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CNN Student News

Aired January 22, 2002 - 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: You're watching CNN STUDENT NEWS. Seen in schools around the world because learning never stops and neither does the news.

MICHAEL MCMANUS, HOST: Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS for Tuesday. Today, we'll travel from Afghanistan to Africa.

First up, a country in need. Afghanistan seeks help from the world community. Then, we focus on the subject of civil liberties. Next stop, Ethiopia for a perspective of the other side of Africa. Health news follows. Learn about an alarming and unhealthy trend.

Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Michael McManus. Today is the first day of our new format, which we've been telling you about for the past couple of weeks, so I certainly hope you like what you see.

Our "Lead Story," rebuilding Afghanistan. Its interim government is reportedly down to its last $10 million so representatives from about 60 countries and a variety of organizations have come together to assist the country financially. Organizers at a donor's conference in Tokyo hope to raise at least $5 billion to see Afghanistan through the next two and a half years. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has pledged America's support in helping attain that goal.

And CNN's Andrea Koppel has more on that and on some lingering concerns about the accountability of funds.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fresh from his own quick tour of Afghanistan's capital and determined to ensure this donor's conference remains focused on resources, not rhetoric, Secretary of State Powell laid out the United States' bottom line, pledging $296 million to help rebuild Afghanistan.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: President Bush, the Congress of the United States, the American people fully recognize that this is the first contribution to what must be and will be a multi-year effort.

KOPPEL: Preliminary assessments by the World Bank have already predicted Afghanistan will need at least $1.7 billion in reconstruction assistance in the first year and an estimated $10 billion over the next five years. Appealing to representatives of 60 countries and 20 international organizations gathered here in Tokyo, the head of Afghanistan's interim government said that before fleeing Kabul, the Taliban made sure the cupboards were completely bare, even looting the central bank.

HAMID KARZAI, AFGHAN INTERIM GOVERNMENT CHAIRMAN: So there is almost nothing. And in order to enable the interim administration to deliver the basics to the Afghan people, including salaries, we unfortunately, as I stand here, need immediate input of cash into the Afghan administration.

KOPPEL: The list of what's needed seems endless -- fresh drinking water, roads, schools, houses, demining a country littered with them and providing adequate security to ensure the money gets where it's supposed to go. But privately U.S. officials say the money won't start to flow until the interim Afghan government lays out specific projects and ensures accountability. Chairman Karzai's concern that this support is not short-lived.

KARZAI: We have one fear, that without the full partnership with the international community, Afghanistan may falter again. And I believe that's the reason we are all here today.

KOPPEL (on camera): Secretary of State Powell said the message from the Bush administration is clear -- the war in Afghanistan may be nearing its end, but this donors conference here in Tokyo is just the beginning of what will be a long-term U.S. commitment to the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Andrea Koppel, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Coming up in "Chronicle," rebuilding Afghanistan is not going to be easy. We continue that story a bit later in our show when we'll bring you a checklist of some of the nation's most urgent wants and needs.

U.S. President Bush is praising slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for helping America become a better place. Yesterday, on Martin Luther King Day, Mr. Bush signed a proclamation honoring the civil rights hero.

Our Joel Hochmuth brings us a closer look at the day's events.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOEL HOCHMUTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush paused to remember Dr. Martin Luther King on Monday. At the White House, Mr. Bush commemorated the slain civil rights leader's birthday by signing a proclamation declaring King a -- quote -- "modern American hero." King's widow, Coretta, was at the president's side.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Some figures in history, renowned in their day, grow smaller with the passing of time. The man from Atlanta, Georgia only grows larger with the years. America is a better place because he was here, and we will honor his name forever.

HOCHMUTH: Earlier in the day, First Lady Laura Bush joined Mrs. King in Atlanta at Ebeneezer Baptist Church for the annual service to commemorate the civil rights leader's legacy.

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: Martin Luther King, Jr. shaped our laws, our values, our conscience and our history. And Dr. King was guided by a single overpowering conviction, and that is the dignity and the worth of every member of the human family. That's what he lived for and that's what he died for.

HOCHMUTH: Over the weekend, the commemoration with a different tone in the nation's capital. There, hundreds of current civil rights activists gathered to express concerns Dr. King's dream is being threatened and that civil liberties are in jeopardy in the wake of the terrorist attacks September 11.

DR. JAMES ZOGBY, PRESIDENT, ARAB AMERICAN INST.: And so when we're dealing with the problems we face today, we have to remember that these are the problems he dealt with and we have to fight them the way he fought them. Can't have secret evidence used in trials, can't have people detained and not know where they are.

REVEREND AL SHARPTON, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK: When we see the Justice Department say there are 314,000 people that could be deported but they're going to target 6,000 Arabs, that is racial profiling. That is wrong. That is going at people based on race rather than based on the law.

HOCHMUTH: The issue of civil liberties often stirs heated debate, especially in times of war or national crisis. When does the government cross the line between what's constitutional and what's not?

Bruce Morton tackles that question in our next report.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The United States guards its Constitution carefully. And the rights, the liberties it guarantees? In war, those may take a beating.

JAY WINIK, AUTHOR/HISTORIAN: In Abraham Lincoln's day, during the Civil War, he basically embraced this notion that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. In war, the rules change, things change, security has to come to the fore.

MORTON: Terror sharpens the choices. What is a suspect knows of a terrorist plot? How far can the government go in trying to find out what he knows?

Philippine police arrested this man, Abdul Hakim Murad, in 1995. He says they tortured him. Colonel Randolfo Mendoza denies that, saying physical torture won't work. COL. RANDOLFO MENDOZA: If the interrogee or the briefee is under duress, you can expect that the information is also a manipulated one.

MORTON: Mendoza says they scared Murad, threatening to turn him over to Israeli agents or the FBI. Murad confessed to a complicated plot as potentially catastrophic as the attacks on the U.S. last September: Kill the pope while he was in Manila, plant bombs to blow up 11 U.S. airliners over the Pacific, hijack and then crash jetliners into the CIA and a nuclear power plant.

Mendoza, while denying Murad's torture charges, raises a real question.

MENDOZA: If a bomb is about to be exploded in 30 minutes, I think everything must be done to grill the suspected terrorist.

MORTON: How far would you go? Israel has probably had more experience with suicide bombers than anyplace else. This is the discotheque bombing that killed 21 last year, and one Likud member of the Knesset says, "do whatever you have to do to stop these attacks."

RUBY RIVLIN, KNESSET MEMBER: We know very well that when people are ready to be suicide, and they are ready to give their lives for their beliefs, that it's very difficult, very, very difficult to fight terrorism. There is no way for me to fight terrorism unless I used special methods. You call them tortures. OK, I agree, because I don't want to be hypocrite.

MORTON: Now, Americans are finding themselves in the difficult position of wondering just how far they should go in order to prevent future terrorist attacks.

WINIK: I don't think that's something Americans would prefer to do. But I think if you also asked Americans what should we do with potentially a nuclear weapon or a dirty nuclear bomb is going to go off, I think most Americans will probably say you have to do what you can.

ANTHONY ROMERO, ACLU EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: But we have criticized governments, like China and the former Soviet Union and Cuba and other countries, because they have been known to be torturers, because they have been known to be human rights abusers. That would be an enormous irony for the American government to now use those same tactics that we have been so vociferous in criticizing.

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve.

WINIK: What this administration is doing with its recent anti- terror legislation actually pales in comparison to what previous presidents have done in wartime.

MORTON: He's got a point. Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus so people could be detained without the government having to go before a judge and justify its action.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He arrested and detained, often for years, some 13,000 people, who didn't even know why they were being put away.

MORTON: And at one point, he even arrested 32 Maryland legislatures so they couldn't vote to secede from the Union. Woodrow Wilson in World War I, it was a crime, among other things, to criticize the draft.

FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We must, and will, prevent our land from becoming a victim of aggression.

MORTON: Franklin Roosevelt in World War II used secret military trials to convict eight Nazi saboteurs who had landed in the U.S. Six were electrocuted. The Supreme Court upheld those trials. And Roosevelt put Japanese-Americans, who lived on the West Coast, into camps.

ROMERO: We took 120,000 Japanese-Americans, most of them were U.S. citizens, we took them from their home. We put them in internment camps. We denied them the most basic rights under our law.

MORTON: At the time, there wasn't any great storm of protest. In fact, most wartime presidents trimmed civil liberties and didn't suffer for it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More power to you, President Roosevelt. The entire country is behind you.

WINIK: We don't judge those presidents harshly. We judged them as on the whole as having done the right thing -- as having been wartime presidents who ensured the security of the American people.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.

MORTON: Americans, polls say, support this president's anti- terror efforts, but many do worry.

ROMERO: When we win the war against terrorism, we want to make sure we recognize our country. We've got to make sure that, as we protect the American people, that as we advance our safety and our security, that we also protect the liberties and the freedoms that make it a great country.

WINIK: There is good news here, because what we see as after each time when the war ends, inevitably and invariably, not only do civil liberties re-emerge, but they re-emerge stronger than ever before.

MORTON: Unless you're one of those Japanese-Americans in a camp. They got an official apology almost half a century later in 1988.

Still, in a democracy, wartime does pose a struggle between freedom and order. And terrorism asks new questions. What is the suspect really does know where the bomb is planted? How far do you go? Truth serum? Psychological tricks? Torture?

WINIK: How far to go, I think that's a debate and a discussion that this administration has to have internally, and to some extent, the country has to ask publicly.

MORTON: How far to go in a democracy? Tough question. A good debate to have.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: The discussion continues later in our Student Bureau report. We'll tackle the timely and challenging issue of immigrant students and civil liberties. Check out proposed new laws, which could make it tougher on international students to attend class in the U.S. That's coming up later in our "Student Bureau Report."

As we reported in our "Lead Story," Afghan's face some hefty obstacles as they try to rebuild their nation. One in six children dies before his or her first birthday. Two out of three Afghans can't read, and there is just one doctor for every 5,000 Afghans.

As you can imagine, Afghanistan has both urgent and long-term needs. Too many to afford all at once, and Michael Holmes inventories some of the nation's top priorities.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AHMAD FAWZI, U.N. SPOKESMAN: People are starving, some of them are living in caves, and the civil service hasn't been paid. They can't buy bread.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As other nations gather to decide this one's future, the needs and priorities of Afghanistan could not be more basic. The importance of those needs, difficult to rank.

HAMID KARZAI, AFGHAN INTERIM GOVERNMENT CHAIRMAN: We cannot say this is priority No. 1, this is 2, this is 3. For example, priority No. 1 is to give the Afghan people security. Also priority No. 1 is to pay the salaries, and so on and to provide education for children and health. So we have things also under the same priority.

HOLMES (on camera): To get an idea of how much needs to be done here, start at street level. Walk out of your front door for a few meters. The roads here in Kabul are atrocious, literally all of them, and that's in the capital city. Go out of town a couple of miles, they get worse.

DR. ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, AFGHAN FOREIGN MINISTER: In one sentence I can say it is the job of rebuilding a country or a state from scratch.

HOLMES (voice-over): Two needs stand out here: security and cash.

ABDULLAH: That's the most urgent need. When I say urgent, I am not talking about months. I am talking about days and hours.

HOLMES: Nearly everything needs rebuilding or overhauling. Hospitals: overworked staff using obsolete equipment. In some parts of the country, one in four children do not reach the age of five.

Education: schools and universities are reopening, but they have little with which to teach. Electricity: power outages routine; the infrastructure, ancient and brittle. Communications in much of the country: nonexistent. The education minister doesn't have a phone.

Sanitation: none in many places. Where it does exist, it's crumbling. And food: plentiful on the streets of Kabul, but people in some parts of the country still go hungry. A blessing of sorts, entertainment is returning. Movies again running, there's music in the streets.

To this nation's fragile interim administration, there are two kinds of aid, for reconstruction, which they recognize takes time, and cash, which is urgent. They say the cost of that aid not arriving could be ruinous.

ABDULLAH: It could cost Afghanistan. It is not just the issue of the interim government, it is the survival of Afghanistan, which is at stake.

HOLMES: Michael Holmes, CNN, Kabul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is "CNN STUDENT NEWS Perspectives."

MCMANUS: Today we begin our series called "The Other Side of Africa." NEWSROOM correspondent Rudi Bakhtiar journeyed to Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Africa and Mali to gain a new perspective on the world's second largest continent.

Our first stop is Ethiopia where we discover the ancient and fascinating churches of Lalibela.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A journey through Ethiopia is an intellectual and spiritual awakening. The African nation's historic route begins in the ancient city of Aksum. This former capital city dates back to about 100 B.C. Later, it was the first place in Ethiopia to adopt a new religion, Christianity.

At Aksum's heart lies the legend of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Aksum is believed to be the birthplace of the Queen of Sheba, who, according to the Old Testament, traveled to Israel to meet King Solomon. They had a son, Menelik, who became the first emperor of Ethiopia.

DANIEL TESFAYE, TOUR GUIDE: When Menelik was matured he returned to Israel to his father, and when he came back to Ethiopia, he took the original Arc of Covenant with him.

BAKHTIAR: To this day, Aksumites say the Arc, which once housed the Ten Commandments, is hidden in this building and guarded by a select group of monks whose life's work is protecting the sacred vessel. Many monuments in and around Aksum are more than 2,000 years old. Massive towering sculptures erected during the Aksumite empire pay homage to a mysterious past.

TESFAYE: The significance of this still was -- still is not known, still under study by the archaeologists. But they say that it was a very holy place, maybe one of the most important places.

BAKHTIAR: Today, Ethiopia's religious tradition is reflected in various aspects of every day life. But nowhere does the spiritual energy echo more than in the monolithic churches of Lalibela, what some call the eighth wonder of the ancient world, that still attracts thousands of pilgrims every year during the major holy day celebrations.

TESFAYE: These churches are built in the 13th century but that doesn't make these churches special from other historical antiques or open museums. Still, these churches are giving the service for the local people.

BAKHTIAR: Another amazing fact, all of the 11 structures were carved from one stone.

UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST: The architecture is amazing. I mean how did they do it? It's like the church comes out of the rock.

UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST: Because I've read so much about it and seen so many pictures and I heard so much about it that I've been in Ethiopia for about three weeks and this is my last stop before I go back to Addis.

BAKHTIAR (on camera): And what do you think?

UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST: It's just wonderful. The pictures and what I read didn't prepare me for the scale of it and just how much it must have taken to do this.

UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST: It's not like anything you know back home. It's very different.

BAKHTIAR (voice-over): The churches were built by King Lalibela, the youngest son of the royal line of the Zagwe Dynasty, which at the time, ruled much of Europe.

Poisoned by his own brother, Lalibela would fall into a three day coma, during which it is said he was transported to heaven, where God told him to return to Roha and build churches, the like of which the world had never seen before.

(on camera): There are two type of churches here at Lalibela, rock-hewn and monolithic. This is a monolithic church, which means they dug a trench into solid rock and then created the church out of the remaining stone.

(voice-over): A complex maze of tunnels with crypts, grottoes and galleries connects the underground churches. The House of Mariam, containing treasured frescoes and paintings, was the first church King Lalibela had built. The House of Medhanialam, Savior of the World, is the largest.

TESFAYE: This church, it has about 72 pillars inside and outside and that church is a typical basilica type of church. It means Roman Catholic church.

BAKHTIAR: The House of Golgotha contains the king's tomb.

TESFAYE: The St. George Church is the last church built by King Lalibela and this church is also the best in its architecture and style.

BAKHTIAR: But the experience of Lalibela would not be complete without its charming accommodations. Perched on top of a hill in the village, the Roha Hotel mimics the architecture of the churches, with rooms that yield magnificent views of the mountainous countryside.

Upon request, the hotel provides local entertainment and there's always the local market, the exotic sights, sounds and smells a tantalizing challenge to the senses.

But perhaps the most inspiring experience comes from the people themselves, who exude a genuine warmth and welcoming spirit.

UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST: We feel like we're back 1,000 years behind. It doesn't look like it has changed at all. It's this really strange feeling.

BAKHTIAR: A short flight from Lalibela is Ethiopia's first permanent capital, Gondar. Here, King Fasilida united the country and made his mark on the landscape.

TESFAYE: Before him, it was a movable capital. They moved from here and there. But he was found a permanent capital here in 1632 and he decided also to have his own palace.

BAKHTIAR: Before Fasilida's reign, a civil war divided Ethiopia. As the nation healed, the king built a castle as never before seen in the country. A majestic structure in its own right, soon it was surrounded by other fairy tale buildings as Fasilida's successors followed in his footsteps, building a series of castles and palaces in the same compound.

Today, six of the original 11 castles still grace the landscape. Gondar remained Ethiopia's capital until the mid-1800s, growing in prominence both politically and religiously.

Of the 44 churches believed to be built during this time, only a few survived and the Church of Debra Selassie is considered the most noteworthy. This small church, unimposing and tucked into a hillside, contains some of the most celebrated frescoes in Ethiopia. Prevailing through the ages, the dazzling display of color depicts the life of Christ as well as honoring saints.

Its ceiling, row after row of angels who watch down on the congregation, because Debra Selassie, as most of the other ancient churches here, is still in use.

Ethiopia's past remains very much a part of its present, and visitors may savor it with each new discovery.

Rudy Bahktiar, CNN, on Ethiopia's historic route.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: It's time to talk health, a subject important to people of every age. Are you doing your best to maintain your optimum health or are you following a dangerous trend?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta has our "Health Report."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an alarming trend: obesity, one of America's fastest growing health problems. It contributes to some of our worst health problems, like heart disease and diabetes. And it is killing people, often in the prime of their lives.

In fact, each year, more than 300,000 deaths are blamed on complications from obesity and physical inactivity. Americans are more sedentary than ever.

In the last 10 years, obesity rates have increased nearly 60 percent among adults. And our children are not exempt: 20 percent of children in the United States are considered overweight. It doesn't help that there's a dramatic and steady decline in the number of students who attend a daily physical education class, according to research.

Public health officials say more than a wake-up call is needed to stop the obesity epidemic. The messages to exercise and eat right have been out there for decades. But now they say it's time for Americans to act on them.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: The way Americans behave has changed some since September 11. The way the public travels, for example, and plenty of other things have changed, too, like the backpedaling economy and continued job losses. You might not think of it, but some student's education might now be in jeopardy as well.

Our "Student Bureau Report" today takes us to California, which has seen its fair share of education controversies.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LORI AUFDEMORTE, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): Since the September 11 attacks, much has changed for students from the Middle East attending school in the U.S. New laws are proposed to make it tougher to get a student visa, and the government is keeping a closer eye on those already studying in the U.S.

University of Southern California student Mutieb Aloraini from Saudi Arabia is one of hundreds of young Middle Eastern men interviewed in recent weeks by the FBI.

MUTIEB ALORAINI, SAUDI ARABIAN STUDENT: If the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) couple of twists here about my situation, about my passport, my like papers, the documents, and you know, they had nothing against me, but you know, it's just like a process of checking.

AUFDEMORTE: But Aloraini says it makes him nervous.

ALORAINI: We're having concern about our life here, not like a sense of discrimination, you know about putting us in the point of view that, yeah, we did something wrong.

AUFDEMORTE: Middle Eastern students who overstay their visas are now more likely to be caught and deported. Until now, Immigration officials were slack in keeping tabs on foreign students.

NADADUR KUMAR, INTERNATIONAL SERVICES, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: So we have never put the government information as to who got the I-20 form and entered the country and cross compared it with each of the school's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) student intentionally comes here, takes an I-20 form, wants to enter the country and drop out of sight and doesn't want to get involved with any school.

AUFDEMORTE: That is changing. Immigration investigators are giving colleges the names of Middle Eastern students to check their records. Dozens found to have dropped out of school have been arrested in recent weeks.

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, is pushing legislation to close more loopholes.

SALAM AL-MARAYATI, MUSLIM PUBLIC AFFAIRS COUNCIL: It will erode our civil liberties. And I'm afraid as Americans, we will give up the America that we're trying to protect.

PROF. RICHARD DEKMEJIAN, POLITICAL SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: I would hope that they do not discriminate. But in a practical sense, yes, and it's going to be fewer foreign students and better foreign students.

AUFDEMORTE: If the new visa rules and tougher enforcement results in fewer international students studying in the U.S., the loss may not just be theirs.

GRACE KIM, ADMISSIONS DEPT., UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: Full exchange that happens with domestic students having international students in the class. That is a benefit to the domestic students as well.

AUFDEMORTE: Hosting international students has also been a way for U.S. principles to be spread around the world.

AL-MARAYATI: And students here who go back to their countries will at least be exposed to the positive side of America and will be more responsible leaders in that part of the world.

PALLAVI AYER, INDIAN STUDENT: But I think coming here, I think I got to learn the other side of this story and it's -- although it's true that the U.S. supports Israel, but I mean it supports them with limits. It's not -- it's not they support Israel because they are anti-Islamic or anti-Arab.

AUFDEMORTE (on camera): Since the September 11 attacks, how young Middle Easterners view the U.S. has become an issue of national security and the government is looking for way to help improve it. Some say letting students live here is one of the best ways.

Lori Aufdemorte, CNN Student Bureau, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Speaking of where in the world, where in the world is our own Rudi Bakhtiar? As we told you earlier, she went on an African adventure to remember. To find out about all the places she went to and the stories she brought back, please visit our Web site. That's www.cnnstudentnews.com.

Speaking of which, tomorrow Rudi shows us the pride of Africa's exports. It's diamonds.

And we've reached the end of our broadcast today, and hope you like the new format on CNN STUDENT NEWS. Please stay with your world's news leader throughout the day for all the latest news.

Until tomorrow, I'm Michael McManus.

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