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CNN Student News

Aired March 18, 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.

SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: As another week begins on "CNN STUDENT NEWS", diplomatic efforts to resolve conflict in the Middle East continue. Up next, we focus on the Islamic religion. Later, we travel to Afghanistan to find out who's helping the young people. Then we try to solve a mummy mystery and we get a taste of Irish culture.

Welcome to "CNN STUDENT NEWS". I'm Shelley Walcott.

Another wave of violence shakes the Middle East as U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni pushes ahead with his cease-fire mission. Zinni met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat Sunday. He plans to meet again with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon later this week. Vice President Dick Cheney likely will join the talks.

Cheney is set to arrive in Israel today. Prime Minister Sharon said this weekend that he would be willing to sit down and discuss a cease-fire and a U.S. conceived proposal for peace known as the Tenet Plan. The plan put forth by CIA Director George Tenet calls for an immediate end to hostilities and a cooling off period. Violence in the Middle East has overshadowed Cheney's 12-nation mission to build support for possible U.S. action against Iraq.

CNN's John King reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bahrain, stop seven of nine in the Arab world, and the vice president finally concedes the point.

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is a preoccupation for everybody in this part of the world.

KING: Talks with King Hamad and Crown Prince Salman in Bahrain brought welcome news from the White House perspective -- a call for patient diplomacy first, but a clear signal the United States will get a green light to use its military bases here if it comes to war with Iraq. CROWN PRINCE SALMAN, QATAR: It's a bit early to speculate on a hypothetical, but Bahrain has always honored its commitments.

KING: The crown prince gave voice to the biggest lesson of Mr. Cheney's Mideast trip -- selling a tough posture toward Iraq might be easier if not for what the crown prince calls brutal Israeli aggression in the Palestinian territories.

CROWN PRINCE SALMAN: It holds up and it precludes and it confuses all of the other issues, which are a concern to all of us, specifically weapons of mass destruction.

KING: Mr. Cheney met for more than four hours Saturday night with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi officials say the crown prince ruled out the use of any bases in his country in any showdown with Saddam Hussein.

Mr. Cheney suggested otherwise.

CHENEY: The only people in the meeting were the Crown Prince and myself, plus an interpreter. And I have his notes.

So, I think there's been a lot of speculation, both about my conversations as I travel through the region. And I think a lot of it has been uninformed.

KING: Crown Prince Abdullah accepted an invitation to visit the Bush ranch in the near future. The invite is designed to send a message of Saudi Arabia's importance.

The presidents of Russia and China are the only others on the Crawford ranch guest list.

Qatar was the final stop Sunday. And it is on to Israel Monday.

The vice president says he hopes to arrive to word of an Israeli- Palestinian cease-fire.

(on camera): If not, Mr. Cheney will find himself in the middle of difficult negotiations. And in addition to meeting the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, there is room on the schedule for a session with a high-level Palestinian delegation, if the White House believes the vice president's intervention can deliver a breakthrough.

John King, CNN, in Doha, Qatar.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: We've heard so many stories of terrorism and violence lately, you can't help but wonder what would happen if nuclear weapons became involved.

Bruce Morton looks at U.S. contingency plans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Nuclear Posture Review that just came out is raising a lot of eyebrows, but in fact, it's not so new. The Pentagon has contingency plans for just about everything, and reports this past week make it clear President Clinton had nuclear reviews and so did President Reagan.

Target countries other than Cold War enemies? Well there reportedly were contingency but that's all on Iran dating back to 1979 when it held American hostages. Contingency plans on Iraq during the Gulf War in 1991.

(on camera): Iran, Iraq and the other new countries on last week's lists, Libya, Syria, North Korea, have all signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. It says that a nuclear power, like the United States, can't use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear country that has signed the treaty. Nevertheless, the first President Bush, during the Gulf War, warned Iraq that if it used weapons of mass destruction, including biological or chemical weapons against the United States, it risked facing -- quote -- "the strongest possible response" -- unquote. Most people took that to mean the U.S. might use nukes.

(voice-over): Similarly, Clinton Defense Secretary William Perry warned that if anyone attacked the U.S. with chemical weapons the U.S. -- quote -- "would not forswear the possibility of using nuclear weapons."

So the United States might use nuclear weapons against an attacker who used chemical or biological weapons. President Bush repeated that at his press conference last Wednesday.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've got all options on the table because we want to make it very clear to nations that you will not threaten the United States or use weapons of mass destruction against us or our allies or friends.

MORTON: President Bush goes further than Clinton in that he wants a new generation of nuclear weapons, though he insists he wants to cut the overall number of warheads, and a new generation of delivery vehicles, new missiles, a new bomber. None of this violates the nonproliferation treaty, though using nuclear weapons, new or old, of course would.

One other thing, it's always been assumed nukes were a deterrent and would only be used, if ever, as a response to an attack. Mr. Bush hinted this past week he might hit first in response to a threat, not an attack.

BUSH: But one thing I will not allow is a nation, such as Iraq, to threaten our very future by developing weapons of mass destruction.

MORTON: Is he threatening a conventional invasion, a nuclear attack, what do you think?

I'm Bruce Morton.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Since September 11, President Bush had made it clear that the United States is not waging war on Islam. Nevertheless, some religious groups still denounce the Islamic faith. Now throughout history, spiritual differences have divided people and have led to much conflict.

But as CNN's Bill Delaney reports, those differences often share some very deep roots.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's of an air of a medieval way of thinking to say that now again the Christian West and the Islamic East confront each other. We should be many centuries beyond that we think. And anyway the West is not all Christian nor the East monolithically Islam.

And yet an age-old misunderstanding. Roots of violence flourish. To not know how close Christians and Muslims are to allow alleged distance to further drive us apart.

REV. RAY HELMICK, BOSTON COLLEGE: Jesus is spoken of in the Koran. Mary responds to the angels saying, "You have done to me according to your will." That is very Islamic.

They accept submission to the will of God -- that's what it's about.

DELANEY: What it's about -- how few non-Muslims know, how honored Jesus is in Islam and how Jews, too, are called People of The Book.

Mohammed, the prophet, born in 570 in what's now Saudi Arabia was a businessman to the age of 40. Then devote but illiterate he had a revelation and mysteriously began to pour forth the profound poetry of the Koran.

OMAR UL-HUDA, BOSTON COLLEGE: First he panicked but all he could see was the angel Gabriel telling him to recite the name of God. Many people thought he was a magician of sort -- or some sage -- a false sage. And so he was persecuted. And the people who started to believe in him and follow his message -- and let's remember it's the message not following him -- they were submitters to this message and they are called Muslims.

What he would see at the very beginning of his prophecy and towards the very end is a very basic reiteration of the message that there is only one God. Remember that this one God is the source of everything.

DELANEY: Most Muslims know what most Christians do not -- that early in Mohammed's ministry a Christian king and his followers by sheltering the then persecuted prophet saved his life.

HELMICK: The mystical part of this is always interesting. When you find among these various religions people who have come along to mystical experience -- that's very direct experience of God acting in their souls. And the differences tend to become very unimportant at that point.

DELANEY: And yet among Christians, Muslims, Jews -- differences and anger so horrific calls for Jihad Holy War.

Though here, too, say Islamic scholars, driving apart, perverting but real Jihad is.

UL-HUDA: The Book contains over 6,000 verses. There are over -- there are 114 chapters. I don't know how many references there are to actual war to Jihad -- maybe less than five or six.

It's referring to groups of people to work on their spiritual enlightenment -- their inner connection to God's self-disclosure. And then there's a specific verse that says, "Do not turn your backs on the cause of God."

DELANEY: That through history one side or another didn't try to understand the other -- declared the cause of God theirs alone -- why so many wars were born and may yet be born.

HELMICK: In any of our faiths we are inclined to think, "We've got the whole thing -- nobody else has it." And a rival claim is treated as something hostile.

UL-HUDA: It's dangerous when one thinks that mine is better than yours. But I don't think it's dangerous to believe in something and be committed to it.

DELANEY: The razor's edge -- West and East now walk again. Though the map for this difficult passage can perhaps be already read in the compassion that unites not divides great faiths sprung from the same desert, watered by the same God.

Bill Delaney, CNN, Boston

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WALCOTT: A unique display in New York is giving people around the world a chance to express their feelings about the September 11 attacks. Thousands of artistically inclined people have contributed to the memorial, which runs through April. Their works of art portray everything from sorrow to anger.

CNN's Phil Hirschkorn has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL HIRSCHKORN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Row after row reactions to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, drawings, photographs, collages and poems.

JEANNETTE INGHERMAN, COFOUNDER EXIT ART: What happened on September 11 happened to everybody and we wanted to have a response from everyone, not just artists.

HIRSCHKORN: More than 3,000 people responded to an open invitation from Exit Art, a lower Manhattan gallery.

(on camera): There was only one rule with regard to format, correct?

INGHERMAN: We decided when we did this project that we had to have some criteria so we decided that the only thing that we wanted was it to be on an 8-1/2 x 11" piece of paper. And we thought of the paper because it equalizes everyone.

HIRSCHKORN (voice-over): Entries arrived in e-mail and bags of regular mail from across the U.S. and 25 other countries. Many contributors depicting personal losses.

(on camera): This person, Joey (ph), his childhood friend who was only 26 or 27 years old.

INGHERMAN: It just talks about they were friends since they were five years old, and his friend's father taught him how to drive a bicycle.

HIRSCHKORN: How did you decide which ones you wanted to hang and which ones -- in the order they would be in?

BIBI MARTI, CURATOR EXIT ART: Every single piece that we received is shown. There are a lot of people here that submitted pieces that lost friends or coworkers. The woman who wrote this said in the e-mail that she had been one of the survivors of the attacks. You know she says I can no longer flirt with Lou, you know I can no longer smile at Paul. I can no longer leave a message with Andrea. You know sometimes you pass people by in the hallway at work and you may not think very much about them, but something like this has made you completely rethink your relationship with everybody, you know even those people that you only leave a message for on the phone.

HIRSCHKORN (voice-over): Other reactions turned to the political. Leaders on both sides of America's new war mocking Osama bin Laden.

MARTI: Please drop me a missile.

HIRSCHKORN: And mixed emotions.

INGHERMAN: This is from someone in San Francisco and it says I hate terrorism. I hate the war against terrorism.

HIRSCHKORN: But the predominate image is the Twin Towers, as they once stood, the shock of their fall and condolences for the victims. There's appreciation for rescuers, responses to non-stop news coverage and sympathy for a stricken city.

(on camera): Now in this row there are a number of named artists, if you will, who are in this exhibit, and I know one of them is William Wegman. INGHERMAN: Yes, William Wegman sent in this drawing. And of course he has his signature dog here. I lived next to the Trade Center as it was being built.

HIRSCHKORN: And he says he used the site as an outdoor studio.

INGHERMAN: Yes.

HIRSCHKORN (voice-over): Among the many children's reactions, the granddaughter of a sculpture built with Legos.

(on camera): Here are the replica of the Twin Towers in Lego standing, and then they're...

INGHERMAN: And then toppled.

HIRSCHKORN: ... toppled.

(voice-over): Reactions to a changed world: anthrax in the mail, patriotism resurgent, pleas for peace, a date never to forget.

Phil Hirschkorn, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

WALCOTT: In Afghanistan, years of war and poverty have taken their toll on the children of that country. Now a center in Kabul is trying to give kids something they've been denied for too long, their dignity.

Kathy Healy has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY HEALEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): On any given day, on any given street, in the Afghan capitol of Kabul, you see plenty of children, only these children aren't playing games. They're on the streets just trying to survive. These are children who once went to school, but today must figure out a way to earn some money for their keep.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY (through interpreter): I live with my mother and sister. I work to earn a living for us. In the future, I'd like to become a good carpenter.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY (through interpreter): I work in the area of the bus station. I wait for passengers and carry their luggage. Sometimes they give me some money.

HEALEY: The reason for so many street children in Kabul is fairly easy to understand. It's a country of seemingly endless war, and if war didn't deny the kids both parents, chances are Afghanistan's long-running drought, which brought famine, has. So kids, some barely out of their toddler years, are forced to take on a new role. Kids are the sole bread winner in the household.

MOHAMMAD YOUSEF, ASCHIANA CHILDREN CENTER: We had (inaudible) in 1996 and Kabul city (inaudible). Kabul city we solve it with (inaudible) and street working children. Now maybe this has doubled or more than doubled because one reason is drought and another is displacement and some people lost their job and most of the children and also the price of food and material is high.

HEALEY: Mohammed Yousef is the Director the Aschiana Children Center in Kabul. Started in 1995 with the help of a Swiss group (inaudible), it's a place where thousands of Kabul street kids are put on a path to a better life.

YOUSEF: And (inaudible) basic education, (inaudible) program, physical education and basic education like (inaudible) mathematics and (inaudible) and (inaudible) skill for the children.

HEALEY: Valuable as this center may be, parents often become disgruntled that their children are spending at least some of the day learning and not earning. The center pretty much operates under nations alone, spending that $14 per child a month. Not much perhaps, but enough to provide some support and hopes to those who may need it most.

Kathy Healey, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: All this week in "Perspectives," we'll be examining the culture, lifestyle and economy of Afghanistan. Tomorrow, a look at one health clinic trying to cope with an overflow of clients.

ON-SCREEN: Egyptians practiced mummification for more than 3,000 years.

WALCOTT: You know not all of the mummies of ancient Egypt's pharaohs have been found, but curators at a museum in Atlanta believe they may have made an important discovery. Generations ago, tomb raiders made off with the remains of Ramses I, and now a group of medical experts is using cutting-edge science to determine if the pharaoh has finally been found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University is basking in the glow of its prize acquisition, nine mummies from ancient Egypt, coffins decorated with elaborate hieroglyphics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And here she's being judged. She's going to the final judgment, so the gods are ushering her in to the hall of judgment.

CALLEBS: What they know is amazing, but what they don't know could turn out to be even more exciting. He doesn't look noble here, but some Egyptologists have speculated the leathery remains could be that of the long missing Ramses I. Carlos curator, Peter Lacovara, says there are clues.

PETER LACOVARA, MICHAEL C. CARLOS MUSEUM: The arms are crossed over the shoulders, which until very late in Egyptian history was a posture reserved only for pharaohs.

CALLEBS: This is one of a cache of mummies Emory purchased from a Canadian museum for $2 million. In an effort to make the leap from academic debate to scientific proof, the university is turning to DNA research specialist Dr. Doug Wallace.

DR. DOUG WALLACE, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Over time, DNA tends to degrade. And so over 3,000 years of degradation, there's relatively little DNA left.

CALLEBS: Wallace wants to compare what DNA there is from this mummy to DNA from Ramses II and Seti I. Specifically, scientists want to examine the male, or "Y" chromosome from Ramses' son and grandson.

And it gets even more complicated. Scientists say the best chance of retrieving DNA will come from the mummy's teeth. To reduce the risk of further contamination, a female oral surgeon will extract a tooth.

DR. MOLLIE WINSTON, ORAL SURGEON: We're hoping that we can go in with just typical surgical instruments and extract a tooth, that it will just come out pretty easily.

CALLEBS: If this is Ramses I, Emory will return him to Cairo. And if not, one of the great mysteries of Egyptian relics remains unanswered.

Sean Callebs, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: You know yesterday was the day everyone's Irish. It was, of course, St. Patrick's Day, the celebration derived from Ireland and its patron Saint Patrick. He's credited with bringing Christianity to the Emerald Isle. But it's the ancient people known as the druids who are responsible for the Irish dance, an old tradition born in Ireland, now practiced virtually everywhere in the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty shows, three parades this year. It's a lot of fun, though, a lot of work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to get the fast (UNINTELLIGIBLE) upstairs now.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

KAYLE BORENSTEIN, AGE 11: I saw "Riverdance" and I liked it and I thought it was cool.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

SEAN CULNON, IRISH DANCE INSTRUCTOR: Irish dancing is hot, like especially around St. Patrick's Day.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

JOE DUFFY, AGE 10: I don't really know why I love it. I like the competition. I like -- I like to -- I like to improvise. I like to learn new things in dance.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

DANIELLA LENENHARDT, AGE 21: Irish dancing is very precise. Toes out, heels in, legs straight. It's all perfect positioned. Wherever you come from, when you're in Ireland, in England, in Australia, everybody learns it the same way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're only six months old. I banged them up. They're absolutely rotten looking with all the duct tape. When I go up on my toes, it just goes (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and the heel's falling off, but that's OK.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well I like performing. I like making people feel happy. I like them being, whoa, he's good -- he's good and he -- and I can tell he likes it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like you're happy or joyful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like I'm flying.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone dancing, all that sound, the music going, it's based in the roots of the people and then it's grown from there.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: You know, in November, federal authorities mailed letters to more than 500 young men in the U.S. from Middle Eastern and predominately Muslim countries. The letters asked them to schedule voluntary interviews with the FBI in an effort to generate leads in the war against terrorism. Now the action received much criticism because, as our CNN Student Bureau reports, many Muslim-Americans already felt singled out. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE WILSON, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): There are about 3,000 people with Middle Eastern heritage living in the Lansing area. Many are students at Michigan State, like Siafia (ph) Ahmed. But she says because of September 11, there's been a noticeable change in how they've been treated, and suspicious looks from others are common.

SIAFIA AHMED, STUDENT: What we are concerned about as Muslims here in America is that how far will this paranoia and this fear go?

WILSON: It goes as far as the Justice Department. Earlier this year, the Immigration and Naturalization Service focused its efforts, with help from the FBI, on Muslims evading the law.

(on camera): Here in East Lansing, the Muslim community says one MSU student was questioned and detained by authorities when they found out he was not taking classes. Now under the guidelines of his visa, failure to take classes is a reason to be deported. But what upset the Muslim community here in East Lansing was not the interrogation but the way he was treated.

JAMMEEL AFTAB, MUSLIM STUDENT ASSOCIATION: They asked him questions -- they talked to him in a very derogatory manner, you know, saying like are you guys terrorists or do you guys have bombs, things of that nature. Those are the types of things that we disagree with.

WILSON (voice-over): Mohammed Daghostani is taking classes. He came to America just weeks before September 11. But just weeks after, he was at a peace demonstration. It was there he encountered his first taste of discrimination.

MOHAMMED DAGHOSTANI, INTERNATIONAL STUDENT: One guy like you like -- you look like kill the cowards or this kind of words. But many people after that told me don't listen to him. He is like -- just because he's the coward.

WILSON: Daghostani plans to finish his education at Michigan State. And while he's here, he is willing to accept the suspicious looks.

DAGHOSTANI: If they're going to ask questions like that there (UNINTELLIGIBLE) because they are (UNINTELLIGIBLE). They have -- they have to (INAUDIBLE).

WILSON: And while he may be singled out here, he wants America to know he fits right in.

DAGHOSTANI: Who was the guy who did that attack or (UNINTELLIGIBLE) should pay the consequences of that and they should -- he should pay the price.

WILSON: I'm Bruce Wilson, CNN Student Bureau, East Lansing, Michigan.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ONSCREEN: "Where in the World?"

National flower Shamrock.

Known for its green valleys and rocky shores.

More than 90 percent Roman Catholic?

Can you name this country?

Ireland.

WALCOTT: We've reached the end of today's show, but before we go, we'd like to give you a preview of some of the great stories coming your way this week. On Wednesday, meet a woman who's going to great depths to preserve our planet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have a chance that is unique. This is a pivotal point when there is enough of the natural world still in tact to maintain stability if we take care of it. But if we don't, and if we continue as we are now, we are in real danger of seeing tremendous disturbances that are not in our best interests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALCOTT: Then, get out of the water and into the world of bugs. On Thursday, we'll get down and dirty with things that crawl, creep and slide. To get a head start, hit us up at CNNstudentnews.com. There you can learn how bugs are classified and test your ability to name that bug.

And while you're on the Web, be sure to check out the other great material we've got on the site. It'll keep you busy until we come back tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye-bye.

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