captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, may 10... china takes new steps to reinvigorate its increasingly sluggish economy. the illinois supreme court strikes down a plan to rescue the state's deeply indebted pension system. what's next? and in our signature segment from south africa, one man's plan to create what he believes is a more inclusive form of islam. his church is open to home excuse and the women can preach from the pulpit right next to men. >> >> sreenivasan: next on pbs newshour weekend.

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios in austin, texas, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening. thanks for joining us. for the third time in the past six months, china's central bank has slashed interest rates, this in an effort to boost growth in the world's second largest economy. officially, china is still growing at more than 7% a year. but last year's growth rate was the slowest in a quarter century. the central bank said today "china's economy is still facing

relatively big downward pressure." the death toll from the earthquake in nepal has now surpassed 8,000. and avalanches and poor weather conditions have forced rescuers to call off their search for missing hikers. another 16,000 people were injured in the magnitude 7.8 quake and hundreds of thousands of people are still in need of shelter. we'll have more later in the broadcast. the taliban in pakistan is claiming responsibility for shooting down a helicopter carrying foreign diplomats. seven people were killed in the incident friday, including the ambassadors to pakistan from the philippines and norway. today, the militant group posted this video online, which appeared to show taliban fighters with a surface-to-air missile of the kind it said brought down the chopper. the government says the chopper suffered a mechanical failure. and at the vatican today a meeting between the pope and the leader of communist cuba, raul castro. the two met for an hour to discuss the warming of relations between the united states and cuba, and the pope's planned visit to cuba this fall. afterwards, castro, who as a boy studied at jesuit schools, praised the pontiff and said his communist nation is easing its restrictions on religion.

>> i said that if the pope continues to talk as he does sooner or later i will start praying again and return to the catholic church. i am not kidding. i am a communist, of the cuban communist party, and my party did not allow believers but now it is being allowed. it is a step forward. >> sreenivasan: two police officers were killed in mississippi last night during what authorities describe as a routine traffic stop. the two were taken to a local hospital where one was pronounced dead on arrival. the other died later. the other died later. a woman and two men who are brothers were arrested early today. police have not shared any motive for the shooting. ten law enforcement officials have been shot and killed in the line of duty in the united states so far this year. tomorrow is national women's checkup day designed to encourage preventative care. a recent finding concluded that an estimated eight million american women are at greater risk for cervical cancer because they have not had a pap smear test during the past five years. from britain tonight, a possible explanation for the negative health consequences caused by

eating fast food. for ten days, a 23-year-old in england went on a diet consisting exclusively of hamburgers, fries, chicken nuggets and cola. at the end of the experiment tests showed he had lost more than a third of the 3,500 microbial species in his stomach-- the bacteria that protects against obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and other diseases. the study was conducted by the young man's father, a professor of genetic epidemiology at kings college in london. the defense department paid 14 nfl teams a total of more than $5 million to honor veterans at games, even though the events were routinely presented to fans as a genuine expression of thanks. the national guard, which made almost all the payments during the past four years, defended the practice saying the events are an effective recruitment tool. critics note that the teams were paid at a time when the league was classified as a non-profit, meaning it did not have to pay federal taxes.

this man has captured the world paper plane throwing contest. the winner produced a plane that one account said was pencil-thin and flew straight as an arrow. it traveled nearly 175 feet-- or 58 yards. the exuberant winner called it a dream come true. there was an important court ruling on friday. the illinois supreme court voted unanimously to strike down a law passed in december of 2013 that was meant to rescue the state's pension system. for more about the implications of that decision and what it could signal for other states, we are joined now from chicago by karen pierog. she has been covering the story for reuters. >> sreenivasan: so bring us up to speed for someone not paying attention to what the law was in 2013, what did it try to do? >> well the law was aimed at trying to ease illinois's

$105 billion unfunded pension liability and also to lower the annual amount of money that illinois has to pay towards pensions every year and illinois has had a structural budget deficit for decades and it was having a very hard time trying to come up with money you know, to pay for central state services. >> sreenivasan: at the time the legislature said this is an emergency fiscal emergency they need to act, it is almost like putting out a fire. they took certain steps like increasing the retirement age suspend okay cost of living adjustments so what did the supreme court or what did the state court say to those arguments? why did it mind unconstitutional? >> well the high court basically said that, you know, illinois kind of was a -- fabricating emergency, that will it noise could have done things it could have raised taxes or extended the period for the pensions and it also pointed out that, you know, hey, you know,

it is an emergency for this situation, you know will the state call emergencies for other situations and violate other parts of the constitution? >> so are other states watching what happens and what has been happening over the last couple of years? >> well, i think so, but you have to look at each state's, you know, special circumstances. illinois's constitution is pretty ironclad. it says that, you know public workers have a contractual right and their pension benefits cannot be impaired or diminished. >> and one of the only other states that has the exact same wording is new york state and actually illinois copied its wording from new york and new york has dealt with its problems by setting up different tiers for pensions, so, you know, in a particular year new hires will get, you know, a less generous pension as time goes on. >> sreenivasan: so put this in perspective. how bad is illinois's pension problem compared to other states in the country?

>> illinois, illinois pensions are only about 43 percent funded so compared to all the other states it has the worst funded pension system. >> sreenivasan: so what are some other states that have pension problems? >> well, new jersey, you know, its pensions are only 44 percent funded and that is a subject of litigation right now because while the employees, you know, took cuts and, you know, higher retirement ages, governor christie did not -- did not live up to his side of the bargain and did not make full pension payments as required. that is important. in california back in 2012, they did pass, you know, some initial pension reforms and now the former mayor of san jose is trying to put in an initiative on the ballot that would make further reforms to pensions in that state. >> sreenivasan: what what does illinois plan to do now the

courts have weighed in? >> well, we have a new governor here in illinois who, you know, is an untested politician, it is his first, you know term in government. he was a venture capitalist and he wants to put forth his own plan, which would be to freeze the current workers benefits where they are right now and then move them going forward into the less generous pension plan. >> sreenivasan: all right. karen pierog thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> >> sreenivasan: and now to our signature segment. our original in-depth reports from around the nation and around the world. tonight, we take you to south africa, where one man is on a campaign to make islam more inclusive toward women and gays. his outspokenness has provoked controversy and even violence-- three suspected acts of arson. but he does have his followers.

and, as newshour special correspondent martin seemungal reports, a small number of muslims around the world are taking similar steps. >> reporter: the call to prayer at cape town's newest mosque, which advertises itself as one of a kind in south africa. >> we are the only mosque by the way in the whole country that has the words all welcome. we chose the name open mosque to really identify what the mosque was about, it was open to all. >> reporter: 60 year old taj hargey is the man behind this new mosque-- a mosque he sees worthy of being replicated in other parts of the world. hargey says his mosque is open to non-muslims, homosexuals--- women are allowed to preach from the pulpit. they pray side by side with the men. tanweer is one of the few who prays here regularly ever since the mosque opened last september. >> i come to this mosque every week because this is the only mosque that i know of where

there's equality in the genders, where females sit and can actually view the sermon from the front and we're considered equals to men. >> reporter: a counter, he says, to the daily stream of news and images that portray islam as extremist and violent. in fact, hargey has been challenging muslim orthodoxy for years. born and raised in cape town, hargey went abroad and studied at oxford. he has a phd in religious studies. he made headlines in britain last year because of his "ban the burqa" campaign. >> this idea of face masking, if its an islamic practice. why is it banned in mecca? no woman which goes to mecca the holiest mosque in islam, is allowed to cover her face-- so this notion that is an islamic practice with due respect is nonsense.

it may be a cultural expression fine. it may be a personal wish. fine. if i want to put a bone through my nose i have a right. but then do i have a right to say a bone through my nose is an islamic thing? >> it think the first reaction from the muslim community was one of surprise, of astonishment and then i think a certain amount of anger. >> reporter: shafiq morton is a journalist and a convert to islam. >> there was a feeling of insult and hurt as well that somebody could come in and make these assumptions about the state of the community and make these claims that the community wasn't open, that it wasn't welcoming and that it was a closed community, that it was ultra- conservative in the negative sense. >> reporter: but it's not just hargey seeking an alternative to conservative islam. the idea has caught on in small numbers in places like canada to paris to los angeles where mosques have opened up seeking to cater to women or gay people.

>> i think what we're seeing is an attempt to really go back to debates that have existed in early muslim traditions and try to bring those traditions back to the front. >> reporter: hussein rashid is a professor of religious studies at hofstra university on long island. >> when we look at these new centers coming up, i think we have to see it not as a trend towards we're gonna have gay mosques or a trend towards having women's mosques, but really it's a pattern of muslims are now reimagining what these spaces could be like more largely. and so it's important because it's not the transformation of the tradition but it is the adaptation of the tradition. >> reporter: even so hargey's interpretation of islam has put him at odds with the mainstream muslim community here, established nearly 400 years ago by slaves from the dutch east indies-- present day indonesia. muslims now account for 1.5 percent of south africa's population. hargey's call for a revolution

on how islam is practiced has made him a target-- last year there were three arson attacks against the mosque. his theology is a sharp departure from mainstream islam- - a few miles away at the large gatesville mosque women pray from the balcony at the back of the mosque and are separated by a barrier. mainstream muslims say it has been this way for centuries and they are against what hargey is doing. >> he doesn't represent islam what his teaching and his philosophy is totally at variance with islamic philosophy. completely at variance. >> i would say he's a heretic and we will leave him to his own devices. yeah, he's an imposter. >> reporter: some people are calling you an imposter, even a heretic? >> i am not a heretic. they have very little grounds theologically and otherwise to condemn this mosque. what they are doing is scraping the bottom of the barrel. they are issuing tendentious leaflets anonymous and so forth

saying i am gay because hargey_ means the gay part of my name, i'm gay-- nonsense like that. >> reporter: although hargey's position on homosexuality has been questioned, so we asked him for a clarification. >> well, i don't endorse homosexual living. i think this is not what the koran teaches, but like i've said earlier, i do not have the right to condemn people. it is not our business to decide who enters this mosque or not. and the koran is very specific that judgement belongs to god alone. so if the homosexual or the lesbianom in known to me or unknown to me we don't have the right to exclude them from this gathering. >> reporter: for all their differences, hargey and the long established gatesville mosque are actually not that far apart. the imam of that mosque, sheik alexander, says nobody is asked about their sexual orientation

when they come to pray. >> even though homosexuality is condemned in islam, my heart and my arms are opened to those people who have a different sexual orientation always encouraging them to come back to god almighty but the mosque is still open for them because they are still human beings. >> reporter: and hargey's critics say it is implied that all mosques are "open" in one fashion or another. for example this mosque in the cape town suburb of claremont has operated with "open" practices for years. >> the space is effectively, if you walk into the room, there are women on the right side and men on the left side. and there's a narrow rope. so, for example, when my husband and i go there my husband sits there, we sit next to each other effectively. and when i say rope it's a thin rope and our kids can play in between. >> reporter: rashid says in the south africa mosque and others like it people are reacting to what he calls a "culture of exclusion" in the centers they belong to. >> so it's one thing to say, "of course, we're open.

we don't do a check if you're gay." but at the same time, there's a culture of where are women located in a mosque-- how do your sermons talk about different people who are gay or people of a different ethnicity? >> reporter: conservative muslims in cape town don't think hargey is going to get many followers at his mosque. the turnouts at hargey's mosque have been small. >> because they have been intimidated and frightened into not coming. people are afraid for their lives. >> reporter: the arson attacks late last year are still under investigation-- cape town's muslim judicial council declined to comment on hargey's mosque. however, its leaders have urged tolerance and condemned the acts of violence. taj hargey's claims and approach have stirred up controversy-- but they have also struck a nerve in the islamic community especially on the issue of gender equality. >> i like the fact that we've started conversations about this. i like the fact that people are falling over themselves to claim

openness when in reality there are a number of mosques that simply don't have spaces for women. >> reporter: and hargey he says he's not afraid of all those critics. >> if they thought that somehow we would shut up shop and somehow we'll disappear, they have another thing coming. even if we just have two or three people here this mosque will not close. >> sreenivasan: as we reported, the death toll from the earthquake in nepal has now surpassed 8,000. pamela constable of the "washington post" just returned from that country and joins us now from washington. what is the state of affairs on the ground there now? we see pictures of helicopters trying to deliver aid. are people getting it? >> yes and no. it depends very much where they are. i would say that aid is certainly beginning to reach

much of the country, including some of the worst affected areas, but still yet to reach some of the more remote mountainous areas to the north. >> sreenivasan: and there are still continuing reports of landslides and maybe small aftershocks that caused them. what kind of an effect does it have on the people trying to get with by and recover from this? >> it has minute effects one of course which is psychological because people are, in fact the nepalese people have amazingly the resilient and resourceful and accepting ways of dealing with these thingsable, i am incredibly impressed with everyone i met, even the worst affected areas, but just when you think it is over to have another landslide, to have another building fall, it can be, i think, depressing and hard on people who are trying their best to sort of start over again. >> sreenivasan: now you took some photographs while you were there, what about the people who are being sheltered?

>> the pictures that accompanied my stories were all taken by matt mclean, photographer that worked very closely on this together. pitching tents in the city, that was quite an experience to see how people were really scrambling, scrounging, finding is a advantaged bits of plastic and wood and brick and metal and making these amazing shelters for themselves, again incredibly impressive. but many many places especially in rural areas people are still literally sleeping outdoors on the ground around their relatives, afraid to go back to the dwellings that have collapsed. >> sreenivasan: and so there was also another picture that was interesting, it was of someone burning a funeral fire. i mean, it was something you don't think of, what has to happen to all of the bodies after the fact. >> yes. and the culture in nepal which is buddhist and hindu, you know, they do have these ceremonies where they put the bodies on

burning fires and they usually cover them with flowers and then burn them. and for the first several days after the quake the main place for, where that is done in kathmandu cause park pati it was an assembly line, it was very, very depressing to see. waiting lines for people to be cremated by the river. it slowed down now but that is only in the capital. most of the victims, if you add up the totals were in rural areas and it is harder to know what has happened there with the bodies. >> sreenivasan: and has the weather therimproved right now or what is it like if people are sleeping outdoors in tents? >> it is much better. the first couple of days after the quake there was a lot of rain and mud and it was very uncomfortable, but everywhere we went over the past several days, the. both rural areas and in the capital it was much nicer. >> sreenivasan: so what is the government response been like? >> it has been very mixed. i have seen police and army

everywhere we have been. they have been incredibly professional and helpful. really have helped not only secure but rescuing people, finding people and rescuing them, one case where they actually brought a solar panel to a camp so people could charge their cellphones very professional performance, especially by the police. the civilian government is really has really not done very well. there has been a lot of chaos, a lot of extra rules were put in place for customs to bring in aid, a a lot of aid was really blocked at the main airport for a long time, there was infighting going on between political parties during this whole disaster. it is a little better now but i think many people nepalis have expressed a lot of disappointment in the politicians and the civilian leadership during this crisis. >> sreenivasan: all right, pamela of the washington post, thanks so much. >> you are very welcome. >> >> sreenivasan: for more information about how to help victims of the earthquake in nepal, visit us online at pbs.oeg/newshour.

here in texas, songwriters and members of the military are teaming up, crafting music together to help the servicemen and women better cope with their experiences. some of those in the program spoke to director mario troncoso of klru for the upcoming documentary "in their words." >> songwriting with soldiers to me is this incredibly beautiful, kind of evolution you might say of what i've always wanted to do, which is tell stories and write songs. >> one of the most wonderful things about music is a great song lets you know you are not alone. ♪ >> my purpose here today is to spread a message of hope and

inspiration for other soldiers that are suffering from ptsd, help understanding as far as what's happening that it's okay. >> and what we found was the collaboration process with songs, in particular, is very cathartic. it makes them feel better. it releases something. it allows people to step across a border that they didn't know was there. >> we're losing 22 veterans a day to suicide. a day. i guarantee you they've saved lives with this program. >> i've thought about giving up. i've thought about hurting myself. i've thought about throwing in the towel. it's just something about music. it changes everything. >> i feel incredibly lucky to have found this new way of writing songs that's using the craft of songwriting in service of someone else. ♪

>> sreenivasan: some more news before we leave you tonight: there were reports of damage but no reports of deaths. thousands of gallons of oil spilled into the hudson river after a fire last night at a nuclear power plant in, near new york city and former president jimmy carter took ill in south america today. he unexpectedly returned to united states. finding allergies by eating nuts. >> parker anderson >> 12-year-old parker anderson has been allergic to peanuts and tree nuts since she was a toddler. she's come to stanford university to enroll in a first- of-its-kind clinical trial in the hopes that she may one day be able to eat nuts... >> sreenivasan: that's it for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. a special thank you to our friends here at klru in austin. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching.

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

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