shia neighborhood. attacking workers is a bid to stop the already slow reconstruction efforts which the americans are focusing on to bring stability, pouring millions of dollars in projects. these attacks came less than 24 hours after workers under government orders started

removing protective blast walls around the capital. the walls were central to the u.s. strategy during the military surge. but the deadliest attacks were in khanzaa, a so-called disputed territory 20 miles north of mosul on the southern edge of the kurdish region. tensions in the area have risen considerably with both the government in baghdad and the kurdish one in erbil contending the land as theirs. khanzaa is now under control of the kurdish soldiers, the peshmerga. monday's blast targeted the shabak community. a religious minority which fled mosul as the city fell into the grip of violence. mosul is now considered the most dangerous city in iraq, and the u.s. pullback out of towns and cities seems to have l door open for an increase in attacks here and around the country. a reality both baghdad and washington are well aware of. lately prime minister al maliki, during a visit to washington,

has already warned that u.s. troops could stay in iraq after 2011. the deadline for the final withdrawal. hoda abdel hamid, al jazeera. for more about this latest outbreak of violence in iraq, we are joined tonight by douglas ollivant. mr. ollivant served two tours in iraq as a lieutenant colonel in the army. and until two months ago was director for iraq policy at the national security council in both the bush and the obama administrations. welcome. >> thank you. >> we saw dozens of people killed in iraq on friday, dozens more unfortunately today. should we be concerned that the security situation there is deteriorating especially now that u.s. troops have pulled back and get ready to pull out? >> martin, these are tragic events especially for the people who are killed and their families but bottom line to your question is, no. these events are isolated acts of terrorism. admittedly repeated isolated acts of terrorism but they're not having any strategic effect. >> who do we think is behind this?

>> almost certainly al qaeda in iraq. >> and their purpose? >> their purpose is to, first, try to reignite the civil war between the sunnis and the shia in iraq, and also to demonstrate their relevance. that they're still a player in iraq. >> and why would they want to retrigger a civil war, as you call it? >> well, al qaeda, which is a radical sunni muslim organization, doesn't like the shia. they think that they are muslim apostates. even worse than the christians. and they would love for the iraqi sunnis to rise up against them, overthrow the shia government, and reestablish a sunni caliphate in iraq. that's not going to happen but that's their aim. >> there was a period not that long ago that you would have a bombing say against the shias that the shias would respond against the sunnis. why aren't we seeing this tit for tat? >> i think because it accelerated into a civil war in

2005 and 2006 and 2007. we saw a civil war between the sunni and the shia muslims in iraq but that war is over. the shia have won. there's a shia government fully established. the sunnis have accepted that. they've reconciled with it, largely. the awakening movements of which we've heard so much have become aligned with the central government and there's no longer really anything for them to fight over. >> do you think this will slow down in any way the u.s. plans to get out of iraq and the timetable? >> not at all. so long as we continue to see that the government is in control and that there is not a sectarian war going on underneath that there is no retaliation for these bombings there is no reason to slow down the u.s. withdrawal. >> you seem to imply that this could be sort of a -- there will be a baseline of violence for some time within iraq? >> that's absolutely right. i mean iraq is going to continue to be a violent place. the violence coming from these al qaeda attacks. they are going to continue to try to demonstrate that they are

relevant in iraq. but that doesn't mean that there's going to be a return of the violence that we saw again in the bad days of 2006 and '07. >> okay, we're just about out of time. but do you think that the united states has moved on now, say, more focused on afghanistan than in iraq? and is it too early for that? >> militarily it's clearly time to shift to afghanistan. iraq is now our test case for soft power. they need diplomacy. they need economic development. they need communications, but, no, the military effort is going to shift to afghanistan. >> thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you very much, martin. with american casualties rising sharply in afghanistan, the top american commander there says the taliban have gained the upper hand in the war. in an interview with "the wall street journal," general stanley mcchrystal said american casualties will remain high for months to come. general mcchrystal said the taliban are moving beyond their traditional strongholds in southern afghanistan to threaten

formerly stable areas in the north and west. "it's a very aggressive enemy right now," general mcchrystal said in the interview saturday at his office in a fortified nato compound in kabul. "we've got to stop their momentum." it's hard work." mcchrystal said the u.s. is shifting its strategy by putting more troops in heavily populated areas to protect the civilians. there are now 62,000 americans in afghanistan. >> this country is still sending more troops to afghanistan and so is australia, which has just over 1,000 soldiers there, but sending in more to help provide security during the presidential election ten days from now. sally sara of australia's abc is embedded with some of them in the middle east, as they prepare for their deployment to afghanistan. >> reporter: they start training at dawn before the middle east desert heats up to 45 degrees. these australian troops are only two days away from afghanistan. after many months of preparation, they are ready to take on the taliban. >> what we don't do is give

these bastards an edge. if they want to kill us, then they are going to fight for it all the way. because they would like nothing more for every one of us to be dead, okay? that would make their day. >> reporter: for many of these soldiers, this is their last chance to practice these drills before they touch down in afghanistan. warrant officer alex mol watches over the soldiers with a mixture of pride and anxiety. his own son is already serving on the front line in afghanistan. >> i have a son who is out on the ground fighting at the moment, so when we have an incident occur there it always hits home. >> reporter: the sons of other families are on their way too. private patrick gilmore from adelaide will be going into combat for the first time. he's been in the army for less than two years. he's nervous about what's ahead, but confident his training will get him through. >> there's always going to be risks but that's what you signed up for.

i try not to think about it too much. i'm not really too worried. >> reporter: the troops receive a final first aid lesson before they fly out. the number one danger for these soldiers will be improvised explosive devices, or ieds. the blasts have already claimed australian casualties. the troops are going in to afghanistan at an extremely dangerous and sensitive time. it's now only ten days to go until the presidential election and now more than ever before there's a vital link between security and democracy. many of these young soldiers will be putting their lives on the line as coalition forces step up the fight against the taliban. sally sara, abc news. in iran today, president mahmoud ahmadinejad fired four senior intelligence ministry officials, part of a purge targeting officials who disagreed with that crackdown on protesters after the disputed presidential election in june. over the weekend, a top prosecutor acknowledged that

some of those arrested had been tortured while in prison. he called such treatment "painful accidents" that cannot be defended, and said those involved should be punished. in asia, typhoon morakot has been downgraded to a tropical storm, but not before it caused widespread destruction in several countries. the typhoon dumped as much as 80 inches of rain in parts of taiwan, where 400 or more people were reported buried and are unaccounted for after a mudslide in one village yesterday morning. in china, hundreds of villages and towns were flooded and more than 2,000 houses collapsed. almost a million people were evacuated. and then in the philippines, the storm killed at least 22 people over the weekend. today, another typhoon, etau, slammed into the west coast of japan causing floods

and landslides that killed at least 13 people. the typhoon's expected to hit just east of heavily populated tokyo tomorrow afternoon. leigh tokyo was jolted this evening by a powerful earthquake that rattled furniture in the capital city but caused no major damage. tokyo was also jolted yesterday by a powerful earthquake that rocked buildings the quake measured 6.6 but centered off shore. japan had a quake just yesterday. japan's highly vulnerable to earthquakes and is struck by about 20% of the world's quakes. experts put the chances of an earthquake centered near tokyo at 70% in the next couple of decades and warn that thousands could die. mark willacy of abc in australia looks at how people are trying to prepare. >> reporter: this is how you shake, rattle and roll tokyo style. inside this stimulator, people are given a taste of what it's like to experience a magnitude 7 earthquake. this is the first time i've experienced anything like it.

i was scared. some experts warn the city is nowhere near ready for the big one. not enough has been done to upgrade buildings to make them earthquake resistant and little has been done to prevent the spread of fire. >> reporter: in the last great tremor 14 years ago at kobe, more than 6,000 people lost their lives. but it's feared that with a population of more than 20 million, greater tokyo could suffer even more carnage. experts say the probability of a is 7 quake striking tokyo in the next generations is 70%. and it's estimated that it could cause more than a trillion dollars worth of damage. easily making it the most expensive calamity in world history. >> translator: in the worst case 10,000 will die and more than 100,000 will need hospital treatment. >> reporter: in 1923 the great kanto earthquake measuring a mammoth 8.3 on the richter scale struck tokyo and yokohama. 140,000 people perished.

every year tokyo is put through its paces, but last night the city got a taste of the real thing with a magnitude 7 quake shaking buildings and stopping trains. luckily the tremor's epicenter was 300 kilometers off the coast. it's feared that the next big one could be a lot closer to home. mark willacy, abc news, tokyo. some health news tonight. while the united states and other countries prepare for a possible large new outbreak of the h1n1 flu this fall, british researchers said today that children 12 years old and under should not take antiviral drugs like tamiflu. that's because the side effects may outweigh the benefits. those side effects include nausea and vomiting, while the drugs may have shortened the duration of the flu by only a day or so.

>> that prospect of a broad new outbreak of the h1n1 flu was one of the issues on president obama's mind as he completed a summit meeting in mexico today with president felipe called ron and with prime minister stephen harper. >> our three governments have worked closely, collaboratively and responsibly with science as our guide we resolve to continue to take all necessary preparations and precautions to prepare for the upcoming flu season and protect the health of our people. >> the president also addressed continuing attempts to crackdown on mexico's violent drug cartels and defended the mexican government's efforts in that battle. >> as i've said on many occasions, i heartily commend president calderon and his government for their determination and courage in taking on these cartels. and the president reaffirmed his government's commitment to transparency, accountability and human rights as they wage this difficult but necessary fight. for more on the president's trip to mexico, we're joined

here once again by shannon o'neil, a fellow in latin american studies at council on foreign relations here in new york. welcome back. >> thank you. >> so this is president obama's second trip to mexico. what is the significance of this particular meeting? >> well, this is a meeting that's been held annually for the last four years. it's a north american summit bringing together prime minister stephen harper of canada, president obama of the united states and president calderon of mexico. so it's part of the larger format. >> i was looking at flu season just around the corner and i understand talking about swine flu is on the agenda here. and it's said that there will be greater cooperation. i'm just wondering, what does that exactly mean? >> we're talking about unprecedented cooperation when swine flu broke naught april. we saw scientists from canada, the united states, get together, scientists from mexico too to actually figure out what swine flu was and then to try to control it. so we'll see that continue and we may also see the movement of vaccines, of other types of treatments in the fall season when swine flu -- when everyone thinks it will return. >> so we see good cooperation on swine flu. trade, though, has been a contentious issue and i'm

wondering what are the problems there and how are we doing in solving them? >> you know this is a contentious issue. we obviously have very close ties with both of our neighbors. they're both the first and the third largest trading partner for the united states but there are some issues. on the canadian and on the mexican side they are both worried about by american clauses in the stimulus packages and that that would continue and deepen and particularly on the mexican side there's a dispute over trucks and mexican trucks coming into the united states. under nafta, it was promised the u.s. would allow these trucks in but they still haven't and it's been over 15 years. >> any progress made? >> you know they're working on it and what the obama administration says that they're in discussions. they're trying to come up with some sort of agreement. they want it to solve worries on the united states' side about safety but also full fills our obligations under nafta but we still don't have a resolution. >> the otherish dwlu c iother i continues to simmer is drug

violence. just yesterday a defense lawyer was gunned down in monterrey. so what's been done as to cooperation there? >> we've seen cooperation in the last year or two. we've seen the meritive initiative which is the largest from the united states. $1.4 billion over three years. and we also see a lot of day-to-day communication between u.s. forces and bureaucracies and the mexican bureaucracies >> if i were to ask you, well, what's the biggest challenge that still exists, say, between the u.s. and mexico? is it something we've discussed or more to it? >> you know the biggest challenge is the fact that we're so interconnected as countries that all of these issues are on the table and you can't just look at one in isolation. you can't just look at the economy, just look at health, just look at issues like climate change or just at security. they're all intertwined so solutions to each one are going to involve the other one and so thinking about it in its holistic way is really the biggest challenge. >> shannon o'neil, as always, thank you very much. >> my pleasure.

secretary of state hillary clinton continued her 11-day visit to africa today. in the democratic republic of congo, clinton drew attention to the widespread problem of sexual violence in that country where the army and rebel groups continue to attack villages and kill and assault civilians. clinton has also been in angola, where she praised steps that country has taken toward democracy. she refused to comment on what is seen as a growing rivalry for influence in that oil-rich country between the united states and china. and in tonight's signature story, we want to take another look at the increasingly important trade relationship between china and africa. china recently surpassed the united states as africa's biggest trading partner to the tune of $107 billion last year. that's a remarkable tenfold increase just this decade. some of this trade does involve countries such as angola, sudan, and zimbabwe, which have been implicated in human rights abuses. but as "worldfocus" special

correspondent martin seemungal first reported late last year from kenya and tanzania, china's influence is much broader. >> reporter: these young kenyans already speak english. a legacy of the british empire in africa but now they have decided to learn -- chinese. this is the confucius institute at nairobi university. for these students taking chinese is, as they say, a no-brainer. >> chinese language is important. because of their -- because china is growing so much. and the influence of china in africa and most of the world is higher than it was last year. >> reporter: africa wants to benefit from china's economic boom. the chinese are bullish on africa. they want the raw materials to fuel their ravenous economy.

one-third of what's exported from africa to china is oil. but more and more goods are moving in the other direction. from china to africa. arriving, as it were, right on the continent's doorstep. all the goods that come from china to east africa arrive here at the port of mombasa. in fact, the massive cranes unloading the containerships are also made in china. it is just the first clue of the china connection. the mombasa to nairobi road, the vital link from the east coast to the interior of africa. it used to be the worst 350-mile stretch of road in the region. eight years ago a huge section was rebuilt by the chinese. ahmed abdullah has just begun his 1,200-mile journey from mombasa on the eastern edge of africa to congo.

so what source of things imported from china are those trucks carrying? just about everything you can imagine from pots and pans to the most sophisticated computers, all cheap. go to the electronic shops and you'll find them. shoes from china seem to be everywhere. >> you can see they are from china. >> reporter: from china? >> yeah. >> reporter: the cheapest ones? >> yeah. >> reporter: there are loads and loads of them, overwhelming african shoemakers like this man. his name is emmanuel and he lives in dar es salaam, tanzania where we traveled next. his tiny company, one employee, makes shoes, also belts and one -- and handbags. he says it's difficult for us to

compete with chinese products. they are sold at much lower prices than what we sell. they are cheap. $6 for a pair of the chinese shoes. about $4 less than the tanzanian shoes. in a country where people don't have much money, no contest. u.s. diplomat george aldridge monitors chinese commerce in east africa. >> this might be the great irony of our new century so far. that an ostensibly communist country has become the most ruthless capitalist country in the world. undercutting producers, not just american producers, but african producers. >> reporter: this is a fairly typical market by african standards. and many of the products here, a growing number of the products here, are chinese. but it's not just the products that are from china. many of the people who own these shops are from china. the man in the shop next door blames the chinese for undercutting everyone. if we could chase them away, he says, we would. it would be better if they

weren't here. the big surprise in all this is that china doesn't see itself as a competitor or the so-called ruthless capitalist aggressor. >> and since we are both belonging to the country and we have similar experience and similar task for chinese and africans to lift their economy. >> reporter: if you drive around the capital of tanzania, it doesn't take long to find the chinese at work. we were allowed on to one building site and it helps understand how chinese companies are consistently able to win contracts over western companies. eight chinese construction workers. 50 tanzanians. as far as the chinese go, they get no vacations to china, no holidays the entire time they're on this project and it lasts two years. they still have one year to go. their only connection to home is

the tv set. meals they cook themselves. they work long hours but there is a noticeably relaxed interaction between the chinese and the tanzanians. some of the chinese have worked in tanzania before and a bit like the young kenyans learning mandarin, they are learning swahili. not necessarily to make friends. it's clear they're here to do business, just like the chinese sending the cheap shoes, building roads and buying the oil. i'm martin seemungal reporting for "worldfocus" in east africa. coming up later this month on the pbs series "wide angle," another story about how china has staked its claim in africa. in fact, the discovery of a vast underwater oil reserve in the west african nation of equatorial guinea caught the attention of not only the u.s. and china, but also some soldiers of fortune bent on

taking over the country and making its oil riches their own. it's called "once upon a coup." check your local listings for the program on pbs later this month and you can also find it online at pbs.org/wideangle. that's "worldfocus" for this monday evening. i'm martin savidge in new york. as always, we thank you for joining us and we hope to see you back here tomorrow and anytime on the web. until then, have a good night. "worldfocus" is made possible, in part, by the following funders -- "worldfocus" is made possible, in part, by the -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com