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CNN Newsroom

NEWSROOM for April 17, 2001

Aired April 17, 2001 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Seen in classrooms the world over, this is CNN NEWSROOM.

RUDI BAKHTIAR, CO-HOST: Welcome to NEWSROOM. I'm Rudi Bakhtiar.

Your Tuesday show gets rolling with a preview of today's top stories.

What lies ahead for the United States and China tops our news agenda. Next, our focus switches to health in our "Daily Desk." Find out how this device may help in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Our health trek takes us to the Outback to check out some alternative medicine. That's ahead in "Worldview." And finally, stay tuned to "Chronicle" to find out who may be spying on you.

The United States and China prepare for a critical meeting in Beijing Wednesday. Delegates will try to ease tensions that have been growing since the collision between a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. surveillance plane.

The stand-off over the crew of the U.S. surveillance plane is over, but the fallout from the April 1 collision is not. Both sides blame the other for the collision. The Chinese fighter pilot, Wang Wei, was never found, and is presumed dead. The U.S. Navy's EP-3 surveillance plane remains in Chinese custody on Hainan Island. And on Capitol Hill, there's talk of retribution for China's holding of the U.S. crew.

Delegates to the meeting in Beijing likely will address some of those subjects Wednesday, along with the issue of surveillance flights off the coast of China. Meanwhile, the 24 crew members of the navy surveillance plane have begun a 30 day leave. The crew, which had been detained in China for 11 days, returned to the naval air station at Whidbey Island on Saturday.

Wednesday's meeting between the United States and China likely will be a heated one. The two sides are preparing tough questions for each other in regards to surveillance flights and what took place just prior to the April 1 collision. The meeting will likely determine what direction U.S.-China relations will take.

John King has more on the upcoming meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN has learned the United States plans to inform China that surveillance flights will resume soon, and that it expects Beijing to tell its pilots to back off.

One senior administration official calls the meeting, quote, "a taking of temperatures," and the White House says that the tone taken by the Chinese side will go a long way in determining what happens next.

ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Both nations have to make a determined choice about the future of our relations, and the first evidence of those determined choice will come in that meeting on Wednesday, and the president wants to hear of what the Chinese has to say.

KING: The U.S. delegation enters the talks with four goals: make clear the United States believes China is to blame for the collision; discuss ways to avoid such incidents in the future; ask, quote, "tough questions" about what the U.S. views as the dangerous tactics employed by Chinese fighter pilots; and gain permission to repair and retrieve the EP-3 surveillance plane.

Aides say Mr. Bush views the meeting as important, but just the first step in deciding the future course of U.S.-China relations, and what specific steps he should take to demonstrate his displeasure with Beijing's handling of the incident. That review could take weeks or longer, but already, now that the crew is back on U.S. soil, gone is the tougher line on trade the administration took during the standoff.

FLEISCHER: The president will, of course, take into account any recent developments that need to be factored into any decision he makes, but his approach to this decision is one based on his belief that trade helps create freedom, that trade helps create opportunity, and that trade helps liberalize the society and leads to more democracy and openness.

KING: The president is awaiting recommendations from the Pentagon as to whether the United States should do more to protect the slow-moving EP-3 surveillance flights.

(on camera): But Pentagon and other administration officials discount talk of providing jet fighter escorts for future surveillance flights, suggesting such a move would be viewed by the Chinese as highly provocative and might actually increase the risk of a confrontation or another accident.

John King, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: In Cincinnati, Ohio, the mayor has lifted a nighttime curfew in place since Thursday. Although tempers have cooled, a state of emergency is still in effect. Cincinnati has been plagued by violence since a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed black man more than a week ago. As Brian Palmer reports, the focus is now on improving race relations in the city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The city of Cincinnati is still in a state of emergency. But the mayor announced an end to the nighttime curfew and the official beginning of the rebuilding process.

MAYOR CHARLES LUKEN, CINCINNATI: We must address the broader issues of racism and economic inclusion in our community. I am chartering a diverse, high-level commission to define how we should do this and how we should make recommendations.

PALMER: Flanking the mayor were leaders from the city's African- American communities, city council members, and for the first time since the unrest started, white and black business leaders.

ROSS LOVE, CINCINNATI BUSINESS LEADER: Much of the unrest in the past week is a result of basic root causes that goes beyond the subject of police treatment. The frustration is borne from a host of racially based inadequacies.

PALMER: Procter & Gamble CEO John Pepper is one of Cincinnati's most prominent businessmen.

JOHN PEPPER, CEO, PROCTER & GAMBLE: There are some things only business can do, that's importantly jobs. It can also be about funding more housing downtown.

PALMER: But there is skepticism in the communities most affected by last week's violence and vandalism, and years of economic blight, that the mayor and the business leaders actually mean business.

REV. RAYMOND JONES: Cincinnati's going to go back to the way it was before. We've had 15 young men that was killed here in Cincinnati, and each time one gets killed they start making promises and they start saying there's money coming in for development. And then six months, four, five months, it's back to the same thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They come to the table as they say, and they offer things, they call chump change.

PALMER: Two years ago, the federal government committed $100 million over 10 years to set up an empowerment zone in Over-the-Rhine and eight other Cincinnati communities to improve housing, health care and create jobs. Cincinnati businesses also pledged millions. Most of these funds have yet to be delivered, says the head of the empowerment zone.

HAROLD CLEVELAND, CINCINNATI EMPOWERMENT CORP.: Ultimately, we want the current businesses to help us bring resources into these communities so that we can expand businesses. We are not asking for individuals to give us their piece of the pie. Let's help create a bigger piece of the pie so that more people can be a part of the American dream. PALMER: Bob Dierdorf manages Davis Furniture store in Over-the- Rhine, a 99-year-old business. Its windows were smashed during last week's unrest.

BOB DIERDORF, BUSINESS OWNER: Yesterday was great. And I'm sure tomorrow is going to be fine. It is a matter of getting past a little bump in the road.

PALMER: But for new businesses to take root, the residents of Over-the-Rhine and other economically strapped communities will have to show they're ready to have them.

Brian Palmer, CNN, Cincinnati.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: "Health Desk" focuses on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. ADHD is a disease that interferes with a person's ability to control his or her behavior. It affects three to five percent of school age children and is often treated with medications like Ritalin and various behavior therapies. Still, parents are looking for new ways to deal with this challenging disorder.

Rhonda Rowland reports on a device that may help children with ADHD.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ryan Loeffler, clapping his hands to the beat of a metronome -- therapy for this eight-year-old's ADHD.

ALYSSA LOEFFLER, RYAN'S MOTHER: The teacher was telling me that this was a different child, that she could believe that Ryan was doing all his work.

ROWLAND: The therapy originally began with piano lessons for 14- year-old Jimmy Eggleston, whose severe physical disabilities and developmental delays included ADHD. His father was so impressed at how much an interactive metronome helped he started a company to market it as an ADHD treatment tool.

TOM EGGLESTON, CEO, INTERACTIVE METRONOME: We're used to seeing it tick back and forth and listening to the sound. This takes that sound, puts it into headphones...

ROWLAND: Now a peer-reviewed study published in the "American Journal of Occupational Therapy" shows it may have real benefit to ADHD patients.

Dr. Stanley Greenspan conducted the research. He is also an adviser to Interactive Metronome.

DR. STANLEY GREENSPAN, CHILD PSYCHIATRIST: Their attention improved. Their motor planning and sequencing improved. They had improvement in selective academic skills, involving reading and some math.

ROWLAND: Not all ADHD specialists are convinced. They say the investigation was biased, the study was too small -- just 56 boys -- and children who used the metronome did a little better than those who played video games instead.

DR. REBECCA FEWELL, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI: Let the researchers experiment and provide us a little more evidence on these new techniques before we expose our children to them.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: A little bit faster.

ROWLAND: But many parents aren't waiting.

(on camera): The interactive metronome is available in 300 hospitals and clinics across the United States. It's administered by therapists who have had 15 hours of training. It's not designed to replace, but complement existing therapies.

(voice-over): Therapies, including medications such as Ritalin. If there's no harm, why not try the interactive metronome, or for that matter, a traditional metronome?

FEWELL: There's probably no harm in doing it; we don't have significant evidence that clinically this will make a difference.

ROWLAND: For parents who believe they've seen a difference in their children, the therapy has been worth it, despite the lingering questions.

Rhonda Rowland, CNN, Weston, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: "Worldview" highlights health and the environment. We'll travel to the United States for the inspirational story of a man with a rare disease. A word of warning, however. Don't try the brick breaking trick you'll see. It's something that takes a lot of special training. We'll also focus on traditional cures, remedies called from nature. That story takes us to Australia.

But first, we head to Canada for a really cool report. Think ice.

SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: Canada is the second largest country in the world in area, but despite all the land space, it's still one of the most sparsely populated places on earth. The cold weather could be to blame. Canada is located on the continent of North America just north of the United States. The country is bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the U.S. state of Alaska in the west and the Atlantic Ocean in the east. To the north is the frigid Arctic Ocean.

Winters can be especially brutal in Canada's far north. The lowest temperature ever recorded was minus 81 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 63 degrees Celsius. Temperatures are significantly warmer in southern Canada, but most areas still do see lots of snow and ice in winter.

Mike Armstrong reports on a huge piece of equipment some Canadians have come to rely on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE ARMSTRONG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If your hobby involves fishing through a hole in the ice, then the end of the line is coming and its name is Sipu Muin, 75 tons of pure ice breaking power with Captain Daniel L'Heureux at the helm.

DANIEL L'HEUREUX, SIPU MUIN CAPTAIN: We spend about two months every winter to, you know, spend some time ice breaking on the river between Trois-Rivieres and Montreal.

ARMSTRONG: The Canadian Coast Guard operates two hover crafts, the only two in the world used for regular ice breaking duty. And what a duty it is.

L'HEUREUX: Just imagine a sheet of ice that's a mile long by a foot thick. I don't know what kind of mass you have. I mean there's nothing to stop that.

ARMSTRONG: People who live near rivers know all about the power of ice. Two years ago, it jammed the Chateauguay River in January while the hover crafts were on blocks for maintenance.

L'HEUREUX: The river actually flooded and there was $3 million worth of damage claims.

ARMSTRONG (on camera): So you might think it's actually the weight of this ice breaker that breaks the ice, but it's not. It's actually the waves that make the ice break.

(voice-over): As the hover craft displaces air, it creates the waves that crack the ice and the current takes care of the rest. All the hover craft has to do is go back and forth and back and forth...

L'HEUREUX: This time of year we do this all day long.

ARMSTRONG (on camera): Yeah? It's little like mowing the lawn, I guess.

L'HEUREUX: Something like that.

ARMSTRONG (voice-over): Much of the ice is so thick that the hover craft can actually park. It's a little like being in the Arctic.

(on camera): Just to give you an idea of how light this thing is when it's moving, I'm making big marks as I move, but it hasn't left any tracks from where it came. Just a quick look inside this ship. This would be the front or the bow. This is where a lot of the equipment is stored. These doors actually all open up. And then just back here, this would be where the crew spends most of their time, and believe me, it's a lot quieter back there. (voice-over): The noise is actually a big problem on a hover craft. It's not great for the hearing at the end of the day. You have to turn up the volume on the TV at home, he says. For the most part, it is somewhat routine work, but it's also fairly comfortable, that is, once you get used to the headset.

For CNN, I'm Mike Armstrong in Montreal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: Now we head to the only country which is also its own continent, Australia. Even though Australia ranks as the sixth largest country in size, it's also thinly populated, mostly because it's very dry. Only a few areas along or near the coasts receive enough rainfall to support the large population.

The first Australians were a dark skinned people known today as the aborigines. They lived in Australia for about 50,000 years before the first white settlers arrived from the United Kingdom. The history of the aborigines is much like that of the American Indians. Many were killed or forced from their homes by white settlers. Since then, the aborigines have lived on the fringes of white society, some choosing to live in tribal settlements.

We focus now on a different bit of Australian history. Like many parts of the world, people here have depended on traditional remedies when they're ill. Now an Australian research center is using high tech tools to discover more about these traditions.

Denise Dillon takes us down under to show us some natural remedies from Australia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DENISE DILLON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dried sea horses, small bats -- in this traditional Chinese medicine store, there are jars and jars of dried insects and plants considered by some to cure various ailments. Some of these traditional cures have existed for thousands of years. All are derived from plants and animals in the world around us.

Now modern science is taking a closer look at what is around us to unlock medical cures of the future. This lab in Brisbane, Australia, holds thousands of test tubes filled with plant, insect and marine organisms.

Researchers say it is exactly what people did thousands of years ago -- searching our environment for cures. Only with the use of today's high-tech equipment, the process is much quicker.

RON QUINN, ASTRAZENECA RESEARCH LABS: We're looking at nitrous repository potential pharmaceuticals and very much looking at the value of biodiversity - the different plants and different marine animals that exist in the world, how they interact themselves and what potential they offer to diseases that humans have. DILLON: Plants and marine organisms produce compounds that protect them from predators. Researchers say some of these compounds may block or stimulate processes in humans that can be used to fight disease.

QUINN: We're at the early phase of drug discovery, where we're finding the first compound that affects the target. And there's still a very large amount of development that needs to take place after that.

DILLON: Robots screen more than 700,000 compounds a day. Once their structure is understood, natural compounds can be made synthetically in large quantities, potentially creating future drugs to combat disease.

Dennis Dillon, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YVONNE CHU, HOUSTON, TEXAS: Hello, My name is Yvonne Chu. I am from Houston, Texas. And my question is: How has the Internet affected health care?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The Internet has really changed the doctor-patient relationship. Before the Internet, if a patient wanted to learn let's say different treatment options for cancer, they would really have to rely pretty much on their doctor. They could get information some places, but it wasn't always so easy to get. But now anyone with a computer, anyone with a modem, can actually go on the Internet, can look at the different options, can think of questions that they want to ask their doctor, and then come into their doctors much better educated.

Now some doctors aren't crazy about this revolution. They say they're the ones who went to medical school; they are the ones who should be telling patients what the options are. But studies show that most doctors have kind of gotten used to this. They are getting used to idea that patients will be more partners in treatment rather than just on the receiving end. And about 40 million Americans surf the Internet for medical advice. So doctors are really starting to change their attitudes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TOM HAYNES, CO-HOST: Experts estimate it to affect one person in every 5,000 to 10,000. It's called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and it strikes men and women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Ehlers- Danlos Syndrome or EDS is an inherited disorder characterized by hyper elastic skin that is fragile and bruises easily, excessive looseness of the joints and easily damaged blood vessels. The fragile skin and unstable joints result from faulty collagen, a protein which acts as a glue in the body, adding strength and elasticity to connective tissue.

Those afflicted with EDS also may suffer from visual problems, pegged teeth and easy scarring. But one man with EDS is not only fighting these symptoms, he's fighting despite them as well.

Bill Delaney has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL DELANEY, CNN BOSTON BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Fast, furious fluid. Alberto Friedman's martial art. Watch, then, the aftermath.

ALBERTO "JEDI" FRIEDMAN, MARTIAL ARTS MASTER: That's about all I'm going to do.

DELANEY: Popping his knee back in to its socket, the sort of thing he does all day with just about every part of him.

FRIEDMAN: Give me a second, my ankle's out.

DELANEY: A fourth-degree Black Belt, who's also a man, literally, falling apart.

FRIEDMAN: It's called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. A healthy person's ligaments are like rubber bands. They move and they stretch and they snap back. Mine are like salt-water taffy. I move, they stretch, and they stay that way. I can dislocate a hip getting out of bed in the morning. Sometimes I'll pop a wrist picking up a cup of coffee.

DELANEY: Friedman was already involved in martial arts when he was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos about 10 years ago. He decided not to surrender to the incurable disease, culminating last year when he won five gold medals at the World Martial Arts Championships, victories, he says, of his near mystic conviction that the mind, as much as the body, breaks bricks. And the mind, too, he says, can confront pain.

FRIEDMAN: There's a lot of it. I'm in pain 24 hours a day, constantly, and you deal with it. The first time I dislocated this hip, I thought I was going to die. You know, the pain was unreal. I'll now dislocate a hip two or three times a day and just -- oh, wait a second -- and I'll pop it back in and keep going.

DELANEY: Having learned that most exacting art of all, of living passionately with the way things are. Within a decade, Friedman will be confined to a wheelchair.

FRIEDMAN: As you go, you do what you need to. You do what you love. All you can do is take what's there and keep going with it.

DELANEY: Amid a difficult past and future, Alberto Friedman's real mastery: the present.

FRIEDMAN: Good job, gentlemen.

DELANEY: Bill Delaney, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ANNOUNCER: Teachers, make the most of CNN NEWSROOM with our free daily classroom guide to the program. There you'll find a rundown of each day's show, so you choose just the program segments that fit your lesson plan.

Plus, there are discussion questions and activities. And the guide highlights key people, places and news terms. Each day, find hot links to other online resources and previews of upcoming "Desk" segments. It's all at this Web address, where you can also sign up to have the guide automatically e-mailed directly to you each day. It's easy. It's free. It's your curriculum connection to the news. After all, the news never stops, and neither does learning.

BAKHTIAR: Well, if you make it your business to know the world's secrets, chances are you're going to have an image problem. That's the challenge facing the U.S. National Security Agency. David Ensor recently talked to some executives at the government office who say it's time the NSA shed its evil Big Brother reputation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From its headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, America's largest spy agency eavesdrops on literally billions of communications worldwide.

MAUREEN BAGINSKI, DIRECTOR, NSA SIGNALS INTELLIGENCE: It's secrets worth knowing, data that no one else can get.

ENSOR: But, for some, the awesome power of NSA's technology and its secrecy are a source of concern.

BARRY STEINHARDT, ACLU: What's happening, of course, is that the NSA says, "Trust us, we're the government. We won't abuse the law." Of course, what they're really saying is: "Trust us, we're the government spies, and we won't abuse the law." But since there is no real check on them, there's no way to know that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "ENEMY OF THE STATE")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Satellite imagery coming through...

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Request keyhole visual tasking, maximum resolution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: In the 1998 movie, "Enemy of the State, " NSA was portrayed by Hollywood as an evil big brother spying on Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "ENEMY OF THE STATE)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Let's get into his life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "ENEMY OF THE STATE) UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: The government's been in bed with the entire telecommunications business since the '40s. They have infected everything. They can get into your bank statements, computer files, e- mail, listen to your phone calls.

WILL SMITH, ACTOR: My wife's been saying that for years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, NSA DIRECTOR: I made the judgment that we couldn't survive with the popular impression of this agency being formed by the last Will Smith movie.

ENSOR: When General Michael Hayden saw the movie, he saw a problem -- an image problem. That is in part why the NSA decided to let CNN inside the NSA to see where code-breakers gather and code makers protect the nation's secrets. Above all, Hayden knows NSA cannot afford to be seen as trampling on the privacy rights of U.S. citizens.

HAYDEN: It has to be somewhat a secretive agency, OK, and right in the middle of a political culture that just trusts two things most of all -- power and secrecy. That's a challenge for us, and that's why, frankly, we're trying to explain what it is we do for America, how it is we follow the law. Could there be abuses? Of course. Would there be? I am looking you and the American people in the eye and saying there are not.

ENSOR: Hayden says NSA has not spied on Americans since the '70s, after it was found to be eavesdropping on Jane Fonda, Dr. Benjamin Spock, and other anti-Vietnam war activists. At that time the law was tightened up.

But when, for example, eavesdropping on a drug ring in Colombia, separating the foreigners, who can be legally bugged, from the U.S. citizens or residents who cannot, is not always easy. And the NSA gets pressure from law enforcement agencies to help out with such cases.

BAMFORD: It's a battle that goes on behind the lines in a great deal of secrecy. And how close they get to the line, or whether they slip over sometimes is a matter that has to be watched closely.

ENSOR: In Europe, the debate about the NSA and privacy centers around these surveillance facilities in Menwithill, England. A European Parliament report suggested there may have been economic espionage by the U.S. to help American companies against European competitors.

(on camera): Is that true?

HAYDEN: No, and I really welcome the opportunity, I'm glad you asked the question. That is absolutely not true.

(on camera): However, Hayden says if the NSA detects law- breaking, by law, it must inform other U.S. agencies, like the State Department. So if, for example, it learns that a foreign company is using bribery to try to obtain a contract, that information does not remain a secret.

David Ensor, CNN, Fort Meade, Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: Tomorrow we'll have more on America's biggest spy agency when David Ensor takes us to the NSA's biometrics lab to see the next generation of security tools being designed right now. Passwords are out, body parts are in. We'll explain tomorrow. See you then.

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