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NEWSROOM for June 19, 2001

Aired June 19, 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: It's time for NEWSROOM again -- welcome. I'm Rudi Bakhtiar.

TOM HAYNES, CO-HOST: And I'm Tom Haynes.

Here's a quick look at the rundown.

BAKHTIAR: First up, a post-trip analysis for President Bush. How did he fare with the European leaders?

HAYNES: Then, are you having trouble dozing off? Well, tune into "Health Desk" to find out how to catch more Z's (ph).

BAKHTIAR: Next station's stop, Japan, for a very special rock-a- bye baby.

HAYNES: Our travels continue in "Chronicle" as we journey over the U.S.-Mexico border.

BAKHTIAR: United States President Bush gets back to work at the White House after his European tour. Mr. Bush spoke by phone, Monday, with the leaders of Britain, Spain and Poland. He briefed them on the meeting he had Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

John King reports on the status of U.S. relations with Europe and with Russia and whether the president's trip made an impact.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much, it's nice to be home.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Back to work on the home front, but not without first claiming progress from a week on the world stage, especially in U.S.-Russia relations.

BUSH: The conversation with President Putin was positive. It indicated to me that we can have a very frank and honest relationship, that there are areas where we can work together. KING: Saturday's two-hour mini-summit was the last stop of the president's five-nation trip to Europe, and he called Britain's prime minister and the leaders of Spain and Poland Monday to share his thoughts.

BUSH: They were most pleased that the conversation went well. They were pleased to hear that the United States welcomes Russia to look westward and will help Russia to do so.

KING: The warmth and relaxed atmosphere of the Bush-Putin talks was the surprise of the trip. As a candidate for president, Mr. Bush took a tough line, and said his predecessor had an overly romanticized view of relations with China and Russia. Yet after just two hours of talks, Mr. Bush jumped at the opportunity to say Mr. Putin was trustworthy.

BUSH: We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul.

KING: Several leading Democrats recalled Mr. Putin's role in the Russian military campaign in Chechnya, others said they were surprised Mr. Bush would make such a sweeping assessment after just one short meeting.

JAMES STEINBERG, FORMER CLINTON DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I think it's hard to make a judgment that quickly about whether you have trust in another person, and how you really understand what they might do going forward.

KING: Skepticism from NATO allies about the U.S. missile defense plan has made good relations with Russia all the more important.

STEINBERG: The strategy that he wants to pursue is based on the idea that we have a new non-adversarial relationship with Russia, and the test of that is going to be obviously the kind of relationship that he's able to carry on with Russia's leaders.

KING: Mr. Putin also offered an upbeat assessment, saying he found Mr. Bush easy to trust.

(on camera): But the Russian leader says there are still disagreements with the United States over missile defense and NATO's plans to expand again. Well, those major policy disagreements will quickly put to the test the strength of what both leaders say was an almost instant personal rapport.

John King, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: Last weekend's meeting between Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin was friendly and constructive, but no significant compromises were made on major issues like missile defense and Russian's arms trade with Iran.

At a nuclear arms conference Monday, Russian officials defended the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which Mr. Bush wants to abandon.

David Ensor has more on forging ties and the lingering disputes between the two nations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The atmospherics may have been good, but that does not mean there is any new Russian flexibility on issues such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Mr. Bush calls it a "relic of the past." Mr. Putin calls it the "cornerstone" of nuclear stability. And in the wake of the summit, the Russian president's top adviser on arms still says the treaty should not be changed.

MARSHALL IGOR SERGEYEV, PUTIN ADVISER (through translator): We have to save the system which is working. We cannot break one system first and then try to build something new.

ENSOR: Mr. Bush also raised U.S. concerns about Russian sales to Iran of items Washington fears could be useful in producing nuclear weapons. Such accusations, according to Marshall Sergeyev, do not have any basis in fact.

SERGEYEV: All that is sold to Iran is in the frame of the allowed technologies, including items of dual use.

ENSOR: Still, Sergeyev praised what he called the "better-than- expected" meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Russians were pleased and surprised by Mr. Bush's effort to reach out to Mr. Putin. Critics of the president's proposal to deploy a missile defense system and his willingness to consider scrapping the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in order to do so were also surprised, putting their own interpretation on what it means.

JOSEPH CIRINCIONE, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: By making this kind of personal commitment, president to president, it becomes very difficult, in fact, even insulting for the president to now turn around and do what some of his advisers are recommending: abrogate the treaty, turn its back on Russia, turn its back on Europe.

ENSOR (on camera): Administration officials declined to speak for this report, but they have said in the past that while they want to consult with the Russians, they must not have a veto on U.S. strategic decisions.

Still, Russian officials, and missile defense critics, are hoping that post-Ljubljana those consultations may be deeper and much longer than was likely before.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYNES: Sleep, like food and water, is a basic human need and one that's not easily met. For many people the mere thought of trying to fall asleep is a nightmare. Insomnia is not just a problem people have to deal with at night, either. Lack of sleep can affect day-to- day activities as well.

Rhonda Rowland reports on how to beat insomnia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sleep, a basic human need. For many, it's a quest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just believe in a good night's sleep. I know that sleep deficit can make you feel really bad the next day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just, you know, tired all the time. Yawning. I feel lethargic. I drink way too much coffee.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been that way for about 20 years, over 20 years.

ROWLAND: This seminar at Northside Hospital in Atlanta teaches people how to sleep.

RUSSELL ROSENBERG, NORTHSIDE HOSPITAL, ATLANTA: At least 50 percent of Americans say they drive sleepy; 25 percent say they have fallen asleep behind the wheel of a car.

ROWLAND: It booked up so fast, they had to stop accepting students. Lisa Cheater understands what they're going through.

LISA CHEATER, SLEEP SEMINAR STUDENT: Nights were awful; I was afraid to even go into my bedroom. So, I would walk into room, and see my bed, and my heart would just start pounding, because I would start having panic attacks, just thinking about trying to go to bed. So you know, that continued for about a couple of years, and I finally went to the sleep clinic.

ROWLAND: According to the National Sleep Foundation, Americans are getting desperate for sleep. About one in five struggle with insomnia nearly every night, and the consequences can be severe: loss of memory and concentration, a weakened immune system and constant fatigue.

Government researchers estimate that 100,000 car accidents a year are caused by tired drivers.

ROSENBERG: The most common problem with sleeplessness, or not getting enough sleep at night, is stress.

CHEATER: We finally figured out the problem was anxiety and depression.

ROSENBERG: Some good ways to manage stress would be: exercise during the daytime, try to deal with problems as they come up, rather than storing them away and internalizing them, anything you can do to bring a little fun into your life and to try to distract yourself from the days activities.

For people that have trouble with sleep as a result of worry, we ask them to take 20 minutes or so prior to bedtime and sit down on some three-by-five cards and write their worries down on the three-by- five cards; and then at the bottom of the card, write down what they can do about those worries.

CHEATER: I found I was better helped by journaling my prayers, so I would sit and I would write those things out before I went to bed, and then they would be gone and I wouldn't worry about them.

ROWLAND: Experts say for some, the fight to control anxiety may even require a change in lifestyle, prescription drugs, or counseling. For insomnia caused by illnesses, such as sleep apnea or chronic pain, Dr. Rosenberg says the first step is to try to treat the disease.

He also says for nearly all forms of insomnia, behavioral strategies can help.

ROSENBERG: Don't drink too much caffeine. Don't drink alcohol at bedtime. What we really have to do is to protect that night time, and make sure you get eight hours of sleep. Get out of bed when you can't sleep. It's important that after you've tried for a few weeks on your own, if it doesn't go away, then it's really time to see your primary care doctor, family physician, to deal with the problem.

ROWLAND: There are natural treatments, such as Melatonin, Kava, or Valerian root, but experts disagree over how well they work, especially for long-term treatment. Over the counter sleeping pills, most of which contain diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl, can help people sleep.

However, users often wake up groggy, and if they are used too often, the drugs lose their effectiveness.

These days, Lisa Cheater manages her stress, and sticks to a daily routine. She may not sleep as soundly as her dog Chelsea, but she sleeps well enough to feel healthy and rested during the day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRADLEY JOHNSTON, WOODSTOCK, GEORGIA: Hello, my name is Bradley Johnston. I am from Woodstock, Georgia. And my question is: Who invented braces?

DR. MELISA RATHBURN, ORTHODONTIST: The late 18th century, a man by the name of Pierre Fauchard, who's considered the Father of Dentistry, was very interested in orthodontics. He has 12 documented cases of patients that he treated between the ages of 12 and 21. He also invented the first expansion appliances with the first documented case that we know of as orthodontic appliance, perse, however, it is not the contemporary braces that we know of today.

Edward Angle, who's considered the Father of Modern Orthodontics, the late 1800s, early 1900s is considered the contemporary orthodontist of our time. He also invented the braces that we know in common day. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYNES: We get set for "Worldview" as we spotlight international issues and concerns. We will focus on a food shortage in North Korea as we look at the impacts of a drought there. And more environmental news as we meet the worldwide winners of a prestigious award. But first, Sumo wrestling in Japan. We'll look at a custom that seems harmless, but we offer a word of warning, you should never shake a baby. It can cause serious, even life threatening injury. Tell your friends it's not a game and it's not a custom to imitate.

We head for Japan next, off the East Coast of Asia. Japan is made up of a long string of islands that stretches nearly 1,500 miles or 2,400 kilometers through the Western Pacific. The country is steeped in ancient culture and tradition, yet has evolved into one of the world's most advanced societies.

Today, our focus is on a part of Japanese culture that's been around for more than 1,000 years: sumo wrestling. The sport began as a toppling match. The winner would force his opponent out of a 12- foot or 4-meter circle. Sumo wrestling became the professional sport in Japan by the 17th century. Today, it's not only those big lovable sumo wrestlers hogging the spotlight in Japan.

Denise Dillon introduces us to the next generation of big-time wrestlers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DENISE DILLON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A crowd has gathered in downtown Tokyo for a sumo wrestling tournament. The ring is set. The names of the contestants are listed on the board. But one thing is different, the wrestlers are babies. That's right -- infants.

Now, being too small to crawl into the ring on their own, the parents hand their babies over to real-life wrestlers who, in turn, shake and rattle them while the referee, wearing a mask, tries to scare them. You would think this would terrify the babies and make them cry. Well, that's exactly the point.

MUNETAKA UCHIDA, ASAKUSA TOURIST BOARD (through translator): In Japan, there is a saying that a crying baby grows up strong. That is why throughout the nation, there is a lot of these crying sumo contests.

DILLON: The tradition of the sumo crying contest dates back more than 800 years. The winner is the baby who squeals first. Of course, as soon as they start crying, they are handed back to the parents.

MIKA IGARASHI, PARENT (through translator): I think he will grow up healthy if he cries here. Why you, my sweet? Though on the other hand, it is a handful of trouble if they really cry too much.

DILLON: But once safely away from the unfamiliar wrestlers and back in the reassuring arms of their moms, most babies calmed down and some even quickly fell asleep, perhaps dreaming of growing up to be a sumo wrestler one day.

Denise Dillon, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: The Goldman Environmental Award has been called the Nobel Prize for environmentalists. A panel of experts from 45 nations chooses one winner from each of six continental regions. Given annually by the San Francisco Bay's Goldman Environmental Foundation, the Goldman Prize is a no-strings-attached award of $125,000. That's a total of $750,000 each year.

The Goldman Awards were established in 1989 by insurance millionaire Richard Goldman and his wife, Rhoda Goldman. Recipients of the awards are traditionally grassroots activists. This year, the awards focus on environmental causes in Indonesia, the island of New Caledonia, Greece, the United States, Rwanda and Bolivia.

David George has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID GEORGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Indonesia, Yosepha Alomang worked for more than 20 years to overcome the devastation caused by decades of gold mining. A U.S.-based company has bulldozed over 400 feet from the top of the local mountain and dumped more than 200,000 tons of polluted runoff into area rivers every day.

YOSEPHA ALOMANG, GOLDMAN AWARD WINNER (through translator): The company is being defended and backed up by armed forces being armed with firearms, money and other ways to entice us.

GEORGE: Indonesian soldiers arrested Alomang and held her for six weeks.

ALOMANG (through translator): I was kept in water that was mixed in human excrement up to my knees.

GEORGE: Alomang's years of efforts may yet payoff. The local administration is finally beginning to assess the impact of mining.

In the South Pacific on the island of New Caledonia, Bruno Van Peteghem is working to save one of the world's largest coral reefs. A Canadian nickel mining company wants to dig up the reef and use the coral to neutralize acidic runoff from mining.

BRUNO VAN PETEGHEM, GOLDMAN AWARD WINNER: They leave with the money and we keep the problem.

GEORGE: Van Peteghem's home was burnt to the ground in 1998. He believes the incident was related to his activism. But today, Van Peteghem is still working toward permanent protection for the reef, hoping to have it placed on the World Heritage List.

In Greece, Myrsini Malakou and Giorgos Catsadorakis are largely responsible for the first multinational park in the Balkans. The Prespa Wetlands (ph) are one of the most biological diverse regions in Europe.

MYRSINI MALAKOU, GOLDMAN AWARD WINNER: (INAUDIBLE) happened very fast. We submitted the proposal in July 2000 and within six months, we've had three prime ministers in our building (ph).

GEORGE: With multinational support, Malakou and Catsadorakis are now devising a management plan for sustainable development of the new park.

Other winners included American journalist Jane Ackerty (ph) and Steve Wilson who lost their jobs during efforts to report a story about RGBH, a genetically modified drug given to cows; Ugin Rootigorama (ph), who risked his life to protect the mountain gorillas of Rwanda; and in South America, Oscar Olivera (ph), a key leader in returning control of the water supply to the people of Cochabamba, the third largest city in Bolivia.

David George, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE MCMANUS, CO-HOST: There are ongoing signs that relations between two once hostile neighbors are thawing. Leaders from North and South Korea have talked face to face after nearly 50 years of hostility following the end of the Korean War. There are hopes the two nations may actually one day reunite. Though the two Koreas share a common border, they are world's apart economically.

Democratic South Korea is highly successful. Communist North Korea remains deep in poverty and depends on outside aid to feed its 22 million people. Some of that aid comes from the World Food Program, a United Nations organization. Program leaders say that after years of famine, the situation in North Korea is improving, but the country isn't out of the woods just yet.

Lisa Rose Weaver has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Children at the Thongchon Number 1 kindergarten are doing better than a few years ago. The 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds eat breakfast, lunch and snacks in between. Older kids at this primary school are given 10 enriched biscuits per day from the World Food Programme.

International aid is keeping North Korea's most vulnerable citizens fed, at least those who aid workers are allowed to see.

DAVID MORTON, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: And in 1997, the young children were in very, very terrible condition wherever you went. And nowadays, we still see malnutrition in the country, but it's very, very much less than it was before.

WEAVER: The World Food Programme warns the apparent improvement is no reason for complacency in a country where roughly a third of the population relies on international donations to survive. Workers in Namp'o province dig salt pans. For their labor, they receive food rations.

Fifteen thousand tons of maize donated from South Korea arrived in the North in early April. At another port, rice arrived from Japan -- evidence that North Korea's neighbors are responding to a diplomatic thaw between Pyongyang and the outside world. But these supplies are not expected to last long, say aid workers, and the country's own reserves are low.

Drought led to a poor harvest last year, so that this year the country faces a food shortage. The World Food Programme estimates North Korea will reap 30 percent less from its own farms than it needs.

MORTON: With the problems that they're having with the economy, the lack of energy, this means they can't irrigate properly the rice in the paddy fields. So really, to solve the food problem, they really need to solve the whole economic problem of the country itself.

WEAVER (on camera): The United States government provides more than half of the cash and food relief for North Korea. Aid workers say they're optimistic that although the Bush administration has talked tough about Pyongyang's missiles program that Washington will separate its strategic concerns from the humanitarian needs of 22 million people.

As food aid workers who deal with North Korea like to say, "A hungry child knows no politics."

Lisa Rose Weaver, CNN, Beijing.

(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 segment that fits 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: Every year in search of the American dream, thousands of illegal immigrants risk their lives to cross the border into the United States. Many are caught and deported but some lose their lives to their hopes for a better future.

As Maria Hinojosa reports, a new U.S. federal crackdown called "Operation Gatekeeper" is trying to change that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Somewhere in the Arizona desert near Mexico, the U.S. Border Patrol has picked up a signal.

MONTY GARLAND, U.S. BORDER PATROL: We just got a sensor activation.

HINOJOSA: People out in the night. Agent Monty Garland has spotted their tracks.

GARLAND: There's some sign here, bud.

HINOJOSA: The hunt begins, amid the cactus. Then six, 10 -- a total of 20 frightened men emerge, border crossers from Mexico.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Five times you've tried to cross?

HINOJOSA: They were on their way to New Haven, Atlanta, Los Angeles. They look worn and scared.

(on camera): The smugglers tell you pay up front, and then it'll be easy across.

(voice-over): But it's not easy, at least not anymore. The Border Patrol has now increased firepower and manpower: 200 agents three years ago, now 600 officers -- and miles of new fence. When crossers do get through, high-tech surveillance awaits.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want them to know we're there, basically.

HINOJOSA: Sophisticated equipment can spy border crossers 15 miles away, day or night, even detect the heat of their bodies on the ground, all part of new federal strategy called Operation Gatekeeper.

(on camera): This area is relatively hospitable. It's not desert. I mean, you could cross and survive here.

GARLAND: We've denied and disrupted the access to the smugglers. The smugglers have pushed the immigrants, the undocumented aliens, to areas that are dangerous.

HINOJOSA: The crackdown along the border between Mexico and Arizona's most populated areas has led to a huge increase in the number of border crossers captured and deported, just over 700,000 in the last year alone. So if these areas of the border are now closed off to people determined to get into the United States, where do they end up? Oftentimes here in the vast and treacherous Arizona desert.

(voice-over): After three days in the desert, 19-year-old Ismael had just a few drops of water left. He feared he wouldn't make it. Many others don't.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the time, the sun was directly on her. HINOJOSA: On the Tohono O'odham Indian reservation, native police detective Doreen Manuel (ph) found 19-year-old Yolanda Gonzalez dead of thirst beneath this paloverde tree.

DET. DOREEN MANUEL (ph): She was providing the water, which she had for herself, to her baby.

HINOJOSA: These morgue photos of body after bloated body were obtained by local activist Scott Stanley, who is chronicling what happened.

SCOTT STANLEY, IMMIGRATION ACTIVIST: A picture starts to unfold, the things that are happening out in the desert that people haven't seen. They haven't witnessed it.

HINOJOSA: They died from exposure, exhaustion or thirst, or, in the wintertime, froze. Eleven people died in 1998, then 29 in 1999, and last year 74, their empty water bottles part of the arid landscape.

Some locals are now trying to help. The group Humane Borders has started putting up water stations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it's just deadly. And we've got to figure out a way to take death out of the immigration equation.

HINOJOSA: In the border town of Bisbee, outright resistance. Townspeople defy the Border Patrol by 80 crossers.

PETER YOUNG, BISBEE RESIDENT: If someone's thirsty, if someone needs information, if someone's lost, what do you do? You help them out. Yes, we're breaking the law, but it's a stupid law.

HINOJOSA: In Tuscan, Presbyterian Minister John Fife has been convicted three times of harboring border crossers.

REV. JOHN FIFE, PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER: The Border Patrol has adopted a new strategy, to militarize the border. The Border Patrol has literally sealed off the urban areas. They have forced the pattern of migration, therefore, into the most isolated and dangerous areas of the desert. And they've done so as a deliberate strategy, hoping, I think, that the number of deaths will act as a deterrent.

HINOJOSA: But the Border Patrol says the blame belongs elsewhere.

DAVID AGUILAR: Smugglers -- smugglers pushed people into the desert areas and these dangerous areas, as they have historically done, in order to evade the enforcement efforts of the Border Patrol.

HINOJOSA: The Border Patrol also says it rescues distressed crossers, and the agency has mounted an education campaign.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're telling them, no, don't cross. It is dangerous. We don't want to see the loss of any life. There's a lot of compassion for the people. HINOJOSA: But the people, like this man, who walked through the desert for three days and two nights, say they will still keep coming as long as there is a chance for work.

(on camera): Where did you find your strength?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: En la familia.

HINOJOSA: You thought about your family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Si.

HINOJOSA (voice-over): While the activists on the border continue to pray for the dying to stop.

Maria Hinojosa, CNN, on the U.S.-Mexico border.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: Tomorrow we continue our look at life on the border.

HAYNES: That's right. The Rio Grande River may be a geographic division between parts of the U.S. and Mexico, but it's uniting people on both sides in some very unique ways.

BAKHTIAR: Find out how two towns, one in the U.S. and one in Mexico, are benefiting from one another.

HAYNES: You can also follow this story on our Web site. Go to CNNfyi.com.

BAKHTIAR: And that's NEWSROOM for Tuesday. Thanks for watching.

HAYNES: We'll see you tomorrow.

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