captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: gooevening. i'm jim lehrer. the devastating earthqke claims thousan of lives in haiti. >> ifill: i'm gwen ifi. on the nshour tonight, schools, hospitalsnd government buiings have collapsed. we get the latest on t crisis in port-au-prince. >> lehrer: intnational groups e scrambling to send emergen help margaret warner report >> ifill: then, an intview with rajiv shah, the administration offial charged withoordinating the u.s. lief effort.

>> lehrer: then, t investigation to the causes of the financiacrisis. kwame hoan covers day one of e hearings. >> ill: and jeffrey brown looks atyber-attacks and censorship--oogle's threat to pull out of ina. >> lehrer: that's all ead on tonight'"pbs newshour." jor funding for the pbs newshour iprovided by: >> what e world needs now is energy. the energy to get the onomy humming again. the energy to tackle challges ke climate chang what if that energy me from an energy company? ery day, chevron invests $62 million in people, in ids-- seeking, teaching, buiing. fueling owth around the world to move us all ahead this is the por of human energy chevron.

>> bnsf railway. toyota grant thornton and by the alfred p. sloan the nationalcience foundation. supporting education and research across all fids of science anengineering. and th the ongoing support of these institutionsnd fodations. and. is program was made possible by the corporation for

public broadsting. and by contributions to ur pbs station fr viewers like you. ank you. >> lrer: hundreds of buildings were destroyed, and the haian president sa 30,000 to 50,000 pele could be dead. other estimas ranged as high 500,000. u. officials were checking reports of threemericans killed out of 45,000 ling in haiti. judy woodrufbegins our coverage. >> woouff: the light of morning brout the catastrophe in the caribbean clearly int view. huge swathof port au prince had been reduced to rus, and thousands ofeople gathered on the streets seeking shter. they were left dazed by th

region's mt powerful earthquake in more than 200 years. it struck about an hour fore nightfl on tuesday, just ten miles west of the haitian capital, home to two million people. >> the world is cong to an end. >> woodruff: this amatr cell phe video, posted on youtube, showed a he cloud of dust rising from the ci. mes, hospitals, schools and office bldings simply collapsed, trapping unown thousands. rvivors poured outside, hopi to escape. some tried tpull others out to safety. australian aid worker ia rodgers ofave the children was in port au prince, a reported scenes ochaos. >> the infstructure is all down at the mont. theris no power. it's very, very dark. earlr in the evening, before it g too dark, you were hearing a lot of people viously breathing and a lot distss going on, looking for their miing relatives. we are really quite ncerned about children and famies at the moment and wt's going to happen. >> woodruff: the ornate presidential palace-- en here

in a photo before the ake-- crumbled into itself, buthe prident and first lady were not injured. dozens of otr government buildings, incding the parliant, also caved in. the mainrison in port au ince was in ruins, and inmat escape througho last night, makeshift camps and hoitals were set up, d the bodies of e dead were piled on the streets. but more than 30 aftshocks rocked the are hindering scue efforts. some 900 united nations peacekeepers are serving in haiti. at lst 14 were killed and many were injured when their headquarters collapsed. the ssion chief and more than 150 others were missin the adquarters of the international red cross was so deroyed. e organization said one thir of haiti's nine llion people

may need emergency aid the que also claimed the life ofhe archbishop of port-au- prince. this is a majority catholic country, and pope nedict xvi spoke at the vatican >> ( translated ): issure my spiritual closeness to thoseho have lt their homes, and to althe people who are suffering in various ways for this calamity, imploring om god nsolation and relief for the sufferings. >> woodruff: thearthquake was a devastating blow to hait the poorest nati in the western hemisphere. the country is still recoving fr a series of hurricaneand tropical storms in 200that killed more than 800 peoe. in washington today, psident obama pledd u.s. "unwavering" support. >> with just a few hundred mes of ocean between uand a long history that binds utogether, haitians are our neighbors i the americ and here at home. our thoughts and prayers are also with e many haitian-

americans arnd our country, who do not yetnow the fate of their milies and loved ones back home. >> woodruff: from miamto new york and elsewhere, itian- americanbegan gathering last night to wt for news. >> no, i only got a busy snd. >> woodrf: some tried in vain to reach filies all night. >> i have a t of sisters the, and i went over there in julyo spend time with them. i don't know if i will have chce to see them again. >> wdruff: in miami's little iti section this morning, a mass forhe earthquake victims was held at the cathedraof st. mary the dister affected all, from everydayeople to community leaders, includi phillip brutus, the first itian american elected tthe state legislature in flori. >> a lot of pele are uncounted for. my wifis in haiti. i have a five-yearld in haiti. she sent me a xt yesterday. e text started and then i didn't get the end of the te,

and i've been tryi to text everince. hofully, they are okay. >> woouff: in chicago, haitian-ericans gathered at a local community center and church to ek comfort. >> i mea i'm panicked. you ve your friends, your relatis, your parents there. the haian broadcast of the voice ofmerica went into expanded service, evenhough its main tnsmitter in haiti was destroyed in the quake. 50% of haitians lien to the v.o.a. ronald cesar is thservice director in washgton. >> v.o.a. creole service w able to set up phone number for haitians to ca and leave messages f their loved ones, and we wou play those messages in our badcast. >> woodruff: sll, most forms of communication were do in haiti, leaving many toait for more news in the comg days. >> lehre now, the view from port-aprince. hari sreenivasan ske earlier today, through a sky video connection, with freelce

journalist ansel hz. 's been a radio porter in haiti for e past four months. we staed by asking him to describehe last 24 hours. >> reporter: extremely hechtnd i can crazy since the eahquake struck. i basicallleft my house, which shook quite a bit but thangod it did not fall, unlike manyf e military story houses and buildingin the neighborhood, which have fallen. i've basically jusbeen in the streets shooting footage and talking to people. i made a point of ying to get downtown and seeing the nation tower, for example, it collaed in on itself, in differe parts. also theeadquarters of the international peacekeeng force here, bacally collapsed entirely. and so theeacekeepers are really occupy, ihink, with a lot their own personnel who have died. people are basally inhe streets ying to stay away from buildings and walls and ings

that could clapse. they're ying to survive at this point. there's not much in the way rescue efforts, really notng inhe way of rescue efforts that i've seen in e streets. and i ink haitians are just ying to come together just t help each otr out. i've sn a lot of people ying to bpulled from the rubble, from buildings, thughout port-au-prce. >> sreenivasan: you sa there's a lot of pple still out on the streets. are they just toafraid to go into tir homes? have thereeen a loof aftershocks? >>eah, actually, the last aftershock they lt was just a feminutes ago. i rely did not expect to feel th because before that, the previous oneas at midnight. i think we went most of thi past day withouteeling any aftershocks , but feeling another one actually just a w minutes ago was ary. >> senivasan: at's the status of emergey services there? are there any lice on the stres? are the any ambulances trying get people to hospitals? what the state of hospitals, if you've been near on >>eporter: i haven't been inside a hospital, b i've seen a few.

they do seem to be opete be, but thhospitals here in port-au-prince alrdy are notorious for just bei understaffed andometimes unreliab and crowded. in terms of emergency lief forts out in the streets, i rely saw none in terms of the peacekpers being able to start pull people from rubble or start reconstructi or provide shelter or aid agenc, n.g.o.s, the haitian government e saw no offial relief efforts in the stets while i was out therin downtown . i just did see lot of haitians dinary haitians trying to pu peop out from the national cathedral, for example. there was a woman therwho was basically crushed beneata door which s just open a crack so peop were swinging with pick axes to y to pry that open. lot of schools collapsed, an ople are searchi for children that may be stilllive beneath the rubble. but, you know, againn terms of ergency relief, from officia agencies, i've rlly seen

nothing. >> sreenivasan: you'vepoken to people o there. what's t sentiment? i mean, are they resigned? are they frustrated athe lack any of officiaresources to come in anhelp? are they just tryi to find thr relatives? what are they saying? >> reporter: people artrying to survive. you know, some people o i spoke toust didn't really have anything to say. i think they're sort of in state of shockjust kind of craz haiti doesn't derve this at all. and i think peoplere just trying to survive at this int. i don't think the's really muchxpectation that the governnt can do a lot to help becae the government here is relatively weak. it doesn't have a loof resources in tms of being able to help people out , you know, in terms ambulances trying to rescue people. i've seen probab three or four dring throughout the streets in the past 24 hours, you kn, so that's not ma. and i just think peoplare

really not sure what going to happen they're not sure who ty can-- who they c rely on in terms of the government or aiagencies or other natns you know, i ard people say th they just-- they want help from whoever c provide it. >> ifill: ifore we're joined byreg elder for doctor without borders. he overseela trinite hospital in port-aurince but he's based in new york. and yves colon, a form "miami herald" rerter and editor who now teacs journalism at the university of miami. he was bo in haiti and and is involved with several haitn american groups ancharities rking in that country. professor colon, iant to start th you because i know you ha faly in haiti and i wonder the latest you havheard about their whereaboutss a the situation onhe ground. >> well, so far, no news whatsoever, gwen. it's really fre frustratin and i think that'shat's really botherg us here that we haven't been able to getny

word about my familyspecific, about mom who lives there. she's all alone. and we've been spending, since last night, just looking at twiter and febook and all the other news chaels, hoping for rd. but , u know, it's been impossible. i keep calng and i haven't been able to get through. at first it was a bu signal, and then now , theris nothing at all. you know, the lineare-- i imagine,ll the cell towers are down , and i thin you know, wee been spending the whole day in complete frustration. >> ifilldr. elder as you've been trying to get reliefn the ground the, how has the counication problem been acting and you you and h do you get a reliable assesent of what the damage,s what the eds are? >> thank you for inviting us here to discuss this. communicatns have been a prlem. we were able to make communication quite quickl after the earthqke and were able to

stay in contact with t am if. st of the evening and throug the day todabut certainly counications has been a problem what we do know-- and our team has en able to paint a picture for us of what happeneduring the evening-- it was chaotic people weron the streets . they didt know where to go, where to turn r help. we had to basically move through the streets on foot to t to assist the exnt of the damage to our own health structures d otr health structures so we uld see whether or not there woulbe functioning. facilities today. >> ifill: are e health facilities not the any more? we heared red oss has said theimedical supplys are exhausted. >> wve been working in haiti for some time. we have a trauma center an maternity hospit, and nearly 800 staff on theround

port-au-prince. so we already had facities functioning. those facilities structuray have been soadly damaged we've had to evacuate patients outf those faciliti into the neighboringrounds. but we've been aubto set up some tented ab to set up some nted first aid centers today theyave been overwhelmed, exhausted already in port-au-prince. thhealth system is rather fragile d the hospitals we haveisited during the evening anduring the day have been overwhelmed. so we're sort of trying to fl a gap in the shorterm and wreen force thatn the coming days with inflateable hoital and surgical facilits that will be fln in from the u.s. and from europe in the cing 48 hours. >> ifi: yves colon, for those who ha not been to port-au-prince, give us a description of wt, before this ppened, it was. it was not t best of situatio physically, even bere this happened.

>> no, it's not. u know, port-au-prince was a smalcity that was built for maybe less than 0,000 people, annow it's about two million pele. and it's-- its streets are clogged all the time wit traffic and housing is at premium in haitio the only place go is --s to crowd the house next door. so it'a very, very, very crowdeenvironment. and re and more people have beenuilding towards the hills, and gettinaway from downtown port-au-prince. so, yeah, it was not-- it s not a mfortable place to begin th. and overhe past 20, 30 years, it has gotten even me and more crded as more people from the cotryside have been coming in to theapital looking for work looking for educatio looking foa way to make a livi. so it's place, also, where

there'very little control in building. nouilding rules, zoning rules per se . u might have-- you might tak a permito build a house in port-au-prince but youill not find a inspectors, really, checking outo see whether you are doing the right ing. so this is theind of enviroent that port-au-prince is. it'sery shoddy construction , d you have the hillsides all around t city at are populad with-- that are smal buildings at you find in other places, slums, very small buildis , one-room housesa blk that are basically hanging to sides of theill. and that's basically howt is. >>fill: let me ask dr. elder, you work in disaster areasike th around the country, in placwhere's there aren't

disasts, arbtd world, how does this compareo something like, say, the aan tsunami , the sce of the damage? >> well, it's a catastroic event. as the prossor said, port-au-prince is a very coested city with a high population and a relativelpoor infrastructu. so it's really a castrophic event where absolutely none knows reallyhat the scope of this is inerms of casualtys and fataliti . it will beome time before yone can tell that because people are buried unr the rubble. also, the existing infrastructu and ability to spond to an emergency is really n very strong in haiti and is rathedependent on international pport, inrnational organizations to be able to fill that gap. >> ifill: yves colon iave to ask you, you're right the in miami. little haiti is a big

neighborhood in . the ty, what has the reaction been there today? >> i tnk everyone is feeling a greadeal of frustration. like i said before thenly news haitiansre getting is trickling throug fr word of mouth. no one h been able to reach their familiesso every haitian inime wants to know what's happening. everne has family members in port-au-prince or elseere, and everyone is look f news. you know, the ly way that i got newsoday about what's happening th our students, for example, the at the itian education adership program, help, in haiti sthrough wordf people sending skype and iter feeds and all that. and lot of haitians don't have computers here. they don't have accesso this kind of technology and information everyone is basilly stuck because they are all relying on celphones. so there's great deal of

frustratn, and anger, really, th people want to know what's happening. i think not knowg, as it is happing for us, not knowing is terrible. we all want to knowhat's going on, what cane do? and feel totally helpless. if i can speak--. >> ifilli was just saying-- dependg on the u.s. government to help you with, to help yo establish those mmunication, or ithat something your own storbl networks are beg able to fill that gap >> well, i'm relyi on friends who are work a i'm a former reporter forhe "miami herald" and i ve friends down in haiti rit now and before i left last night, i gave them myother's number, and other friends o are working for othenews outlets o are also going down to haiti. and th's what i'm relying on, really, to try to get me word, try to fd out what's going on with my mom. but, otherwise, i keep cling, you know, and m not gointo stop calling othe cell phone to see hopefully that me , soon

anyway, i'll hear sothing. >> ifill: we wish u all luck in finding your family and i beg a happy finding, and so thank you veryuch, yves colon, and also, to greelder in new york thank you. >> thank yougwen. >> lehrer: joining us nofrom the unit nations is undersecretary generalohn holmes. he's in charge of humanitaan affairs. mr. holmes, welcome. >> thank yougood evening. >> lehre how would you, based on your informatn cong from thunited nations, how would you describe the sittion there tonigh >> i think the suation, paicularly in the capital, port-au-ince, is traumatic and tragic. clearly, the devastaon caused by thearthquake is extremely widespread . we belie and fear there are hundreds, possibly thousan of viims still in the rubble in houses and buildin of various kind and u.n. members, staff, among them. thtop priori is to get the search and rescu

team the proper equipnt in there before it's too late. as you know, every momen kountss. i thinthere are teams arriving from china, the united stes, and from theominican republic and elsewhere. we need to get the tms in there qukly to save lives. the next part i think for uss going be medical help. the dical infrastructure such as it is in port-au-prince has been clearly overwhelmed bthe number of ctims kbhz of course hospitals have been destroyeor badly damaged by the earthque itself. those are two the priorities we're facing but it is very dramatic and huge agedy for the pele of haiti and exactly what they don't need after all they've been through >> lehrer: mr. hmes, there have beeestimates up to 30,000 in terms of the deattoll. >> i'm leery giving numbers. there are hbdz, probab thousands of dead buwe simply don't ow. i dot want to give you a figure. let's waito see until we get a bit more information. whatever the

act figure sit's clearly a majotragedy. ere will be major humanitarian relieeffort to be mounted as well as the srch and rescuefforts i talked about soe will have a lot on our plates in the ne few days. >> lehrer: what out the situion on port-au-pnce. the united nations h peacepeacekeeperthere. somef them were obviously injure an kill, soive us thaterspective. >> ihink there are a lot of people on the street bause they have noere else to go. ey spent the night on the street partly becausthere is nowhere se to go and part lie because of fear of afterocks beuse they are continuing and so people are beginng to need the kind of emergey aid we will wt to provide them in terms of shelter, od, clean water,anitation, the basics of life. for the moment, it see reasonably calm. the u.n. peacekeepers ar helping to t to maintain law and orr on the streets to make su that they-- the major installations ofhe port and airport and her public buildings are secu, that the roadare open, and that--

they're also helng to give as much aid to people as they possiblyeven despite the problems we have of our n. >> lrer: is the haitian government functioning? >> well, i think theaitian government is beginning start to recover fro what'soing to-- been a emendous shock. this is not a vernment havew a huge capity to start with. it ia very poor and underdeveloped cntry. i think they havbeen knocked sideys by the extent of this trag bee. the individual members of the services, the fire brigadend so on are concerned out their own family so i think ere is a long way to go to reestaish serves but i see the first signs of the government starng to function ain. >> lehrer: speak of the tr deerkz describthe tragedy that t your folks, that hit the n. people in porau-prince, and gi us some feel for what happed and what the result has been. well, the biggest problem i that the main s of the u.n. peacekping mission , a building call the hotel

christher, collapsed re or less complely as i understand it. it was a five-sty concrete builng, apparently robust, and claepsd almost completely. ma people were trapped inside. rmally 200 people work there we believe at least 100 ma still be trapp under the rubb. we're desperately tryi goat them o. we don't know if they're deaor alive. it's a desperate struggle agnst time helped by the brazian peacekeepers in this particular case but wiout the right equipmt to do the job as we'd likto do it. it's particularly agic for us becae the skinand his deputy arboth trapped under the rubble. we don't know wh their condition is, either. it's a huge lo for the united nations. other peacekeepers in othe ples have died or been injured so that's the biggesproblem we face athe moment. >> lrer: there's been a report from the presidentf haiti that bassador anoby , chief of the u.n. missi in haiti, has been one of the victims. is that correct?

>> i can't confirm that. as f as i know, we're still looking for him under thrubble with my others so i can't confirm that rort and i certainly hope it's not tr. >> lehrer: can you conrm any the deaths among the u.n. mission people? >>e certainly have some deaths. i think at least five peop have been pulledut dead from the bble. there may well be others we've saved so people , badly injured, but i can't givyou more specififigures. it's still aery fluid moving target so it's very hardo give u definitive answers to questions like, that'm afraid. >> lehr: all right, mr. holmes thank you very much fothis update. >> thank you. >> ifill: as the cri for help went out from haiti, t promises of acti came in. maaret warner has that part of the ory. >> warner: within urs, governments anaid orgazations around the globe scrambled to mobilize massive disasterelief effort for haiti. in washington, presidentbama, promised all out humanitaria

and rescue operations for amica's caribbean neighbor. >> the people of haiti will ve e full support of the united states in the gent effort to rescue tho trapped beneath the rubble ando deliver the humanitarian relief-- the od, water and medine-- that haitia will need in the coming days. >> warner: wh the chaos in haiti, and the u. peacekeeping operation there t of mmission for now, the job of coordinating the masve international respon to the tragedy s fallen t washington. the u.s. isn't functiong as a gatekeep, but definitely as a clearinghouse. the u.s. is mounting the bigst effort so fa headed byajiv shah, e administrator for the u.s. agency for inrnational development. shah told reporters toy that the immediate fos is on saving lis, and preparing for longer term relief. >> we have two urb search and rescue units on their way, bh are units th 72 individuals,

people who have siificant training and experse for rescue in urban settin drill through, car as much as is possible rube to identify who can continue with the missioof saving lives. >>arner: the u.s. military is heavily involved as well. general douglafraser, he of e u.s. southern command, sai its sh is to get assessment teams on the gund, and bolster haiti's battered irastructure. >> so 're focused on getting command and control and communications there so thate can really get a better understanding of what'going on. the bottom line it is we don't have a clearssessment of what the situation othe ground is, what theeeds within port- au-prince are, how extensi the situation is. we also finally have a team that's headed tohe airport. fr my understanding, because my deputy commanr just happened to be ihaiti when this situation hapned on a

previously scheduledisit, he has been to the airport. he says the nway is functional but the tower doesn'have communications capability, t ssenger terminal has structural dame, too, so we dot we don't know what the status is. >> warner: also headed hti's way are u.s. coastuard vessels anan aircraft carrier. and being readied toeploy-- 2,000 marines to provide security or assistelief forts. local search and rescue tes from fairf county, virgini and loangeles county will be among the first onhe ground. the fairfax county unit to about 7000 pounds of equipment with them. vid rohr is assistant chief operations. >> our role, once we arre in country, is to gout, to send a recon team out thahas people from those different speclties. and they will survey the buildings and they will ok to see if we n do any surface scues. they will evaluateuildings that hava higher probability of having live vicms in them.

and we'll set search teams. >> warr: and dozens of other countries are also eagero help: rescue squadand trained search dogs werbeing sent to haiti from china, britain, and germany, which alspledged financial assistance. ( translated ): the gman we he already decided this morng to make aid in amount of one million euros avlable on humatarian grounds, so that help can be adminiered quickly, although we allnow that this isust a small contbution. >> warne but all countries and agencies agree, it won'te easy toperate france's foreigninister bernard uchner spoke with reporters th morning. >> ( translated ): let's not have too many illusis. we have to act as quicklas possib, but there is always someind of difficulty accessing the buildis. >> warner: also mobilizing a the major inteational relief agenciesas well as smaller ones. the international recross said it would send a ple tomorrow loadedith body bags. anonline, agencies and individuals mobilizeto gather donatis and coordinate volunteer efforts.

>> lehrer: wget an update now from dr. rajiv shah, t administrator of the u.said agency. i talked with m earlier this evening from the sta department. before i spo with u.n. official john holmes i spoke with him.- elcome. >> tnk you. >> lehrer:r. , how would you describe the extenof the u.s. assiance effort this evening? >> fir, let me just say that especiallyith with respect to this ethquake in haiti, this has been the wst national dister and worst earthquake haiti has had in cturies. so this is a tragitime and a tragiceemt for the haitian people. and for e many american citizens that li and work and contribute to haitiasociety and our thouts and prayers go out to them. the presidt has ordered a swift, aggressiv and coordinad response , and we a working aggrsively across the federal government to put togetherll the assets and

capabiliti we have to help embark on a search-a-rescueue mission, to lp evacuate key members of the u.s. personne base that are there, and to lp work with the itian government to first get through this immediate tragedy, andhen lay the grouwork for an effort to rebuild and suain the effort. so we are doing ablutely everything we n right now , an we are followinghe president's very strong involvement in order to make sure that we are swt, we are aggressive, ande are coordinated in doing this wo. >>ehrer: when you say "everything," is step numb one priority number one,o find victims, dead alive, and get at situation taken care of first? >> yes, r number one goal in the first 72 hours after a disaster like thiss too save lives. and so we have stood uand are keemploying multiple uan search-and-rcueue teams.

these are teams that are trained and ve technical capability, equipment,nd experience in going into these typ of situations iurban areas, gging through rubble, searching for survivors,nd doing everything we n to help the haitian people and selp amican citizens and so many others have from the international community suive to the extent thathat is possible in the first 72ours. >> lrer: how many teams are going, and have anof them arrived yet, andhat's the plan for theiarrival? >> well,e do have a number of teams set up. are working effectively wit the departnt of defense , and our military cabilities to use militaryransport to make sure we get these teamon the ground inaiti. we have one am on the ground, and we will expand that numb significantly ov the next few hours and through the night. these tes, when they get on the ground, will work l night. they will deoy, and they will begin thwork as soon as they get there.

each team is about 72 peopl they have technicatraining, and ey have equipment and capabilities. we're so work across the internationacommunity, working with parers like the united kingdom,he dominican republic, other ds that are providing differenresources that will be part of this effort and itill be impornt logist support and additional psonnel to help thise as successful as is ssible in this short time frame. >>ehrer: so some americans who were there when thearthquake hit, you'rtrying to bring some ofhose out, but you're bringing othermericans in to help in the scue effort? is that corrt? thats correct. of course, the americans we' bringing in artechnically trained prflzsn disaster assistance and response. they will be doing the surveillance. they will be coordinatg with the united nations and their capabities to make sure we identify the most portant targets d begin working in those buildings , and they'll , again, ling the plans and the ground work for what we pe is a significt rebuild effort and

disaster recovery effort. so we're sending i technicals and professionals to do a ry difficult job in a vy difficult context. asou know, they're still experiencing tremorsnd other aftershocks from the earquake. and so it is a difficult environment. a number of our partnersave lost many, many of theiream members , and it's a dficult environment, but we' going to work aressively, and we're going to work across the federal government, the state departnt and department of defense wi provide significant support for the effort as are others. we're working with the department of heal and medical units we're woing with, the department of homeland secury and fema make sure we expand our sech and rescue efforts quickly asossible sglerp from your spinach, from people at you have on the grou d any other contacts, can you adany ght on what the disastener

human tes is right now ious in other words what the dea toll and possib injury toll is at that stage? >> wl, this is a tremendous dister of significant sce. i don't think is helpful to y to guess numbs at this point. ousole focus per e president a strong guidance is to focuon ving lives in the first 72 hours, and that's exactly at we'll do. so we'll look for oprtunities to do good in that way and that's on beha of the american ople and we have skilled, traineprofessionals that have do that. >>ehrer: i realize we're only 24 hours into thiswhat are the priors in terms of need? the priority to send professionals like you'r sending, technical people you said is it money? is it food? ist medil supplys? what a the critical needs right now and how would u characterize tm? >> we' trying to do a number ofhings to meet some nes. one of the needs he in the united stes is making sure people have the ability to access information aut their

ved ones and their family members that may be in hti. 've set up a saint hot line 888-407-4747. so americans canall into that nuer and enquire aboufamily members in haiti. in terms of needin haiti, they arwhat you expect. in theirst 72 hours it is urban search and rescue,lear deis and try to identify individuals we thk we can save and lives we can save. beyond that had will b signicant health needs, water and sanitation needs, anwe're working plans to make sure fo is available and accessie in safe and sere virmtz. anwe're also keeping our eye a security situation and a number of other sectors wher we'lbe very focused as this folds in the coming days and weeks. >> lehrer: dr. shah, thankou very much. >> tnk you, jim.

>> lehrer: and still to comen the wshour: tough estions about the financial cris; and google thrtens to leave cha. >> ifill: thatollows the other ws of the day. he's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom >> sreenivasan: the u.s. dea toll in afghanisn grew again today. four americatroops, a french ldier, and four afghan troop were killed in separatattacks. 14 amerins have died in the fighng so far this month. and fo2009, the u.n. reported the death toll among ahan civilians wathe highest since the war began. more than 2,400 afghandied in violenceast year, 14% more thanhe year before. 70 percent of thosdeaths were attributed to taliban attas. the u.s.upreme court will dede whether to give broad anti-trust proction to the naonal football league. the leue argued for that status today for pposes of selling f.l.-branded mercndise. thcase involved a headgear company at sued the n.f.l. over being shuout of a linsing deal. major leagueaseball is currently the only professnal sports league th full anti-trust protectio economic news, a white hous report today credited th econom stimulus package with

creatingr saving two million jobs the president'council of economic advers said economic growth lasyear would have been two percentage pois lower without the stimulus, aning roughly twmillion fewer jobs than there are now. republicans have sharp criticed the administration's counting methods. the rally has resud on wall street. the dow nes industrial average gained 53 points todayto close above 10,6. e nasdaq rose more than 25 points to close justnder 2,30 those e some of the day's main stories. i'll be back at the d of the program with preview of what u'll find tonight on the newshour's web site. but for now, back to gwen. >> ifill: top bankers faced tough estions on capitol hill today about their le during, and sie, last year's financial collapse. newshour congressional correspondent kwame lman has our port on the first hearing in a major invesgation. >> holman: the chair of the commission looki into the financial meltdownade clear at

the outset of day's hearing that the pan is determined to find out what caused the collapse. >> ... a full and fair inqui into what broughour financial syem to its knees. >> holman: the bartisan ten- member panel was created b congress a will meet thughout the year. the mmission will issue a report next dember, but is not pected to make any recommendations. e first witnesses wereall stet executives, who apologized for the risky behavior that d to the crisis. each of theicompanies received billions of dollars in government suprt at the height of the meltdn. john mack chairman of morgan stanley. >> we recognize our indust has mucho do to regain the trust of taxpayers, investor and public officials. >> holman: brian moyhan is c.e.o. of bank of america, wch is a newshour underwter. >> i wt all of you and the american pple to knothat i fully understand andppreciate thgravity of the crisis that we are now jt coming through. we are graful for the courage

shown by goverent leaders to take bold and unprecedente action to preser the financial system. >> holman: b the executives alsoefended thr firms' bonus and compensation practices, which have drawn the i of president oba, members of congressand the public. commissioner heather murren, retired merrill lynch dictor, pressed goldn sachs chief exutive lloyd blankfein on the issue. goldmais expected to award billions of dollars in bones next week. >> how can you reconle these things, gin what's going on in the couny economically? and do you feel thatour compensaon adequately reflects yourirm's behaviors, what the standards ofhe times are? >> if you look at the hiory of our compensationthe compensation alwaycorrelated with theesults of the firm, as it did last year. >> holman: blankin noted that he and other top execuves at goldman dinot receive bonuses last yea commission chairman phil angelides, aormer democratic treasurer of cifornia, sharply

questioned him about goldm's practice opackaging risky mortgages anselling them to investorat the same time the firm took fincial positions tting against those troubled assets. >> what we do is ris manageme. cause we had this risk, becauswe were accumulating positions-- which, by the y, we acqred from clients who wanted to sell them to us-- have to out ourselves and provide ansource the other side of the transaions, so we that can managour risk. these are all exercises in rk management >> well, i'm jusgoing to be blunt wi you-- it sounds to me a little b like selling a car withaulty brakes, and then buying an insurance policyn thbuyer of those cars. it doesn't seem to me th that's a practice that inspis confidence in the market >> every pchaser... every purchaser of an asset here ian institution, probably

professional-only investors dedicated in most cases to ts business... >> holman: ... reprenting pension funds who ha the life savingof police officers... these are the professional investors who wanthis exposure. >> holman:eanwhile, commissioner dglas holtz- eakin, a republican d former direct of the congressional budget office, asked j.pmorgan chase c.e.o. jamieimon whether his rm adequately looked a risks in t housing market. you had been doing stress tests prior to the csis? >> yeah. >> did you do a stressest that owed housing prices falling? >> no. i would say that w probably e of the big misses. we stressed almost everythin se, but we didn't see home pres going down almost 40%. >> holman: tay's hearing was st the beginning for the commission. meers warned the executives that ty should be prepared to answer more questions the future. >> lehre finally tonight, google china threat.

jeffrey brown has the story. >> bro: it was an unusual sit in beijing this morng as a haful of people created a makeshift memori outside google's offices, reonding to news that the intern giant might pull out of ina. response to attacks oits wesite, including breaches of email accounts belging to human rits activists. the was praise for google's move. >> ( tranated ): they are letting us know the uth. >> brown: anworries about the impact. >> ( anslated ): i feel it is a pity. even thougit doesn't affect all of my life, but it is a al hassle if we d't have google. >> brown: the world's ading search company annnced yesterday it had discored what it cald a "highly sophisticated and rgeted attack" on it and peaps 34 other companies,dding that the atcks clearly came from within cha. as a result, chief leg officer david drummond wrote

google launched its gole.cn si in china in 2006, agreeing to abide by governnt strictures that filter out searches for certainanned topics, such ataiwan, tibet, or t tianamen square massacre, a stance that had brght criticm from rights groups. 2008, margaret warner asked the then-head of google's cha operation about itwillingness to aee to government filtering of information. >> some peop ask us, "why do we choose to filter? but really, that not the question. we didn't have a cice of filter or not fier. our choices are, awe filter, comply by the law and ve a legal presence in china, ob) we don't enter chi. and we feel that we che "a"

becauswe felt to engage and to offeas much information as we could wathe right decision. >> brown: google's turnaroun ups the rporate stakes in the world's most populous couny, and also raises tensions bween china and the united states. seetary of state clinton issued a statement, saying e look to the chinese governme for an explanation. e ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critic in a modern society and economy." for its part, chese authorities re reported to be "seeking more formation on google's statement." and while a few inese citizens had learned of t fight with google, mo knew little or thing of the news, which was itself heavily cenred. for more now on e google move anits possible impacts both inside and outside cna, we turn to: xiaoiang-- he is director of the china internet proct at the unersity of california at berkeley's gduate school of journalism, and is also under and edor-in-chief of "china digital mes," a bilingual cha news web site. and andrew lih is direct of

w media at university of soutrn california's annenberg scol of communicatn and journalism. andrew lih, how big a de is this, and why? it's a pretty big deal. i think when people w the post went up on a corrate blog, direct challenging the prc's policies, that was a hugevent in the chinese cyrspace and also icorporate relations in the pacific. 's a real interesting set of developments becau google, for a while, has been trying to nd its feet in china,nd this, to many people, was the last straw in termsf trying to figure out where exactly they sto with the chinese governnt. >> brown: and xiao quiang,ill in some of t pictures for us. what do we been these cyber-attacks? who were they aimed at and ist clear yet whetr it came from thchinese government? >> the chinese government agent have been using cyber hacking mgsd

-- method, both side of china and outsidof china and well-known and resrched fact. since e year of 2002. the google's gmail eerience is just latest exampl what's significa is a company like google ma this public. i understand that it isn internet companyho operates entirely based on the trust of e clients, or users, the seice like gmail, cannot afford to lose theironfidence from their client s thatoogle has the capabili to protect their privacy. so this attack is seous. and, of cour, like andrew said this is only theast straw that google is exriencing in cha.a- perating in a sensored

, highly censorednvironment. >> brown: the rceived wisdom is theseompanies cannot afford not to be in ine and, therore, acquiesce. does this look like the beginning of some kindf major turnaround in that attite? >> think it shows that companies are only willi to st around for so long, or at least google is leading thway now, in rms of having the deck stacked against them. en i was living in beijing just last year, was at a talk with t american chamber of commerce, and any mpany that does business inhina knows that there areots of obstacles. me are natural. me are very artificial, impod by the govement. so asked the question to a roomful of business leers if e deck is it tacked against you does it make sense to pl the game? we've seen from google ty have ternal challenges the charismac leader of their inese operations is no longe

with them. he wt off to start anoth venture but with china they've hachallenges. theye had the scrutiny of the auorities and of mea organizations ke the central tevision station, where they did a port saying at google has loued lewd ctent on their web site, even thoh other search eines have the same type o conten google probably thght they weren't treated irly for some time in china and thiss pretty much the last stw. goog is willing to playy the rules, but suddey in in case of possible corporate espionage inside their offices in chin afs a prettylarming thing for ogle to discover. >> brown: of course, xo quiang google worldwide is the world leader b in china they are not the leader-- >> number ird in the market. >> lehrer:umber third-- number three. what does thatean in terms of e leverage the chinese gcht has against google

mit they just be prepared to say, "you dot like it? away." >> we really should put thisn the context of the googlevent in a larger context which is it's not google vsus china. it more the internet versus the authoritarian regime,. fundamentallthe internet is an enabler. it's empowering people organize information, effectively usinformation and work together, collaboraon, and even mobilize collective tions. from those pnt of view, goog's services as a product, the leading servicesempowering peopleo do so. and the inese government ndamentally nnot live in peace with such eowering faor of technology . therefore, thecannot live in peace with google, period. so when the internet is geing

larger and larger in china, e ternet users are more and mo potically activeand the political speechs ha become more andore proactive, then e government hato intensify its measure to higher and higher dege, and theto the point a coany like a google cannot take it any more. so this is the fundameal. issue of china's vernment versus the internet. >> brown: andrew lihthat suggests other cpanies will have to make similarecisions. in fact, there are other american-based companies tt were also attacked. and, of course, itlso suggests that these tsions that i refeed to in the setup between the governments will b exacerbate >> yeah, this could be vy interesting to s the repercussiing of this because does google become the pneer in giving other companiethe boldness tsay , wait a minut we're going toeevaluate all of r operation in addition chin and whether this bargaine've madever the years is worth it anymor

google has a famousaying, "don't be ev." that's kind ofheir corporate mantra. when thefiltered their searches off will gole, it was distasteful to many peop, but google was confide they ren't being evil. now they're evaluating the enti situation again. and a lot of other companies will be as well ifhis is part of the new landscape whe they can not even tst the security their services, offics, and employees in china because ts does have implations for their workforce in china a well. >> brown: ju a brief last woed xiao quiang, is there room fair comprose here? what do you expect to happen ne? >> well, i don't see the chise government todays the most porful authoritarian regime ll compromise what they perceive as a regime security with a company like a google but in the long run, do think . google repsents the future of the internet. the chinese governme can run

what they call the chinter-net. i think ultitely, chinter-net will lose. >> brown: thank yovery much. >> the >> ifill: again, the mor developments of the da haiti lay strien after its worst earthquake in morehan 200 years. estimates of the dead rang from 50,000 to 50000. and the u.s. and otherations launched aall-out relief effort. aid officials warned three million haitians couldeed food, medicasupply and shelter. the newshour is always onle. hari sreenivasan in our newsom previewshat's there. hari. >> sreenivas: we have much re on haiti, including interviews with two peop who vited there recently. trinity university profeor robert magre explains why the quakwas particularly devastating to theragile nation and father gerry creedonrged the world community not to abandon the isla country. if youant to help haitians, find a listing of organitions respondingo the crisis. anof course, we'll continue to post updates, photos and interviews as we g them. also on thsite tonight, "pchwork nation" director

dante chinni discussesow the unemployme picture has changed over the past year all that and more is on ouweb site, newsho.pbs.org. gwen. >> ifill: and that the newshour foronight. i'm gwenfill. >> lehrer:nd i'm jim lehrer. we'll see you online, and agn re tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. major funding r the pbs captiong sponsored by macneil/lehrer proctions captioned media accessroup at wgbh access.wgbh.org