in the remote rainforest of the amazon. >> right behind us here is a former mining pit that has been filled in with water. all the nutrients have been taken out of the soil. as far as you can see into the distance, this entire area has been turned into a desert. >> suarez: and jeffrey brown talks to neil macgregor about his new book recounting the history of civilization, told through 100 treasures from the british museum. >> the rosetta stone, nobody ever thought that they would provide the code for hieroglyphics. that never crossed their mind. they mean different things as time goes on. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: in cars to retail signs to hospitals creating new, enriching experiences. through intel's philosophy of invest you for the future we're helping to bring these new capables to market. we're investing billions of dollars in r&d around the globe to help create the technologies that we hope will be the heart of tomorrow's innovations. i believe by investing today in technological advances here at intel, we can help make a better tomorrow. >> and by bnsf railway. >> chevron. 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: herman cain faced new accusations of sexual harassment today. this time, they came from a chicago-area woman who went before television cameras with graphic details. sharon bialek today became the first woman to come forward publicly and accuse republican presidential candidate herman cain. in new york today, bialek said she met cain at a national restaurant association conference in 1997. when cain ran the organization. soon after, she sought his help in finding a new job after being fired by the trade group. bialek recounted a meeting with cain in july of that year in washington. >> i met mr. cain in the lobby of the bar at the capitol hill around 6:30 p.m. and we had drinks at the hotel. he asked how i liked my room which is kind of normal. and i was very... i said i was very surprised. i said, i can't believe that i've got this great suite, gorgeous. mr. cain kind of smirked and then said, i upgraded you. he then took me to an italian restaurant where we had dinner. during dinner, mr. cain looked at me and said, "why are you here?" i said, "actually, herman, my boy friend, whom you met suggested that i meet with you because he thought you could help me because i really need a job." i was wondering if there's anything available at the state association level or perhaps if you could speak to someone at the foundation to try to get my job back. perhaps even in a different department. he said, "i'll look into that." while we were driving back to the hotel, he said that he would show me where the national restaurant association offices were. he parked the car down the block. i thought that we were going to go into the offices so that he could show me around. at that time i had on a black pleated skirt, a suit jacket and a blouse. he had on a suit with his shirt open, but instead of going into the offices he suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg under my skirt and reached for my genitals. he also grabbed my head and brought it towards his crouch. i was very, very surprised and very shocked. i said, what are you doing? you know i have a boyfriend. this isn't what i came here for. mr. cain said, "you want a job, right?" i asked him to stop and he did. i asked him to take me back to my hotel which he did right away. when i returned to new jersey where i was staying with my boyfriend that mr. cain had been... when i was returned back to new jersey where i was staying, i told my boyfriend, mr. cain had been very sexually inappropriate with me and shortly thereafter i told another friend of mine who has been a mentor the same thing. i didn't tell them the details because quite frankly i was very embarrassed. that mr. cain had been sexually inappropriate to me. >> woodruff: bialek said she came forward after reports surfaced that at least three other women said cain had sexually harassed them. >> i'm coming forward to give a face and a voice to those women who cannot or, for whatever reason, do not wish to come forward. on behalf of all women who are sexually harassed in the workplace but do not come out of fear of retaliation or in public humiliation. i really didn't want to be here today. and i wouldn't have been here if it had not been for the other three women who have alleged sexual harassment against mr. cain. i want you, mr. cain, to come clean, just admit what you did. admit you were inappropriate to people. >> woodruff: cain's campaign immediately released a statement that said, quote, all allegations of harassment against mr. cain are completely false. the embattled candidate has spent the past eight days trying to quell the controversy, including this on the newshour last monday. >> i have never sexually harassed anyone. >> woodruff: the allegations and cain's shifting responses may be taking their toll. but it's not clear. a reuters poll, released sunday, showed his favorability rating down nine points in the past week. a usa today gallup survey, out today, had cain tied with mitt romney for the lead in the republican field. for more on these latest allegations and the impact on the presidential campaign, we're joined by jonathan martin, senior political reporter for politico. he was on the team that broke the original story last week. jonathan martin, thank you for being here. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: what more is known about this woman, sharon bialek who brought these charges today? >> we know she worked for the organization for about a year in chicago. how it works is this is based in d.c. but their foundation is actually out in chicago. so they have a close tie to that city and they actually have their annual conventions there each may. she worked for that wing of the organization for about one year back in the late '90s. so this is not somebody that is just appearing out of the ether. this is somebody that the nra did confirm that did work there for this organization back in the late '90s. she's making what are the first allegations against mr. cain to have two things we have not seen yet. first of all we have a name and a nation. second of all, we have details and very explicit ones at that. >> woodruff: she said that basically as we just reported she said had been let go by the organization. she went back to herman cain for help. that's when all this happened. she also said, jonathan martin, that she saw herman cain about a month ago at a... what kind of an event. >> a tea party event. this is somebody who is republican. in fact, at the very announcement of today's press conference she made very plain that she was in fact a registered republican. this lady said she saw mr. cain and he acted very awkward when he saw her. there was some kind of recent contact between these two. again i think what is important here are obviously the graphic nature of what she's saying but it's also someone who is putting a name and a face for the very first time with these allegations. >> woodruff: how does this fit, what she's saying happened with what is known and you've done a lot of this reporting from the other accusers who have not come forward. >> as far as they go, the closest we have had in our reporting are the details about one of them is that in the late '90s, this woman also an employee of the n.r.a., was in a hotel room with mr. cain during one of the trade group's events. he made an explicit sexual overture to her and said she was so angry at that that she then told a board member of the organization mere hours later what had happened. we had... that was the closest thing we had was a sexual overture in a hotel room. this obviously is far more detailed than that. >> woodruff: cain himself is flatly denying this, saying this did not happen. how much credibility can we attach to this woman sharon bialek. >> mr. cain has from the get-go said he has not harassed anybody. but he has not yet been confronted by somebody by name with an actual incident at a time and place like this manner today. in my conversations today, judy, with a lot of folks in the g.o.p., they're saying in light of these new allegations mr. cain has to come forward and be transparent and be forceful and say what has happened, what he did and didn't do, answer these allegations in more detail. i think that when you had women with no names attached, it was easier for him to sort of bash the media. when you have somebody out there who is lodging these charges at a press conference with her name and her face for all the world to see, it puts him in a much more difficult spot. >> woodruff: but at this point, is it simply she said/he said? is that all? i mean, is there going to be any more to this? >> well, i mean unless she has the two witnesses. >> woodruff: there was no one there with her. >> she said there were two people that she told contemporaneously. they could potentially come forward. there's also the possibility that other women could emerge and tell their side of the story too. again for the last week, we've had women who have been very hesitant to talk for all the obvious reasons. this could change that. >> woodruff: what effect, jonathan, is this having on the campaign so far? or is it? >> it's fascinating. judy, two campaigns are going on at once. a campaign where president obama, the incumbent, mitt romney, the top challenger simply ignore this. they have their own campaign going on. there's a campaign where herman cain cain is leading in almost every state and national poll and doesn't seem to be impacted by this. it's sort of interesting. at what point do the two campaigns converge? at what point do the other candidates in the race, be it obama or romney, actually start talking about this? does that ever happen at all? it's been a fascinating spectacle over the course of the last week. a top candidate for president with explosive charges against him and his rivals don't mention it. >> woodruff: and yet and today, well, for the rest of the week there will be encounters with the media. there's a debate scheduled.... >> there's a debate wednesday night in michigan. he will face questions there. saturday in south carolina as well. >> woodruff: jonathan martin with politico, thanks very much. >> suarez: still to come on the newshour, abuse charges at penn state; rethinking poverty in america; mining peru for gold; and actor, singer, and activist harry belafonte. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: a los angeles jury convicted michael jackson's doctor of involuntary manslaughter today. dr. conrad murray was found guilty of administering a deadly amount of a powerful anesthetic and then leaving the pop star unattended. murray's defense team claimed jackson gave himself the fatal dose when the doctor wasn't watching. district attorney steve cooley said the jury saw the truth and sent a message. >> in this particular town, los angeles, we see many examples of high-profile people succumbing, giving up their lives because of their addiction to prescribed medications. they're often times aided and abetted by unscrupulous and corrupt doctors. a fair warning to them. >> sreenivasan: jackson died on june 25, 2009, at the age of 50. murrey is 58. he now faces up to four years in prison. a federal judge in washington has temporarily blocked a mandate that cigarette packages carry graphic images of smokers. the food and drug administration had ordered that the images begin appearing next year. they include a dead smoker and a man exhaling smoke through a tracheotomy hole in his throat. five tobacco companies brought suit, charging the label rule violates their free speech. the focus of the european debt crisis turned to italy today. prime minister silvio berlusconi faced mounting pressure to step down, as fears grew that italy will not be able to keep its creditors at bay for much longer. we have a report from laura kuenssberg of independent television news. porter: not yet out. berlusconi has survived claims of corruption, sex scandals and accusations of fraud. but with his country's economy on the edge of chaos, could his time finally be up? as rumors billed that he was about to resign he took to facebook to deny he was off. rumors of my resignation are groundless, he wrote. but many now believe his leadership is beyond a joke. "we do not have to allow anybody to laugh at italy," an opposition politician said. "we should have the strength to defend the dignity of our country." a transport strike left much of rome at a standstill, bewildering tourists. >> are you serious? no wonder. you know what? when this in rome we have to get to the vatican. excuse us. >> reporter: but italy's economy has only crawled along for many years. the problem now is the steep rise in how much it costs the government to borrow. like many countries, italy relies on money from the markets to keep cash flowing, but because of doubts over whether it will be able to pay its huge debt, what the country has to pay for credit has had an almost vertical rise. >> someone lent the italian government don't think they'll get their money back. above 6.5% interest rate now rising close to a threshold where countries like portugal and ireland have made bailouts. italy is a much much bigger country so it's worrying. >> reporter: in greece too those costs went over the top. they had to be bailed out and the crisis has sent people on to the streets. there is a new government being put together, but the next leader has still yet to be unveiled. italy's economy is very different. but pressure on it is building all the time. berlusconi once said he was the right man in the right job. more and more his countrymen now think he was wrong. >> sreenivasan: uncertainty about the situation in europe kept wall street in check for much of the day, until a late rally. the dow jones industrial average gained 85 points to close at 12,068. the nasdaq rose nine points to close at 2695. in syria, government troops kept up an assault today on the rebellious city of homs, going house to house to make arrests. activists reported more than 110 people have been killed in the last week. over the weekend, troops fired on unarmed protesters with heavy weapons. tanks also roamed through homs and the capital, damascus, in a bid to keep people indoors. one opposition group called homs a "disaster area," and pleaded for international intervention. violence has erupted in liberia on the eve of a presidential runoff election. supporters of opposition candidate winston tubman fought with police in monrovia today. at least one person was killed. tubman has alleged voting fraud in the first round of the election, and vowed to boycott the runoff. incumbent ellen johnson sirleaf, who shared this year's nobel peace prize, is leading in her bid for a second term. the troubled runoff is testing a fragile peace that ended a 14- year civil war in 2003. president obama announced new efforts today to help military veterans find work. he said he is ordering the labor department to provide six months of personalized career counseling for vets. he also called again for congress to pass a package of tax credits for companies that hire unemployed veterans. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: and to the sexual abuse scandal that is rocking penn state university and its renowned football program. margaret warner has our report. >> this is not a case about football. it's not a case about the university. it's a case about children who have had their innocence stolen from them and a culture that did nothing to stop it or prevent it from happening to others. >> warner: as the pennsylvania state police commissioner told it today, that innocence was stolen by jerry sandusky, former long-time defensive coordinator for penn state's nittany lions football team. he was arrested saturday on 40 counts of child sexual abuse after a three-year grand jury investigation. two top penn state administrators, athletic director tim curly and senior vice president gary shultz were arraigned today on charges that they did not report the abuse to authorities and that they lied to the grand jury. pennsylvania attorney general linda kelly. >> the sexual abuse of a child is a horrific offense. understandably arouses strong emotions within all of us. and can cause scars that last a lifetime for its victims and failing to report sexual abuse of children is is a serious offense and a crime. >> warner: the shocking story has rocked state college, pennsylvania. long known as happy valley and home to the storied football team and ledge legendary coach joe paterno. according to investigators the iconic college town was also home to a sexual predator within the program. >> my attorney has advised me that the situation is in the courts and i'm not to make any comments. >> warner: the 67-year-old sandusky is charged with sexually abusing eight boys over 15 years, from 1994 to 2009. all allegedly met him through a charitable foundation for high-risk youth that he founded in 1977. called the second mile. even after retiring from penn state in 1999, sandusky retained access to the college's athletic facility and it's alleged some of the abuse occurred there. a janitor told the grand jury that in 2000 he witnessed sandusky performing oral sex on a pre-teenage boy. two years later a graduate assistant said he saw sandusky assaulting a ten-year-old boy. the assistant told paterno who in turn reported the allegation to athletic director curly, paterno did not call police but he did testify before the grand jury. >> he's been cooperative with the investigators in this case. he's not regarded as a target at this point. >> warner: the man known affectionately as joe-pa became the winningest ever coach last weekend. yesterday he released a statement that read in part, "if this is true, we were all fooled. while i did what i was supposed to with the one charge brought to my attention, like anyone else involved, i can't help but be deeply saddened these matters are alleged to have occurred." still since the news broke, there have been some calls for paterno to resign or even be fired. for now sandusky, who has denied the charges, is free on bond. he's due in court for a preliminary hearing on wednesday, though that appearance could be delayed. for more now we turn to sara ganim, reporter for the "patriot-news" in harrisburg, pennsylvania. she broke the story about the grand jury probe into sandusky back in march. she is also a graduate of penn state. sarah, thank you for joining us. this is a pretty stunning set of indictments. jerry sandusky was a really major figure in the penn state football program. give us the gist of what is alleged to have been his m.o., to prey on these boys, young boys. >> well, the indictment starts out the very first page the jurors say that basically he used his charity, the second mile, to get to kids that were socially... at a social disadvantage, that he could prey on. you're right, he was number two, you know, second only to joe paterno at the time that a lot of these acts were alleged to have happened. he was certainly a huge name. he was considered a football great on the field and off the field because of his charitable work. i mean, when you say the name jerry sandusky it's almost synonymous with charity in the happy valley. >> warner: you've been reporting on this for a while or digging into this. a couple of the incidents in the grand jury report were reported or at least did come to light. what does your reporting tell you about why dims were never brought before this? >> well, in 1998 there was an incident that was reported to university police and was investigated for about six weeks. at the time the district attorney of center county-- he's now missing-- so we can't really ask him why he decided not to press charges in these incident. police testified that they did the police investigator who ran that investigation testified they did set up this kind of like a sting sort of in the mother's house, the mother of the victim confronted sandusky. he admitted that he took a shower with the boy and that there was some kind of touching that was inappropriate. he basically said, "i wish i were dead." he asked for forgiveness. that was it. that's all according to the indictment. nothing ever came of that. no charges were filed. then we have four years later this incident that's witnessed in the locker room. the same locker room again in a shower by a graduate assistant. today the police commissioner said... the state police commissioner said that was almost unprecedented. he's never heard of something like this before where someone witnessed a sex act in progress and it didn't lead to some kind of investigation or possibly charges. >> warner: this is the one that was reported to joe paterno, right, this graduate assistant went to him at his home. what did paterno do after reporting it to the athletic director? did he ever follow up? >> he did not follow up. what he says happened, the graduate assistant came to him, started to tell him this story. he went whoa, whoa, whoa. you know, these details aren't for me. this is something that someone else needs to handle. that's when tim curly was called. about a week-and-a-half later, that graduate assistant sat down with tim curly and with gary shultz. that's where stories start to split because the graduate assistant says that he told those two men all the details, that it was clearly... he witnessed a sexual act, basically jerry sandusky having sex with this boy. the two men say they were not told about this sex act, that it was something akin to horsing around, something with a not that serious and definitely not a crime. that's why they didn't report it. what they ended up doing.... >> warner: go ahead. >> what they ended up doing was deciding on this ban that they admit was not enforceable that jerry couldn't bring second-mile children to that locker room anymore. >> warner: i gather also that the university president was apprised of this situation. what has been in general the university's reaction? and how do they explain their failure to bring all this to a state authority of some sort? >> well, the first statement that they released pled unconditional support to gary shultz and tim curly. that upset a lot of people. then yesterday when shultz and curly stepped down from their positions, they released a little bit more of a lengthy statement that talked more about the victims, the nature of the alleged crimes. that's kind of where they are. they haven't made a statement since then. >> warner: has this proceed... provoked fair to say a fire storm in the penn state community and in the state? >> it absolutely has. i think that what's going on here is that people initially were in a state of shock. and then you read that 23-page indictment, it is not a light read. it is very graphic. it's pretty sickening. if those allegations are true. so what happened was people put themselves in those positions and said, is this what i would have done? you know, these people are heroes in pennsylvania. they're heroes to nittany lions' fans. i think a lot of people are just feeling very hurt and very let down and feeling like these people that they idolized didn't do what they presumed to be the right thing. >> warner: sarah of the patriot news in harris burg, thank you so much. >> sure. >> suarez: now, a fuller picture of what it means to be poor in america. for years, the census bureau's official measurement of poverty has often been characterized as inadequate. one month after releasing official numbers, the census bureau offered a new "unofficial" count today that looked at the poor through a different lens. there are approximately 49 million people living at or below the poverty line. that's about 16% of the population, or roughly one out of every six people, and three million more than counted just last month. that's just one of the changes. the government also assessed in a new way how income and living expenses affect all this. we round out the picture now with ron haskins, co-director of the brookings institution's center on children and families, where, among other things. he follows poverty, inequality, and welfare policy. and heidi hartmann is president of the institute for women's policy research, a policy research organization focused on women and the economy. heidi hartman, for years people have complained about the old poverty line and how we arrive at it. basically taking the cost of food and people's incomes and coming up with a formula. this adds a lot more data into the determination. is it a better picture of who is poor in the country? >> absolutely. it's definitely a better picture. for one thing the new measures counting the non-cash been anys that people receive from the government such as food stamps. that was not counted before. so you would expect that to decrease the poverty rate as measured. but this new measure increases the poverty rate. that's because of some of the expenses now that are being counted that were not counted before. for example, for older americans, we're now counting medical expenses. those are very high for older americans so in this new measure we see more older americans poor. we're also counting work ex-spends so if you're a single mom who is working you're getting benefits measured that weren't being measured before. you're seeing your work expenses being counted, being deducted from your income. that's working in the opposite direction. but it's a fuller measure. >> suarez: ron haskins, were you surprised that when you did add in the value of the government benefits to the computation of people's incomes, and then took out the money they had to spend on various things, that you ended up with more poor americans? >> no, i wasn't surprised. the census bureau has been publishing similar numbers, not as sophisticated tass ones they did today but since roughly 1995 they've had various what they called at the time experimental series. they're a pretty good hint about what these numbers are going to show. the poverty increase did not apply to every group. so, for example, children had lower poverty rates. the reason they had lower poverty rates is they benefit disproportionately from the kind of programs that government enacts to support low-income families that were totally ignored in the previous poverty measure. that was one of the strong criticisms, as heidi has pointed out, because one of the things you want from a poverty measure is to give you an idea of how the government programs are helping families that are poor. and the answer is, they provide very, very substantial help particularly to low-income working families because our programs have now changed so that working families can benefit through the tax code like the income-tax credit. we spend something like $60 billion that was totally ignored so this is a much better measure and it's not surprising what the results were. it's especially... it especially shows lower poverty rates among children. >> suarez: lower rates among children, heidi hartman, but more elderly poor than we had previously known? >> yes, the elderly poor is due to the out of pocket medical expenses being very large for them. that was not counted but an interesting data that hasn't changed is what our agriculture department reports on food and security. and there the elderly have much less food and security than children. so even with this new poverty measure finding children so much less poor, we're still seeing two to three times the amount of food insecurity among children than we see among elders even though in this new measure the poverty rate of children and elders is now similar. i think the new measure, as good as it is, may not be getting out of the things we should be concerned about. why? hunger might still be high among children when other measures of poverty are lower in this new measure. i'm not exactly sure. that will be something we're going to have to do more research on. >> i want to add one thing to this. even though the poverty rate among the elderly goes up, their poverty rate is still lower than the poverty rate for children. so it's inaccurate to say, as i've seen a headline today that said that poverty, way up among the elderly. it's still higher among children. you have to consider the way the census bureau-- i don't necessarily disagree with what they did. but the elderly, especially low-income elderly are getting more benefits through the medicare program than they're earning... than they have in income including social security. and yet that's totally ignored. so we're still spending billions and billions and billions of dollars on the elderly to help them with their medical problems. but because they still have out of pocket expenditures it increases their pof effort... poverty rate and we're ignoring the medicare we're spending on them not to mention that we don't say a thing about their wealth which is, you know, probably 20 time greater than that of children. so this is an inaccurate conclusion that the elderly are way worse off than children. just not true. >> suarez: this new report also sets a new peg for a family of four. $24,343 a year. it counts not only people who are at or below that, but people who are near it. can you conclude after taking in all this new research that it's really government programs, one way or another, that are keeping millions of these people out of real december stugs? >> yes, i think you can. i think you can also conclude that their work effort, which millions of them expert and they work for low wages, they would be much worse off if it weren't for government programs. so the most effective solution-- and you can see this in all the data that the census bureau publishes-- is for folks to work even at low wages and for government to support them which we're doing a much better job of since roughly the mid '90s with food stamps, child care, lots of programs that help low-income working families. that's the key. work plus the government support. >> well, that does help. i mean, no question that government support helps if you have a low-wage job. but i think what we need to keep in mind is that the stress of having to get to work, if you're say a single moom mom who is a poor with a couple of kids wondering will your kids be sick today. gee, if my kids are sick today, do i send them to school any bay or do i risk losing my job because i'm going to stay home with them. there's an awful lot more security and stress when we move our welfare system to a work-based system as we have. one of the things we've seen in the recession is that there aren't jobs anymore for a lot of these low-wage workers. not as many of them are working now as were working in 1998 or 1999. so we've had a decline in the number of jobs available to low-income people. they can't work as much as they used to. but i think the safety net we used to have for non-workers, general assistance and welfare reform, that's not as available anymore. we didn't see the rules go up in this recession with all this joblessness. we saw food stamps go up. that was good. but we didn't see the other thing go up. compared to the old days we're really subjecting working families who are low-income, to a lot more stress and anxiety about exactly how all of these packages are going to fit together. the jobs, the benefits. getting the kids to school. the day care. what if your car breaks down? or the bus is late? too many variables that are just increasing stress and anxiety. i don't think we should lose sight of that. >> suarez: quickly before we go. if you take a good look at what's in these numbers, if you're not poor, do you get a better idea of what life is really like for those 49 million americans? >> it's pretty hard to tell by looking at numbers. but if you have an idea, which i think most americans do because many americans have been in poverty in the past or know people who have been in poverty. if you look at the numbers of how many million americans are poor i think it's very helpful for america to know that but i think it's more helpful for them to learn that the government programs make a big difference. it's helpful for the poor to know that if they try to work, even if they make low income, they can do much better because of government programs. so to me that's the main message of this report. the government programs are effective in helping poor people especially if they're helping themselves. >> suarez: ron haskins, heidi hart mayne... hartman, thank you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: next, the destructive lure of gold in the remote reaches of peru. our report is part of a collaboration with the pulitzer center on crisis reporting. it comes from special correspondent steve sapienza in peru. >> reporter: in south eastern peru where the andes mountains meet the a.m. zone lay one of the world's richest eco systems. the region not only attracts tourists but also those trying to cash in on this region's abundant natural reresources. authorities are scrambling to protect the a.m. zone's last untouched tracts of rain forest. at stake are countless rare plant and animal species and the santity of indigenous tribes, some still living in self-imposed isolation. rising gold prices and the near complete brazil-peru oceanic highway have compelled for tour hunters deeper into the a.m. zone. a few hundred miners first settled along the new highway in 2007. now dozens of ram shackle mining towns line the road catering to every need and desire of the miners. close to 0,000 people tied to mining activity now call the region home. with more arriving daily. in the region's can tall recent efforts by local officials to haul illegal mining have been met with violence. >> this is a problem that grows everyday. and it is a macro problem. it is problem that if it is not stopped and if we do not receive the necessary and immediate help, then i'm certain that this will be one of the first issues that the new government of... will have to face. >> reporter: the governor wants peru's president to declare a state of emergency in order to receive federal troops and funds to deal with the negative impacts of illegal gold mining. >> the problem with the mining is that it brings other problems along with it. it brings human trafficking, child exploitation. it also brings many cases of sexually transmitted diseases. it brings criminality. these problems exist because these areas are no man's land. >> reporter: drive the highway north about one hour from the capital and you enter a red hot zone for illegal mining. this forester has lived here for 36 years and manages 6400 acres of rain forest granted to him by the government. the owners of farm and forestry concessions now face the daily threat of invasion by illegal miners who jump property lines or claim to have mining rights to their property. >> the highway itself does not do any damage. but the fact is the miners are illegal. >> reporter: two years ago miners invaded the property. he now walks the trails of his concession several times a month in search of illegal miners. >> at this moment, we are arriving at the spot where two years ago they entered my concession. two miners with two machines. that is how they started this illegal work. we can see some regeneration because this area has not been touched since. they work for about three days here installing the machines. that is how it starts. then there can be 20, 30, 40 engines. and the devastation is completely harsh. it's all sand. >> reporter: he ran the miners off his property but the scars remain. he now heads a coalition of farmers and foresters that lobby the government to stop illegal mining. >> we notify the authorities so they can take action. because it was affecting the condition of the forest and of the area. and regrettably here we are in 2011. things have gone up 1,000%. >> reporter: this is what the land owners are worried about. we're just a few miles up the road from his house. and what you can see just off the highway is a mining operation. right behind us here is a former mining pit that's been filled in with water. all the nutrients have been taken out of the soim. the miners have long moved on. as far as you can see into the distance, this entire area has been turned into a desert. this man is an elected official who manages the buffer zone to protect the 3.7 acre national reserve. >> we have longed for farmers. we have laws for forestry concession. we have laws for everything. we have laws for small-scale mining. however, nobody obeys those laws. >> reporter: illegal mining is so rampant and the miners so brazen that the equipment and open pits are easily visible from the highway. walk a few hundred yards from the road and you can see the full extent of the damage. and yet the government seems powerless to stop the miners. this farmer claims miners invaded her property by force. >> first there were ten or 15. then before i knew it, there were 80. and they had guns. and they would not leave. >> reporter: local police gave me this video of a raid on a mining operation. after a short stand-off with the illegal miners the police moved in and confiscated the motors that run the mining equipment. one day after the raid i returned to the illegal mining area to see what had changed. on the highway, miners were already arriving with replacement parts. i caught up with this miner who confirmed the raided mine was back in operation. >> things are normal. just now i saw a few miners. they were working at normal. >> reporter: from the looks of it the entire region was back to mining. just across the highway from where the police raid occurred i filmed several illegal mines and operations. with the small force that numbers 400 police, local authorities have little ability to investigate and prosecute environmental crimes. >> we know that gold is not a perm nernt... permanent resource. however, the forest and agriculture have a future because they are renewable. they can grow again and again all the time. but the mining leaves nothing. we say hunger tomorrow. that is how we describe what will happen here if they don't stop. >> reporter: earlier this year the police attacked and destroyed mining dredges on the river. but the police action had no impact on the hundreds of small-scale mines that work the gold ridge riverbanks. miners are pushing further and further up river and are now on the shores of indigenous tribes. the tribe's chief is not keen on the mining which he believes is corrupting tribal traditions and culture. >> some of us are very sad that our communities are filled with gold. they've changed. and the natives are now moving to the mainland. they take the money they make, and they have nice homes. we were not made for that. we get bored. >> reporter: his son who invited the miners on there their territory use few existing options to earn a living. >> from the indigenous point of view, on the subject of agriculture, i think it could be an alternative, so if we would leave mining, then the only option would be in agriculture. >> reporter: each miner earns roughly $30 a day after the concession owner and pit boss take their cut. not enough to get rich but far more than they earn farming in the surrounding highlands. once the gold is gone, these miners will move on leaving a polluted, open wound in the earth. >> woodruff: there are more stories on the pulitzer center for crisis reporting website. find a link on our site. >> suarez: finally tonight, a history of humanity told 100 ways. jeffrey brown has our book conversation. >> brown: a two million year old stone chopping tool from tanzania, a double headed serpent from around the 16th century in mexico, a credit card issued in the united arab emirates in 2009. just three of the objects that according to a new book help us understand our past and who we are today. the book is a history of the world in 100 objects. all of which are taken from the british museum which has been collecting objects for more than 250 years. the author is neal macgregor, director of the museum. he joins me now. welcome to you. >> thank you very much. >> brown: now we go to museums like yours, right? and we look at things, stuff. but the contention here that you can pick a hundred of these things and somehow draw history of the world. >> yes. what we were trying to do was argue that actually when you go to a museum, you choose one object and get into it. if you take one and go into depth then you learn a lot about the people that made it, why they made it, the world it was for and what it is to be a person making objects. you learn a lot about the object. >> brown: in this case you put 100 objects together. >> yes. we chose 100 that go from the very beginning of human history, of making things so the first things we make are about two million years ago. we start there. we wanted to keep going round the world at different moments in history. up until today to see what have we made and why we made it. why we made these things anywhere in the world. what do they tell us about us? >> brown: tell me about that first one, that earliest one. >> this is just about the oldest thing that anybody like us made. made about nearly two million years ago in tanzania, east africa. the top ridge there has been chipped away very carefully to give a sharp edge. and these are the tools. this is the swiss army knife of the stone age. it's this kind of tool that lets us all leave africa and live everywhere because this lets you strip the meat off the animal to get more protein, break the bone and get the mayor row. then you can use it to take the branches off the trees, skin the hides. this is what is left.... >> brown: has become us. it allows people to eat better, to grow better, to develop better brain. everything. >> everything comes from that. we now depend on this thing we made. for most of human history this is the most important technology. this is the technological discovery of humanity. >> brown: you describe that one as a first one. how do you pick the objects? i mean, there have been... was it fun? were there a lot of arguments? >> huge arguments. it was the greatest fun ever because the idea was we would spin the world and say what's going on around in 2,000 years ago, 1,000 years ago. >> brown: spin the world and take walks through your own museum. >> walks through time. i've worked in china, mexico and egypt. the thing that lets you go on this walk into another world, they open the poetry of another existence. we can only know the things that go with it. nobody wrote what they were doing with this. we have to take the things, imagine it and recover it. >> brown: one interesting aspect that comes through as i look through here, you often cite the impact of an object in its owner a. but then through time, in different eras, famous example, of course, is the rosetta stone, one of your most famous objects. through the no polianic era and up to our own. >> that's the great joy of objects. they're made for one purpose. then over time they do something completely unexpected. the rosetta stone is actually a patch break between the king and the church. the greek king says he'll give the priest a tax break if they pray for him. this is a stone tablet. dozens of copies all through egypt. that all ends, all breaks down. ruins, whatever. in late 1790s when the french have invaded egypt they start digging up to fortify themselves at rosetta. they come across the stone. then the british arrive to stop the french taking egypt. >> brown: so we get into a different sort of history, right? european power and colonialism, right? >> the beginning of colonialism in egypt. this object which has the greek and the egyptian on it is study by the whole of europe. it's that object that now tells us how we can read ancient egypt. nobody making the stone ever thought that they were going to provide the code for hieroglyphics. never crossed their mind. that's what is wonderful about objects of the they mean different things as time goes on. >> brown: many things simply don't survive. we don't know about some of the missing pieces of history. >> obviously we only have bits and pieces of the story. the main things that survive, textiles, things made of wood in wet climates. >> brown: when you get to a piece of clothing, you say something about it. we're halfway through, a million years into human history. this is the first piece of cloth. >> yes. paper doesn't survive very often. it's very patchy. that's another part of the game. you have to imagine what didn't survive and remember what didn't surve. >> brown: i want to go to the last object of the book. it's a solar-powered lamp. now you write here that it was hard to decide what should be the last thing, right? now you're up to our own era. >> right. we wanted to choose an object that would tell us about the world today. and this extraordinary global world we live in where we're all in contact with each other. the way somebody in east africa was using an object to change their life. this is now changing the life of millions of people in the tropics. it's a solar panel which powers a lamp and a mobile phone recharger. with this lamp anybody working in... living in a hut away from electricity for the first time had light at night. this means they could read, study. it also means they don't need to have kerosene lamps. better for health. with the mobile phone charger they can sell their produce better in the local markets. this is evening up the great divide between the city and the country. among the poorest people on the planet. the technology was american. the microtechnology was in the u.s. and it's fabricated in china and sold in africa. it's another tool that's going to let us change the world. >> brown: so the story continues. >> the story continues. >> brown: let me ask you finally. this book was based on, i gather it was any norm lusly popular bbc radio program, right? the book was a best seller in britain. now it's out here. what do you think it is that grabs people so much about looking at things like this? >> i think the point is that a single object lets you explore a world that you want to know about. we all want to know a bit about what it is like to see the world from sudan or from korea or from mexico. you don't have to read long books on that. a thing lets you journey immediately into another world. if a thing made with somebody like you with hands like yours and a mind like yours. you're on a journey of poetic imagination to a place that you could never reach otherwise. >> brown: all right. we're going to continue this conversation online. go through the entire history of the world. but for now.... >> (laughing). >> brown:... neal macgregor is the director of the british museum. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. a chicago woman became the latest to accuse republican presidential candidate herman cain of an unwanted sexual advance. she was the first to come forward publicly. two former administrators surrendered in a sex abuse scandal involving a former football coach. they allegedly covered up claims that young boys were being victimized. los angeles doctor conrad murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of pop star michael jackson. online, there's more on "a history of the world in 100 objects," plus, we explore the mysteries of d.n.a. hari sreenivasan explains. hari? >> sreenivasan: we have a slideshow of ten artifacts from the british museum, and more of jeff's conversation about the double-headed serpent. on our science page, we examine so-called junk d.n.a., a large swath of the human genome once believed to be non-functional. but research has revealed some of it is critical to our health and behavior. find that on our science page. and find patchwork nation's take on the changing poverty profile in the u.s. use our interactive map to see which parts of the country are hardest hit. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. ray? >> suarez: and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, we'll look at raids on legal medical marijuana farms in california, and the scope of america's high school dropout crisis. i'm ray suarez. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. 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: >> okay, listen. somebody has got to get serious. >> i think... >> we need renewable energy. >> ...renewable energy is vital to our planet. >> you hear about alternatives, right? wind, solar, algae. >> i think it's got to work on a big scale. and i think it's got to be affordable. >> so, where are they? >> it has to work in the real world. at chevron, we're investing millions in solar and biofuel technology to make it work. >> we've got to get on this now. >> right now. intel. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive 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