Boys pursuing an education are forced by their teachers to beg on the street. They sleep on cement or dirt floors, dozens to a room. And for boys who dont make their daily quote, the punishment can be brutal. Woodruff and its friday. Mark shields and david brooks analyze the weeks news. Those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. Friends of the newshour. 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 the government of ukraine launched a Major Military operation today against prorussian separatists in the east. Their target was slovyansk, and ukraines president reported many insurgents were killed or wounded but not without cost. James mates of independent Television News is there, and filed this report. Reporter helicopters in the dawn sky above the city of slovyansk, the start of the britishukrainian offensive. Crisis again. It was a bad start. The flash, one of their aircraft being hit. The camera tracked it until it crashed. Prorussian fighters cheered as they watched it fall. The ease with which they hit two helicopters and this, indicated sophisticated weapon riis used possibly supplied from across the border. Ukrainian offensive appears to have stalled on the outskirts. Troops took up positions on the outskirts of slovyansk with no sign theyre about to move further. This is part of the ring Ukrainian Forces threw up around slovyansk where once there was a prorussian road block, theyve set up their own, armored personnel carriers stationed up the road with dozens of troops, but confronting them, angry villagers, furious about what happened this morning. They are the soldiers of their own army and yet these people see them as invaders come to occupy. Im standing here to stop ukrainian troops getting into slovyansk, this woman told me. At another checkpoint nearby, they went further trying physically to block the path of Armored Vehicles. Repeated volleys of shots fired over their heads doing very little to deter them. If they do try to move into the central slovyansk, dozens, possibly hundreds of wellorganized defenders are there to meet them. They have captured Armored Vehicles and some are very professionallooking troops. In a city still full of civilians, it would get very ugly. And the east of ukraine, the Southern City of odesa erupted in brutal fighting that left four people dead so far. Here, proukrainians are not a minority and are fighting back fiercely. With reports of live ammunition being used and the police nowhere to be seen, it is starting to look perilously like the early stages of a civil conflict. Woodruff later, there was word of 38 more deaths in odessa in a building fire linked to the fighting. At least 350 people were killed today in a massive landslide in afghanistan, and local officials said 2,000 others may be trapped. The u. N. Mission in the country said the slide engulfed a village in the mountainous northeast. Reports from the area said about a third of the homes there were buried under the mud. In syria, the government agreed to a ceasefire in a city once known as the capital of the revolution. Under the deal, hundreds of rebels could begin leaving homs tomorrow. That would hand the regime a major victory. The citys been under heavy attack for some weeks. About 200 people were injured today in south korea when one subway train rammed another. It happened in seoul, where some four and a half million passengers ride the metro system each day. Officials said most of the injuries were minor. The wreck followed a ferry disaster that killed hundreds last month. President obama says a botched execution in oklahoma this week was deeply troubling. The condemned man went into convulsions after a lethal injection and ultimately died of a heart attack. Today, the president said he supports capital punishment, but he wants a broad review of its use. We have seen significant problems racial bias, uneven application of the Death Penalty and all these, i think, do raise significant questions about how the Death Penalty is being applied. And this situation in oklahoma i think just highlights some of the significant problems there. Woodruff attorney general eric holder will carry out the review. On wall street today, the violence in ukraine weighed on investors. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost almost 46 points to close below 16,513. The nasdaq fell three points to finish under 4,124. And the s p 500 was down two, at 1,881. For the week, all three indexes gained about 1 . Still to come on the newshour, what the latest jobs numbers say about the u. S. Economy, further threats by the west to increase sanctions against russia over ukraine, outrage in nigeria over the more than 200 girls abducted by extremists, brutal conditions for young boys at schools in senegal, a new push to end the widespread killing in south sudan, plus, shields and brooks on the weeks news. Woodruff if you saw only the headlines that came out of todays jobs report, it looked very strong. The Labor Department reported employers added 288,000 jobs in april a good deal more than economists were expecting. And the Unemployment Rate fell to 6. 3 , down from 6. 7 in march, to a five and a half year low. But the picture is more complicated as our newshour economics correspondent, paul solman, reports, its part of his ongoing reporting making sense of financial news. Reporter the jobs picture brightened last month. Employers reporting they added jobs at the headiest pace in more than two years, and hiring picked up in a wide swath of sectors, led by professional and business services, retail and construction. Whats more, 36,000 more jobs were added in february and march than previously reported. At the same time, the drop in the official Unemployment Rate, which comes from surveying households, while impressive, was driven by a sharp decline in the labor force more than 800,000 fewer people working or looking for work last month. Gerald chertavian is c. E. O of the jobs program yearup. I think the jobs report today is moving in the right direction. Clearly adding the number of jobs weve added is positive although, in terms of folks leaving the workforce and not looking for a job, if those folks come back in the market and we continue to show declining unemployment . Thats what this country needs to do. Reporter chertavian runs year up, a national oneyear soft and hard skills Job Training Program for young inner city adults, whose official Unemployment Rate is almost double that of the nation as a whole. Last month, over 12 of 1624 yearolds not in school and looking for work were unemployed. For those with no more than a high school degree, the rate was higher 16. 1 in april. For black young adults, a key yearup demographic 23. 3 . So we have a significant problem for young adults, especially urban young adults. And we know if theyre not engaged in labor markets soon in those early years it has a long term effect in their earning capacity. I sat jobless for two and a half years before i decided, okay something has to give. Reporter at year up, the likes of 21yearold shaqueala spend six months being trained, then get internships in a job market that previously shunned them. How hard did you try to get a job . I think i went on probably over 40 interviews. Its the, you only have a high school diploma, from this area, you know were looking for someone who has a degree or is in college. So no one was willing to say, ill take that chance on you. Reporter fellow participant Daniel Alexandre says that, lacking confidence, connections, money, most of his friends dont see the point of prepping for the job market. And that creates a self fulfilling prophecy. If i were a company i wouldnt go to that individual because i dont see potential there. You know they dropped out, theyve given up on themselves so why should i believe in them . Reporter chertavians year up is trying to change that. We have to help employers to look beyond the educational Discrimination Associated with need not apply if you dont have a fouryear degree. Reporter its obviously an immense challenge. In april, hundreds of thousands of young people who never went to college were still out there, looking for work. And hundreds of thousands more didnt even think it was worth it. Woodruff president obama and germanys chancellor merkel met at the white house today where the ukraine crisis took center stage after russia declared the recent geneva agreement brokered with the west to diffuse tensions was dead. Jeffrey brown reports. We are united in our determination to impose costs on russia for its actions, brown in the white house rose garden this afternoon, there were strong words for moscow. The president warned more severe economic penalties are coming unless russian leader Vladimir Putin backs off. Our hope is, is that we shouldnt have to use them. Were not interested in punishing the russian people. We do think that mr. Putin and his Leadership Circle are taking bad decisions and unnecessary decisions and he needs to be dissuaded from his current course. Brown mr. Obama said there will be no choice but to act if russia disrupts ukraines president ial election on may 25th. Chancellor merkel agreed. translated the 25th of may is not all that far away. Should that not be possible to stabilize the situation, further sanctions will be unavoidable. This is something that we dont want. We have made a diplomatic offer, an offer for a diplomatic solution. So its very much up to the russians which road we will embark on. Brown earlier, though, a spokesman for president putin declared ukraines military actions today have nullified last months agreement aimed at defusing the crisis. translated at present, we can regrettably say that those actions by the kiev authorities cancel out all geneva agreements. We appeal to the european capitals, to the United States of america, to give appropriate assessment of what is happening, brown russia also called an emergency session of the United Nations security council, where ukraines representative sharply disputed moscows claims. We reject all attempts of russia to blame the government of ukraine for allegedly failing to implement the agreements. And we state that, despite numerous calls of the international community, the Russian Federation has taken no efforts to deescalate the situation and implement geneva agreement. Brown meanwhile, in a washington speech, defense secretary chuck hagel pressed nato allies to increase military spending in response to russias actions. We must not squander this opportunity or shrink from this challenge. We will be judged harshly by history and by future generations if we do. Brown hagel said the events in ukraine have shattered the myth that the end of the cold war brought permanent security to europe. And we assess where things stand with richard burt former u. S. Ambassador to germany. Hes now managing director at the Consulting Firm mclarty associates. And david kramer is president of freedom house. David kramer, given todays military actions, how serious is the situation right now and how likely is it to escalate . Every day gets more serious and every day runs the risk of escalating into a fullblown war. The ukrainian authorities have a right and responsibility to restore control of territory, part of the ukrainian territory part of crimea sadly forgotten in this narrative. Stirred up by putin and the government, trying to destabilize ukraine, trying to keep it from Holding Elections three weeks from sunday and doing everything they can to try to make ukraine as unattractive and unappealing to the west and the west needs to do a better job, in my view, of imposing tough, hardhitting sanctions. First, richard burt on this situation. Is it that clearcut to you . Well, i think david is absolutely right that it is becoming increasingly precarious. It looks as one of your early setup pieces said that we may be on the edge of a civil war, and i think david is also right that the russians are promoting this instability that is growing there in order to create problems for the kiev regime and the president ial elections may 25th. The real question is how do we respond to this and whether or not we, the kiev regime or even the russians can actually begin to try to put the genie back in the boddle because there bottle because there do seem to be forces that are on the verge of becoming out of control. Brown we saw chancellor merkel with the president today. The u. S. And europe on the scene. What explains the differences in terms of the response . I think until recently, jeffrey, there was kind of a quiet agreement amongst the United States and the europeans that they would be prepared to enact the socalled secretarial sanctions, these broadbased sanctions of the sort weve taken against the iranians, for example, if and when the russians cross the border into eastern ukraine. What i heard today was a different kind of message. I think what we heard from both president obama and, importantly chancellor merkel, was a willingness to think about broadbased sanctions short of actual overt military intervention, but just greater instability and greater russian activities behind the scenes to sell that instability, not giving the kiev government the opportunity to have the elections and begin to pull the country together. Brown david kramer, what did you hear today and what do you want between the u. S. And europe in terms of a response . The president and chancellor merkel did seem to be more or less on the same page, but the concern i have is the germans and americans and the rest in the west are too reactive. We are not proactive to preempt and prevent russian aggression. Russian forces are already in eastern ukraine, already taking over crimea. The concern is too high for setting the bar for russian tanks and forces to cross the border. Theyve already infiltrated the territory. The helicopters shot down today by the separatists and militants were from surfacetheair miss also which only russia could have provided so theres no question russia is causing enormous problems in the region and i think the west needs to be much mora i aggressive and proactive. Even what the United States has [ audio difficulty ] no, i dont think we could. So far, i think the administration has tried to take a small lead with the hope that the europeans will [ audio difficulty ] i think that any sanctions now will be that big an impact france to really persuade and since we dont have a package of multilateral sanctions it wont work. Sanctions helped and the Apartheid Regime in south africa. Our yiewnl lateral sanctions against cuba for many decades have not produced the change we wanted to see. So we have to brown what exactly do you think [ audio difficulty ] why do you think the allies would come along . Well, were making a mistake, in my view. Between us and the e. U. Theres no comparison, obviously, between the russian economy and the cuban economy. Russia is very integrated into the global economy. It is very vulnerable and exposed to sanctions including those just [ audio difficulty ] u. S. Sanctions. Its going to take American Leadership brown well, if we take energy sanctions, for example, there are plenty of European EnergyCompanies Already publicly saying theyre willing to step in until the banks, british banks, french banks would do the same. We need to get mrs. Merkel and other european leaders on board and im encouraged Real Progress was made today, but some u. S. Leadership, but if we get too far out ahead of the europeans, then we do putin a favor because then it becomes a europeanamerican dispute, not a problem visavis russia. Brown thank you very much. Thanks. Woodruff now to an extended look at some developments on the african continent. We start with nigeria one africas most prosperous nations where a wave of violence is casting a shadow over plans for a World Economic forum there next week. Another bomb blast late thursday killed 19 people in the countrys capital and outrage continues over the fate of more than 275 schoolgirls abducted by the Islamist Militant Group boko haram. Mannir danali is an editor at the Daily Trust Newspaper in abuja. I spoke to him by phone a short time ago. Into other countries. Is any of this verified . What is verified is these girls were abducted more than two weeks ago awe bankruptly on the 15th of last month, and, so far, nobody can say where they are. Actually, to the parents of the girls who have been making this effort to try to locate them, but the nigerian authorities also say that. But at the end of the meeting today the nigerian authorities put out a statement saying they are going to find these girls wherever and they will take them back and apprehend and punish the culprits. Woodruff what about the parents . What are they saying to the government and doing . Actually, they cant understand it took more than two weeks for the government to actually try to verify the actual number of the students because there have been conflicting figures. It started from 100 plus then climbed to 200 and now the next tally which is from the police who have interacted with the principal of the school and parents is that more than 270 of the students were abducted from that school. Woodruff well, we know nigeria we think of nigeria as a wealthy country with a huge oil resource. Its hard to understand from the outside why the government hasnt been more successful going after boko haram or whoever is behind this. Actually, it has been hard for nigerians to understand that. Thats why there have been all sorts of confrontations about what may be happening or not happening and thats why people are so distrusting of the authorities. Thats why they cant under