captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: crews filled sandbags and shored up levees along the mississippi river as floodwaters threatened the delta. good evening, i'm jim lehrer. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the "newshour" tonight, we look at the rising waters and the complex system of levees and spillways aimed at protecting communities up and down the river. >> lehrer: then, "newshour" political editor david chalian updates the race for the 2012 republican presidential nomination. >> brown: from kiev, special correspondent kira y reports on the push to curb a growing epidemic.

$you crane has la t highest h.i.v./aids rate in all of europe. half a million people may be infected. more than france, germany, and the united kingdom combined. >> lehrer: judy woodruff has the latest on the violence in syria, as government tanks shell residential neighborhoods. that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i want to know what the universe... >> looks like. >> feels like. >> from deep space. >> to a microbe. >> i can contribute to the world by pursuing my passion for science. >> it really is the key to the future. >> i want to design... >> a better solar cell. >> i want to know what's really possible. >> i want to be the first to cure cancer. >> people don't really understand why things work. >> i want to be that person that findsut why.hy

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public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: flood tensions on the mississippi river kept building today. the drama played across a vast stage-- south from memphis to the gulf of mexico, as army engineers tried to lighten the load at key pressure points. the enormous volume of water surging down the mississippi is now moving at more than double the river's normal speed and there's mounting urgency to finish sandbagging before it's too late. boats navigated the city streets of tunica, mississippi today. the casino town had already lost an estimated $87 million in gaming revenue, but townspeople said they'd get by. >> we love it here, we don't want to leave here. we want to go home. and we'll do whatever it takes to stay there. >> brown: the moving disaster is testing a $13 billion flood control system that protects the land and the four million people

who live in the potential flood zone along the mississippi. it was begun after 1927, when record flooding on the great river killed hundreds of people. all told, an elaborate system of levees stretches 2,023 miles-- starting in illinois and missouri and ending in louisiana, near where the mississippi dumps into the gulf of mexico. along the w s a areeries of fldwd ays an aspillways,s annels that can carry surplus water away from a dam when needed. it was near the new madrid floodway in missouri that the army corps of engineers blew up a two-mile stretch of levees last week, to spare the town of cairo, illinois. as a result, 130,000 acres of nearby farmland in missouri were fl ood. farth dveown rir-- near baton rouge, louisiana-- the corps ha asked permission to open gates on the morganza floodway for the first time since 1973. that wouldlood thousands ofou acres, but might prevent even

worse flooding in seven parishe he the corps already opened some of the gates at the bonnet carre spillway, 30 miles north of new orleans, to ease pressure on that city's levees. now, some of the levees themselves need reinforcing against the increasing water pressure. >> we are actually on the backwater levees, these levees attach to the mainline mississippi river levees, and what we are doing is, just for a precautionary measure, we are adding a polyurethane type plastic to the back side of the levee, if they, if the water gets high enough that it flows over the levee and flows down the back side, this helps with erosion to keep it from damaging the levee if the water should go over. >> brown: the potential for catastrophe was evident at wamphis, tennessee, where the ter mayekak re wetos ettoat, esaf c tsngtion tuesday.ng e before-and-after photthkeogratas n from spaceta show the effects ony heit candit its surroundings. damage estimates so far have reached $320 million.

across the river in arkansas, the damage to farms and crops is already much higher at $500 million and counting. >> i've got a neighbor that's got $2.5 million worth of wheat flooded right now. it's gone. >> brown: now, town after town along the southern mississippi can only wait. over the next week, the river is projected to crest at or above records set during the great flood of 1927. we take a closer look now at the levee and floodgate system. for that, we turn to larry larson, executive director of the association of state floodplain managers. and john barry, a new orleans resident and author of "rising tide: the great mississippi flood of 1927 and how it changed america." he joins us tonight from memphis. larry larson, starting with you. is it, in fact, correct in terms of its construction and mission to think of this all as one

wstem? ell, in fact, the lower >>miissippi river from cairo south was designed as a system, correct. it has a series of levees, thousands of miles of levees, and then along the points when the water gets really high, constrained by those levees it provides relief points through spillways and floodway bypassesi so it is... it's intended and does operate as a system. correct. >> couric: just to fill in the details a little bit more so, the floodgates and the spillways are when the water... they're stuck there, right? and when the water gets a certain height that's when they come into play? >> yeah. typically they would not be open because if you have a small amount of water in the river, you want to keep that water there because, remember, the water is all... the river's also used for navigation. so you want to keep is this t water there. but when the water gets extremely high, it threats to overtop the levees. so when it gets extremely high

you need to pro vif relief points to allow some of the water to escape the channel and flow in other directions. >> what was the flood protection like before that and what were the major changes aftersfwhard >> let me also add that i'm on the board that oversees "self" levee districts in metro new orleans i'm not simply an academic interest in. this prior to to the' 27 flood the engineers had what they call the levees-only system and that's pretty self-explanatory. the river is capable of filling its entire floodplain to 35,000 square miles and it came close to doing that in 1927. at its widest, the river stretched probably over a hundred miles wide. so it was a true inland sea. and there's enough water in the river right now to do that both... as larry was saying, there is a sophisticated system and part of that system involves

these floodways that essentially give the river room to operate. they really take up part of the floodplain. there is going to be flooding this year, not only relatively little bit in memphis-- although if i had suffered a flood it wouldn't seem so little to me. but considerably more along the yazoo river. pretty soon lilt start getting quite serious,es think, and i think it's inevitable t corps of engineers enseth th morganza floodway north of baton rouge which runs for a hundred miles... more than that-- 20 miles across and, frankly, that's going to threaten some people, probably several thousand people, in louisiana. a lot of land. >> brown: and mr. barry, is what we're dealing with today all from the aftermath of 1927 or have there been constant fixes, updates and so on? in other words, is this system... has this system mostly been in place all this time? >> well, it's been in place pretty much from the 50s.

although the spillway immediately above new orleans which they open early this week, that was first used in' 37. they just finished construction of it. they have made changes. the biggest one would be in 1973. this is probably the second-biggest flood in history. 1927 was the biggest. 1973 was probably third. and '73, when they did... the only other time they opened the morganza floodway, the river was powerful enough that it almost destroyed the control structure that have it was pouring through and they obviously recognized that weakness and buttressed it over another cul structure and strengthened that considerably. that is the main change from the design that came out of the '50s. >> brown: larry larson, we also keep hearing about decisions and tradeoffs that have to be made about opening the floodgates and flooding some farmland in order

to save other areas. has that always been with us as well? i mean, is that designed into the system that these kinds of decisions and tradeoffs are going to be made? >> it was designed into the system and after the 1927 floods. and it's not a unique approach. it's been used elsewhere in this nation. we use in the different rivers. it's on the sacramento river and other areas. it's used in other nations. china has major bypass systems and storage systems where when major industrialized systems are threatened they flood farmla nda ondhendta l.a it's a tradeoff and in this cass athe floodway that was opened up by the corps, that the corps was directed to buy flooding easements for that land in the late '20s so when the river did get this high then part of the plan was to open that levee across the river and relieve the pressure on the levels at cairo,

illinois. >> brown: and how much leeway is there for officials? or how much of this is built in... into guidelines or is it always a question of making a decision each time? >> well, pretty much the corps has to make that decision. it's in the plan. it's in the operational plan. when the river gets to a certain stage, they know it threatens the levees on one side of the river and therefore they're directed to open it on the other side. the same thing is true as john talked about as we get down by new orleans on the other bypass as morganza and so on. at a certain stage the plan is set up to say when the river reach this is stage, provide those relieve valves. >> brown: and mr. barry there is criticism. there's probably always criticism of these decisions. does that go back to 1927 in the aftermath as well in terms of the tradeoffs? >> well, the corps took a lot of heat, deservedly so, in 1927. i think some of that disaster you could lay at the corps's

doorsteps like katrina. however, in terms of since' 27 on the lower mississippi river, i think the corps has performed pretty well and i think they've made... i think it was a close decision on the bird's point floodway because the town of cairo, the value of that is not exactly enormous versus the farm property. but as you get through the baton rouge and new orleans metropolitan area versus agricultural land that you have already owned a flood easement for. so the people in the floodway know it can be used for that and the alternative is to threaten both baton rouge and new orleans that is pretty easy decision to make. i mean, this flood would overtop the levees in those cities and overtopping means potentially a disastrous breach that could flow for weeks that would, in fact, probably rival or be worse than katrina.

>> brown: well, in our last minute, mr. barry, you mentioned katrina. i mean, what do you worry about now? when you look at this system, what points do you look at and still worry about? >> well, i mean, the system has performed very well many times so you always have to monitor levees. there's always going to be some problem on some levee, sand balls and other develops developing but you address them. that's why you have constant surveillance and constant vigilance. this flood is within the design capacity of the system. i won't say i'm not worried, i'm very alert. but it's a serious flood. but there's no particular weak spot having said that, there are oing to be thousands of people flooded. some already in memphis, more in thss mesiisippi delta and when morganza opens. the corps does have a trigger, when the river exceeds 1.5

million cubic feet a second they're going to open morganza and it will exceed that and i'm certain they'll open morganza. >> brown: all right, well thanks for the explanation and history. john barry and larry larson, thanks for joining us. >> you're welcome, thank you. >> lehrer: still to come on the "newshour": the republican presidential field; the h.i.v. epidemic in ukraine and the crackdown in syria. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: a federal jury in new york has convicted a former wall street leader in the largest insider trading case ever, involving hedge funds. raj rajaratnam, founder of the galleon group, was found guilty on 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy. prosecutors said his gains from illegal tips totaled more than $60 million. rajaratnam could get more than 19 years in prison. the stock market tumbled today after news that demand for gasoline fell by the most in seven weeks. it could signal a broader decline in consumer and business spending.

the dow jones industrial average responded with a loss of 130 points to close at 12,630. the nasdaq fell more than 26 points to close at 2,845. a labor stoppage and protest marches in greece turned into street battles and bloodshed today. at least 25 people were hurt in the latest chapter of the country's economic troubles. much of athens came to a halt today, as a general strike shut down public transport, grounded flights and left ferries idled at port it came in response to a new round of government-ordered pay cuts and tax increases, a year into the nation's debt crisis. 10,000 protesters marched on syntagma square in central athens outside the greek parliament to voice opposition. but elsewhere in the city, black-hooded youths fought with riot police just outside the offices where european union officials met with the greek finance minister. officials were discussing whether greece will get the

fifth installment from a bailout package worth $160 billion. greece still has a debt load of nearly a half-trillion dollars and prime minister george papandreou said tuesday the new austerity measures are essential. >> ( translated ): greece is at a critical juncture. we are making our decisions, so that we can guarantee not only our exit from this crisis, but also create a viable economy, viable development, a greece with a just society. >> sreenivasan: elsewhere in the eurozone, debt-stricken portugal has secured its own bailout package from the e.u., this one totaling more than $110 billion. in yemen, again on thousands of anti-government protesters in sanaa, killing six. activists reported snipers on rooftops and soldiers dressed in plainclothes started shooting at the crowd. in addition to the dead, at least 40 people were wounded. spain suffered its worst earthquake disaster in 50 years today. at least ten people were killedi and dozens more were hurt. two quakes struck within two

hours of each other, near the town of lorca, some 200 miles southeast of madrid. there was heavy damage to a number of buildings. a bell and part of a wall smashed to the ground from a church, and cars were crushed by falling stone and brick. it's now been two months since the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in japan. today, there were new problems at a stricken nuclear plant, even as evacuees were allowed back, briefly. we have a report narrated by tom clarke of "independent television news." >> reporter: they're told what to wear and how to put it on. then residents of kawauchi village prepare to go home. the protective clothing is mandatory, just like their evacuation. now, they're being bussed back to their village just 10 miles from the stricken nuclear plant. official radiation limits mean they have just two hours to revisit the lives they left behind. this farmer came back to check on his cattle.

he turned them lose when the evacuation order came. >> ( translated ): i think they are well. they are free, so i'm not worried, even if they are not here. other people are freeing their calves as well so they will become friends. >> reporter: they're allowed to collect a few necessary items. bagged-up until they are taken back and decontaminated. there are strict radiation checks before heading off. this is a rural bus service that won't be running again for a long time. it's likely to be many months before anyone is allowed to return here permanently. how long depends on the time it takes to clean up this mess. on friday, engineers got inside reactor number one for the first time to install this new cooling system. but it's not all progress. rest filmed by a robot-- this is the pond containing nuclear fuel next to reactor number three. its highly radioactive contents

mangled and buried. and today, water from the same unit was been found leaking into to sea. as the crisis at the plant drags on, anger is mounting in japan at the government's handling of the crisis and its dependence on nuclear power. there's no ill feeling towards japan's emperor. today, he and his wife paid a second visit to evacuees from fukushima prefecture. imperial walkabouts like this were almost unheard of before the tsunami. evacuees from around the plant won't be allowed home until the it is made safe. operators tepco, say that will be achieved in six to nine months, but other experts say it could take much longer. >> sreenivasan: the japanese government announced a plan today to ensure that victims of the nuclear crisis are compensated. the losses could run into the billions of dollars. the u.s. peace corps came under heavy criticism today over sexual abuse of female volunteers. a u.s. house hearing focused on hundreds of reports of rape or other crimes between 2000 and 2009.

jessica smochek told of being gang-raped by local men in bangladesh in 2004. she said she got little support from peace corps officials. >> the peace corps also required me to meet with a counselor who made me write down everything i had done wrong for this to occur. as examples she suggested that i had been out after 5:00 pm, i hadn't screamed, and that i didn't fight back. rather than feeling safe and supported, i felt belittled and blamed. >> sreenivasan: at least one former volunteer said she was raped by her own supervisor, in nepal. peace corps director aaron williams apologized, and promised reforms. >> we're going to make sure that it's a victim-centered approach. we're going to be compassionate. all of our medical personnel have been trained in how to work with victims of sexual assault. we are all going to make sure that all of our staff, our senior management, is focused on this. we are committed to making this, changing the culture that these

courageous people have encountered in the past. we're going to change that. the peace corps is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. it has more than 8,600 volunteers working in 77 countries. the u.s. navy has changed course on letting chaplains perform same-sex marriages in military chapels. the initial policy was announced last month, but more than 60 u.s. house members complained it would violate the federal "defense of marriage act." last night, the navy suspended the policy, and said it will do further review. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jim. >> lehrer: the 2012 republican presidential field continued to take shape today, with the coming of former house speaker newt gingrich. gingrich supporters awaited the official word today on the social networking sites facebook and twitter. >> i'm newt gingrich and i'm announcing my candidacy for president of the united states. there's a much better american future ahead with more jobs, more prosperity, a better health

system, longer lives, greater independent living and a country is decentralized under the tenth amendment with power once again back with the american people and away from washington bureaucracy. >> lehrer: the former house speaker is widely viewed as one of his party's most prolific policy thinkers. but he also brings a polarizing past. his 1995-'96 budget battle with president clinton resulted in a shutdown of the federal government. a few years later, he led the republican charge to impeach clinton. ultimately, he lost support within party ranks and resigned from the house in 1998. with today's move, gingrich will be the first full-fledged candidate to enter the republican field. others have gone part of the way, by forming exploratory committees. they include former massachusetts governor mitt romney, who was a candidate for the nomination in 2008; former minnesota governor tim pawlenty;

former pennsylvania senator rick santorum and, texas congressman ron paul. other contenders have indicated a decision on running is imminent, including indiana governor mitch daniels; former utah governor jon huntsman, who just stepped down as ambassador to china; minnesota congresswoman michele bachmann and, real estate tycoon turned reality t.v. star, donald trump. in the meantime, gingrich will deliver his first campaign speech friday in his home state of georgia, followed by a trip to iowa next week. and to our political editor, david chalian. hello david. >> hello, jim. >> lehrer: does newt gingrich deserve to be considered a serious contender or needs to be on the serious contender list? >> i think he does. i think that he was a national figure for quite some time in public office and has remained so since. a leading voice in his party,

certainly when it comes to policy ideas. and so i think it's hard to discount him out of hand. i think he has a ton of obstacles to get to the nomination as he goes through this process now, jim. but he is not an unheard of candidate that nobody has any idea about. i mean, he's a well-known figure. he just now has the challenge of reintroducing himself to the electorate. >> lehrer: and how will he reintroduce himself? what will he reintroduce himself as? >> well, you mentioned his polarizing past in the '90s. i think he has to reintroduce himself as somebody that that is behind him. that is no longer part of who he is. in fact, in his announcement video today where he rolled out he claimed credit... it almost sounded like he was bill clinton? that was the president that signed all this stuff into law, welfare reform... >> lehrer: he did it all. >> balanced budget, surplus, he's claiming credit for all of that. so i think part of that roe rey introduction is to claim the economic success of the '90s, that he was a part of leading

that. and i also think he has to work to get beyond the personal baggage. he is on his third wife right now and he has to go out and court these social conservatives that are very active inside the republican nominating electorate jim. and the one way that we can already see he's doing that is by putting his wife, his third wife calista, front and center in the campaign. she's prominently featured on the web site. she's going to be a pull partner this campaign. that will be part of the effort to reintroduce himself to voters. >> lehrer: take me into the field, th the field that's already there and the possibles that we just went through. >> i think newt gingrich occupies an interesting space in the field structurally. he's kind of straddling the fence between the more establishment candidates like mitt romney, tim pawlenty, maybe mitch daniels, the governor of indiana. >> lehrer: if they run. >> if they run. but because he's such a firebrand and throws out that real loy tough partisan rhetoric, he likes to consider himself part of that tea party crowd of michele bachmann if she runs, ron paul who has already

opened an exploratory committee. so he's trying to straddle both worldings of that. in terms of the polling where he fits in this, he's largely upheld: 84% of the country knows who he is. so that means he's getting a lot of bump in the polls right now simply because people recognize the name and there are so many other people in the field they don't know. so he's in the upper tier with rockne, huckabee if he runs, the former governor of arkansas, sarah palin, the former vice presidential candidate. >> those two have not decided at all what they're going to do and have not been building organizations at all. but those are the four that are sort of polling at the top of the tier right now and newt is part of that. >>. >> lehrer: i noticed you have yet to mention two words-- donald trump. what happened to trump? >> right, because few weeks ago he was all we're talking about. i don't think i've ever seen as precipitous a fall in the polls as we've seen with donald trump. and this is large they so-called birther issue and the president's birth certificate. you remember when the president released the birth certificate, the long form birth certificate

he was basically daring donald trump to continue to take this on. and you could just see the number of republicans who now believe that the president was born in this country, much higher than it was before so he really did inoculate an issue for himself a little bit and what happened was, jim, is that immediately on the heels of that birth certificate issue that donald trump made so big was the killing of osama bin laden. and the white house loved that contrast. you want to talk about side show issues as they called it with the birth certificate? go ahead, we're here killing public enemy number one. they loved that contrast and the electorate started picking up on that because trump's numbers just plummeted. >> lehrer: and there's no sign that... or is there? i'll ask you. are there any signs that it has a potential for going back up? >> well, it depends what other developments come out. it's something sort of not authenticated on that story. but donald trump has the potential to come back up because he has a lot of money to spend, to force his numbers back up and get in front of the american people.

we don't know if he's going to run yet. we don't know if this is just a publicity stunt. he was in new hampshire today, his reality show comes to an end in a couple weeks and he said he will make his intentions clear. so i don't rule him out as a factor but it was clear to me how soft he was. how soft that support was because it fell so quickly. >> lehrer: what does the polling and other conventional wisdom say about... whatever ends up being the republican ticket in 2012, what the chances are as we speak. and we know that could change tomorrow. but as we speak chans of defeating barack obama and joe biden? >> i'm sure president obama if he had his druthers would have rather have that mission to kill osama bin laden be successful in october of 2012. there are 128 months but right now if you size him up against any of these republican potential contenders, he's beating them and doing pretty well. look at those contenders see you on the screen. that establishment tier is up

top, the tea party element on the bottom. none of them are polling above president obama. so he at the moment is defeating them but the other number you have to pay attention to, just this week we saw an nbc poll out only 36% of the country says we're on the right track. only 37% of the country approves of barack obama's handling of the economy. those numbers have to improve for the president to get reelect so although this field is not largely known and hasn't been fully fleshed out yet and the president is seeming to be in a pretty decent position for reelection despite the sagging economy he's going to have spend the next 18 months talking to the american people and making them feel bet aesht the futu of the economy and the country. that's his mission. >> lehrer: all right. david, thank you very much. >> my pleasure. >> brown: next, the second of two reports from ukraine-- a nation with the worst h.i.v. anfection rate in europe.

d now there are fears the epidemic could spread to its neighbors. special correspondent kira kay has the story. >> reporter: in a clinic tucked away in a southern neighborhood of kyiv, vadim completes what has been his daily habit for three years. he's called into the doctor's office and given a dose of methadone. after a check to make sure vadim has swallowed it all, he's dismissed. vadim says this program has saved his life, not just by keeping him off illegal drugs but by keeping him from contracting h.i.v./aids. the logic of this substitution therapy is simple: the more drug users on methadone, the less sharing of needles, and thus fewer transmissions of h.i.v. kostiantyn pertsovskyi is an h.i.v. prevention worker. >> it is not just about getting pill once a day, but here people get consultations from social workers and they advised them, so that it really changed their behavior to less risky one not only to themselves but to the

community as a whole. >> reporter: ukraine has the highest h.i.v./aids rate in all of europe. half a million people may be infected-- more than france, germany and the united kingdom combined. diagnoses here have doubled in the last decade, as the epidemic exploded among ukraine's large injecting drug user population and their sexual partners. today, almost half new h.i.v. infections are through heterosexual contact, and the epidemic is at the cusp of spreading into the wider public. >> if nothing will be changed, nothing will be done in the next three, five years, epidemic for sure will get generalized. >> reporter: andrey klepikov is the executive director of the international h.i.v./aids alliance in ukraine. >> that will be a disaster not only for ukraine but entire europe, i think. so that is why it is important to apply more efforts now.

>> reporter: and so prevention groups are rushing to reach high risk populations in time. like in the southern city of odesa, with its massive international port, stream of tourists and vibrant commercial sex trade. it was here in odesa that the first case of h.i.v. in ukraine was diagnosed, in 1987. doctors suspect it was brought in by a foreign exchange student. today, odesa has some of the highest h.i.v. rates in the country. 17% of odesa's sex workers are h.i.v. positive and are another conduit of the disease into the general population. so by day this mobile clinic scours the highways around odesa, reaching sex workers with condoms, clean needles and information. by night, the van is parked in the middle of the city's red light district. >> the mobile ambulance is doing voluntarily counseling and rapid testing for h.i.v./aids which takes about 20 minutes. and those girls whose results show positive for h.i.v., they

are referred to a clinic to get proper treatment and even those who get negative results, they are better informed about the way h.i.v./aids epidemic is spread. >> reporter: there has been progress here in ukraine, including a 75% reduction in mother to child transmission in just six years. h.i.v. treatment is free through the national health care system. and, pushed by activists who wanted a bigger national commitment to prevention efforts, the parliament enshrined substitution therapy as part of a sweeping new h.i.v./aids law passed in january. but within days of the laws adoption, the ukrainian ministry of internal affairs drug enforcement department started collecting data on substitution therapy patients. >> ministry of interior issued an instruction which went out to all regions of ukraine with demands to collect all information which included personal data, the history of injecting drug use, what kind of substitution therapy drugs they

are getting, in what dosage, which is the medical information which is also private, its confidential. >> reporter: minister of internal affairs anatoly mohylyov defends the data collection. >> ( translated ): we requested such information not to make it public. we just need it because such people belong to risk groups that we need to know about. >> unfortunately, we don't know how this information will be used in the future. so now it is kept by the ministry of interior. and still remembering the soviet past where law enforcement when they collected information it will be kept forever and sometimes it can be used against you. >> reporter: minister mohylyov also calls ukraine's substitution therapy program, created under a previous administration, a mistake. and even foreign minister kostyiantyn gryshchenko, who has signed international aid agreements that endorse substitution therapy, argues there are enough concerns to warrant a second look.

>> there is a challenge, a problem of law enforcement and there is a problem of how to best develop the approach according to our particular situation. everyone understands it; nobody is a evil kind of figure, be it police or doctors. i believe that we will find an answer pretty soon. >> reporter: there are also concerns for ukrainians who have already contracted h.i.v. and are in need of treatment. 22,000 people are on anti- retroviral-- a.r.v.-- medication, but the need is three times that. and at the end of last year, supplies of certain a.r.v.s started to run out in parts of the country. volodymir kurpita is the executive director of the all- ukrainian network of people living with h.i.v., a watchdog group. >> in late december 2010, we received call from, many, many calls from our regional representatives, highlighting

the issue of shortcoming a.r.v. in the regions, which led to switching the patient from one drug to another drug without any explanation or switching children from pediatric formulation to adult formulation. >> ( translated ): he was on one a.r.v. until the end of 2010 and everything was okay. then, in our country, problems with the therapy happened and they changed his medication. >> reporter: this odesa mother says her ten-year-old son suffered a severe allergic reaction to his new medication that forced him into emergency care. a third medication was eventually found for him. but doctors worry that such changes could create resistance or other long term problems. >> everything's been ok for almost two months, knock on wood! but all this took a lot of effort, because the doctors kept telling us, we don't have anything to give him. i feel that we are simply left on our own to survive in this country.

>> reporter: the shortages have been blamed on the ministry of health's failure to accurately forecast demand and make purchases in time. and kurpita's network says the government also pays up to three times more for medications than necessary. >> we realized that there is some relationship between the decision makers in the ministry of health sitting in the tender committee and this pharmaceutical company who are the winner of the tender. this is the corruption. this is the corruption. >> yes, in some case we have situation when price for some of a.r.t. higher than in other countries. >> reporter: doctor natalia nizova of the ukrainian governments national aids center admits there are problems. >> all a.r.t. drugs its from another countries, from foreign countries.

and as result, ukraine need have some distributors who work with pharmaceutical company. >> reporter: i understand the middleman is a problem here, that they take a percentage of the money. >> absolutely, absolutely. >> reporter: doctor nizova says that the health ministry will not let another stock-out happen. it could happen again, this but the network is actively tracking supplies and fears some a.r.v.s could run low again by autumn. international donors like the united states and the global fund are increasing their assistance, but remain concerned about the governments ability to address problems like corruption and its crackdown on substitution therapy. in 2004, the global fund cut off its direct government funding and since then has only been supporting aid groups. >> indeed the suspension of the grant was related to some of those very critical issues related to procurement and supply management.

>> reporter: ani shakarashvili is the ukraine country coordinator for the united nations program on h.i.v./aids, a partner of the global fund. she says an audit of government practices is currently underway. >> there are certain conditionalities and rightly so. the government, and the country itself, has to be committed in order for the global fund to provide additional funding. the governmental commitment into the aids fight is crucial now. it should be the government owning, leading and taking on, because the international aid is not unlimited. >> reporter: the question is whether the ukrainian government can surmount the political and structural hurdles it faces, in time to take control of the spreading epidemic. >> lehrer: finally tonight, an update on syria where the crackdown on protests escalated sharply today.

at least 18 people were killed when government tanks opened fire. judy woodruff has the story. >> woodruff: the first reports of shelling came from homs in central syria. people living there said tanks targeted residential areas, and five people were killed. at least 13 others died outside daraa, in the south. up to now, security forces relied on gunfire and snipers to crush the seven-week-old uprising against president bashar al assad. but in the past week, the army has sealed off towns and villages that were centers of the protests. maadamiyeh- -a suburb of the capital damascus is surrounded. as is daraa and the nearby towns of jassem and al-haraa, where much of today's shelling occurred. and, the city of banias on the coast is also cut off. syrian human rights workers now say more than 770 civilians have

been killed in the crackdown and in recent days more than 9,000 people have been rounded up around the country. these you-tube pictures appear to show people being detained in damascus. british reporter martin fletcher witnessed the roundups in homs, after he got into syria on a tourist visa. >> quite clearly, the regime had been going around the street of homs arresting any young man of fighting age and putting him into this and presumably other detention centers. i was held for about six hours and at regular intervals young men were brought in some of them whimpering with fear others quite defiant, but it gave me a glimpse as to what lengths this regime is going to suppress this insurrection. >> woodruff: another journalist- - al jazeera's dorothy parvaz-- was detained at the damascus airport in late april.

she holds american, canadian and iranian citizenship and has reportedly been sent to iran and imprisoned there. today, president assad told a syrian newspaper he will work to resolve the issue of detainees jailed during the unrest. he also urged syrians to cooperate with the government so reforms can be made. but u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon urged assad again to stop using excessive force. and in washington, white house spokesman jay carney condemned today's tank attacks on protesters. >> well, we strongly condemn and oppose the violence in syria. one, it is abhorrent to use violence in any form against peaceful protesters and against unarmed citizens, your own citizens. but two, if what they seek is stability, they are sowing the seeds of more instability by doing what they're doing and we strongly condemn that. >> woodruff: but just yesterday president assad's cousin rami

makhlouf warned the regime will not back down. makhlouf is one of syria's most powerful businessmen and told the "new york times"-- "if there is no stability here, there's no way there will be stability in israel. nobody can guarantee what will happen after, god forbid, anything happens to this regime." in the meantime, the european union monday imposed sanctions on 13 members of syria's ruling elite, but not assad himself. now, germany and several other european nations are calling in syrian ambassadors and threatening additional sanctions unless the crackdown ends. for more, we turn to murhaf jouejati, a syrian born scholar and a professor at the national defense university and andrew tabler, a former journalist and now a fellow at the washington institute for near east policy. you both for being with us.

andrew tabler, to you first. what more can you add to what we've reported just now? >> well, i think scale of the military crackdown is clearing growing and your report reflected that. i think the news of shelling-- if confirmed-- is very disturbing because it gets us much closer to a scenario like that in february of 1982 which the ham ma massacre occurred which up to 10,000 or 30,000 people died depending on the estimates. so it's an escalation on behalf of the assad regime to you have? out the protests. >> woodruff: murhaf jouejati, you were talking to people, connected to people in syria, what are you picking up that you can add? >> the report is very accurate that we saw there is a lot more to it. in many instances, the families of the wounded do not dare take them the hospitals because they would be arrested in the hospitals, they would be killed in the hospitals. so you have many people who are wounded, who are at home and

literally dying. because forces have gone house to house in operations, whether in dara to arrest young men between the ages of 15 and 48. so this is random, it is systemic. >> woodruff: how are they tracking them? is it just a matter that we've been hearing of any young man rohr there other methods being used? >> there are general sweeps. there are also multiple reports of... of course syria has a giant firewall built by a european company several years ago. >> woodruff: an internet firewall. >> that's right. and they use that to track facebook and twitter users, many of whom are behind organizing the protests. so the traditional methods... they're pulling out all the stops. they have people in the security services who speak even foreign languages that are monitoring these sites so they're really using very sophisticated methods to crack down on the protests.

>> woodruff: are they discriminating? are they saying we know you sent an e-mail therefore we will arrest you or just picking up nerve a block or house? >> i think they're pretty much picking up a lot of people so it's all right if only one is guilty... and here guilty i use loosely because these are unarmed civilian protestors who are in fact doing nothing. the regime is not hesitateing to hundreds and thousands of people in order to catch 25 culprits. >> woodruff: what's the difference between those being killed and those being arrested? >> what do you mean difference? >> is there a deliberate choice being made? we'll shoot you in the street but arrest you if you're doing something else? >> you know, it's all open and it's all dependent upon that

security officer that is doing the arresting or senate toing. there have been snipers from roof tops that have been targeting heads of people or necks of people. they clearly have instructions to shoot to kill. but they are also in many instances they have killed people whoa are already wounded. , so again, there is really no words to describe what is going on except that that is a very, very gruesome situation. >> woodruff: what is the government saying? do we know inside sere war? what are they telling the population? >> they're blaming it on everything from terrorists to thugs to armed gangs to foreign instigateors. really it's an old narrative they've used time and time again which, of course, is t syrian people do not believe. they know exactly what's going on. >> woodruff: why are they now

escalating? for a regime like this is this is catastrophic. the fear factor, the one they've relied on for so long is gone and brave people are challenging this regime in ways that were unimagine to believe most of us who covered syria. but he woplt be able to do much else and he's in a real bind. >> woodruff: is that why they're escalating is that your sense, mr. jouejati? >> i think it was right after they listed quote/unquote emergency laws that the president himself said it after this days there no justification fshs demonstrations anymore. this was the signal the regime was going to use force against the population.

>> woodruff: and you're saying they have swept the streets? >> and they know the international community is divided and only taking token measures against the regime. they know it's egg frommented and are playing on this fragmentation on this fear by marketing rumors that in the absence of the assad regime there will be a civil war based on sectarian differences. >> woodruff: what do you mean by that? they are scaring their cohorts into believing they will be slaughtered by the sunnis. they are scaring the christians to say this is the muslim brotherhood behind it. to see fear to give us the choice of either us, the assad regime, or chaos and civil war. >> woodruff: are we seeing more people in engaged in the protest

now, andrew tabler, or are people backing off as they see people killed, woundd? >> people are still coming out and protesting. now they are being ordering everyone to stay in their homes, of course, but the protests spring up somewhere else. again, that is genie that you can't put back in the bottle because it comes out somewhere else. this is assad's problem. rough riff we saw the businessman who's close to assad interviewed saying in essence if this regime falls apart watch out. >> that's to scare us. >> woodruff: we've heard the regime say they're winning. are they wining? how do you read it? >> that businessman perhaps may have been the most frank among all these syrian spokesman is that she is saying and it is plain to read that there is going to be a massacre if it is not... if the assad regime is

not going to survive. he is very frank and i think he is reflecting the opinion of the family, the assad family who is of course treating syria as a family farm. the regime continues to have some confidence again as a result of the fragmentation of the protestors and the inability of the international community to do anything, this against your own determination to hang on to toer. >> woodruff: so is it confident based on something andrew tabler or bluser? >> i think it's... i think definitely the crackdown is going on. they think it's going to be effective but i think it's really only winning... are they winning? no, because they're not going to be able to solve this. this is not something easily solveable because the very people that assad is relying on, the minorities in the country to clean up this matter in the security services, if he launches reforms in the country they're the ones that are going to lose the most and they know

that. this is a systemic problem for assad and he's in the hot seat. >> woodruff: we continue to monitor. andrew tabler, murhaf jouejati, we thank you both. >> thank you. >> brown: again, the other major developments of the day: crews filled sandbags and shored up levees along the mississippi river as floodwaters threatened the delta. a federal jury in new york convicted the founder of the galleon group in largest insider trading case ever, involving hedge funds. and former house speaker newt gingrich formally entered the race for the republican presidential nomination in 2012. and to hari sreenivasan for what's on the "newshour" online. hari? >> sreenivasan: there's more on the 2012 g.o.p. field on our politics page. use our interactive primer to learn more about newt gingrich and other would-be presidential contenders. read an update on "globalpost" reporter james foley, still in captivity in libya after more than a month. he and another journalist are reported to be in good health. on our "making sense page," the

director of "inside job," charles ferguson answered your questions about the financial crisis. and on "art beat," a look back at reggae legend bob marley. jeff talked to a photojournalist who covered him. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. jeff? and that's the "newshour" for tonight. on thursday, we'll talk to senate republican leader mitch mcconnell about the search for common ground on reducing the deficit and more. i'm jeffrey brown. >> lehrer: and i'm jim lehrer. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i mean, where would we be without small businesses? >> we need small businesses. >> they're the ones that help drive growth. >> like electricians, mechanics, carpenters. >> they strengthen our communities. >> every year, chevron spends billions with small businesses. that goes right to the heart of local communities, providing jobs, keeping people at work. they depend on us. >> the economy depends on them. >> and we depend on them.

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