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CNN Student News

Aired March 21, 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: Time to take a look at the rundown. We get things started in Mexico where world leaders are gathered to discuss poverty. Coming up in our "News Focus," we'll do some stargazing. Later, we head to the movies in Afghanistan. Then in our "Science Report," get ready to get bugged.

And welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Shelley Walcott.

A global effort to help stamp out poverty is underway in Mexico. Business and government leaders from around the world are taking part this week in the United Nations International Conference on Financing for Development.

They are some of the world's most needy countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Somalia, Nicaragua, just to name a few. Millions of people are living in poverty; millions go to bed hungry at night. The U.S. gives about one-thousandth of its gross national product, the value of all goods and services, to overseas development assistance. Europe gives three times that much and so does Japan. U.N. officials estimate $100 billion a year is needed to combat poverty. That's more than double what governments are giving now.

At its Millennium Summit in September 2000, the United Nations adopted a 16-year goal of cutting by half the number of people in dire poverty. The Monterrey Summit that began this week is intended to help nations move toward that goal.

CNN's Harris Whitbeck is there with details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Not much to look at, hundreds of government officials, professional bureaucrats, activists and journalists. But what you don't see are the tens of millions of dollars being spent to discuss a goal that's already been set. The conference organizers say it's worth it to start a public discussion of a subject that until now had not been addressed at an international forum by heads of state.

"We realize it will take time for actions to materialize," says this activist. "But the reality is, after a conference such as this one, a work agenda is set."

Already some of the participants that carry more weight, such as the European Union and the United States, have promised to increase aid donations to combat poverty, though some are already complaining that it is not enough. And even high level U.N. officials concede it will be difficult to measure the success of the summit.

CAROL BELLAMY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNICEF: We'll have to wait to see whether donor countries are indeed prepared to put their money where their mouth is and whether the poor countries are also prepared to re-shift some of their budgets to try and deal with some of the concerns of corruption, of governments, of equity in their society.

WHITBECK: And that's the crux for countries such as the U.S. which wants to condition its international assistance to good behavior by recipient governments to avoid the risk of throwing good money after bad. Another source of aid, big international companies being asked to pitch in, both as an investment and as a donation to combat poverty.

(on camera): The idea is that by 2015, the number of people surviving on less than a dollar a day would be cut in half. A goal difficult to achieve given the enormous amount of people living in extreme poverty and given the enormous amount of opinions on how to reach that goal.

Harris Whitbeck, CNN, Monterrey, Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Now many factors impact poverty in America varying from a lack of well-paying jobs to a need for adequate federal assistance. Many people living in poverty are very hard workers and say they deserve better.

Our CNN Student Bureau has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are here to say that it is our human right to be free from poverty.

(CROWD CHEERING)

ELIZABETH SLIGH, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): Low wage workers say they are standing up for their rights to earn a decent living.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Didn't have to work more than 40 hours a week in order to live.

SLIGH: So they have gathered at the Georgia State Capitol to take a stand. Georgia has recognized Poor People's Day at the Capitol for 23 years. The event educates people of all ages about issues facing America's poor. ADELINE PARK, VOLUNTEER: It's good to have just one day out of the whole year when people can see it on the news or see people out here that care about what's going on.

SLIGH: The new welfare system known as temporary assistance to needy families, or TANF, is designed to move families off public assistance and into jobs.

MELISA ZACARRO (ph): Many welfare recipients do not have a high school diploma, they need longer time periods to help support them to go back to school, work on a GED or learn to speak English, get a license or a college degree.

SLIGH: Malaika Shakir, a graduate student at Georgia State University, was a recipient of TANF while in undergraduate school. She became a single mother as a freshman and needed the assistance. But when she got an on-campus job, her TANF support was threatened.

MALAIKA SHAKIR, STUDENT: I was denied a lot of the opportunities that should have been given me because I was in school. At the time, I was on welfare and they did not want to allow my school credits to count as work even though I was paid a stipend.

SLIGH: She has a degree and is no longer getting government assistance. Now she wants to educate and motivate others.

The U.S. Census Bureau defines poverty by income and family size. For example, a family of four making less than $18,000 a year or a family of five with $20,000 both fall into poverty.

Supporters for poor people's rights say that low and inadequate wages are key reasons for poverty. That's because minimum wage is usually not enough for most families to survive.

KAVITH KULKARNI, YOUTH COUNCIL MEMBER: Those people that are making like 6, 7 bucks an hour, working 40 hours a week and having to work two jobs just to like pay -- feed their children and to pay for rent.

SLIGH: Advocates for the poor combat issues like welfare reform and access to better than minimum paying jobs which supporters call living wages.

KULKARNI: One of the campaigns that I'm working right now is the living wage campaign, which is, in Atlanta we're asking for $10.50 an hour plus benefits for city workers and any companies that get large grants from the city.

SLIGH: More than 60 cities and counties in the United States have implemented living wage ordinances. This requires employers to pay employees wages that are above the federal or state minimum levels.

(on camera): America has seen a significant increase in poverty and decrease in jobs. Advocates for the poor say what's needed is a system that works for them not against them. Elizabeth Sligh, CNN Student Bureau, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: The arrest of three Indonesians in Manila last week gives intelligence officials more evidence of al Qaeda operatives in Southeast Asia. Authorities are trying to crack down on al Qaeda and other organizations in that region. In line with those efforts, several countries have begun exchanging information on criminals and terrorists.

CNN's Maria Ressa has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: U.S. military personnel will be dropped off from a bus.

MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This surveillance videotape was found in what the U.S. military calls an al Qaeda safe house in Afghanistan, produced by members of the Jemaah Islamiya, or JI, a Singapore cell planning to bomb the U.S. Embassy and U.S. commercial and military targets in Singapore. Those plots have largely been foiled after the arrest of 13 JI members in Singapore. But it's only one cell of a much larger network.

ROBERT MUELLER, DIRECTOR, FBI: We know that JI has ties to al Qaeda. You know we know that JI has ties in other countries besides Singapore and including Malaysia and the -- and Indonesia.

RESSA: Singapore officials say the JI members there reported to a leadership base in Malaysia which has arrested nearly 50 suspected terrorists since last year. The Philippines, on a tip from Singapore, arrested this man in January, Indonesian Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, known to the Singapore cell as "Mike the Bomb Maker." And just last week, Philippine police arrested three more Indonesians at the international airport in Manila. Police here say the men were carrying C4 explosives and detonating cords.

ANGELO REYES, PHILIPPINE DEFENSE SECRETARY: Now what is most disturbing is that one of them -- so far, according to the tactical interrogation, been confirmed to be -- have links with the JI.

RESSA: Investigators here say another of the men arrested was fourth in command of the Indonesian Mujahideen Council. That group's head, Abu Bakar Bahashir (ph), is also the spiritual leader of JI, according to authorities in Singapore and Malaysia. Bahashir has been questioned by Indonesian police but continues to operate freely today. In fact, of the countries named with JI cells, only Indonesia has failed to arrest any suspected terrorists.

REYES: Different countries have different peculiar situations, realities, political realities, demographic realities that constrain their ability to respond to the terrorist threat. They have to calibrate their response, otherwise the cure might be worse than the disease. RESSA: Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population and is just emerging from years of political, social and economic turmoil.

(on camera): What officials here say they fear is that pressure for a more aggressive counterterrorist policy could destabilize Indonesia. Still, not all countries in the region are publicly as understanding. Singapore's former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew offered to give Indonesia intelligence information so it can begin to arrest suspected terrorists.

Maria Ressa, CNN, Manila.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: While no doubt you've heard about the pollutants that poison our planet, greenhouse gases, toxic waste, heavy metals, but have you heard about the damage light can do?

Andrew Brown reports on how bulbs could be blinding us to the wonders of the universe.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She fell in love with a herdsman and they were so happy together. And finally, they forgot about their work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a punishment, the court paints the princess on one side of the sky.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The herdsman on the other.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Between them lay a wicker (ph) of stars they could not cross.

ANDREW BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Astronomers in Hong Kong still celebrate "The Princess and the Herdsman," a Chinese fairytale based on two stars on opposite sides of the Milky Way. But to have any chance of actually observing these celestial bodies, they must travel to a remote village at dead of night and point their telescopes at the sky. They come here because 20 kilometers away in downtown Hong Kong astronomy is pretty much a lost cause.

YEUNG CHI HUNG, HONG KONG ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY: The lights are lighting up the sky and so we cannot see a lot of the stars.

BROWN: A sea of artificial light dims Hong Kong's view of the heavens. That's why astronomers are now lobbying to change the way buildings are lit. Often, the light source is at the base of a structure with a beam that points upward. Some experts say it should be the other way around.

H.F. CHAU, HONG KONG UNIVERSITY: You get to the high point and you illuminate like they're shining down to the building, down to the street.

BROWN: Time is running out. Astronomers say if nothing's done, Hong Kong's night sky will be starless within 10 years and remembered only through stories like "The Princess and the Herdsman."

CHAU: These stories will become just paper stories rather than something that you can really experience when you look in -- look at the summer sky.

BROWN (on camera): As for the princess and the herdsman, well they're still up there somewhere, separated from each other by the Milky Way and from us by the city lights.

(voice-over): Andrew Brown, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Cleveland, Ohio is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But not to be outdone, New York City has opened a new museum dealing with an even newer type of music, hip-hop. The Hip-Hop Hall of Fame has inducted its inaugural class.

Kyra Phillips introduces us to a music industry that's grown up fast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SLICK RICK, RAPPER: Feels great. It's an honor, you know. My family is all excited, et cetera, et cetera, you know, so it's a good feeling, you know.

JAM MASTER JAY, RUN DMC: What we did was we put our foot down for the games (ph) for real.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Emotion marks most awards ceremonies, but those who attended the first ever Hip-Hop Hall of Fame induction ceremonies were also filled with pride.

VATE POWELL, HIP-HOP CO-CHAIR: Hip-hop has matured to the level where it really deserves to be -- to be respected like every other music form. And so you know rock and roll has its hall of fame and Hip-Hop is going to have its.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yo man, this is for us, man. All the DJ (ph).

PHILLIPS: Winners were chosen by the fans on the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame Web site which was open to the public. Among the inductees, Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur, two of the most remarkable rappers of all time.

POWELL: I think that Tupac and Biggie were amazingly talented artists and really made their own personal statement on hip-hop. I think that we miss them, but I think that hip-hop is still strong.

PHILLIPS: The Hall of Fame ceremony was the highlight of the Hip-Hop Super Conference and Expo which brought out the pioneers and veterans of the culture, industry executives, artists and entrepreneurs all looking to learn more about the business.

COSTELLO, SHORT CUT ENTERTAINMENT: Me and my fellow business partners are here today to just meet with other young entrepreneurs and people that are involved in the hip-hop culture and just try to network.

PHILLIPS: Rap exploded on the music scene back in the late '70s and has changed American popular culture forever. Today, that billion-dollar industry continues to evolve, but some people worry about its effect on our youth.

MING, VOCALIST: Because we have to take it back to what it used to be about, because it used to be pure and it didn't used to be about violence and about materialism. I think we have to take it back for the children.

PHILLIPS: Whether it goes back there or not, we asked Jay from Run DMC, one of the most popular rap groups ever, how long will hip- hop last?

JAY: Hip-hop is going to be around as long as people are just breathing because it's -- you know hip-hop was here before me and it's going to go on forever.

PHILLIPS: Kyra Phillips, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

WALCOTT: You know yesterday we told you about Afghanistan's finances. The central bank is virtually starting over. Well the same also goes for the country's film industry. During Taliban rule, photography of any kind was banned and the Taliban burned thousands of films.

Michael Holmes brings us a story of some Afghans turning on the lights, repositioning the camera and calling for action.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A quiz show for Kabul's best and brightest students. Watching, a group of bad boys, smokers, gamblers, refusing to go to school.

BAHRAM BARIAL, FILM DIRECTOR: Sound, camera, action.

HOLMES: Well they're characters of bad boys. You see, this is all a movie set. These kids, actors playing out a story of redemption in Kabul.

BARIAL (through translator): It's educational to show our young people the right path. In the end, they're all good boys. HOLMES: Bahram is leading the revival of Afghanistan's film industry with a donated and old home video camera and no budget. Everyone here works for free. This film called "Shrisk (ph)," or "Tears" in English, will screen on Afghan television, a 45-minute drama that for Bahram is every bit as significant as a $200 million Hollywood blockbuster.

BARIAL (through translator): I feel I have woken from a long sleep. We didn't think we would ever have the chance to make another film. We feel reborn.

HOLMES: "Tears" is the first Afghan film to be made in six years. The industry devastated by the Taliban who banned all forms of photography, and no where is the destruction more apparent than at the offices of Afghan Film.

ABDUL BAQEE ZAZAI, (ph): They came and burned 5,000 films. They asked us for matches, and even though we were all smokers, we said we didn't have any, but then they burned it all anyway.

HOLMES (on camera): The Taliban destroyed much, if not most, of Afghanistan's film history, but they didn't get everything. Enterprising workers built this false wall. Behind it, a treasure- trove of film, all of it made in Afghanistan.

(voice-over): It was a case of uncommon valor. These are the men who saved those films, part of their country's heritage, keeping a secret with solidarity and bravery few of us could ever understand.

DUAD NAIMEI, HEAD OF AFGHAN FILM (through translator): If the Taliban had found those films, they would have burned them and thrown those men on the top of the fire.

HOLMES: They're trying to rebuild this place, doing so with virtually nothing. But like most Afghans, they have enormous optimism, determination to again make this place productive.

"Tears" is a start. Other films are in planning. For director Bahram, no clever camera angles, no special effects, just a new beginning.

Michael Holmes, ...

BAHRAM: Cut.

HOLMES: ... CNN, Kabul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Spring is here and soon the trees will sprout leaves, the flowers will bloom and you'll start to see a lot more insects. Insects are one of the most diverse groups in the animal kingdom. They seem to make life a nuisance for many.

But as we find out from our very own Michael McManus, they may be more important than you realize. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST (voice-over): They're in your lawn and under ball fields. They're in your house. They're even in the White House.

NATALIA VANDENBERG, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE: They're very adaptable, and we can find them in cold climates and we can find them in warm climates. And they're able to -- some of them can swim. They can burrow down deep. They can live in roots underground.

MCMANUS: They're everywhere. What are they, insects. Most people, though, call them bugs. To many, they're creepy, crawly pests, but not to Dr. David Furth. He's an entomologist. His job is to study and catalog new species of insects.

DR. DAVID FURTH, COLLECTION MANAGER, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE: It's a very difficult process. Basically you have to figure out what they are, give them some order and some rank. And with insects, it's particularly difficult because there's so many different kinds.

MCMANUS: You might not be able to live with them, but you certainly can't live without them. Insects are much more important than people realize. Some are nothing but a nuisance, but that's just a fraction. How about a world with no honey, no silk to make clothes, no pollination of flowers or fruit trees. You see many are needed to continue the natural ecological flow of life here on planet Earth.

GABRIELA CHAVARRIA (ph), RESEARCHER, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE: Insects alone participate in every single one of the ecosystem services that we, as humans, and as a planet Earth need. If it's aquatics, if it's terrestrial, in the air, insects are there.

MCMANUS: There are even insects on our skin. So insects certainly help humans out, but what about their behavior?

TED SHULTZ, ANT RESEARCHER, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE: There's very little that humans actually invented that ants or some other insect didn't -- hadn't already thought of millions of years before humans were around.

MCMANUS: Dr. Shultz chose to study ants because of the close similarities between human beings. Yes, humans.

SHULTZ: For instance, ants practice warfare. Colonies of ants can oppose one another and duke it out in battles that can last for days.

MCMANUS: On the other hand, certain ants also play peacemaker. Some will have shows of strength until one colony backs down from the other, saving both colonies from war.

Some behavior may mimic humans, but the skeletal makeup of an insect is different. Every single one is an arthropod, meaning their skeleton is on the outside of the body. An exoskeleton is probably one of the only things all insects have in common. FURTH: They're the most diverse organisms. And if you want to talk about biological diversity, beetles are the way to go.

MCMANUS: Dr. Furth's specialty is beetles, and he gives us an example of diversity within the same family.

FURTH: Like this one here which is flat, may not look beautiful, but if you know something about his biology, that it's a predator under the bark in Southeast Asia, it fits because it needs to be flat under bark.

MCMANUS: The other is a rhinoceros beetle. This one's huge, green in color and has a long sharp horn protruding from its head. Two completely different beetles, same species.

(on camera): If we're talking bugs, one of the meccas of research is right here in the nation's capital at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Come on, I can't wait to get inside.

One of the most popular exhibits inside the museum is the Insect Zoo. The zoo focuses on the evolution, history and the relationship insects have with plants, animals and humans.

(voice-over): The exhibit's popularity with tourists makes Nate Erwin very happy. He's the curator.

NATE ERWIN, INSECT ZOO CURATOR, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE: They were around long before the dinosaurs. We will continue to live with them. And I think what we'll do is continue to live with them in probably a more educated and understanding way. They're here to stay.

MCMANUS: If you can't make it to the bug zoo in Washington, then maybe the zoo will come to you. The Smithsonian O. Orkin Insect Safari is an arthropod expedition on wheels. This year the insect bus will visit more than 100 communities across the U.S. Its mission is twofold, education and appreciation.

MARTHA MAY, (ph): Most of them are good bugs. And that's in fact what we teach the kids. We teach them where to look for bugs, how to look for bugs, what they're going to find when they find the bugs and what the bugs are doing when they find them.

MCMANUS: Yes, bugs may be everywhere, but in many ways, we should be happy they are.

Michael McManus, CNN STUDENT NEWS.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Bugs on the show, more bugs on the Web at CNNstudentnews.com. You can test your insect intellect and try to name that bug. Click on the Web stream interviews to learn more about our loveable arthropods and get the 411 on how you and bugs interact. That's just the tip of the anthill. Go online to get it all.

Callous heroes emerged September 11. And since that day, there's been a renewed recognition of bravery among people with jobs which involve a certain amount of risk. The superhero of today doesn't necessarily wear a cape, but perhaps a fireproof coat or wings, pilot's wings that is.

Our CNN Student Bureau explains how a group of Kansas students are honoring their pilot heroes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEGAN CONNOR, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): This is a typical suburban fifth grade class. These cards the kids are making are not birthday cards or holiday cards but cards of encouragement.

AMANDA CONNOR, AGE 11: And those people (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in Washington, the firefighters and police officers, but what about the other 16 pilots that were involved in the September 11 attacks?

ANNA CROWN, AGE 11: I wanted to make the pilots feel that they were also the heroes of what has happened.

M. CONNOR: The fifth grade students had a personal connection as well, their teacher, Karen Gerhardt, was directly affected by the terrorist attacks.

KAREN GERHARDT; TEACHER: With family working for United, I knew how devastated they all were. My daughter, who works in flight operations at Dulles, I called her as soon as I heard about the 11th that day and everybody there was crying and upset, and that was even before the 93 had gone down.

M. CONNOR: United Airlines felt it was important to thank the students in person.

CAPTAIN DEBORAH TRANTER, UNITED AIRLINES: ... so much to everyone and it was very uplifting for the pilots.

Well my sister works here and they needed somebody to deliver the messages that were coming from the Washington Flight Office, and I thought I'd like to do that.

M. CONNOR (on camera): Captain Tranter's visit was very emotional. Her best friend, Jason Dahl, was the captain of Flight 93 that went down in Pennsylvania.

(voice-over): For future pilot Sam Kahn, this visit was extra special.

SAM KAHN, AGE 11: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) pilots. I think you are good to fly people around because everyone's life is in your hands. Not only you'll die but everyone else will too. So I want to be brave and be a pilot.

M. CONNOR: Megan Connor, CNN STUDENT Bureau, Overland Park, Kansas.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WALCOTT: That's it for today, but more tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye-bye.

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