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CNN Student News

Aired March 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, CO-HOST: First up on this Friday's show, U.S. President Bush travels to Latin America. Later, we'll check out the stuff Oscar is made of. Plus, your peers weigh in with their Oscar picks. And test your wits guessing "Where in the World" we end up.

Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Michael McManus.

Truce efforts in the Middle East suffer yet another blow as a deadly attack in Jerusalem temporarily halts U.S. brokered cease-fire talks. We'll tell you where things stand later on in our "Week in Review."

Meanwhile, a car bombing near the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru won't stop President Bush from visiting that country over the weekend. Mr. Bush said Thursday he would not let terrorists interfere with U.S. efforts to promote friendship with other nations.

CNN's John King looks at why the president's three-nation Latin American visit is so important.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This trip offers a reminder of how much September 11 put the brakes on President Bush's plans for a heavy early emphasis on relations within the hemisphere. Immigration, trade and drug trafficking are among the list of difficult issues as Mr. Bush travels first to Mexico and then on to El Salvador and Peru.

ALLAN WAGNER, PERUVIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: President Bush's trip to South America is a very clear indication is that after that emergency situation now, President Bush has taken again his Latin American agenda.

KING: Incomplete is the best grade Mr. Bush could get for advancing the ambitious agenda he outlined early on when he made the symbolic gesture of picking Mexico for his first trip outside the United States as president. Sweeping immigration reform was one promise and Congress does appear on track to allow thousands of illegal immigrants to remain in the United States while applying for legal status. But it is far from the broad new guest worker program Mr. Bush wants.

MICHAEL SHIFTER, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE: I think realistically it's very hard to see that the momentum that was building before September 11 can be really sustained, at least in the short-term. I think there's more caution in the United States.

KING: Mr. Bush will promise regional leaders to reinvigorating his ambitious but now stalled trade agenda. A law granting Andean nations duty-free import status expired in December and is awaiting renewal in Congress. Also pending is legislation granting Mr. Bush broad powers to negotiate a hemisphere wide free trade deal to be modeled on the North American Free Trade Agreement already in place with Canada and Mexico.

The Peru stop will highlight not only the new administration of President Alejandro Toledo, but a troubling recent increase in coca production. And drug trafficking is a subplot to discussions about allowing Colombia to use U.S. military assistance meant for the war on drugs to combat a guerrilla insurgency.

SHIFTER: The presence should be in terms of support, in terms of aid and training. I don't see any justification or reason for U.S. troops. That would, of course, make Latin Americans very uneasy.

KING: White House aides acknowledge that regional leaders are frustrated that the president's lofty early promises have not been realized. They say Mr. Bush will make clear his ambitions are unchanged and ask for patience as he deals with a changed domestic political climate.

John King, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Since NAFTA, Mexico has replaced Japan as the U.S.'s second largest trading partner. Trade between the two neighbors has quadrupled in seven years. Even so, trade disputes persist and several are expected to be on the table when President Bush meets his Mexican counterpart Vicente Fox.

Casey Wian now with the story from Orange County, California.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Mexico Trade Center of California helps small Mexican businesses break into the U.S. market. One early success, this gift shop, selling the wears of indigenous Mexican craftsmen.

ALFREDO CRUZ, DIRECTOR, MEXICO TRADE CENTER: We wanted to bring the NAFTA agreement to these companies. A lot of these companies, they don't have the potential and especially we're talking about economics. They don't have the money to have a physical representation in the States.

WIAN: Opened just a year, the trade center has so far put together $8 million in deals and plans to double that this year. Overall, U.S. trade with Mexico has exploded since NAFTA, from $80 billion a year in 1994 to $250 billion last year.

REP. DAVID DREIER (R), CALIFORNIA: Breaking down trade barriers has been an extraordinarily positive thing, improving the relationship between the two countries and also improving the standard of living in both countries.

WIAN: Still, disputes continue to strain trade relations. One persistent sore spot, avocados. The United States has gradually eased restrictions on cheaper Mexican imports. But California growers say Mexican avocados are not subject to sufficient disease and pest controls and endanger their billion dollar a year industry.

MARK AFFLECK, PRESIDENT, CALIFORNIA AVOCADO COMMISSION: The idea behind NAFTA is one that we support. We've always supported the government on trade expansion. But on the other hand, it's lead to the danger that we face.

WIAN: So California growers are suing the U.S. government, seeking stricter controls on Mexican imports. Other problem areas include Mexican trucks which the U.S. is in the process of allowing onto more U.S. highways. Several Mexican trucking companies are suing the U.S. government for $4 billion claiming the U.S. is stalling.

Last month the United States filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over access to Mexico's telecommunication market and a dispute over Mexican soft drinks made with U.S. corn sweeteners was settled this month. But only temporarily.

(on camera): Bush Administration trade officials say the ongoing disputes are actually a direct result of the success of NAFTA: More trade between the United States and Mexico they say, means more opportunity for relatively minor disagreements. Casey Wian, CNN Financial News, Orange County, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Well for more than a dozen East Coast states the shortage of rain and snow has been the worst in years. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been urging citizens to conserve water and soon he's expected to declare a drought emergency. Now that triggers restrictions on water usage, and this even before the summer has begun.

Allan Dodds Frank now takes a look at this problem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN DODDS FRANK, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the Catskill Mountains of New York, barely a sprinkling of snow on the mountaintops. Along the forest floor, not a hint of snow. There is little runoff from melting snow or rain to fill the Ashokan Reservoir, one of New York City's main sources for the 1.1 billion gallons of water it uses daily. JOEL MIELE, COMMISSIONER, NYC DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: There is zero chance of our refilling our reservoirs by June 1 of this year, which is the measure of whether we're in a drought emergency or not.

FRANK (on camera): Why is a drought emergency almost a certainty? Normally where I'm standing would be under more than 20 feet of water. And this reservoir would have 120 billion gallons in it. Right now, it has fewer than 50 billion gallons.

(voice-over): The lack of precipitation is hurting more than a dozen Eastern states. And the drought is worse than last year when lack of water cost fruit growers and other farmers and nurseries more than $1.5 billion just in New York and New Jersey.

Some commercial operations, such as the Visy paper plant on Staten Island, could face 15-percent cutbacks on water usage. The company uses 1 million gallons of water a day as it converts recycled paper into brown paper for cardboard. The five-year-old plant produces more than 800 tons of paper daily. But to reduce water usage by 15 percent would require millions of dollars in new equipment and months to install.

DARYL WHITEHEAD, GENERAL MANAGER, VISY PAPER: We would be hoping to get some sort of dispensation from the city because if we stop taking water in from the city, that means we can't take the city's waste paper. Therefore, 160,000 tons of that would end up going to landfill. So that's a problem not only for us, but also for the city of New York.

FRANK: Rain along the East Coast this week will hardly alleviate the drought. New York City's reservoirs, for instance, need two good hurricanes, that's 10 inches of rain or more, to approach normal levels.

Allan Dodds Frank, CNN Financial News, Ashokan, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Well for film lovers and filmmakers alike, Sunday is the big night. That's when we find out who's going home with Oscar. Though the world's attention will be focused on Hollywood, the golden guy's roots lie elsewhere.

Jeff Flock has his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well you wonder where Oscar comes from, well it comes from Chicago. And more specifically, comes from this vat. This is molten britanium, which is the metal that the base of the Oscar is made from.

And I'll tell you, this gentlemen here, we're going to let -- he's going to let us interrupt him for a second. This is the mold. I don't know, Bill, if you can see that up close. That is the mold that Oscar is made from.

And you're in charge of pouring this in here, correct?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

FLOCK: All right. And he's got a lot of work to do. They are busy at work on the 2003 Oscars.

Scott Siegel is the man whose father founded R.S. Owens, the company that makes the Oscar.

It's got to be an honor for you.

SCOTT SIEGEL, PRESIDENT, R.S. OWENS: It's a great honor to manufacture the Oscars.

FLOCK: Yes. We want to show everybody the process, if we can. And, Bill, maybe you take a look at that molten britanium, and as I ask you, why do you use britanium?

SIEGEL: Well it's a -- it's the highest grade pewter available, and it's what's traditionally been used to manufacture the Oscars.

FLOCK: OK, so the -- comes out of the mold and then what? It's kind of rough coming out of that mold, correct?

SIEGEL: Yes, very rough. It has to go through a tremendous amount of polishing.

FLOCK: So these guys are in charge of the -- of the polishing operation. And has this one -- has this one been polished here -- this one that I'm looking at here?

SIEGEL: This is one that's been completely polished. All the flaws have been removed. It has a mirror finish.

FLOCK: OK. But that's not the same color that the final Oscar is, correct?

SIEGEL: No, it has to go through several layers of plating before it's finished.

FLOCK: OK. Maybe, Rick, go ahead and show them a little bit more of the buffing as we take a walk into the plating area there. Oh yes, we don't want to drop that one because -- some people do drop them, by the way. What do -- they send them back to you? What do they do?

SIEGEL: They do. They return them to the Academy and the Academy sends them back to us for refinishing.

FLOCK: And what -- so what can you do? How do you repair somebody's Oscar?

SIEGEL: We find ways. Whatever it takes.

FLOCK: OK. Talking about the plating, these are the various vats, I think, that you put these in. Is that correct, Scott?

SIEGEL: That's correct.

FLOCK: And what are the various metals that get put on there?

SIEGEL: First it gets copper plated and then nickel plated and then silver and last, a heavy layer of 24 carat gold.

FLOCK: Got you. And we see, obviously, other high-end trophies and things being made here as well.

And as I said, we pointed out earlier, you're already working for 2003 because you like to stay ahead of the game.

SIEGEL: That's correct. Since they were stolen several years ago, they want to have extra in supply.

FLOCK: Now I want to get to the final spot and that is where Sarah (ph), who I'm told has been doing this for 38 years, has been assembling Oscars, correct?

SARAH, R.S. OWENS: Yes.

FLOCK: What is it like for you to watch on Oscar night somebody getting in their hands the same Oscar you've had in your hands?

SARAH: Well when somebody get it, I get excited and I say oh I made that. I made something good, you know, to make somebody happy and not too -- I'm proud of myself to do it.

FLOCK: I bet you are. We're going to let you keep making them. Go ahead, Sarah, and put that one together because some day that one that you're assembling right here now could be in the hands of who knows, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, I don't -- you got a favorite?

SARAH: Yes, I like the movie.

FLOCK: What movie is that?

SARAH: "A Beautiful Mind."

FLOCK: Oh, OK, well a vote for "A Beautiful Mind." All right. Good deal.

Sarah, we appreciate it.

Scott Siegel, thank you so much for your time.

That is the latest. That's where Oscar comes from, if you ever wanted to know, right here in Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

More on the Oscars coming up in "Student Bureau Report."

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

MCMANUS: Earlier we told you about the drought situation in the U.S. Now we move on to Afghanistan where farmers have been dealing with the problem for three straight years. Before they can even think about tilling the soil, they need precipitation. Fortunately, over the past few weeks snow has been falling. And where there is snow, there will eventually be melting snow, which could make all the difference as Michael Holmes explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The scenery, breathtaking. The land, potentially bountiful. The crops, nonexistent.

GHULAM MOHAMMED, AFGHANI FARMER (ph) (through translator): We sold our cows, goat and sheep and spend the money to eat.

HOLMES: Ghulam Mohammed has been farming his two acres of Pashayee for 12 years, remembers the days of good harvest. Now years of drought and five years of the Taliban have left him with a meager potato crop and little else.

MOHAMMED (through translator): The Taliban imprisoned me for two years, and my son couldn't work the farm because he had to escape from the Taliban.

HOLMES: Just getting to Ghulam's farm is an adventure, a drive that jarred out bones, then ponies jarring other things. Much of Afghanistan's agriculture is in out-of-the-way places like this. When you arrive, you enter a place of beauty and precious little water.

Melting snow is crucial to these farmers. It is the source of the water that will eventually irrigate these lands. And it's the same all over Afghanistan. The agriculture system has crumbled. It's hard to plant a crop when you don't even have seed.

ALINA LABRADA, CARE WORKER: Because of the drought and the war that has ravished the country for so many years, there isn't an industry purse. At one time, yes, there was enough trade and enough farming here that people managed to make quite a good living. That's not the case right now.

HOLMES: These men are trading hard labor for an irrigation system from CARE, a system that will channel what water does come from the springs and the mountains into thirsty fields.

MOHAMMED (through translator): I am optimistic now. Our life has changed 100 percent from the Taliban days. This irrigation is extremely impertinent for us. Without aid, we could not cultivate our land, now we can.

HOLMES: There are high hopes and a long road ahead for Afghanistan's agriculture system. Elsewhere in the country, farmers have to be persuaded not to grow opium poppies, which eventually become heroin, and return to food crops. And in places like Ghulam's farm, they need infrastructure like this.

Michael Holmes, CNN, Pashayee, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Pat Beard from Rochelle, Illinois asks: "What started the conflict between Israel and Palestine and what are they fighting over?"

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In a way, an impossible question to answer. Why, because it means going back to the very beginning, or at least to the beginning of recorded history in this region and especially to how that recorded history is perceived. Going back to the Bible, to the people who lived in this land called the Holy Land or who might have lived in this land and their links to the people living here today.

It calls for a judgment between two peoples asserting, on the one hand, their right to the land, and on the other, their acknowledgment or their denial of the other side's right to the land. Any (ph) attempt to provide a durable peace to end the conflict would come from recognition that there are two rightful claims and how these conflicting claims ought to be reconciled.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: A suicide bombing in the heart of Jerusalem at least temporarily hampers delicate efforts to forge a truce. Yesterday's bombing killed several Israelis and injured dozens of others. It also halted a U.S.-backed security meeting between Israelis and Palestinians just hours before it was set to begin.

The bombing happened on a busy shopping street in downtown Jerusalem in an area that's been the scene of several previous suicide bombings. A military wing of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement is claiming responsibility for the attack. Arafat condemned the bomber's actions, but Israeli leaders say they still hold him personally responsible.

The latest violence comes in the midst of stepped-up efforts by the U.S. to help Israelis and Palestinians both work toward peace.

Our Joel Hochmuth has more in our "Week in Review."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOEL HOCHMUTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The most recent violence in the Mid East comes on the heels of a flurry of diplomacy there led by the United States. This week, Vice President Dick Cheney and Mid East envoy Anthony Zinni held separate, high level negotiations that at least gave hope both sides could talk their way out of the ongoing crisis. As late as Tuesday, both Israeli and Palestinian officials were optimistic that despite some remaining disagreements a cease-fire was at hand. DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is our hope that the current violence and terrorism will be replaced by reconciliation and the rebuilding of mutual trust.

HOCHMUTH: That the United States is taking an active role in negotiations comes as a change in policy. Up until the missions by Cheney and Zinni, the Bush administration seemed largely content to stay out of the mix and let both sides work things out on their own. Cheney left Israel Tuesday saying he was prepared to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat if Arafat would take steps to curb terrorist attacks and to impose a cease-fire. For months, the Bush administration wouldn't even consider the possibility of such a meeting and blamed Arafat for much of the violence in the region.

TOM ROSE, "JERUSALEM POST": After eight months, I think the vice president realizes and the administration realizes that this government -- the Israeli government doesn't really have a plan, so that their re-engagement of Yasser Arafat becomes really the only American option since we here in Israel haven't given the Americans or even the Palestinians an alternative.

HOCHMUTH: The change in policy came after a particularly bloody two weeks in the 18-month uprising or intifada by Palestinians against Israeli rule. The death toll on both sides has now passed 1,500, more than the first uprising from 1987 to 1993. With both sides on the brink of all-out war, the U.S. could no longer afford to stand by and do nothing, but some analysts say there's more to it than that.

PROFESSOR DONALD SYLVAN, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: We have the U.S. in this battle against terrorism and trying to form coalitions against Iraq. All of those are at least as substantial factors that the violence itself is. So it's a little bit too simplistic I think to say that the violence alone has brought us to this stage.

HOCHMUTH: Initially Cheney's trip through the region was designed to drum up support among Arab nations for possible U.S. military action against Iraq in the ongoing fight against terrorism. Instead, Cheney got an earful from Arab leaders who are insisting the U.S. first do something about the violence between Palestinians and Israelis. They're afraid that their people would be in an uproar if the U.S. attacked Iraq while violence against Palestinians goes on. So it may be that the United States has more than just humanitarian reasons to help lead both Israelis and Palestinians to a peaceful solution, it has its own diplomatic reasons as well. Now comes the waiting game to see whether Thursday's violence will derail long-term prospects for peace.

Joel Hochmuth, CNN STUDENT NEWS.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Well it's going to be an Academy Award winning weekend in Hollywood. Some of the most celebrated actors on the silver screen are vying for the gold. And since young people are traditionally some of the biggest moviegoers, our CNN Student Bureau has the top teen picks. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LORI AUFDEMORTE, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): He's got the hardest body in Hollywood and he is an icon to all in the film industry. No, not Russell Crowe, this Hollywood hottie stands just over 13 inches and weighs a little over 8 pounds. His name is Oscar, and he likes to keep people in suspense. The question across the nation and the buzz among young people is, who will take Oscar home for best motion picture of the year?

Younger generations say they favor movies like "Shrek."

GREG KWOK, AGE 20 (ph): I think that "Shrek" should have been nominated as best picture, but I think that they actually created the animation category so that it wouldn't have to be a nomination for best picture. I think that it should have been because it would have been very interesting to have an animated film as -- nominated as best picture.

AUFDEMORTE: You know "Shrek" won't walk away with best picture, but who will be Oscar's latest love?

BINNY DHILLON (ph), AGE 18 (ph): I think "A Beautiful Mind." And personally, I believe "A Beautiful Mind" should win because Russell Crowe is just awesome in the movie, and I think it was really well done, really nicely laid out and the plot was beautiful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Princeton. Who among you will be the next Einstein?

AUFDEMORTE: The best picture nominees include "A Beautiful Mind" with Russell Crowe who is also up for best actor.

GREG ABREU: I'd like to see "Lord of the Rings" win motion picture of the year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Run (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

AUFDEMORTE: "Lord of the Rings" has attracted numerous nominations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is evil there.

ABREU: It's just a great movie, I mean as far as like the scenes, how much they worked on it, the characters, the story. I just liked everything about it.

CHRISTINA MORONES (ph) AGE 19 (ph): "Moulin Rouge" by far.

AUFDEMORTE: The musical "Moulin Rouge" offered a versatile role for Nicole Kidman giving her a best actress nomination. MORONES: You've never seen a movie like this. It's been so creative and so different in terms of the other -- the other movies, and it just seems like it kind of gets back to what a movie should be.

DHILLON: Nonrealistic, the movie, compared to what I saw at the show (ph) and the culture of France is the (ph) culture and the dance culture is in "Moulin Rouge." I think they kind of in some ways stereotyped it, in some ways over exaggerated it.

AUFDEMORTE (on camera): As you can see, the Academy has a difficult audience to please. With so many different opinions from the young to Hollywood's elite, it's hard to know how the Academy ever decides, but decide they must.

(voice-over): Robert Osborne, the Academy's official biographer, is an expert on the Academy's past 70 years of decision making. He says when it comes to the vote, talk isn't cheap in this town.

ROBERT OSBORNE, FILM CRITIC: I think the one that will probably win is "A Beautiful Mind." It seems to have the biggest buzz about it in Hollywood and that's where you have to have the buzz going. It doesn't really matter what I feel in New York or what people in Chicago or in Wichita or wherever feel about a movie, it's what the people within the industry that have the vote feel.

MORONES: Kind of wish that maybe there would be a way to at least kind of glean percentages and maybe look at that as a factor, not fully take our opinion, but maybe see what the public wants because movies are made for audiences so I think our votes are important.

AUFDEMORTE: Since there is no Oscar election day, does this mean the Academy is out of touch with the American people? Overly protective is a better description. The Academy has Oscar's reputation to protect.

OSBORNE: It has to be something that the whole industry is very proud of, something that represents the industry. And also Academy voters like something that has as shelf life. They like to vote for things that are not too cutting edge or too just of today.

AUFDEMORTE: The Academy will unveil the winners March 24.

Lori Aufdemorte, CNN STUDENT NEWS, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: The Academy Awards go to more than just the creators and actors of motion pictures. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a separate awards ceremony devoted to the technical wizards, the engineers I guess you could say, who invent new devices and techniques that bring excitement to the silver screen. Next Thursday, we'll take you behind the scenes to show you the secrets behind the magic.

Meanwhile, we want you to use the magic of cyberspace but to put something in our mailbag. E-mail your questions, comments and suggestions to CNN STUDENT NEWS at CNN.com. Starting April 1, we'll periodically read your mail on the show. And we can't get to every letter, but we'll certainly do the best we can and we definitely want to hear from you.

So there goes another week. I will definitely see you back here on Monday. Have a great weekend.

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