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Sabateurs Continue To Attack Iraqi Oil Pipelines; Linux Makes Headway In Asia; New Generation Of Videogames Targets Health, Fun

Aired July 10, 2004 - 15:00   ET

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

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR: Hi everybody, I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on NEXT@CNN giant rats are helping to protect people from the deadly legacy of war in Africa. We will show you how.
Also Linux leaps forward in Asia. It is the up start operating system worrying Microsoft?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Around the world, we have always competed with free software.

SIEBERG: And frogs come in a lot of colors besides green. We will show you some of the most spectacular ones at a new exhibit. All that and more on NEXT.

Iraq's oil reserves should help pay for rebuilding the country. But that's not as easy as it sounds if saboteurs prevent the oil from getting to market. Brent Sadler reports from Basra in Southern Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Giant ships fill their tank with Iraqi crude oil exporting up to $3 million dollars worth of oil an hour if all works well. But all is not well. Crude oozes from a gaping hole after recent attacks on strategic pipelines near Basra in southern Iraq sapping oil revenues.

IYAD ALLAWI, IRAQI PRIME MINISTER: Anyone involved in these attacks is nothing more than a traitor to the cause of Iraq's freedom and the freedom of its people.

SADLER: Oil protection is supposed to be a top priority on land and at sea since last year's invasion of Iraq. But Iraqi officials claim it's been hit and miss, exposing a worrying shortfall in coalition planning.

JABBAR AL-LEABY, DIRECTOR GENERAL, SOUTH OIL COMPANY: So they need security everywhere. And security in men, security in equipment, and security in every aspect.

SADLER (on camera): The vast and often remote network of pipelines is vulnerable to attack; no oil means no money to pay for the cost of war, reconstruction and recovery.

SADLER (voice over): As recently as two months ago, would-be suicide bombers tried but failed to hit these vital off shore terminals, now guarded by a fleet of coalition warships. U.S. soldiers help enforce a new exclusion zone patrolled by the American and British navies. Nothing is foolproof, though.

ADM. ALLAN WEST: Everything is always vulnerable if you get the right thing at the right time then you are lucky. But now they are much harder to --

SADLER: But on land, where saboteurs are getting through a 15,000 strong Iraqi protection force privately trained with coalition money is paper thin. With more than 7,000 miles of pipeline and 260 facilities to guard.

KEVIN THOMAS: Our patrols cannot walk through, and determined enemy can monitor the patrol patterns and attack them when the patrol (INAUDIBLE).

SADLER: The oil network has so far been hit more than 130 times in the past seven months alone. Including a six-day shutdown of all crude exports in June. Losing money, Iraq and its coalition allies can ill afford.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: While images from the Iraqi conflict that are too graphic for mainstream media are still seen by millions of Americans on the Internet. That's according to a new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

You won't see the beheadings on TV nor will you see the most graphic images from the Abu Gharaib prison and you won't see the most violet pictures of the American contractors killed in Fallujah on TV. But millions of Americans are seeing it all on the Internet whether they want to or not. A new is poll from the Pew Internet & American Life Project asked Americans about these specific images, and concluded that a new pattern is emerging.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEE RAINIE, DIRECTOR PEW INTERNET & AMERICAN LIFE PROJECT: At the time when the Daniel Pearl kidnapping and beheading took place, we picked up evidence that people were using the Internet to get access to images that were not displayed on TV or shown in newspapers.

SIEBERG (voice over): According to the study out of 92 million Internet users nationwide, a surprising number of adults who surf the net, about 30 million Americans have seen the Berg, Abu Ghraib or Fallujah graphic content on-line. Many were searching for these images, but more than two-thirds said they just ran across them while surfing.

That's nearly 21 million Americans who happened upon the content while doing other things online. About half were glad they saw them while about a third said they wished they hadn't seen the images.

RAINIE: There are people who embrace the idea that it's good to have as much information as possible, even though it's is very repulsive or graphic or extreme. We also see when a lot of people encounter these images on-line, they are uncomfortable. In some respects that validates the decision by main steam news organizations not to display these pictures or make them available.

SIEBERG: The bottom line is that Internet users can choose whether or not to view graphic images on-line. In the mainstream media editors and producers make those decisions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Plus of course it's comparatively easy for anyone to publish something on-line. All right the dangers of life in Iraq are obvious. But in dozens of countries around the world there's a hidden threat often a left over from conflicts that ended years ago. Buried land mines injure or kill thousands of people every year. In Mozambique there's a very unlikely team searching for land mines and doing a good job. Jeff Koinange has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's 6:00 a.m. In Mozambican. Time to wake up and get ready for work for an unusual work force. Meet switch and clever and Jose. Born and bred in captivity these are not ordinary lab rats. It is at the site in central Mozambican, that giant pouched rats like two-year-old Gift here are being used in a first of its kind project to actually detect land mines in the field.

Frank Weettjens runs this Belgian-based pilot program knows as Apopo (ph). He and his technicians prepare these rodents to do what dogs and machines simply can't.

FRANK WEETJENS, PROJECT MANAGER APOPO: The reason we use this species of rats is that they are very readily available in almost all of Africa. And it is actually an animal that already has a very natural knack of going to look for food. Because it hides it's food under ground. So it has a good very nose. It has an acute sense of smell, and it has a natural behavior.

KOINANGE: The crew picks up some treats for their hungry rat pack on the way to work. They arrive at a simulated mine field. Technicians put on there protective gear. The rats are tepid to their trainers and set about searching for the hidden mines. It takes a few minutes to get into the rhythm, but once the rats show the trainer, he has sniffed out a mine, a clicking sign will indicates it's time for his reward.

WEETJENS: What we are trying to do is develop a tool in the proverbial toolbox. The same as if somebody goes to a certain job with a tool box full of different tools, and for one thing you use a hammer or for something else you use a screwdriver or pair of pliers.

FELICIO PEDRO ZACARIAS: (INAUDIBLE) this is better, you know, so it's a good idea.

KOINANGE: But the rats have limitations.

WEETJENS: The biggest draw back of using rats in the mining is that it is -- you cannot use rats in any given situation. And another thing is yes, on Monday mornings, they are not very hungry.

KOINANGE: During the week the rats are only fed when they find a mine, but on the weekend they get to eat as much as they want. Not a bad work schedule for what experts say could prove the most effective way yet to help find and destroy the estimated 100 million land mines hidden around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming up, is a Taser gun a valuable tool for police or a deadly danger to people in custody?

And later in the show research on monkeys could some day lead to new technology to help paralyze people.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: A controversial stun gun possibly linked to the deaths of nearly 50 people is going public. Taser International is about to launch a major ad campaign marketing its weapon billed as non lethal as a self-defense tool. But is it safe? Drew Griffin reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is what it looks like when a Florida sheriff uses a Taser gun on himself. Designed to stop an attacker dead in his tracks without leaving him dead. The electric shock Taser delivers a sudden burst of 50,000 volts. It freezes skeletal muscles, collapsing a suspect long enough for police to gain control.

It is why more than 4,000 police agencies in North America use it. It is also why according to Teresa Samuel King for 28-year-old nephew Melville is dead. Do you think that Taser killed him?

TERESA SAMUEL KING: Yes. And I feel like the Taser, originally, was not supposed to be used to be lethal and I feel like now it is.

GRIFFIN: What lead to Melvin Samuel's death started with a call for help to police? On April 15th, Samuel returned to his home in Savannah, Georgia and thought he saw evidence of a break-in. So he asked neighbors to call 911.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Hours after Melvin Samuel called police he found himself locked up in Georgia's Houston County Jail. It turns out there was a warrant for his arrest for an unpaid driving ticket. It was a minor offense, but for some reason jailers say Samuel became uncooperative. And when they tried to book him a struggle broke out and then a Tazer.

GRIFFIN (voice over): An autopsy could not find an official cause of his death. Results of toxicology tests on Samuel's body are still weeks away. In the state of Georgia four suspects have died since December after having been tased. Nationwide since police started using the Taser, more than 50 people have died after the gun was used on them. Medical examiners have blamed the deaths on a variety of causes. Including heart disease and drug overdose. But none has determined the Taser to be the cause of death. Taser International, the company that makes the gun says their own testing shows the gun is safe and there is no evidence it is to blame in any of the deaths.

RICK SMITH, TASER INTERNATIONAL: I think the best medical study is that the independent medical examiners who have looked at every one of these cases where a Taser was used and somebody has later died, and they never found the case where the Taser caused the death, never.

GRIFFIN: Doctor John Beshai a cardiologist, who specializes in using electroshock to control heart rhythms, says the shock from a Taser should not affect the heart.

The reality of it is that the actual energy that's delivered to the surface of the skin is very, very minimal and not enough to cause any irritability in the heart's rhythm.

GRIFFIN: Taser International says there is evidence to suggest the gun has saved lives, by giving police an alternative to using firearms. Melvin Samuel died minutes after being struck by a Taser. It's been two months since his death and medical examiners still haven't determined why. His aunt says she already knows and wants it never to happen again.

KING: Every time you use it, the individual may not die. But then there are some cases where the person can die. That is the situation we're dealing with.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well starting Wednesday some passengers at the Minneapolis Airport were able to breeze through security because of a new high tech screening system. It is a test of a new system that will soon include four more airports and could become permanent. Frequent fliers can sign up in advance and have to pass a background check plus get their fingerprints and irises scanned.

Then they can jump into the express lane put their finger on a scanner and it is off to the gate. The registered fliers still have to pass true a metal detector and have their carry-on bags searched but are not subject to random searches. Airport officials say it took the register fliers about a minute to clear security imagine that compared to an average of five minutes for everybody else.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we come back, we will take you to a 150-year-old fort, show you why it's falling apart and what's being done to put it back together.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Bird flu is back. New cases reported this week in Asia. A lakeside farm in eastern China was quarantined after the disease was found there and all the poultry with in two miles was slaughtered. According to the official's news agency, officials said wild birds may have caused the outbreak. Thailand confirmed new outbreaks at two farms there. And thousands of birds were slaughtered. The strain of flu found in both countries is the same one that jumped to people earlier this year in Asia killing 24.

Well environmentalists worried about China's plan to build a network of dams along the Mekong River. The Mekong's stretches 3,000 miles from Tabet to Vietnam and the South China Sea. China wants to dam the upper part of the river to generate power. Now there are already two dams on the Mekong and experts say there are causing problems downstream that will only get worse if more dams are built. China says the dams with beneficial to people downstream because they control the river's flow.

All right, researchers in Germany are digging up the fossilized remains of an elephant-like creature that lived 14 to 15 million years ago. Anthropologists spotted the animal tusks by chance two years ago as he was driving by a sand pit near Munich.

Excavation began only recently because the sand pit was still in use. Scientists say the creature had shovel like lower tusks, which it used to dig up roots or catch fish. They say it's not an ancestor of modern elephants but rather another branch of the family tree.

All right, if you think Key West is the most remote place you can go in Florida, we have news for you. How about the Dry Tortugas 70 miles west out in the Gulf of Mexico right about there. One of those islands was home to a 19th century fort and prison. John Zarrella reports on a new effort to restore Fort Jefferson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Standing on scaffolding that hangs from the side of a sheer brick wall, Mike Higginbotham is working to put back together a piece of history that sits surrounded by water in the middle of nowhere.

MIKE HIGGINBOTHAM: If you need something you just don't go to the hardware store and get it. You better hope you brought it out here with you.

ZARRELLA: Higginbotham a brick mason and a handful of co-workers are part of phase one of the restoration of one of America's most remote natural treasures, Fort Jefferson. The 16 million brick fort sits in the Gulf of Mexico 70 miles west of Key West on the Dry Tortugas Islands. Built in the mid 1800's it served as a fortress to protect shipping lanes through the Gulf of Mexico.

MIKE RYAN, NATIONAL PARK RANGER: It was designed to be a powerful deterrent. By building it so powerfully, the ultimate goal was no enemy would dare attack.

ZARRELLA: And none did?

RYAN: And none did.

ZARRELLA: But for 160 years the fort has been under attack by salt air, humidity and baking sun. Iron embedded around brick cannon portals called embrasures is rusting. As it does, it expands and displaces the brick, which collapses into the sea. Because the fort is so remote and accommodations basically nonexistent, 15 to 20 workers at a time, no more, will spend up to a year on the job.

ROSS HUNT: We have to capture all of our own drinking water and bathing water. Water for doing the construction work itself, we generate our own electricity. We even have to take care of all of our own sewer.

ZARRELLA: The fort will remain open during the restoration. Last year, 95,000 people visited. Ferry service out of Key West is the main link. Tourists can snorkel, picnic and take a guided tour of the fort.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By 1845 when Florida becomes a state. These islands are immediately named a military reservation.

ZARRELLA: Fort Jefferson is brutally austere now. It was even tougher on the human soil and body during the Civil War when it served as a human prison.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was the devil's island of its day, and also Alcatraz (ph) times ten there was no place to go.

ZARRELLA: No escape. Surrounded by water there was no need for bars on the cell windows.

ZARRELLA (on camera): At its peak in 1864 2,000 people lived here, military personnel, their families, and prisoners. So just how big is this fort. Well you could fit two Roman Coliseums (ph) inside, or Yankee Stadium. At one point the, or the massive prison wing held 900 men. Its most famous guest lived in this room, Dr. Samuel Mud sentenced to hard labor for his role in Lincoln's assassination spent four years here. It will take six years and $18 million government dollars to restore the fort to the way it was when Mud paced the floor in shackles and irons.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: OK, it is time for some viewer e-mail and a confession. Last week we were wrong. In one of our NEXT week in history bumps we said the highest temperature ever recorded in North America was 130 degrees.

Well alert viewer Anthony in Reno e-mailed us to point out that the correct answer is a 134 degrees. But hey, we knew that, we just typed it wrong while moving the info from one format to the other, it is true. We do our best to double check everything in the show and we hate it when something slips by us, but we will set the record straight. If you would like to e-mail us with anything you would like to talk about the address is NEXT@cnn.com.

And we can't answer every e-mail on the air. But we do read them all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming up in our next half hour, some video games that let kids exercise a lot more than their brains and thumbs, and why Christopher Reeves is helping fund research on monkey's brains. Those stories and more right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN. Well, here's good news for every parent, including mine, who's ever nagged a kid to get up in that darned video game and go out and get some exercise. A new breed of games is a workout for muscles as well as brain cells. Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Video games, lots of hours on couches, teenage obesity. They all seem to go together. But what about a video game that might also be a weight loss aid. Seven-teen-year-old John Polchowski used to spend up to 3 hours a day playing video games alone in his room. Then he got hooked on a game calls "Dance, Dance Revolution" or DDR.

JOHN POLCHOWSKI, LOST 70 LBS USING DANCE GAME: As I kept on playing I got better, and also it was getting to be a really good workout and I used that to become -- to make a goal and lose a lot of weight from it.

GUPTA: After playing the game for one to two hours every day for a year, he started to lose weight. Along with eating healthier, John eventually lost 70 pounds.

POLCHOWSKI: I was able to do it whenever I want. I don't need to get other people.

GUPTA: Dr. Richard Adler is a pediatrician who has been tracking active video games and their success in fighting obesity.

DR. RICHARD ADLER, PEDIATRICIAN: There has never been anything that I have seen that has the potential for increasing physical activity like this. It has the potential for being absolutely tremendous in terms of its impact on children.

GUPTA: There are no official numbers on how many kids have lost weight with these games, but manufactures are developing games involving skateboarding, fighting, and more dancing. Maybe other kids will see some of John's success.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Next time you play video games you might have to limber up and stretch beforehand. Now, make no mistake about it, the popularity of video and computer games has not gone unnoticed by people who sell music. "MTV" reports this week that the band Green Day will unavailable their new video game "Madden 2005" before it comes out on CD. That's just another sign of the growing relationship between music and video games. Kim Rogers reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KIM ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's hard to imagine this tune climbing the charts.

Video game music has certainly come a long way since Mario, attracting artists as varied as Linkin Park, Snoop Dogg, and Lenny Kravitz. For musicians, fighting slumping sales, video games have become one more way to sell music. DJ Rob Swift of the Executioners is hoping for a bump in CD sales thanks to visibility from video games.

DJ SWIFT, MUSICIAN: It increases your popularity. Someone that is playing a video game and hears our music in the background will be more inclined to buy our album with when they see it on the shelf at a store.

ROGERS: In fact a 2003 study by "Electric Artist" showed 40 percent of video game users purchased a CD after hearing a song they liked while play a game. And it's not just album sales, but ticket sales, as well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We never envisioned we were going to be playing video game music.

(LAUGHTER)

ROGERS: Music from "Final Fantasy" was played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic to a sold-out crowd.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been playing the game for years and I just love their music.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The composing of the music is just phenomenal.

ROGERS: From the symphony to the studio, this game's just getting started.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, we'll watch a baby Bald Eagle grow up after a very unusual first few weeks of life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: All right, it's time to update a story we told you about back in April. Researchers have been using a little slight of hand to keep Bald Eagles thriving in the wild on California's Catalina Island. The eagle's eggs are very fragile because of DDT lingering in the environment. So, the scientists take the at risk eggs out of the nests and temporarily replace them with dummy eggs. The real eggs are given lots of TLC and hatched in the lab, then the researchers sneak the chicks back into the nests to be raised by their parents. So, how are they doing? Well, the five eaglets fostered this year were all accepted by the adult eagles, who got busy feeding them and sheltering them from the sum. The scientists climbed into the five nests in May to band the babies who were growing by leaps and bounds. Just look at those feet. And in the past few weeks, the young eagles have started trying their wings. Four out of the five are now flying out of their nests. You can follow the eagle's progress on the Institute for Wildlife Studies website and you can get there from our website, that's at CNN.com/next.

Well, researchers may be close to helping paralyzed individuals to communicate and control their own activities. Scientists at CalTech are learning more about parts of the brain that may allow people to simply think about certain tasks and then let their brainwaves make them happen. Femi Oke has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTOPHER REEVES, ACTOR: Thank you for inviting me here today. Thank you very much.

(APPLAUSE)

FEMI OKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christopher Reeves' Paralysis Foundation helped fund this research at the California Institute of Technology. The goal, to harness brain signals so paralyzed people can operate computers, steer wheelchairs, even drive cars.

RICHARD ANDERSEN, CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: The patient, who is paralyzed, of course, can still about making movements. If they can't speak, they can often think about the words they would like to say. So what this research shows is that some of those signals can be directly read out from brain signals. And then these brain signals could be used for them to more effectively communicate with the outside world.

OKE: The CalTech research, reported in this week's "Science" magazine, details how three healthy Reeses moneys, learned to position a curser on the computer screen just by thinking about reaching to that position. Scientists monitored and recorded signals from brain neurons by a tiny electrode surgically implanted in the animal's head to pinpoint where the thoughts originated.

ANDERSEN: Monkeys, in a few trials, all of them learned to do this task, to just simply think about making a reach, and they successfully performed it.

OKE: These brainwaves could be used to trigger controls on all sorts of external devices, a keyboard, a robotic arm, a vehicle. The study was conducted over a period of years, and the animals have now been retired to a sanctuary.

Previous research has focused on the area the brain involved in the actual movement.

ANDERSEN: The area that we're looking at is one step prior to the motor areas that provides the, in a sense, the idea to make a moment.

DR. PHILIP KENNEDY, NEUROLOGIST: This is the kind of signals we get and that...

OKE: Dr. Phillip Kennedy has helped develop brain and muscle communicators for human patients locked in by strokes, paralysis, or ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease.

KENNEDY: We do it several ways, either by connecting directly from the brain or from muscle activity or eye movements, or just micro searches. But we're -- we have been able to unlock people who thought they were locked in and let them communicate via computers.

OKE: Kennedy says, patients like J.R., now deceased, have shown him remarkable courage.

KENNEDY: All of our patients have been really, really ill and some are really brave people and I just have to admire them.

OKE: By studying monkeys with their similar brain structure, scientists believe they may have key to technology that opens the world back up to paralyzed people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Still to come, what are the odds that on-line gambling can hit the jackpot in Asia?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: The operating system known as Linux, once a darling of just a few computer hobbyists, is turned into an increasing source of worry for Microsoft. More companies are using the freely available source code to cut costs and now governments in Asia are promoting Linux as an alternative to Microsoft. Kristie Lu Stout reports from Qua Lumpur (PH).

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Crack open a good deal here in Malaysia. Fresh coconut juice for 80 cents, a stir fried meal for just over a dollar, and a brand new PC for 260 bucks.

EU WIN ONG, PIKOM: We have everything, we have a monitor, and a keyboard.

STOUT: And it all runs on Linux, the open source software that can be copied and modified freely. The PC (UNINTELLIGIBLE) or Brilliant PC was created by local IT group, Pikom, part of a government-backed drive to bring cheap computing to the masses.

LEE BOON KOK, PIKOM DEPUTY CHAIR: The Malaysian government is supporting the adaptation of Linux and also open source system.

STOUT: Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates hit the Malaysian capital to fend off advances by Linux, bearing cash grants to support high tech education.

BILL GATES, MICROSOFT CHAIRMAN: And so we, as part of our partners in learning commitment, will be spending 10 million to enhance these training programs, as well as making the software available.

STOUT: Microsoft also has plans to launch a lower-priced version of its operating system for the Malaysian market. But a discount can't compare to a freebee.

(on camera): Now a lot of open source software can be downloaded free from the internet, a major draw for developing countries like Malaysia that are struggling to bring populations into the computer age.

(voice-over): Governments in southeast Asia including Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam have agreed to develop Linux software to reduce the cost of computing. Japan, South Korea, and China are also exploring ways to promote Linux as a Windows alternative. But Bill Gates is unfazed by the growing Linux offensive.

GATES: Certainly around the world, we've always competed with free software. There was free software before Microsoft had started, 20 years ago, 10 years ago.

STOUT: Microsoft is also involved in Malaysia's cheap PC drive. Pikom is selling a Windows PC that retails for $40 more than its Linux model. Ten thousand cheap PCs were sold in six weeks. 7,000 of those were running on Linux. Linux has outsold Window here in Malaysia. Locals simply can't resist a rock bottom deal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: In Hong Kong computers there are already ubiquitous. Now the question is whether it should be legal to place a bet. On- line gambling operations trying to expand into Asia. As Martin Soong reports, they aren't putting all their chips on the table.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SOONG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ah, the Caribbean, for the tired, the world-weary, the perfect getaway. But there's other attraction to places like Antigua, Costa Rica, Curacao, they're also home to the world's largest concentration of internet gambling operators. It's not just a lifestyle, it's also the taxes. There are none. Plus there's banking secrecy, it is Switzerland in the sun. But operators could be coming soon to Asia, the next frontier for online gambling.

Tim Levene's company is the world's biggest online betting outfit. But Asians either can't log on to BetFair because governments block the site or they can't pay over the net. Levene though, still sees opportunity.

TIM LEVENE, BETFAIR: There is this interest in European soccer, English soccer, especially. And with the proliferation of live sport, especially soccer on television, I think, in addition, Asia's appetite for risk taking has really created an incredibly attractive market. One of the challenges that you have today, is there is a lack of clarity towards regulation.

SOONG: Gambling in Asia, like casinos in Macau, blood sport in Thailand, ma huang (PH), horse racing is already huge business. BetFair estimates $100 billion a year. More than the GDP of Malaysia or the Philippines. But only 20 percent is legal, mostly government monopolies. The rest of it is underground. Economists say legitimizing even some of that underground gambling would be good business for governments, more tax revenue. But right now there's not a lot is happening. No country in Asia offers web gambling licenses.

The inertia is understandable. These, for example, are the only places you can legally bet on horses or soccer. They're run bir the Jockey Club, a Hong Kong government-sanctioned monopoly. Good business. Why share?

The Jockey Club wasn't available for comment after finding out what our story was about, but off-air they called on-line betting illegal. They are teaming up with 10 other racing clubs in Asia to lobby against licensing it.

(on camera): But the truth is gambling on the web is in a legal gray area, like much of the internet. So will people stop coming to places like this and start placing bets on their PCs, soon? Well, technology's always has moved well ahead of the law whether governments like it or not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Still ahead, why drag racing fans find their sport breathtaking.

And a rainbow coalition of frogs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: You know, you can't have drag racing without exhaust fumes which is why the drivers and a lot of fans wear gas masks, but some intrepid souls just love the smell of nitro methane in the morning. Jeanne Moos has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (VOICE-OVER): Is it an anthrax scare? Is it a tear gas attack? Nah, it's just exhaust inhalers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not a stink, that's an aroma.

MOOS: What do you expect with a guy wearing a hat that says "Still Plays with Cars?" At National Hot Rod Association races like this one in Englishtown, New Jersey, it's not just the race that turns heads. it's the engine warm-up. The pit crews are smart enough to wear masks, and so do drivers like the Army's Tony Schumacher. But some fans flock unprotected to experience engine start-up, up close.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't breathe and you see them choke on it, and as soon as it stops they go "Yeah!" and they run to the next car.

MOOS: These 8,000-horsepower dragsters go more than 300 miles an hour. They're fueled by nitro methane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The smell of the nitro and when they rev that throttle, the ground shakes, crowd jumps, and I still get off on it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When these cars start up, they register at two-and-a-half on the earthquake Richter scale.

MOOS: Actually, it's 2.2. But who's counting? Protect the kiddies!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see it, you can feel it, you can breathe it and we love it.

MOOS: Some fans say gas masks are for girls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know what? If you're going to wear a gasmask and earplugs, you might as -- just stay home and watch it on ESPN.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We could be going to the ballet, but that's not us.

MOOS: After all, ballet dancers don't stink, smoke, or spit fire.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, if the drag strip is not your style, you might find things a little more peaceful at the American Museum of Natural History. One current exhibit features more than 200 life frogs showcasing the incredible verity. Here's an inside like, courtesy of CNN producer, Dana Garrett.

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TARAN GRANT, CO CURATOR AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Most people think is a frog is a frog is a frog. Once you've seen a bullfrog, you're seen all frogs. One of the messages we want to get across with this exhibition is that the bullfrog is actually only a tiny slice of the diversity of the shapes, the colors, the sizes, the range in variation that we have in frogs. There's a big world of frogs out there. They are really cool. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this golden one it's moving.

ELLEN FUTTER, PRESIDENT AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Here you are looking at 200 live frogs. You've 17 countries represented, 24 species. So for us it's an extension of the fabulous environmental messages we have been putting out over a period of years and trying to share with the public knowledge of the diversity of species.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look hopping. Oh look, now he's hoping.

CHRISTOPHER RAXWORTHY, CURATOR: There are over 4,900 species described, and we're still finding a lot of species in the wild. So, this is a tremendously exacting time of discovery, but on the other hand, we're also at a period of decline of frogs. Frogs are disappearing in many habitats around the world and that's causing great concern.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Poison Dart Frogs everywhere.

RAXWORTHY: Frogs are amazing; they're almost like environmental canaries. They have thin permeable skins and that means they're very vulnerable to things like pollution or any kind of change in the environment. When frogs disappear that's one of the first indications we have there's something going wrong with the environment. When frogs disappear, that's usually on of the first indications that we have -- there's something going wrong in the environment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's camouflaging in with something. We got to find him.

RAXWORTHY: One of the frogs we have here is the Vietnamese Mossy Frog and it basically -- during the day hides like a piece of moss.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god, there it is. I see him. Vanessa right in front of you, on the wall, did you see his eye?

RAXWORTHY: It's great fun just watching people trying to pick out the frogs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's amazing.

GRANT: There are nine species of Poison Dart frogs in here from South America. In nature when you see really bright -- a really brightly colored animal that means stay away, I'm dangerous, and that's what allows these animals to be as bold as they are. They hop around in daylight hours with no problem at all, no fear of being attacked by predators.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a green one and another one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, that's our favorite color, right?

RAXWORTHY: I think the key thing is frocks are really wonderful in terms of teaching things to children about biology, and it's great fun seeing the children having so much enthusiasm when they come through here. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't know there was such a thing as a Vietnamese Moss Frog that looks exactly like the moss. It's the most -- it's the best camouflage I've ever seen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I learned that some of them can be poisonous.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just like the way they look, but I don't like touching them.

RAXWORTHY: We have so much to discover about frogs. As a student and as a child learning about biology, I thought pretty much everything was discovered and known. And part of this exhibition, we're hoping, is there to show people there's so much more to discover and learn about world around us.

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SIEBERG: A very Zen-like expression from that frog. Well, that's all the time we have for now, but let's look leap ahead and look at what's coming up next week, the movie, "I, Robot" opens nationwide on Friday with a hair raising tale of robots that rebel against human masters. Could that really happen? We'll have a reality check on the state of robot technology.

That's coming up on NEXT. Until then, let's here from you, you can send us an e-mail at NEXT@CNN.com. Thanks so much for joining us. For all of us, I'm Daniel Sieberg. We'll see you , next time.

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