captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. energy giant b.p. said it will pay to clean up the oil slick still spreading in the gulf of mexico. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, the company used robots today to try to cap one of three leaks. we'll get the latest from tom bearden in louisiana, and then have our own debate on offshore drilling. >> woodruff: then, an update from new york on the investigation into the foiled bomb plot in times square. >> brown: margaret warner reports on the showdown at the united nations between iran and

the west over nuclear weapons. >> this morning iran's president offered the same tired, false, and sometimes wild accusations against the united states and other parties at this conference, but that's not surprising. >> woodruff: we look at the proposal to merge united and continental airlines into the world's largest airline with travel writer rudy maxa. >> brown: and ray suarez talks to poland's foreign minister about his country's future after the air crash that killed its president and many other leaders. >> this tragedy was really a shock and a reminder of earlier times that we thought had been confined to the past. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: there was new talk today of stopping the huge oil spill in the gulf of mexico and covering the damages. but on the ocean floor, the crude oil kept gushing into the ocean, out of control. tom bearden begins our coverage

again, from louisiana. >> reporter: by today the spreading slick threatened shoreline from the mouth of the mississippi river to the florida panhandle, but the heaviest oil had yet to make land. the oil comp company bp said it was using chemicals deep below the surface to break up the oil and the gulf waters themselves, whipped by continuing strong storms, might be keeping the slick further off shore. but the weather also hampered containment efforts. >> winds blowing 35 knots out there and 45-foot seas to contend with. >> reporter: bp operated but did not own the oil rig that exploded two weeks ago. its ceo said today it would pay for the clean-up and some of the ripple effect. >> this was an accident. this was a drilling rig operated by another company. it was their people, their systems, their processes. we are responsible not for the accident but we are responsible for the oil and for dealing with it and cleaning the situation up.

>> reporter: in the meantime bp worked on ways to cap the mile-deep petro guyser on the sea floor. first it was using underwater robots to cap the smallest of three leaks that once led to the sunken rig. within a week plans called for trying to drop three concrete and steel boxes on to the leaking pipe. weighing 74 tons each, the boxes would contain the oil, allowing it to be piped to the surface. bp was drilling a so-called relief well into the ocean floor to plug the leak, but that plan would take up to three months. >> by tomorrow we hope to resume skiming, and i hope this week we can actual he'll use burning as well. then through this deep sea injection of the disbursement is actually successful, we need to get overflight data to confirm that. >> reporter: the livelihoods of thousands of fishermen are now officially on hold. the national orbianic and atmospheric administration imposed a ten-day closure on 6800 square miles of federal fishing grounds off four states.

the president visited rain- soaked venice louisiana yesterday to see firsthand the relief and containment effort. he called the spill a potentially unprecedented environmental disaster. >> bp is responsible for this leak. bp will be paying the bill. but as president of the united states, i'm going to spare no effort to respond to this crisis for as long as it continues. we will spare no resource to clean up whatever damage is caused. while there will be time to fully investigate what happened on that rig and hold responsible parties accountable. >> reporter: while the president was speaking in venice, two hours away in hopedale, louisiana, local fishermen were getting their first opportunity to help prevent that damage. raymond landry catches crab and shrimp. >> we're out of work. we can't go crabbing or anything right now. we basically just trying to get out there and save what we can. >> reporter: they loaded the heavy booms on to their boats and headed out to the coastal marshes to string them out as

a physical barrier against the oil. st. bernard parish president had been lobbying bp hard to put them to work. >> now that we have gotten our self-s to the table , we have convinced them that these guys who live and breathe out on the waterways and in the marshes, they know what's out there. they know how to address what the threat is. >> reporter: the hopedale fishermen are working under a verbal agreement with bp hoping their first paychecks will come quickly. many are afraid the fisheries will remain closed well beyond the 10-day moratorium and need the income to feed their families. on friday back in venice, bp started handing out written contracts to fishermen to lease boats for the containment work. >> i can't make any promises. we can't get jobs for the entire county. we'll do the best we can. >> reporter: it was a contentious meeting. >> i don't know exactly what i'm liable for. i mean that's all i'm asking, you know, and i think all these fishermen in here want to know the same thing.

>> reporter: the contractor boom crews already working out of venice are trying to protect the coastal islands that are the nesting grounds for hundreds of species of birds. orange barriers have been deployed but the national wildlife federation said booms alone are not sufficient. >> i think the boom system is ... i would liken it to fighting a huge forest fire with a squirt gun. we have flown over a lot of the coast line. we've seen very little boom deployment ... the booms that have been deployed are being overcapped by huge waves, are completely inadequate. and a lot of them are placed in places where they're going to be that effective. i think there has not been a strategic plan for boom distribution. there has not been an early deployment of booms. we don't have enough booms to protect so much of what is at risk today. >> reporter: in the longer term at least one scientist fears the oil could drift past the tip of florida and

contaminate the gulf stream. >> woodruff: after tom bearden filed that report a short time ago, i spoke with him from venice, louisiana. tom, hello. so not all fishing in the area has come to a halt. there's still some going on. is that right? >> judy, that's right. the fishermen's association for the state of louisiana put on out a press release the other day, yesterday actually, that indicated that fishing is still open on the west side of the mouth of the mississippi which is actually three quarters of the whole fishery available to the fishermen in louisiana. so there is a resource there that they can tap and a way to make some money but we still most of the fishing boats here in port mostly because the weather has been cooperating at all. >> reporter: speaking of the weather how is that affecting the efforts to prevent the oil from reaching the shore and affecting clean-up. >> we have two different stories. as we've been saying for the last couple of days the winds

coming from the southeast are blowing the oil slick toward the coast of louisiana, alabama and mississippi and the panhandle of florida. however, when we spoke with the president of the national wildlife federation today, he likened the situation with the way to putting oil and vinegar into a bottle of salad dressings, shaking it up and seeing the oil suspended inside the vinegar. he says the waves are churning the ocean surface, doing much the same thing, keeping the oil suspended in the water column. when that happens it's not on the surface. now when the waves calm down, the oil floats back up to the surface. then that is when it is concentrated. that's what they're afraid will destroy the marshes. >> woodruff: tom, are you learning any more about the long-term impact of this oil coming ashore? >> well, the outlook and the scenarios that are being bandied around now seem to be getting worse and worse. one observer we spoke to today said the off-shore winds which we talked about a minute ago about pushing the oil toward the shore also are occurring

on top of higher tides than normal. they're pushing, piling the water up against the land. his concern is that that higher level of water will push the water, the oil-soaked water further into the marshes and the wetlands. that destroys the vegetation. when you do that you not only destroy the fish but you also destroy what holds the soil together. the marshes and wetlands simply disappear. they go into the gulf. >> woodruff: tom beardon reporting for us from louisiana, thank you, tom. >> sure. >> woodruff: and in fact, one of the major questions this accident raises is what it means for the future of offshore drilling. a number of senators and state officials have changed their position on the issue in recent days, the latest being california governor arnold schwarzenegger. he told reporters today he now believes it is not safe to drill on california's coast. we get two views on all this. kert davies is the research director for the environmental organization greenpeace. and sara banaszak is a senior

economist for the american petroleum institute, an industry trade group. thank you both for being here. we appreciate it. kert davies, your organization was already opposed to off-shore drilling. how does that episode affect your think something. >> it reinforces what we've seen worldwide as we drill for oil it's a dirty, dangerous business. the farther afield we go, deep into the amazon, into the arctic and into deeper water the greater those risks are and the worse the impact when things go terribly wrong. >> woodruff: even though we are just two weeks in, it looks bad but there's still more information to come from this, you're already drawing conclusions? >> all the experts that we've spoken to say this is a very bad problem and going to get worse before it gets better. that the solutions they're shooting for are heroic measures many of which are untested as your correspondent pointed out. the disbursements they're using, the chemicals that dissolve the oil into the water column have other impacts and it will be a long

time before we know the full impact of this thing. >> woodruff: sarah banaszak, is off-shore drilling pretty clear now that it's more hazardous than anybody realized before? >> well, at this point we don't know what happened in that incident off shore. that's what's going to be critical to find out. what the industry has focused on doing over the years is using advanced technologies and multiple safety systems in order to prevent accidents. so it's a constant process of using the latest information and the latest technology to incorporate that into developing technologies that can deliver the oil that we're consuming in our economy today. that's the way the industry has approached the problem. >> woodruff: are you saying that whatever happens can be anticipated because it doesn't look like it in this instance. >> in this instance it was not anticipated. that is correct. >> woodruff: and yet there have been some pretty terrible accidents around the world, haven't there, with drilling off shore? >> for instance, there was one

in indonesia where the standards and regulations in that environment are not the same standards and regulations that we deploy here. not every country, not every environment is operating with the same practices and procedures. >> woodruff: kert davies, with greater regulation, greater safety measures, can... i mean, is there a point we could get to in this country where off- shore drilling could be considered feasible? >> well, we are drilling a lot in the gulf of mexico. there are thousands of rigs out there. what's been proposed recently is expanding that to the sensitive west coast of florida which has been off limits for many years and to east coast states stretching all the way up to virginia. what that means is that this risk of catastrophic damage is extended to many more states and, for example, if there was an oil spill like this off virginia which, god forbid would happen, but obama is now permitting drilling to go

forward as proposed, it would extend to the beaches of new jersey by now. it would be hitting the beaches of delaware and maryland and the outer banks of north carolina. that's an unacceptable risk for very little return. the oil that's out there is a pittance compared to our consumption. >> woodruff: sarah banaszak, an unacceptable risk? >> we're consuming between 19 and 20 million barrels a day of oil in this country. 62-63% of our energy is coming from oil and natural gas. i would say our future is full of difficult energy choices. we should expand renewables. we should expand energy efficiency. when you look at the pattern of the role of oil and gas in the economy over time it's one of decreasing trends but still great volumes of oil and natural gas. we've gone from about 70% of our energy mix in 1980 when oil prices hit a record high price that year, didn't hit that high price again until a couple years ago. right now we're at 62-63% of our energy mix. the forecast is declining down to 50% of our energy mix.

that's still a lot of oil and natural gas that gets consumed along the way. that oil and gas has to come from somewhere. the jobs that go with it will be handed out somewhere. >> woodruff: kert davies, it is the case that any form of energy exploration carries risk with it. >> yes, but some are worse than others. oil exploration has terrible risks when it goes wrong. coal mining we've just seen has dangerous problems. our thoughts are with with the families of the people who lost their lives in these disasters. really with the thousands of people whose lives are now going to be interrupted for a long time and their economies are going to be interrupted. sarah makes our point that, you know, when you are addicted to oil, as president bush said a number of years ago, the oil industry laughed at that statement and said, yeah, america is always going to be addicted to foreign oil. get over it. energy independence is a pipe dream. that's an irresponsible approach. we believe that there is a better path that we can take that gets us off oil and off of coal and aims towards

bright future technologies. >> our representatives of the industry certainly did not say those words. i can tell you that. >> woodruff: did not say which words? >> that we would laugh at.... >> exxon rebutted bush's statement pretty much the next day and said you'll always buy saudi oil. >> i think if you look at exxon's energy outlook or the department of energy, the federal outrook, you can look at any scenarios, that they've run with climate change bills in effect. when you put in a climate change bill in effect the bigger change in energy occurs in the power sector. you have more transfer to renewables in the power sector. you still have a lot of oil and natural gas consumption. >> woodruff: you're saying you can't drive down oil and natural gas consumption very much no matter what you do, is that what you're saying? >> no i said in the announcements of earlier climate change legislation more impact was seen in the future consumption of energy in the power sector which

switched more heavily to renewables. there was still oil and natural gas consumed. absolutely you can bring in energy efficiency into the transportation sector, into the air transportation sector, where people are consuming jet fuel to fly around the world. these things will change. but i'm saying these changes are occurring over a long period of time and that we're still consuming these fuels for the foreseeable future. >> that's true. we're stuck. we're all addicted to this form of transportation, these fuels. but you have to admit that any oil that we would find on the outer continental shelf even up and down the east coast does nothing to reduce the cost of oil and gasoline to people. it does nothing to ease our addiction to oil. we're going to keep consuming oil at this rate until we take real strong measures to get off it. we think in addition to that that this resets the clock with the discussion of off-shore drilling. >> woodruff: the president's announcement last month that he was going to.... >> that's right. pretty much continue, he announced a five-year plan to con the steps toward off-shore

drilling in other states. we think that congress should take a strong look at reinstating a moratorium until this investigation is fully gone through and until we have solutions and look at the cost and benefits of doing more oil drilling. there is clear problem with this path. >> woodruff: how does the oil industry see that? >> a lot of the factors that drove the president's decision haven't changed. the future where the global economy is putting very heavy pressure on oil and natural gas so there's more motivation to produce more fuel at home. a situation where we're importing these fuels at the rate of 50 to 60% of our oil is coming from overseas. we're missing out on those jobs and that economic activity. today the oil industry is employing 2.1 million people. we could be employing hundreds of thousands more instead of importing that oil. >> woodruff: but we are having the public reaction to what we're witnessing in the gulf. >> absolutely. an unprecedented unforecasted thing. we need to understand what happened. and start making measures to, you know, prevent that from happening.

i'm not trying to belittle the impact that this is having on thousands of people all along the gulf coast. we're lucky that the weather has worked in our favor today and it's not coming ashore. we realize fully that there is an impact from this incident. i'm not trying to belittle that. i'm trying to say when you look at the whole picture within which this incident has occurred there are still benefits from producing these fuels at home. >> woodruff: sarah banaszak, we hear you. kert davies, we hear you. we thank you both for being here. >> thank you very much. >> brown: >> brown: still to come on the newshour, the attempted bomb plot in new york's times square; the nuclear showdown at the united nations; an airline mega- merger; and poland's future after its tragedy. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: the death toll reached 22 today from weekend storms that hit tennessee, mississippi and kentucky. the worst was in nashville, tennessee, where more than a foot of rain sent the cumberland river surging into the streets.-

here was enough water in placeto float an entire dumpster down a street. portions of the historic downtown area were evacuated as the cumberland river crested 11 feet above flood stage. businesses were closed and thousands of tourists took refuge in shelters. the deluge piled cars atop one another. and carried some vehicles down submerged streets. thousands of homes and businesses were damaged, including schools and hospitals. nashville mayor carl dean urged people to conserve water after one of the city's two water treatment plants flooded. >> we are asking all davidson county residents and residents in the city of brentwood to use water for drinking and food preparation only. the water treatment plant is submerged in water and will be closed at the minimum for several days. >> reporter: water also engulfed roadways and several major interstates in the nashville area, grinding transportation to a halt. train and bus service were suspended indefinitely.

authorities said the cumberland might not start receding for 24 hours. clean-up efforts may take weeks. late today nashville officials reported the grand ole opry house has several feet of water in it. the site has been home to the place since 1974. nearly two million people in and around boston spent a third day having to boil water before they could drink it. a break in a ten-foot main was repaired over night, but it could take up two days to confirm the water is safe for human consumption. the pipe ruptured on saturday. that forced officials to divert untreated water from an open-air reservoir and local ponds just to maintain pressure. in mumbai, india, a pakistani man was convicted of murder and other charges in the terror attack there in 2008. mohammed ajmal kasab was the lone survivor among the attackers. he was photographed walking through mumbai's main train station carrying an ak-47 rifle. the three-day attack left 166 dead and severely damaged two hotels, the train station, and a jewish center. north korea's reclusive leader

kim jong-il may be on his first trip abroad since an apparent stroke two years ago. news crews in china today filmed a man in sunglasses who appeared to be kim as he arrived on a special armored train. later, a convoy of limousines took him to a five-star hotel. china invited kim to visit, as it tries to get north korea to resume talks on ending its nuclear program. the talks have been stalled for a year. greece got a boost today in its battle to stay out of bankruptcy. germany agreed to supply nearly $30 billion over three years, part of a larger, international bailout totaling $145 billion. the germans had held back on helping greece, but chancellor angela merkel said it is time for action. >> this reaction with a law does not only mean that we assist greece, but it will also help the stabilization of the euro as a whole and, therefore, help the people of germany, because a stable european currency is extraordinarily important. >> sreenivasan: germany made its move after greece agreed on sunday to deep new cuts in public spending.

april was kind to automakers in the u.s. ford and chrysler reported sales were up 25% from a year ago. toyota was up 24%. and general motors sales rose about 6.5%. despite the gains, sales were actually much slower than in march, when incentives attracted buyers in droves. wall street rallied on upbeat reports about consumer spending and factory activity. the dow jones industrial average gained 143 points to close above 11,151. the nasdaq rose 37 points to close at 2498. actress lynn redgrave died today after fighting breast cancer for years. she joined her family's acting dynasty and burst into public view as the title character in "georgy girl" in 1966. she earned one of her two oscar nominations for the film. in 2002, redgrave performed in the musical "company," part of a salute to stephen sondheim at the kennedy center in washington. ♪ a toast to that invincible bunch ♪ ♪ the dinosaur surviving the

kruferng ♪ let's hear it for the ladies who lunch ♪ ♪ everybody , rise ♪ >> sreenivasan: redgrave also earned three tony nominations for broadway roles over the years. and more recently, she appeared in a number of television shows. lynn redgrave was 67 years old. those are some of the day's main stories. i'll be back at the end of the program with a preview of what you'll find tonight on the newshour's web site. but for now, back to jeff. >> brown: law enforcement officials combed through hundreds of hours of surveillance footage today, searching for leads into saturday's attempted times square bomb plot. police said they have identified and talked to the owner of the car that held the explosives, but that person is not considered a suspect. and they continue to seek a man captured on a security camera video walking away from the area after removing his outer shirt and looking back in the direction of the vehicle.

in washington today, attorney general eric holder said law enforcement officials had "some good leads." >> i think we have made really substantial progress. we can't talk about all the things that we are doing that would give an advantage to the people who we are pursuing. i can assure the american people that this investigation is solid. it's underway. it is being run with our partners in new york and with state and local partners around the country. >> brown: and we get the latest now from bob hennelly, senior reporter for wnyc public radio. bob, start with the owner of the car in question. how was he found? is anything more known about him or how the car got to times square? >> well, how it got there is not clear. of course we've not located the driver. but what is clear is that the nypd was able to find the vin number which most motorists know is on the front dashboard and the windshield.

that had been disguised , acid burned, but only when it went back to the nypd for forensic capability they were able to find the vin number and have the conversation with the person who evidently sold this thing online without any kind of paperwork and isn't really clear on the name of the person he sold it to. that's kind of like the pointed edge of where it's going. i might add that the license plate on the car was... on the s.u.v., the pathfinder, it came from a junkyard repair shop in connecticut. how that found its way with this s.u.v. is really the critical point of this investigation. >> brown: and the man in that video that we've all now seen is described as a person of interest, not necessarily a suspect, right? >> that's very important. the nypd and i think the federal officials were concerned today that the media used it as a suspect. that undermined the investigation because this is

the most wired part of america outside of maybe the capitol. there are many video images. so this could have been a person who was hot. it was warm that night. all we have is is a subjective evaluation that there were fur tiff movements when he took the shirt off and walked south. that's not enough to go on. you don't want to inhibit this person coming forward because you can't get on to the next lead. >> brown: the "washington post" today is reporting that some obama administration officials are referring to international links in all this. although it's very early in that as well. have you heard anything along those lines? >> i think it's very dangerous to use anonymous sourcing in this kind of thing right now. it's very important for law enforcement to be disciplined, whether it be federal or state, and not, you know, try the case or lay it out. as they always say, let the paper do the talking. let's see what kind of suspects come forward. >> brown: along those lines, of course, there's still the usage of terrorists of

terrorism. was it an act of terrorism? how sophisticated an effort was this? people are being very careful with what kind of language they use at this point. >> i think whenever someone takes an s.u.v. with propane, gasoline and m-88 fireworks i think we can say there was a terroristic intent. the significant story was the miraculous work by local people here responding directly. up here we have a local wall where vietnam veterans were permitted to be street vendors. it was these unsung heroes that alerted a mounted policeman along with two rookies they cleared part of times square. that's somewhat miraculous. we saw here something working. i think that needs emphasis too. >> brown: what other kinds of leads are being pursued at this point? one would be the bomb materials themselves, being sent to labs. tell us what you see going on at this point? >> certainly one of the things is this large metal gun box that

weighed 200 pounds when loaded. and then these eight bags what looks like fertilizer that wasn't according to the experts properly prepared to, you know, detonate. then also you have a situation where, where did the propane tank come from? again what was the social nexus, if you will, between that license plate that was evidently lifted, if you will, from this connecticut junkyard and that s.u.v.? >> brown: finally, tell us, you referred to this earlier. one thing we're learning about here that's really interesting is just all these video cameras in times square. the number of them. what they can show us and what they do tell us and what they don't tell us. tell us a little bit more about that . >> most people would be surprised to find out that they're not monitored on a regular basis. in essence they're showing us the history of a place. they're not showing us, if will, preventive looking ahead. they're giving us what occurred. there's no one actually monitor being it on a 24/7 basis. in some ways it's very analogous to what happened after 9/11.

we realize we had invest all that money in technology to do all that signal intercept, if you will. there it sat. mountains of that information never analyzed. that's the drudgery being done by both the federal and local officials is going through that to take the information they have now and apply it to the images that you're seeing that were from that period of time. >> brown: do you know how long those cameras have been there? how long has this been going on? >> (laughing) let's see. new york city has about 80-some- odd cameras and there's hundreds of others. there's an initiative actually that commissioner kelly, the police commissioner, wants to have to extend a lower manhattan initiative that is currently around the ground zero area that's built and analogous to what's in london, the ring of steel, if you will, to midtown. all this footage has to be evaluated. >> brown: bob hennelle, thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks.

>> woodruff: next, a country that may be developing nuclear weapons shows up at a conference to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. margaret warner has our story. >> no nukes! no wars! >> warner: holding signs reading no nukes, no war, thousands massed in new york city streets this weekend to call for a permanent end to nuclear weapons. >> we cannot continue to play with fire any longer. >> warner: they marched in add vachbsed of a united nations con convenience... u.n. secretary general ban-ki moon opened the meeting this morning. >> the work you undertake this day is of immense importance. to humankind. >> warner: every five years the signers of the 40-year-old nuclear non-proliferation treaty or npt meet to review how well it's working and what else needs to be done. but looming over the month-long conference this time is an item not explicitly on the

agenda: iran's ongoing nuclear program. and today made it clear this conference is going to be a showdown of sorts between the two main protagonists: washington and tehran. >> this is going to be a face- off between the united states and iran. >> warner: leonard specter is deputy director of the non-proliferation center at the monterey institute of international study. >> the crucial issue on the front burner for everyone is dealing with the iranian nuclear problem. it won't get played out that way. there will be other discussions. underlying each one of these nuclear energy on disarmament and bringing consensus is can we bring pressure to bear on iran? >> iran is hard at work enriching uranium for civilian energy purposes it insists but the u.s. and its allies believe tehran is bent on developing weapons and is pushing for tougher sanctions at the security council to try to thwart its ambitions. secretary general ban started

off by calling on iran to lay suspicions about its program to rest. but at his turn to speak, the iranian president ahmadinejad hit back saying there was no credible proof his country was working on such weapons and insisting that it was the states with nuclear arms that were encouraging proliferation. >> there are reportedly more than 20,000 nuclear war heads worldwide. half of which belong to the united states. and the other competing groups continue to develop nuclear weapons under the pretext of deterrent. the trend constitutes a violation of obligations under the nuclear proliferation treaty or npt . >> warner: delegates from britain, france, and the united states walked out of the hall as he spoke. but that didn't deter ahmadinejad from also taking aim at the u.s. for retaining the right to use nuclear weapons. >> it is a misperception that

it is okay to use nuclear weapons. regrettably the united states has not only used nuclear weapons but also continues to threaten to use such weapons against other countries including my country. >> warner: in a new nuclear strategy unveiled last month, the obama administration pledged for the first time that the u.s. would never use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state. if and only if that state was abiding by its obligations under the npt not to develop nuclear arms of its own. specter found ahmadinejad's remarks entirely predictable. >> iran's strategy is to deflect attention away from iran. this speech by ahmadinejad was strictly about disarmament and had nothing to do with compliance with the treaty or his own behavior. >> warner: he's talking about the nuclear states like the united states. >> principally the united states. >> warner: come to go the

podium nearly four hours after ahmadinejad, secretary of state hillary clinton took direct aim at him. >> this morning iran's president offered the same tired, false and sometimes wild accusations against the united states and other parties at this conference. but that's not surprising. iran is the only country represented in this hall that has been found by the i.a.e.a. board of governors to be currently in non-compliance with its nuclear safeguards obligations. the only one. it has defied the u.n. security council and the i.a.e.a. and placed the future of the non-proliferation regime in jeopardy. and that is why it is facing increasing isolation and pressure from the international community. >> warner: the secretary reminded her audience that u.s. and russia recently agreed to reduce their arsenals. she also said the u.s. will

for the first time disclose the size of its current nuclear weapons stock pile. that's 5,113 war heads, the defense department announced, down from 30,000 in the 1960s. now clinton told reporters later in the day it's time for iran to do its part. >> time and time again i think we have demonstrated our commitment to the two-track process. the track of engagement and of moving forward together and then the track of pressure. well, we are on the pressure track but it is within the united nations that we are seeking that pressure. >> warner: the u.s. hopes to end this conference with a tough statement on the importance of complying with the npt. even though it's unlikely to win a unanimous vote. >> if you can get many countries to support a statement like that, you have accomplished something and made it clear to eye run that it stands alone. even if in the end they block it, they still have been

isolated and have been taught a certain kind of lesson. >> warner: the conference concludes at the end of may and a u.n. security council sanctions vote could follow soon after. >> brown: now an airline mega- merger, and what it means for travelers and the business of flying. newshour correspondent kwame holman begins with some background. >> reporter: after weeks of negotiation, united airlines announced it will buy continental in a deal totaling more than $3 billion. united's ceo glen tilton said the new airline will be stronger than either of the existing carriers. >> this company is going to be able to serve our shareholders, our stakeholders and our employees in ways that frankly neither continental or united could do if we weren't about to embark on this journey. >> reporter: the merged airline will fly under the name united but use continental's logo and be run

by continue netal's ceo. >> this is a true merger of equals so continental will contribute six directors to the combined bore. united will contribute six directors to the combined board. glen and i will be on the board. he. >> reporter: the new united airlines will surpass delta airlines in size making it the world's largest carrier flying to 370 destinations. it will be based in chicago. united's hometown, and will have a commanding position in other major u.s. cities including new york, los angeles, houston and san francisco. together, the two airlines lost almost a billion dollars last year by consolidating they say they will save 1 to 2 billion a year by 2013. that could mean lay-offs. the deal could close by year's end, pending approval from shareholders and federal regulators. >> woodruff: for a traveler's perspective on this merger, we turn to rudy maxa.

he's a contributing editor to "national geographic traveler magazine,' and is the host of his own show on pbs. tell us from a traveler's perspective, what is this going to mean? >> well it's not going to be a huge upheaveal because both airlines have been members of the same alliance. star alliance. and so there's been a certain amount of synergy and sharing, you know, frequent flyer members in one airline can use their miles on the other. however,... and they don't compete a whole lot on many routes, primarily new york, chicago, that sort of thing. so passengers who have already flown those airlines won't notice an enormous difference . if those two airlines can accomplish this plerjer that's coming together perhaps as well as delta and northwest did in the last two years . >> woodruff: price of tickets? >> well, whenever you have fewer airlines you have less competition. prices are going to go up somewhere. that doesn't mean they're going to go up across the board. because the airlines didn't compete on the same routes,

generally speaking, cities are not going to lose an airline. prices shouldn't go up overall generally in the united states or overseas. but certainly in places where those two might have been the only two competing, they will go up unless, you know, fortunately we have these fairly successful and profitable in some cases like southwest lower-cost airlines who look for unusually high fares between city... because of the lack of competition and go in. so there is a bit of a correcting mechanism in the model right now. >> woodruff: we heard it said that 370 destinations. what about number of routes? more, less, the same? >> well, they serve also 59 countries. that's an enormous amount of countries. and they see an advantage in this merger because continental has better coverage than united to, say, latin america, and united has better coverage to asia pacific region than

continental so it will benefit that new airline, still to be called united, of course. there will be more seamless service and hick cups in the beginning. there will be people who go in the large airports like lax or j.f.k. to the wrong terminal for a while. i certainly did that in the case of the delta northwest merger. i'm supposed to be a guy who travels all the time and knows about these things. so there will be a few hick cups but if it can be done over time as delta and northwest did it as smoothly there shouldn't be enormous disruptions. >> woodruff: we heard kwame also say there could be lay- offs. what's your reading on that? >> obviously they're not going to be as many jobs in the combined airline as there are in the two standing alone now. i think most of the lay offs will come from mid management and management where you have people doing the same job in both airlines. however, certainly will there will be front-line lay-offs as well. i don't think it will be massive because they're not really cutting that many flights.

you need the same amount of gate agents and ticket people and luggage handlers as before. >> woodruff: why does this merger make sense for these two airlines? >> because they're both losing a lot of money. if they can avoid duplicating staff, routes, if they can sink their... sync their flights better so that more people find them a more convenient airline to fly if they could only have one advertising budget, one marketing budget, one frequent flyer program they will realize savings. >> woodruff: and creating the world's biggest airlines out of this, what are the implications overall for the industry? >> i think at the end of the day you're going to have three, maybe four, but i think three major airlines in the united states and then three or four low-... so-called low-cost carriers. that may allow them all to make some money. there's simply too many airlines here competing for too little piece of the pie as

evidenced by the fact they've been losing money for so many years. >> woodruff: rudy maxa, national geographic traveler magazine. thanks very much. >> nice talking to you, judy. thank you. >> brown: finally tonight, poland tries to rebound from its latest national tragedy, and to ray suarez. >> suarez: the funeral of poland's president last month was still another reminder for millions of poles that fate seems to conspire against their country. the day president lech kaczynski, victim of an air crash in foggy weather, was buried another accident of geography turned against the nation. scores of world leaders, including president obama, were diverted from the state ceremony because ash from an icelandic volcano grounded flights over much of europe.

one leader to did make the trip was russian president med ved, a tangible sign perhaps of a thaw in russian-polish relations brought about by the crash. from the first news of the crash, russia's leaders and people were quick to express sympathy and show their concern . the sad irony was this: the doomed plane carrying the president, his wife, and scores of top officials, was heading to a ceremony marking one of the bitterest moments between poland and russia: the world war ii murder of 20,000 polish officers and soldiers by russian secret police. only recently have russia's leaders more openly acknowledged their country's role in the killings. more than 20 years since the end of soviet communist domination there are constant reminders poles still live in a dangerous neighborhood, marked by tensions with russia.

in neighboring ukraine, a former soviet republic locked in tense relations with moscow, fistfights broke out in parliament over proposals for russian access to ukraine's ports. even in poland's new alliances with the west, all is not smooth. polish relations with the obama administration remain delicate. since washington's decision last year, not to go ahead with missile defense elements planned in poland and the czech republic. joining us is poland's foreign minister. he's a former defense minister, also an author and journalist. he was a political exile in england and studied there in the 1980s. minister, welcome. well, we ended there with a picture of president obama. how would you describe relations with the united states at this moment? how important an element was that withdrawal of the missile

battery from your soil? >> our american relations are solid. we have many projects in common. poland is the sixth largest contingent out of 46 nations in afghanistan. despite what your introduction stated the project was not canceled. its configuration has been changed. we rather like the new version better than the previous one. >> suarez: you were a member of the polish cabinet who got the call when that jet went down carrying your president. terrible information to receive. how long was it before you realized the extent of the loss? >> my first information was that the plane crashed but did not explode. so there was room for doubt and for hope that maybe they just lost a wheel. then i got a direct connection to our ambassador who managed to get himself on to the scene and saw the wreckage. there was no chance that

anybody was alive. so i had to alert the prime minister. i to tell the speaker of parliament that he was as of then acting head of state. and i had to get the emergency services going so that we could start the process of getting the bodies to the funeral. i also had the unenviable task of informing the twin brother the leader of the opposition that the president, with whom he had spoken by sat-phone only half an hour earlier, had died. >> suarez: this is terrible news for any nation. but poland is a relatively young state. not in its existence as a culture, not that poles.... >> been around for about a thousand years. >> suarez: but in your new political dispensation still a young state. this must be a terrible blow. >> our constitution stood the test. the transfer of power was smooth and the logistical operation which was considerable

including the visit that you showed of several dozen foreign delegations was smooth as well. poland was on a psychological upswing recently. we are the only country that grew last year by 1.8%. for the first time in our history we are extending assistance to other european countries that have been affected by the financial crisis. so this tragedy was really a shock and a reminder of earlier times that we thought had been confined to the past. >> suarez: you're describing a poised, mature system but you've also just plunged into a might cal campaign, a new one. is this another test of your maturity as a state? >> we have a campaign as the constitution states. we need to elect a president within two months. but i think it will be quieter and more dignified than it would otherwise have been. we were going to have this presidential campaign this year anyway.

>> suarez: how has this experience from the time of the crash to today changed the relationship, changed the way your country speaks to russia? >> well, the russian authorities didn't try to hide anything. they were open and very helpful. i think that coupled with the fact that prime minister putin three days earlier came and felt the horror of that place and acknowledged russian guilt , that is beginning to thaw emotions on both sides because just like our completion reconciliation with germany, the reconciliation with russia which we wished for has to be based on respect for the facts. that's the only way to overcome the fear that some people still have felt in those relations so these are hopeful signs. i think it will be important

not just for poland but primarily for russia and for the world if russia were to fully destalinize its historical memories, historical consciousness because i think great countries have the capacity to acknowledge not only the good things that happened in their history. so we hope that russia treads that path. >> suarez: a lot of analysts, both in your country and writing from e.u. member-states, have talked about poland's recent embrace of europe, its increased stature in nato and you mentioned the role in isaf and the new closeness with russia as all being a sort of declaration of independence from the united states. is that really the case, that if you move toward one, you move away from the other? >> no, i don't think so. the united states was very helpful to us when we liberated ourselves from communism, when we made the transition from a command economy to the free economy.

in our operations to join... aspirations to join institutions of the west, wto and the north atlantic treat owe organization. there is a security relationship but also a potential industrial investment relationship. poland likely sits on rather large deposits of unconventional gas. we hope that this will become a polish-american venture. >> saurez: what does that mean, unconventional gas? >> shale gas that you have explored in the u.s. very suck successfully. apparently, well, there are companies that are prospecting for it in poland right now. >> suarez: polish foreign minister, thank you for joining us. >> thanks. >> woodruff: again the major developments of today. the gulf of mexico oil >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. the gulf of mexico oil spill kept spreading. b.p. promised to cover all the cleanup costs. police in new york city hunted for a man seen in surveillance footage just before the attempted car bombing in times square.

and the death toll reached 22 in deadly storms across tennessee and several other states. nashville was heavily flooded. the newshour is always online. hari sreenivasan, in our newsroom, previews what's there. hari? >> sreenivasan: read tom bearden's posts about the growing gulf oil spill on the rundown, and find facts and figures on the crisis with our at-a-glance graphic. watch a new web-only video on paul solman's making sense page. it looks at chinese drywall, the foreclosure crisis, and homebuyers looking for bargains. plus there's a new story about the tea party movement from patchwork nation's dante chinni. he examines different issues striking chords in different parts of the country. a final note. pbs's charlie rose will interview ahmadinejad on his program tonight. you can find a link to charlie's website on ours. all that and more is on all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. judy? >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night.

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