about how we're going to dig ourselves out. >> i know i've been working. it's been very bad the last few years in the cleveland area. the last few years it's been very steady for me. >> ifill: paul solman profiles economist paul krugman. he has a new book out called "end this depression now." >> we're spending more time on things we're used to like educating our children and fixing the holes in our roads. when is the time? >> brown: and we close with a look at the complicated life story of rodney king, the man whose 1991 beating by police led to riots in los angeles. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> by nordic naturals. >. 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. >> brown: europe cleared a major hurdle sunday, as voters in greece voted to stick with their bailout. but today, new obstacles loomed on the road to the continent's financial security. from news stands in athens to the g-20 summit at a mexican resort to financial markets, the election results from greece were felt worldwide. political parties who support staying in the european currency union and accepting the international bailout of greece, managed to win a majority in parliament on sunday. this man and his conservative new democracy party led the field with nearly 30% of the vote. he set to work today on forming a governing coalition likely with the socialist party. >> i believe that a government should immediately be formed. it's something that is required, necessitated by the developments by the economic situation. by the reality and by the vote of the greek people. >> brown: he said he wants to renegotiate some of the austerity measures required under terms of the bailout. the german chancellor angle merckel rejectedded that idea saying athens must keep the commitments it already made. >> we signed a program for greece, and the framework for this program must be maintained. this means we must ensure that greece sticks to its obligations. >> brown: in washington, donald cone, a former vice chair of the federal reserve now at the brookings institution, said changing the bailout terms is fraught with difficulty. >> people giving the aid will not want to let up on the very fundamental reforms that they see are necessary, both in the government affairs and in the structure of the greek market system, but at the same time the greeks will want at a minimum more time to work this through. >> brown: european markets initially surgedded as fears eased that greece would leave the euro zone touching off potential financial chaos, but then spain's cost of borrowing funds surged again reminding investors of just how far europe is from broad financial stability. those same concerns occupied world leaders meeting at the g-20 summit in mexico. european officials voiced cautious optimism about greece and the euro zone, ultimately working through their problems. >> the new government needs to get to work quickly to implement the economic reforms which are needed to bring greece back on its feet again. >> this crisis in the eurozone will take time to solve. there are no quick fixes, nor silver bullets. but we will do all it takes to see it through. >> brown: president obama sounded a similar note as he met with mexican president called reason. >> i think the election in greece yesterday indicates a positive prospect for not them forming a government but also them working constructively with their international partners. >> brown: but among the greek people today, expectations were muted at best. >> with regards to workers and small business owners we won't see any immediate or radical changes. there will be a long-time coming and whatever happens will happen slowly. we just got momentary relief. >> there's a small hope that might participate in a coalition government. that they will try to renegotiate the bailout terms. this creates some hope that there will be some relief for both private sector and public sector workers in our country. >> brown: talks to form a coalition government in greece will continue tomorrow. >> ifill: after the election, powerplays in egypt. the fight to win battle ground ohio. the eye quittal of pitcher roger clemens, and an economists on the left and the troubled life and legacy of rodney king. but first with the other news of the day, here is hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: wall street searched for direction today amid doubts about the way ahead in europe. the dow jones industrial average lost 25 points to close at 12,741. the nasdaq rose 22 points to close at 2895, helped by a rally in apple and other tech stocks. more than 1,700 firefighters battled heat and high winds today, trying to corral a record-breaking fire in northern colorado. the big blaze grew to 91 square miles over the weekend, forcing new evacuations. conditions on sunday saw 50- mile-an-hour winds fanning the flames. crews had to struggle to maintain existing containment lines, and a local sheriff warned the fight is a long way from over. >> this isn't a single battle. this is a campaign. this campaign is going to go on for some time. and we're going to have some good days and we're going to have some tough days. i would say we certainly anticipate with those same conditions it will probably be a tough day today. >> sreenivasan: so far the fire has destroyed 181 homes, the most in colorado's history. as of today, it was 45% contained. president obama's choice to be ambassador to iraq has withdrawn. brett mcgurk had faced opposition from senate republicans, after disclosures that he had an extramarital affair with a journalist. she later became his wife. in a letter today to the president, mcgurk said it was in the nation's best interests-- and his own-- that he remove his name from consideration. in syria, fresh shelling ripped through the embattled city of homs. smoke billowed from buildings as syrian forces fired on rebel- held neighborhoods. that was despite u.n. appeals to allow evacuations of families, the elderly, and the wounded. a spokeswoman for the u.n. observer mission called again today for both sides to allow humanitarian measures. >> to change their positions and release these civilians without any preconditions. they must ensure their safety. they must protect and respect their human life. if and when the decision is taken by both parties to release the civilians, we are ready and will be there and monitor their evacuation. >> sreenivasan: the surge in violence forced the 300 u.n. observers to suspend their mission on saturday. meanwhile, president obama and russian president vladimir putin discussed syria today at the g- 20 summit in mexico. but there was no sign they narrowed their differences. the u.s. has pressed russia to stop blocking stronger u.n. action against syria. three church bombings in northern nigeria triggered reprisal killings today. the red cross reported at least 50 people had died since sunday, with roughly 100 others wounded. yesterday's blasts targeted the state of kaduna, which sits between the country's largely muslim north and predominately christian south. a radical islamist sect, boko haram, claimed responsibility for the bombings. the latest round of talks on iran's nuclear program began today in moscow, but there was little progress. six world powers, including the u.s., met with iran's chief negotiator. a spokesman for the european union reported "an intense and tough" exchange. diplomats said the iranians insisted on relief from international sanctions before it curbs any nuclear activities. a manned chinese spacecraft successfully docked with an orbiting module today. it marked a first for the country's ambitious space program. we have a report from angus walker of independent television news. >> reporter: more than 200 miles above the earth, zooming through space at 17,000 miles an hour, docking has to be millimetre perfect. relief for mission control. a great leap forward for china's planned space station. the prototype, called heavenly palace, now a cramped home for a crew of three for almost a fortnight. a record-breaking stay in space for the chinese. is this mission... if this mission continues to go to plan, then by the end of the decade while still officially a developing nation, china will be the only country with a working space station. a status symbol in the stars for the chinese government. and leo yang, china's first female astronaut is now a star among the stars, a national heroine back on earth. ( applause ) as the rocket blasted off taking her to rendevouz with the space station, crowds gathered in her hometown. her parents were guests of honor. >> sreenivasan: china plans to put a permanent space station in orbit around 2020. google is reporting what it calls an "alarming" increase in attempts to censor its online search efforts. the company says government agencies around the world pressed for information on more than 12,000 users in the last half of 2011. google complied 93% of the time. in addition, u.s. agencies asked for items such as blog posts and search results to be removed nearly 6,200 times. the data come from a transparency report which the company made public overnight. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to gwen. >> ifill: both sides claimed they won more votes in this weekend's presidential election. meanwhile egypt's ruling military leaders issued constitutional amendments to strip presidential powers and increase their own authority. we begin with a report from jonathon rugman of independent television news reports in cairo. >> reporter: in tahrir square this morning, what crisis? the muslim brotherhood celebrating apparent victory. in the first presidential election here with more than one candidate. a moment to savor, after 60 years of autocratic military rule. >> this is the first president ever properly elected in egypt. personally i'm so happy i can't even describe it. thank god all mighty. >> reporter: the man who would be president is mohammed merthi, a 60-year-old physics professor. he pledged to represent all egyptians including the country's 10 million or so christians. but his victory speech may have been premature. because his rival shafiq, a retired air marshal from the old regime has not conceded defeat. the weekend's vote is still being counted and the result seems too close to call. as the day wore on, the traffic returned to tahrir. egypt may be in constitutional crisis because last night the army announced it was in charge of all law making as well as the budget and the writing of a new constitution. but it's too early to say whether the revolution in this sweltering city will reignite or not. if mr. mosi has lost, his supporters may well cry foul and protest. even if he's won he may be little more than a figure head. though egypt's military rulers today insisted they didn't want power and would hand it over to the new president by the end of this month. >> the elected president will be handed all powers vested in the power of the president. the head of the executive authority. with complete authority, with all due respect. he will be the head of state. there is no doubt about that. >> reporter: in tahrir this evening, supporters of egypt's first islamist president are celebrating. though if the army doesn't deliver on its promise of civilian rule the move could turn to revolt. >> brown: a short time ago judy woodruff talked with nancy youssef, covering events for mcclatchy newspapers, in cairo. >> woodruff: nancy, welcome. first of all, where does the vote stand at this hour? >> well, as of now, the muslim brotherhood candidate appears to be in the lead but sha fear, his rival and mubarak's last prime minister is contesting that and says that the muslim brotherhood has miscounted and miscalculated and in fact he is in the lead. we expect official results on wednesday but right now the presumption in the country is is that mosi is the next president. >> woodruff: the generals have made this announcement. you were there for their news conference. tell us exactly what they're saying >> they really made an effort today to refute claims that this is an attempt by them to launch a counterrevolution on the heels of them naming themselves in charge of the drafting of laws and issuing a temporary amendment to the constitution that really consolidated the power over the executive branch. they announced that they would be consulted before the new president launched war, that the new president would have no say over who his generals were and that the new president would have really no say over any major military matters so they really put on the charm offensive today and tried to reassure a rather dubious public that they're looking out for egypt's interests, not just their own. >> woodruff: but it does sound like the powers that they say they will have, it's pretty sweeping, isn't it? >> it absolutely is. their argument is that in the absence of a parliament which was dissolved by a constitutional court ruling this week, that in an effort to balance the power of government that they were sort of stepping in and being the parliament and that they would sort of serve as a check to the president. the problem is that in the checks and balances it sort of goes one way. they put in all these checks and balances on the president's job and specifically how he conducts military security matters but it didn't go the other way. there were no checks and balances on the military and its powers. so they now can draft laws. they can declare war. they're far more powerful than they were a week ago >> woodruff: what are independent observers saying? are they taking the generals at their word that they're not trying to completely take over? how do they read it? >> the independents, the liberals here, someone called them secularists, they're frankly quite despondent and not just about what the generals are doing but that their revolution appears to have been lost at this point, at least in the short term. and they didn't have a revolutionary candidate on the ballot. they weren't enthusiastic supporters of the muslim brotherhood. there are some who fear what a muslim brotherhood presidenty would look like. there's a feeling that in an effort to bring more power to the people here they've ended up with less and with only quasially in the brotherhood in the presidency. they supported him but quite grudgingly. and their reaction to his win is just as luke warm, if you will. >> woodruff: but there's no one in a position to challenge the military. that right? >> that's right. because what happens is every time there is a challenge, it generally goes to a court system made up of mubarak appointees. while they might not be aligned with the military they're far more supportive of them than the brotherhood. there's nobody to challenge them. you can go through the legal checks and balances established in this constitution but you always end up in the same place which is mubarak appointees, regime holdovers, those who benefited from and had a invested interest in the status co. so the real criticism of the revolutionaries has been that they went into this period without really making a dent in the state itself so they challenged it. they forced mubarak to resign but they didn't change the regime that he himself created. so when they went through the process to try to bring about change they in a sense legitimized the ongoing existence of a mubarak-created regime >> woodruff: nancy, what do people say are the odds of another popular revolt? >> well, so far tahrir square is a bit quiet. right now it's dominated by people celebrating a mosi win. i think one of the challenges in measuring that or assessing that is there's a real feeling among the revolutionaries that maybe tahrir square is not enough anymore, that going to the square is not an efficient or a viable means to challenge the legal process. so what we're hearing from the revolutionaries is a real effort to recalibrate and come up with a way to come to contest and challenge what's happening here in a more productive way. it certainly is possible, and i guess what i'm really saying is that the next revolt, if there is one, may look a little bit different than the one americans are used to seeing a year ago here in tahrir square. it may be more nuanced, more multipronged and a little bit more sophisticated >> woodruff: even after the election things certainly do sound still unsettled. nancy youssef in cairo, thanks so much. >> ifill: and we turn to the political campaign here at home. ohio is up for grabs, as polls show republican mitt romney in a tight race to win the prize president obama scored four years ago. 18 electoral votes are at stake, and both candidates are ramping up their ground game. but are voters listening? saturday afternoons in brunswick, ohio, are all about team sports. the boys play baseball; the girls, softball. on the side lines, parents like asphalt worker darren clinko worry >> me and my wife are talking. our oldest daughter brook will be going to college. how are we going to afford that? it will be hard for us to help hoar out and pay for it. she's probably going to have to take on some debt. i hate for my child to graduate from college and be $80-$100,000 in debt. that's not the way it's supposed to be >> ifill: jennifer and michael say that the nation is simply spending itself into a hole >> i don't want to strap my kids and my grand kids with debt. just really really concerned about how we're going to dig ourselves out. >> ifill: these fretful parents say they will probably vote for mitt romney this fall. because he shares their conservative values. but they are not fans of the political wars they see underway in washington. >> you have one far one way and one far the other way. nobody will come to the middle. i don't know if it's because we only have two parties and either you are with that party or you're not. i just hope that somebody finally comes... becomes courageous and finds that middle ground. if the answer is not way over here and it's not way over -- and i don't think most americans are way over here and way over here >> ifill: campaigns target ohio for good reasons. in two of the counties mitt romney visited this weekend john mccain won four years ago although barack obama won the entire state. although the jobless rate here has dropped for 10 straight months voters we talked to are still skeptical. these voters see an economy that is still struggling to recover. a view mitt romney reinforced as his six-state bus tour cut through the heart of ohio this weekend. thousands came to see him with his family at this apple farm in brunswick. >> it looks like the sun is coming out. i think that's a metaphor for the country. the sun is coming out, guys. three-and-a-half years of dark clouds are about to part and it's about to get a little warmer around this country >> ifill: at his rallies romney certainly has his fans >> i like his character. i like what he stands for. we've been republicans all of our life. i just have always liked what he stood for. my husband knew his father. and i just like the man. >> ifill: but some of the wounds caused by a competitive republican primary season are only now beginning to heal. former pennsylvania senator rick santorum won 40% of the primary vote in this county earlier this year. a local tea party activist was one of the reasons why >> the things i like about santorum that i'm not 100% sure about romney is the issue of life. >> ifill: but he spent yesterday afternoon at a romney rally >