captioning snsored by maeil/lehrer productions >>fill: i'm gwen ifill. on the newshourhis monday: the disputedelection in iran, as its preme leader formally endorses the president reelection-- margaret warne takes a look; judy woodrufon one of the stking points on the road to heth care reform-- taxes; fred de sam zaro reportsrom nigeria, food scarcity in a count that once was agricultural powerhouse; anthe risks of getting too litt vitamin d, especially for children.

major funding f the newshour with jimehrer is provided by: >> tiny little thing, 's just... not big. ah. okay, i found it. ( chee and applause ) oky. >> we are intel, sponsors of or mrow.mro >> what the world needs now is energy. thenergy to get the economy humming again. the energy to tacklehallenges like cmate change. what ithat energy came from an engy company? everyday, chevron invest$62 million in people, indeas-- seeking,eaching, building. fuing growth arounthe world toove us all ahead. this is t power of human

energy. chevron. tel. the national ience foundation. supporting education and research across all fids of science anengineering. and with the ongoi support of thesinstitutions and undations. and... this proam was made possible by theorporation for public badcasting. anby contributions to your pbs station from views like you. thanyou. >> ifill: iras rulers faced wn new evidence of discontt today, as aass trial of opsition figures got under way. e accused were arrested in the aftermath of june's disputed psidential election. the declared nner of that vote, president mmoud ahmadinejad, was rmally endoed today by iran's supreme leader. marget warner has our lead

story. >> warner: the trial of 10 peop accused of post-election violce began on saturday in tehran. but today, the wife of one former vice president hammad abtahi, chargedis televised+ confession had been coerced abtahi alled opposition leaders conspired to misrepresent the electi results as frdulent. >> ( translated ): the slogan of eating was a slogan that immediely came up after the election. i think th this change of stance was becausof (an understanding that e political elites, iluding myself, for a few days made a great miste and i sess that that mistake inflicted heavy blows tour country. warner: in her statement, abtahi's wife told he assocted press: another leading rormer, former dety interior minister mohammad atrianfarwas shown confesng the protests were a forgn plot to topple iran's

government. in a 2006 ierview with the newshour in tehran, hdescribed the regime's beli that the u.s. wantedo engineer its ouster >> since the u. brought up this axis of evil slogan and talked about regime chan in iran, mely, the toppling of the present governmen it meant that they are trying play with our destiny. >warner: the scores of others the accusations of forced confessions me as iran's preme leader formally endors mahmoud ahmadejad for a second term as president today. at the ceremony in tehn, ayallah ali khamenei allowed ahminejad to kiss the shoulder of his robe. a more restined gesture than four yearago, when ahmadinejad kissed the leader's hd and cheeks. khamei called the election a "golden page" iran's history, and derided the protesrs for mimicking the taics of the

1979 islamic rolution. >> t enemy has to know with what kind ofeality it has encountered. >> ( translated ): the islamic ling system is alive. they must not imagine th through a false ulation of pele's massive turnout in 1979 ismic revolution, and with a caricature of that revotion, they can harm the greatnesof islamic revoluon and system. >> criticsoiced the event, hash much aye rafsanjani d hat -- khatami leading elecon critics ycotted the ent, former presidents akbar hashem rafsanji and mohammad khatami, as well as this year's reformist candidates m hossein mousavi and mahdi kaoubi. and, no one from the faly of aytollah khomeini, leader of the 1979 revution, attended. on another front, iwashington, secrary of state hillary clinton urd iran to confirm that it's holding three misng american hers. iranian state tv report the hikers wereeized last friday when they ignored rnings from boder guards and crossed over from nohern iraq.

fomore on these latest developments in iran, we rn to two iraniaamericans: abbas milani, direcr of the iraniantudies program at stanfordniversity and co-director othe iran democracy project at e hoover saturday's indictment cted him as a jor figure in trying to ovrtow the irann government. and hooman majd, a journalist and writerho was inran in the leadup to the june elecon. he's the auth of "the ayatolla begs to differ: the paradox of modern iran" >> well, l'ss we are well ts paradox. professo milani, let's begin with you, what plains thispectacle, this mass tri, these pulic confessions? >> i thi the reme feels frighted. itfeels isolate it feels that it is facing an uphill battle. and in order to intimidate thepposition, in oer to intimate the otherleaders of the reform movement, particurlymr. moss avi,

and khatami, it basically imprisoned the entire reform movement leadership and thugh what seems to be barbaric torture brought them out to confessto these rather silly and absurd crimes, and the regime read an indictment that think will go downn history one ofhe most absurd coentaries and most abrd udicial documents. >> rner: hooman majd, do you see it the me way, that they are tryi to intimidate thehole protest movement here? >> absolely. i thinkdr. milan syabsolutely corrct in that. but i think the is also another element her i think ey have made it clear thathey have a sry app they areticking to it this story is that this is not- that there wasn't fraud. that the whole unre was caused by foreign agents a by foreigrs and was a plaed western coup, and i think they nt to show their supports, at least, and they do have supporters

there is no queson they do have me supporters, they want to show them throu these telised trials a through these confessns that some people will believe, although the vast majority, i think, will not believe. and they see as dr. milani said qte absurd. but ithink that they want it's really a case ofhem saying this is our stry and we're sticking to it. and w want to get pas this. and ts the way we are going to get past by proving inheir minds that there wa this cspiracy and tn you know, we'll s what the next phase is. certainly i think it came generally as shock to most people in tehran thathey would do such thing. >> warner: and prossor milanis there any doubt in your mind at these were coerced confessio? >> i ha have absolutely no dot in my mind. ese are 100eople who worked for year, some of them, t years, for these oth candidates,who articulated repeatedly when they had accs to all manner of information that the election was fraulent election. a then isolated,

imprisoned withot any contact to the outside world, without any access to laers, they suenly in uni son all decide tha not only the election wafair and square, but thathey were all pawns in the hands of ameran institution that is simply a sill scenario and i don think anybody bu it. >> wner: now mr. majd, as you've said you both have said they' got a sty and they're sticking to i this is n aew theme, this idea, thatny reform or any activist is just a pawn in international plt. do you think members of the regime actuallyelieve that? and is there some basis for i i mean the united staes did help engineer a coup ther in the 50s. >> we, i think -- well, iraans are generally conspiracy minded. i would agree with dr. lani on what heaid, clealy these confessns are crced or not voluntary, at an absolute nimum with. whether these peoe were omised freedom if they made these confession, i'm

not sure. who knows what hpened in swral in the time ey spent in ja. but i think yes, i think thas why i say that there ar some people, at least among their supporters who will beeve this, because of the past history the unit states. because of the past history of internaonal meddling in an iranian affairs there are some peop who believe it. i don'think the mority of t regime,eople who are in power today do believe what they are putting fthright now. think it praganda like it has bn in the past. but i think there are some pple who believe it, yes, ort least beeve there is some ement of truth to t fact tt some of these protests were engineered or cals for, you know, people to come o on the street and so and so forth, were engineer, if not engineered, were encouraged by western cntries. >> warner: pfessor milani, how far do you thk this is going to g ere were other gures like yurself but you're safely in the u.s., b like reformist candidate mousavi who were also ced in this indictment do you think the are in danger as well of being

arrested? >> i thinkf theegime feels like it can get away with it, they wil arrest mr. mousavi. they will arrest calrubi and think they will even arrest khatami and rafsanjani. these confessns were clearly a shot acrosthe bow to these foureople. whatkhamenei said hmself today was again nfirmation that if they can get away with it, they will go after these four people, ahmadinejad has repeatedly threatened tese people. th only thing that will stop them i think, their sessment that the costs will be too much. last night i haveumerous reports fro iran that the shouts of death to the dictator at night we the loudest they have been in a long time. so peoplehave spoken, and clearly i think the way they can indicated tt they find this to be a city unjust and

brut farce. >>arner: and hooman majd would you say despitehe optics ofoday's endsement ceremony that it looks lke khamenei and ahmadinejad are side-by-sde in this and sticking togethr? i believe soyes. i think aittle bit o much is made of th awkward optics as u put it. four yars ago when he kisse the hand of khamenei there was a lot of critism of ahmadinejad r dog exactlyhat which no other presient has ever done d in ir. so i think he didn't want to ss the hand of khamene who knows whether h-- khenei expected him to kiss him onhe cheek whatever. b connection the shoulder is also sign of respect. so i n't think, i thi they are absolutel hand-in-handhey are united. certainly the hardine, the hardestf the hard line element ithe iranian regim are vry united as drmilani points out i do agree thiis all a wning to heeformists to back of this is our story.

back off, this is wh we have to present to the world. and we're going to move forward from he. if e reformists were willing to back off i do believe that they would be willing to make some concessions but ion't see the reformists backg off right now. i don't see cot ami or rafsanjani backing off, the great dangers ey arrest khatami or raf s yanni o mousavi weould see something ally, really nger in iran which coul border in civil war. peop are very unhappy. >> warner: professor mini, bef final word, do you ink it could spil out of control like that? >> i thi it could if they insist. but ithink there is a tension between ahmadinejad and khamenei. the last two weeks hve clearly indicated that ahmadinad has illusis of andeur. he thinks he really has 25 million votes. and his refusal to carry out the orde of khamenei, in mind, was itself a shout

across the bow o mr. amenei that i'm no longer thnothing mayor of tehran four yea ago, i'm now a lanlide victor and i amoing toave my own friends and buddies and family in lucrative potions of authority. >> warner: and that landslide vict crtificate toenaugurated on wednesday. thank you both very much. >> tha you. >> ifill:ou can read more about today's cerony in iran, wherthe ayatollah endorsed the reelection of mmoud ahmindejad on our web site at newshour.pbs.or in other news today, was widely reported e obama admintration may set up a courtom prison complex inside the u.s. for terro suspes. the "washington po," and others, said e complex could replace the detention cter at guantanamo bay. two sites were said to be der

considation, a prison in miigan that's about to close and the military penitentiarat fort leavenwoh, kansas. the ia quickly ran in criticism from publicans, includingansas senator sam brownback. i've been to guantanamo. i lead a congressiol delegatiothere. the detaiees are treated approiately and safely there. if investigations find they are not treed appropriely and safely there,thenhange how they are treed there rathe than move tm t smeplace inhe unitedtates as a publicity stt. >> ifill:n another develoent, the associated press reported the cas of dozens of guantano detainees have been referred to deral prosecutors. a white house spokesmannsisted no finalecisions have been made. in afghanistan, a talibanomb killed at least 11 people the western pa of the country. the rget was a district police chief, who was critilly

wounded. 30 other people wereurt as well. and over the weekend, six amican troops were killed in afghistan, along with two canadians d a french soldier. theong search for u.s. navy aptain michael "scott" speher has come to an en he was shot down at the ouet of the first gf war, but questis lingered today about exactly when, and how, hdied. newshour crespondent kwame lman has our report. >> holman: thu.s. navy annouement finally answered a qustion that had been asked since 1991: was scottspeicher alive odead? and today, ciy laquidara says it ended at least part othe mystery. shspoke in a telephone interview with the newshr.

>> i'm scott speicher of the f.a. 81 out here on the saratoga. >> holman: speher's f-18 was shot down by a surface-toir missile on the opening nighof operation desert storm,n januy 17, 1991. then-fense secretary dick cheney nounced the first american fatalitof the war. but for years, th33-year-old pilos remains could not be found, and he was given headstone memori at arlington naonal cemety. in 2001, navy officialshanged his status from "killed i action" to "missing action," nd a year later to "missing captured" srtly before the cond iraq war. en, early last month, an ira formant told u.s. marines th bedouin tribmen had buried speicher afteris jet craed in their area. his remains uimately were revered in anbar province, bout 100 miles west of bhdad. but questions about exaly how speicher died, and why it to so lonto discover his body, remain. a u.s. military studlast year notethe pilot's parachute ner was found, and he never sent ectronic distress signals. 00

>> holman: in t meantime, speicr's remains have been flown to dover air forcease in delaware where final d.a. sts will be done. >ifill: in economic news, wal street started the month wi another rally, after ueat news abut manufacturing. the dow joneindustrial average gained nearly 1 points to cle at286. e nasdaq rose 30 points to close at 2008. the standa and poor's index closed above 1000 fothe first time in ninmonths. ford haseported its first u.s. sales irease in nearly two years. they werep more than 1.5% in july, from a year ago. g.m. and chrysler sas were dn again, but not by as much. some of the crit went to the cash for clunkers pogram.

the u.s.ouse has authorized $2 billion toxtend it, and the oba administration urged the senate today to follow st. bank of america will pay a penalty o$33 million to the secuties and exchange commissn. theompany was accused of misleading iestors in its purchase of meill lynch last ye. bank of americinitially said merrill uld not pay year-end bonusesefore the deal closed. in fact, the s.e.c. said nk of america had ready approved up to$5.8 billion in bonus p and stillo come on the nehour tonight: scarcity amid plenty; food insecity; and vitamin d deficiency. that llows the latest in our series on the sticki points in t battle over health reform. tonight, taxing benefits. it's onef the key issues the senate finance commtee is grappling with as it tries craft a bipartisan heal care bil bet ann bowser begins with

this report. our health unit is a panership with throbert wood johnson fouation. >> one idea on the tble topi pay for hlth-care reform is taxing the most costly of employer-provided health insurance benefits. the so-called cadillac plans provided t a small percentage of workers. >> currently emploes who receive their hlth-care benefits through their companies payo tax on their benets. but some in congress are considering taxg insurers or employers if they pride coverage exceeding a set basic co. whi senators have notaid out any specific number yet, here's one hypothetical example of how the tax might work if an insurer ormployer provided a pn for a worker nd his famy tt costs $22,000, the insurance company or employer might pay a tax on the diffence between $22,000 and a base

ount to be determined by congress. for the purposes of our example f that amou was set at 17,000, the insurer or employer would pay a tax on the $5,000 dference. and the employer or inser cld choose to pss those costs on to themployee. before house membe return to their districts for the augustreak,peakerancy losi told the newshour's judy woodruff she's open to e idea. >> i s just put erything onhe table. but i think it has t be try the top of the line. once you get into sort of the middle income, i don't think that that is a good idea. whene talk about at the highest level t have a surcharge orat the highest package, let's take alook at insurance package, let's take a a look at, but there is a big appite to tax the insurance cpanies. >> your co-payments and deductibles hav gone u-- >> and although while campaigning for prident

last year candidate obama was oppos to taxing benefits. >> that is fundamentally e wrong way to go. >> but president obama to jim lehrer two weeks a he couldupport tang some empyee benefits. >> iaid during the caaign when this was raised by john mccain, had proposed to eliminate completely t exclusion on the taxaon of health benefits. i had said thathis would be e wrong way to go cause it would be too disruptive. what's bng talked about now, inderstand,s the possibility ofenalizing insurance compans who are offeringupergold-plated cadillac plansment i han't seen the detail of this yet. but it may be approach that doesn't put addional burdens on mide-class famils. >> on the sday talk shows obama administration officials sd they wouldn't

rule out a taxhike to pay for hlth-care reform and to help reduce the federal deficit. but today white house spokesman robert gibbs said there will be no tax hi on the middl class. >> let me berecise. the presiden's clear commient is not to raise taxes on those making less than $250,000 a year. >> gibbs sd the president is scheduled to meet with senate democrats tomorrow at the whit house. >> judy woodrf picks >> ifi: judy woodruff picks up the story from ther as wmakers ponder whether to tax befits, we try to unerstand better how it might work, and om it may affect. jonathan gruber is a alth ecnomist at m.i.t. he was one several advisers who worked on democric hlth planduring last year's election campaig and ul fronstin is the director of theealth research program at the employee befit research initute. >> thank you bothor being with us. and paul, i'm going to stt with yo i think there's general agrment, t avege plan, health insunce plan right now

runsround, you and i wer just discusng $12,500, $13,000 a year. gener agreement. sowhere do you draw the line? at constitutions cadillac plan? >> right w policymakers are using a premi as a thresho to define what a cadillac plan i they're talkingbout taxing pls that cost $25,000 or re, or $22000, someevel that's vy high. thessue with that is usin anash rather number doesn't -- ar by traree mber doesn't necessarily mean that you will only be limiting the t to cadillac plansment many pls cost a lot of money beuse the grou that'seing isured is an older groupn average uses a lot more heth care on averageecause they may be sicker than the typical rson. sthey would be taxed as wel >> woodruff: it might be more expensive but it doesn't necesrily men you are getting a whole lot better, a wle lot more coverage. >> well, the factis you may

find a group with on the same exact health plan that pays hf as much as the unhealthyroup because the healthyroup is healthy. soheir premis are low. >> woodruff:onathan gruber, elp us understand where you see the line drawn. if 13,0 oro is the average family insurance plan, now wh level does it reach tobecome aadillac, gold-plated plathat might be xed? >> welli think paul's right here. th there is no ght answer. but i think if you che a line of around $20,000 that would say that only e 10% st expensive alth plans in the countryould be includd in this, would lose the taxreak they now receive. ani think paul raises legit mss concerns about reasonswhy it's more expeive in some stat or for certain grps that are older. but you can adjust for those in setting up the tax exclusion, setting up ts new tax by a justing it for higher cost regis and more expensive grou. >> ll, let me, before we get into at, jonathan gruber, how would it work?

explin who wou be taxed, ow much would they be taxe do we have awers to those questions? >>we don'tave precise swers but we can say roughly the idea would b at your employer would get a notfrom the government saying that if or the insurance comny would get a note from the governmt saying thatf the insunce plan costs more than some vel, let's say 20,000 doars, then the difference between the amount and that $20,000 is taxable so if the iurer has a $25,00 plan en they would be tad at some ra, some are talking about a ra above 35% on e difference between 25,000 and 20,000 dollars. this wld really only affect the veryost expensive health pla. this i not going toffect most workers. >> and paulronstin, this question owho would be taxed, we herd in betty ann's report theoretically it goes to the insurance company or the employer. t then there is a questi of whethe that gets passed

on to the employ. >> right, and there is a question of h it gets passed on to the empyee. if iis the insurance company tt is being taxed, they may in turnonly increase premiu forhose plans that a being taxed. meaning the highest-st plans. they may also find thatthey may spread theax across all their plans. we d't know how they ar going to ret yet. if employers are tad, en of course they're goi to try and pass it ang to their employees as best they cano the degree they k right now with a 10% pushing 10% unemploymentate, it's easy to do. if it wa late 2000 when we were at 3.8%wouldn't be so easy. >>good idea, bad idea? >> depes upon the goal. you want toaise the reenue t will raise revenue. if you want a fair tax, you're going to tax the people wit cadillac pla. but y're also gointo be taxing people tt are more expensive simply cause of their health stus. >> jonathan gruber, good idea or not? >> i think it's a terrific idea. i think the way to look at it is to ink about wt youre doing with the

mone you are using t money to provide univsal coverage. so the questioyou have to ask is are you willing take ay a t break to the 10% of americans wi the most epensive health insurance plans to provide the financing that allows 47 milon uninsuranced to get some coverage. it sell soos like th is the kind of trade-off we should be ae to make as a society. woodruff: what about that argument? >> well, certainly if our al is to cover the 47 million uninsure, the money has got to cme from someplace. so we're definite going to raise money by imposing some kind of tax. you know t a qution of irness. do you wnt to simply tax the cadillac ans or do you also want to start by including people tat are older, onverage, thatave igher health-care expense on avage as well. are you talking about people withdiabetes, health disease, various cancers, he people that use the most alth care. they a using the st healtcare and cost the most cause they are sick. >> woodruff: there is tt question, isn't there, jon gruber? >> yeah, i think what yo have toemember is can adjust this p for the age of theworkers. employers know their

works' ages. and insurers know e age of the people enrolled in the plan. so theax that is iosed on insurersould vary by the age of workersin the plan. yocould have a higher cap f plans with older workers. now you can vary it for the illness of workers. but member, in this new rld we're moving towards with rerm, most frmwill no longer pay bsed on t illss of their workersut rather just e age of their workers. o therefore if you had a cap that was adjusted bas on the age of t workers, you could take care of the problem thapaul is rightl concerned with. >> woodruff:he broader vesion of this as we heard in bty ann's report,aul, is to t all insuran premiums, what are the ps and cons of that compred to thecadillac idea. >> well, crtainly there is more frness involved if you areaxing all plans. and you willraise a lot more money if you do so. >> odruff: how much more. >>illions. you cou, --. >> woodruff: hndreds of beings -- billis? >> i think ty were talking about i'm not his staken $500 billion over ten yea if there was aax cap whereas when they are lookg at a $25,000 cutoff

it is closer to 90 or $100 billion ov ten years. so it isuite a fference. >> and you in favor ofthat? is that a god idea, bad idea. >> wl, again,here's pros an cons to any kind of tax change. ceainly it will raise revenue. it will help payfor health insurance coverage for 47 million peop who are uninsured. but at the same te some people are going see their taxes gop who may ot be able to afford it. >jonathan gruber, better idea to broaden ts out and tax all health insurance premiums or to ke it on those first rate cadillac gold-plated plans >> welli thinklet's look at three leve. one vel is your first idea which is to ax all plan that wod actually raise ver two trillion dollars over the next decade which is much more than we nd. t's money that actually ould be used for lots of other soal needs in society and the truth is would add have kate tt. i think that you he to remember wee talking about is right now we've got a

system where i work at fir that doesn't offer alth insurance, i don't t a tax break. if i wk at a firm that offs health insurance, i get a tax break so it's discriminato. the richei am, the gger tax break i amso it is regressive. a it is a tax break that induces me to spend extra on medicacare becausei'm playg with the government's dollars rath than my own. so i would ad have kate as broad as pssible but i think it really is a question of the poticsment yo just hed secretary gibb, you heard the press secretary tk about not tax the middlelass, a broer would hit the middle class more. >> woodruff: very ick respoe to that. >> no, i think jonathan's rig. the one thing would qstion is will peole who use health re a lot becausehey haveiabetes, heart disease, varis cancers use less health care as a result of the heath plan being taxedwhich in turn means tt they have less comprehensive pla, higher deductibles, hher coayments. that the on-ended questn. >> paul fronstin, jothan gruber, thank youoth. >> ank you.

>> ifill: this ipledge week on plic television. 're >> good evening. t's paul and paula. 'm paul anthony. and i'm here with paulakerger, president an chief executive officer of pbs. e are taking jt a moment during this evening's broadst to inve you to becom a supporting member weta. it's our singularurpose to deliver tevision programming and enlighten toducate our shared community and we're ableo do that thanks our members, who are the very backbone of this organization. so pleas consider becomg a part of what public teleson does be, deliverin television progms with impact. wh your callf financial pport to 888-202-2777, and do it right now. paula, how do the "newshour and public affairs progrs fulfill pbs' ssion? >> i thi that theork tha we do in public affairs is absolutely core to what public

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has built with the "newshour" and hat the extradinarily talented teahas built is a news broadcast that rlly is singular in its work. and as we look forward in watchi the "newshour" evolve with its partnerships with npr, withts work tt it's bn doingith "front line", i think it's going to serve the community an extraordinarily effective way. >>i totally agree with you. no, just a coue minutes lef in this breako please call us now at 888-202-2777. and sho your suppo and your loving this program as much as doyou. you'veome back and for every time. likehe "the newshour with m lehrer" we recve emails and lettersor it. the count out for ns coverage that goes beyond sound bites and eal substance and for i oughtful events on issues. it's t kind of television that we is dedicated to bring it t you. but we can'to it one. ecome the nt supporting

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>> ill: now, an encore look the growing global problem food insurity. special crespondent fred de sam lazero has this port from nigeria. >> the food market sits just inside nigeria a northern border. a lot of pduce like these beans is from neighbing niger eve though that nation's 13illion people are oftenn the brink of starvation. the econocs are sple. prices are higher in oilich nigeria. but why is nigeria even impting food? agiculturalroduce used to be its main export. now it must turn to neighbors to fed its growingpopulation, already africa's largt a 140 million. most nigeans live on farms but tod many like the

extend family can barely prvide for themselves. >> the rains provided a good cro of sourgum and maze this year,maybe enough to get thrgh the dry season but even as the dies se toelebrate a goodcrop, ramatuand aisha say each new years bngs new uncertain. >> we've haddifficult times when rainfall was poo when when we had to rely on lees and schrubs. >> we pluck them, boil th, sprinkle them withalt. sometimes eat them with peanut buer. reporter: not that the food they enjoy todays either bountiful or balanced. the.n. says almost a thd of nigeria young chilen are moderaty to severely undeeight. in th fily's main daily meal is a starchy porrigde playered with chiles, and

msg, an additive that mics the taste of mt. they rarely havethe real thing, the few goats and poultry are the savings count, sold to buy cthes or medicine oro pay for a wedding. much of the blame for the po state of nigerian riculture lies with the successiveilitary dictator whch since the 1970s prised but never delered on graiose modernition plans. mohammed -heads a group of large faers. >> the focus was how to improve frming rough large scale efort asell through the creationf facilities f dry season farming. and this result in the construction of seral dams in this country, and several irrigation >> the m project was one part ofthe grand plan. its nal network is supposed to waer

surrounding fiel during the dry season, affording two crops a ye instead of one. butuch of theetwork is bone dry. >> the water should be gushing through tis canal. nstead, there is grass growi from it. the problem is thathe ectric supply is erratic around hee, and the's no esel to run the pumps. no diesel inone of the world's most energy-ri natns. a few field have benefitted here alongsi sloped canals that getater through gravity. butousef, a nearby farmer says many growers have been burned trying to plan dry sson crs. >> thereere times bfore whe people were mobilized, activity took off ve well. but unfortunately somewhere in the middle there was a scarcty of food. some pele lose whatever they might ha put into place. >> reporr: other farmers say they've been crippledy soaring costs of fertilizer, seeds and especially diesel fuel.

>> we used to get five gallons of diesel. now it is 180. >> ithe province cabir has seen nothi but losses. since buying a thousand acres the early 1970s. >>0, th is 80 years ago. >> the aim was togo into meck nizedarming using trackers, et cetera. but as you can see they ar here lying idl 19 was the last time we cultivatedthe whole farm. >> hesays th the government has done little to assure farmers recer theirosts let alone make a profit. >> tre should be some conol of price of commoditiesn the market. rmers need support from government to find a market that will me it work. >> ast is, there is control on prices. one season the price is very low. another year, it's very very high. >> so the farmers are exposed to t vag arees of price volatility.

toay if maize was gin more mey, people would rush next year. and then the price would collapse. for decades the government plan has been to stabilize prices by building a stategic reserve. tha would enable it to buy grain and totore or elease it into the marketplace to curb wi price swings. >> well this is the 25,000 ts, grain reserve, is presently at 75% stage of completion. >> there was supposed to about tee dozen such facilities but fewer than halfwere ever cpleted. and those that were never more tha half filled. this one was start 20 years ago, wose italian firm was hired to finh it. >> believe it was awarded in '89, '0 and construction started in '91 and stopped in '92.

the problems,ome of them materia were missing and since tn it hs been in state of noncompleon until rently when it was rearded. >> itis one more symbol of a governme flushed with oil revees that lost its beings. >> the reality is easyoney like we get om the oil industry has created more problems than solutions. -- >> that is what culminate mood huge imports of virtually rice, en mae and also importof all other luxury items. >>e says oil revenues went to buy everything that should ve been made or grown here. licies that urbanized the country, even built a whole new capitol city. thomas is with the noovernment group acion

aid. >> the able-bodied people, you know,ho otherwiseere involved in our culture now headed forhe cities. t local people what do they have to sw for the g dance. their siation never changes. >> who made the ney with allhese dams? >> who made t money, the private, you know, ontractors who got a contract who bui the dams. nd most of them are foreigne. they are reign, you know. >> there are glimmers of pe that things are turni around in a country that only in the las decade o so has moved from military to democratic rul. guido pointo out that projects like thi silo are finally bein completed. >>it is the first time in many years that we have hearing at they want to ncrease capacity and they want to boost agriculture. and of course weare to believe them until we a proven wrong. >> farmer youf, a member

of the ruling party is betting thin will turn around. that government wil become re responsive. he's invting in a dry season crop for the first timen years. >> the mister of wat associates was there r aboutour weeks onhis project. and he made a edge that the governmenis goingto supply all the facilities that are requid for this irrigatn. >> they prepared to t that this government will deliver he water you need tis wint. >> by the gre of god. >> it's critical for the larger regionhat farmers succeed, that few geria begins to meet more of its wn food needs, with s large populationnd oil reasonrevenues there is widespread fear that nigeria will increasinglyrowd out s smaller impoverished neigors from the regi's food mket. >> this report was parof >> ifill: this rert was part of joint initiative of the pulitzer ceer on crisis eporting and the project f

under-told stories. at newshour.pbs.o, you can follolinks to their coverage nd also to today's washingto post article efforts to head off a hunger crisis in neria. and finally tonight, n concerns about arican kids and low vitamin d lels. pair of new studies publish today in thjournal pediatrics heart diseasediabetes and her >> a docr at the albert einstein llege of medicine is the lead thor for the studies an joins us now. well company. >> thank you, good evening. >so tell us what is the value o skro -- vitamin d. >>itamin ds important to know thaitamin d is not acally a vitamin but a hormone. and it plays a very important role in the body.

vitamin d iphone clascally for making strong bones. so feel who have vitamin d deficiencand the kind of ultimate vitamin d deficiencys rickets have very weak bones,nd that can lead to deformities. the kids with rcketts have bowed lgs. and that can leado easy rathers. >> rickettsis a very old parked diseae. haven't heard of that in years. why now are we aring about vitam d deficiency. and how is it manifesti itself? >> so it is very interesting. the reason why we did tis study was becausehere has tually been many case reports recently in t medical literature showing that there are so kids in the uted states that are devoping rickettslike you said, which we thought d gone away. wehink that therere severalhings that have been causing this rergence of ricketts. the big thin that i think kids are probably drking less milk, ds are spending lestime outdoorsnd the

time outdoors that they are spenng, they have sunreen on and so they don't get the uvb rdiation th you need to make vitamin d. and kids are n actual taking as many supplements as they did years ago. >> you ma an interesting point. vitamin d was known the sunshine vitamin. why isn't it ju found in sunshine? why, how could there a deficiency if you are getting oudoors >> so we actually, one of the thingshat we loed at in our study were kids who ent more than four hours a day either watching tv or playing on their computer or watching, or playing video mes. and the were actuay about 25% ofhe kids in the study spent more than four hrs a day. and so if u think they go to scol for eight hours and end fourours a day watching tv, there is really not that mh time to go outdoors. >> so there is a dilemma which is we say children he to be covered in sun ve, we all have to be overed in sun current before we g outdoors and

now are u telling us we are not getting enou sun. how do you lance that out. >> right. so the recmendations for sunscreen a very good recommendations. but 10 to 15 minutes a day s really all a person needs in ord to make enough vitamin dto last for t next 4 hours. and that's more so in light in people. darker skin pple need a little mohr time in the sun so one, you know, easy thing do is to wh you go with your kids out to the store, you don't necessarily need to put the sunseen on them if they arenly gointo be outside for 10 to 15 to 20 nutes. but if ey are goingo go tthe ach, you know, for two to threehours of direct sunlight that m be the time to ut the sunscreen on. >> so what haens if adults or childrenon't take ese supplements oror some reasonremain deficient, are ther other seases which can arise fm this? yeah so, the diseases that ha been linked to low

vitamin d levels are actually many. ow vitamin d lels have en linked to dietesto higblood pressure to all differnt types of cancer including col cancer, breast cancer. and to cardiovcular diseas so we, most of these studi were done in adults and o two studies th came out today actually looked at it inids in aolescence and what the two studies showed was that the kids with e low vitamin d levels actually had higher blood pressure, higher blood suar which is a precursor to diabetes. and had lower hdl cholesterol levels which is the od cholesrol. and is there a -- ishere a sotion to be foundn diet? >> there is actually very hard to get enough vitamin from diet. the natur source o tamin d in diet are fatty fish and as we probably know a lot of kids don't ke to eat sardines

milk if fortified with vitamin d but to get the current400 internatnal units that is recommended by themerican academy of pediatrics, child would actually ve to drink a quart of milk ery d which a lot for a kid. and then there are other-- other sources i the diet but theyon't provide very much. >> i am with them on this th sardines. thank you so much. >> okay thank you. >> ill: again, the major developments of the day iran's rers faced down new evidence odiscontent over a ss trial of opposition figures. it was widely reported thebama administration m set up a courtroomrison complex inside the u.s. for rror suspects, anwall street ralld again. we'll see y online and again here tomorrow evening.

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