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CNN Student News
Aired April 10, 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: Time for your daily dose of CNN STUDENT NEWS. Today's "Lead Story," the U.S. Secretary of State is on a diplomatic mission to the Middle East as the conflict continues.
SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: And so does the debate. Find out how that is being played out on U.S. college campuses.
MCMANUS: Later, learn about the relationship between makeup and mother Russia.
WALCOTT: And finally, we revisit a fateful chapter of World War II.
Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Shelley Walcott.
MCMANUS: And I'm Michael McManus.
Violence in the Middle East continues to hamper signs of diplomatic headway, even after Israeli forces pull out of the cities of Qalqilya and Tulkarm.
WALCOTT: During a visit to Egypt yesterday, Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed the Middle East crisis with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The leaders talked about ways to establish a cease- fire. Powell referred to a speech by President Bush saying both sides must further efforts toward peace.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: In his speech, he asked for the Israeli government to end its incursions, and to do it as soon as possible. He reiterated that call last Saturday and asked that it be done now.
I am pleased that in the last 24 hours the Israeli government has started to pull back from some of the cities that it had gone into. Although there are still a lot of movements taking place, and we have seen some rather fierce fighting in Jenin, and the situation is unsettled in a few of the other areas as you all know. Nevertheless, the president hopes that Prime Minister Sharon will end this operation quickly and start to remove the forces now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALCOTT: Powell will talk with leaders in Madrid today. He'll head to Israel later this week. He plans to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Israeli forces, meanwhile, say more than a dozen soldiers were killed in the Jenin refugee camp yesterday.
CNN's John Vause has this report on the tension in Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Midnight in Gaza. The streets are deserted. After a day of negotiations, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade agree to meet us. Our driver negotiates the sand barricades.
VAUSE (on camera): OK, go, go, go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Push. Push.
VAUSE (voice-over): They've been built by the Palestinians on city roads and side streets intended to slow the Israeli tanks. We're warned that many have been booby-trapped with explosives.
On the outskirts of the city we see them. A group of young men, they won't say how old. They've been in position for a week now, not far from the Israeli border, and it's here they expect to confront the tanks and troops.
Overhead the sound of an unmanned Israeli spy plane; it's been circling all night. At another checkpoint, more members of Al Aqsa identified by their white headbands. This is the group connected with Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization responsible for many suicide bombings. Armed with M-16s and Kalashnikovs, they are no match for a superior Israeli military, but they say they're willing to die fighting.
"We are ready to resist this attack," he told me. "As our president Yasser Arafat said, we used to be refugees, now we are fighters." But they also talk of surprises. The surprises are in this room. Five men and many more, we're told, willing to strap explosives to their bodies and throw themselves under the tanks and armored personnel carriers. More effective, they say, than a single land mine, because a bomb with legs can choose its target.
"We don't have the weapons, so our bodies will be in front of the tanks," he told me. "My body has no value. What do I want more than heaven? Heaven is waiting for me."
At night, the only people on the streets, gangs of young men. Some gather in spontaneous demonstration, chanting insults at the Arab League leaders for not doing enough to help.
In the past, the people of Gaza had put up fierce resistance; 1.2 million Palestinians in a small area, well organized militant groups. The tanks and heavy armor find it difficult to negotiate the narrow streets and alleys. Last month, the Israelis lost two tanks here. The first time that Palestinians struck such a blow.
There's so much tension here that even our arrival caused small panic within the ranks of the Palestinian security forces. And it quickly spread to the streets. "If CNN is here," they said, "surely the Israeli army must not be far behind."
Others believe there will be no fighting, because they say the Israeli forces are already stretched. And they hope a visit by Secretary of State Colin Powell may stall the Israeli advance. Nobody knows, but still everyone waits.
John Vause, CNN, Gaza City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: Briton's gave their beloved Queen Mother a funeral befitting her near legendary stature. World leaders and fellow royalty filled Westminster Abbey as throngs of people stood outside and lined the processional route to Windsor Castle. About one million people turned out to pay their respects. The Queen Mother laid to rest beside her husband, King George VI.
Christiane Amanpour has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the moment of final farewell to empire, as they paid their last respects to the woman who symbolized Britain's greatest age. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's life of public service spanned an entire century. And the best of British pomp and circumstance paid tribute.
A gun carriage bore her coffin, atop which lay the crown she wore for the coronation of her husband, King George VI, in 1937, as well as a wreath of white roses from her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II. Behind and on foot, the senior male members of the royal family, led by Prince Philip, her son-in-law, her grandsons, and in a break with tradition, her granddaughter, Princess Anne.
The queen led the rest of the royals inside Westminster Abbey, where prime ministers, politicians, foreign dignitaries and representatives of 25 foreign royal families made up more than 2,000 mourners. The funeral was marked by the Queen Mother's favorite hymns, Bible readings, and a eulogy to the very human, as well as the formal side, of a long and eventful life.
MOST REV. GEORGE CAREY, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY: The Queen Mother's strength as a person was expressed best through her remarkable dealings with people -- her ability to make all human encounters, however fleeting, feel both special and personal.
AMANPOUR: Outside, the public followed the service by loudspeaker. And when the funeral ended, the queen and her family escorted the coffin past the tomb of the unknown soldier, where the wreath of roses will be laid, echoing what her mother did in 1923, when she spontaneously placed her wedding bouquet on the tomb.
The public lined the route and some threw flowers, as the hearse carrying the Queen Mother's coffin wound slowly to her final resting place. A flyover by the battle of Britain vintage aircraft, a final tribute to the woman who had done so much to help rally and comfort the country during the darkest hours of World War II.
The Queen Mother is now buried in the historic Windsor Castle outside London, reunited half a century later in the family vault with her husband, King George.
(on camera): In 1900, when the Queen Mother was born, the British empire covered one-fifth of the earth's surface. And the hundreds of thousands of people who turned up to view her coffin lying in state and her funeral, were perhaps saying farewell as much to a proud history, as to a beloved national symbol. Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Westminster.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: The recent wave of violence in the Middle East has created a stir on school campuses in Israel and the United States. In Israel, parents and teachers face off over just how much security there should be on school grounds. And in the U.S., Palestinian and Jewish students on one college campus nearly come to blows over their differences.
We have two reports starting with Chris Burns in Israel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At this K through 12 school in Jerusalem, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict hangs like a dark cloud. Kids have one eye on the ball and the other watching out for the next attack.
DAPHNE BEVENISTY, STUDENT: There was once in our school this bag that I think the kid -- a kid forgot, and then the police came and all that stuff and we all got scared and ran into the school. But then it was nothing, and we are alerted.
BURNS: Teachers try to stay upbeat, but it's not easy. Those with gun licenses are encouraged to wear their weapons.
ELAINE ZAKEN, TEACHER: We were told to keep happy and to try and not make the children any more nervous than they are.
BURNS (on camera): But how do you do that? How do you try to do that?
ZAKEN: I do. We do.
BURNS: What do you tell them?
ZAKEN: We force ourselves to smile.
BURNS (voice-over): It's the first day of class after Passover. A week after the Palestinian uprising's bloodiest suicide attack that killed more than two dozen people in a hotel restaurant. Parents are increasingly fearful a school can be the next target.
(on camera): Bet Hakirim (ph) is one of the more fortunate schools. Parents here have agreed to pay for an extra guard, about $20 per student per year. But not all schools have that kind of funding, which nearly sparked a solidarity strike among parents groups.
(voice-over): Adding to the two school watchmen, authorities stationed a police guard in recent days to reassure the parents.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope it's enough, but I know it's not enough.
BURNS: Officials argue over how many more millions to spend amid a budget crunch.
GIDEON EZRA, DEP. MIN. PUBLIC SECURITY: When you put one man in a school and a suicide bomber comes in, he will go in. He will (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
BURNS (on camera): But at least you have some last line of defense, though, don't you?
EZRA: Yes. But I think that the chance that we'll catch the suicide bomber is more near the borders, or near the cities on the way to school.
BURNS: And is that enough to reassure parents not to strike?
EZRA: It's not enough, but when you have no choice and you have no people and you have no money, then you have to do what's good.
BURNS (voice-over): Meanwhile, a children's show warns kids to show a grownup about anything strange, like someone in a heavy coat on a warm day. A sign of these troubled times, children, teachers and parents are struggling to cope with. Trying to establish a sense of security that's as elusive as the peace that both sides in this conflict yearn for.
Chris Burns, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...Middle East here. There are Arab countries surrounding Israel...
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A preview of debates to come on this day, on campuses across the U.S. between Palestinian and Jewish students. SNEHAL SHINGAVI, STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE: ...exactly like the ghettos that were created in Poland and Germany in the 1930's and 1940's...
OREN LAZAR, ISRAELI ACTION COMMITTEE: ...try and draw an equivalence between the Holocaust and what's going on there. The Holocaust was a systemic extermination of a specific people. The Israeli government is in the occupied territories to defend its citizens against terrorism and defend its...
SHINGAVI: All Palestinians...
(CROSSTALK)
LAZAR: I never said that -- you are using those words.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ...all Israelis (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the soldiers?
DORNIN: Both Palestinian and Jewish students plan separate demonstrations at campuses nationwide Tuesday on a date both sides say belongs to them.
LAZAR: Every year, the Jewish students on campus have a memorial for the Holocaust where we read names, light candles, and that type of thing, and for this student group to pick that day to hold this protest is just offensive.
DORNIN: Palestinian students say it's in memory of the deaths of Palestinian villagers in 1948.
SHINGAVI: April 9 always is the commemoration of the Deir Yassin massacre, and again, I'd like to point out that it's another sort of misconception that we picked this date to sort of compete with them.
DORNIN: On a campus that has seen more conflict than most, there are worries that things will get out of hand.
ROBERT BERDAHL, CHANCELLOR, UC BERKELEY: Let me make clear that we will not tolerate any action that threatens the well being of anyone.
DORNIN: Both sides say they want a nonviolent protest.
(on camera): This is traditionally an area where a lot of people come through, debate a lot of issues. Are you getting a lot of people wanting through wanting to argue about this?
DEVORA LISS, ISRAELI ACTION COMMITTEE: Yes, people come by. A lot of people want to learn, a lot of people want to learn, a lot of people want to come pick a fight. We're here to educate people.
DORNIN (voice-over): Palestinian students also plan a sit-in to protest UC investments in companies doing business with Israel. SHINGAVI: Until Palestinians have the right to return to their homes and live in peace, that the University of California stop investing in these companies, just like it stopped investing in companies in the 80's that did business in South Africa.
DORNIN: UC Berkeley officials plan to have plenty of police on hand in case free speech sparks more than just that.
Rusty Dornin, CNN, Berkeley, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: Have you ever been to a circus? If you have, you know what a mixed bag of fun it can be, everything from lion tamers to clowns to tightrope walkers. For generations, the Russian Circus was one of the best in the world. But these days, Russian performers are trying to master the most challenging feat of all, survival.
Matthew Chance explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Treading the line between survival and cultural abyss, this, the training ground for the future of Russian circus. Once heavily sponsored in the Soviet Union, Moscow's State Circus College is now dilapidated and short of funds, but it's still the preserve of generations of skill and experience that once captivated a nation.
LUDMILLA SHEGULINA, TIGHTROPE INSTRUCTOR (through translator): The circus has always been for the masses not just for a selected few. When a spectator comes to watch, they leave energized, in a better mood. And it's not by accident the Russian circus has always been the best. Russians are themselves brave and happy people.
CHANCE: Students from across Russia enroll here, learning the circus arts from former Soviets masters. The old prestige of a job in the ring has vanished, but the college still attracts those drawn to the glamour of circus life.
NASTYA, STUDENT (through translator): My mother send me to circus school when I was 5. At first, I wasn't really interested, but when I starting going into the ring and seeing everyone's excitement I got hooked and enrolled here.
(LAUGHTER)
CHANCE: But these are the college elite, just a few with talent enough to train as clowns. Most won't make it, enduring the rigors of the clown course, the tutor told me, is no joke.
VLADISLAV SHPAX, CLOWN INSTRUCTOR (through translator): They say you can't be made a clown; you have to be born one. You have to have an intuitive feeling for illogical behavior and the ability to combine all the human aspects, be cunning, modest, silly, intelligent, and kind at exactly the right time. CHANCE: It's a delicate balancing act perfected here in the past. And the hope is the appeal of Russian circus will endure for years to come.
(on-camera): Like so many institutions that once thrived in the Soviet Union, the Russian circus has suffered greatly as a result of fall of Communism. Hall audiences have been taken away, seduced by television shows or video games. Still, but the instructors and the students at this circus college say they're now determined to fight back, and to make this declining Russian tradition popular again.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."
MCMANUS: The Caspian Sea, located between Europe and Asia, is the world's largest lake. Some of the world's biggest oil reserves underlay the Caspian, but that's not all it's known for. It also has important fisheries and the chief source of Beluga caviar. It's a delicacy to many, but some people want to halt its trade.
Gary Strieker explains why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From new research in the Caspian Sea, alarming evidence that sturgeon populations are crashing much faster than experts had expected. The most endangered is the giant Beluga sturgeon, estimated to have declined by more than 90 percent in the past 20 years.
The Caspian Sea is the source of most of the world's caviar, the sturgeon's unfertilized eggs, and the Beluga produces the most prized caviar, selling retail for more than $100 an ounce.
(on camera): A scientific survey carried out last year in the Caspian Sea shows mature Beluga sturgeon have virtually disappeared in most areas, a crippling stage in the slide to extinction.
(voice-over): All species of Caspian sturgeon are threatened by over fishing and reckless environmental destruction. In Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, there's uncontrolled plundering of sturgeon by poachers and criminal gangs.
Industrial and pesticide pollution have destroyed spawning grounds for sturgeon and contaminated vast areas of the sea, and new offshore oil and new offshore oil and gas discoveries will bring more drilling and more risk of pollution. Experts say the Beluga sturgeon situation is now critical, but not hopeless.
LISA SPEER, CAVIAR EXPERT: The good news is we can turn this situation around and rescue this fish from oblivion. But we need to act and act quickly. STRIEKER: Conservation organizations are calling for a halt to international trade in beluga caviar, and they've petitioned the U.S. government to ban its importation into the United States, by listing the beluga sturgeon under the Endangered Species Act.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: In our business report today, a little bit of Americana in the former Soviet Union. Life has been unpredictable in Russia since the fall of communism. Banks have failed, factories have closed and many people are out of work, but the country's financial crisis has led to new opportunities for some Russian women.
CNN's Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Two days a week, Olga Bogdanova sets out on a sales call. As usual, it's right in her own neighborhood in the city of Korolyov, about an hour north of Moscow.
She's brought along face creams and cleansers and Tatiana's (ph) favorite perfume: Journey by Mary Kay Cosmetics, the U.S.-based direct-sales company.
Olga started selling Mary Kay Cosmetics in 1996. She bought her first supply for $70. And soon she was making $500 or more a month, five times the average monthly salary, which she reinvested in her business. Russia's financial crisis of 1998 was a wake-up call.
OLGA BOGDANOVA, MARY KAY CONSULTANT (through translator): I know if the need arises, I can earn as much as I want. And that financial independence gives me a feeling of freedom in facing the future.
DOUGHERTY (on camera): All across Russia, in hundreds of cities, towns and villages, 30,000 women are working as Mary Kay beauty consultants, all of them learning the basics of business from the ground up.
(voice-over): This is Russia's top Mary Kay representative: Irina Lebedeva. Ten years ago, she was a chemical researcher.
IRINA LEBEDEVA, MARY KAY CONSULTANT (through translator): Of course, back then, perestroika was a very positive event for our country. But for individual Russians, it was tough. The government couldn't support the research anymore. I didn't know what to do.
DOUGHERTY: In her first four months selling Mary Kay cosmetics, Irina racked up $30,000 in sales.
LEBEDEVA (through translator): I see enormous possibilities for women here in Russia. I don't know of any other work that's better. It gives you a flexible schedule. There's no boss. You're independent. DOUGHERTY: And in Russia's sometimes unpredictable economy, having a second career is crucial. Just ask Mary Kay's executive director in Russia.
TAMARA SHOKAREVEA, MARY KAY CONSULTANT: Actually, in my previous -- you know that I was a research worker with -- yes, I worked for the Russian Academy of Sciences. Yes, I am a Ph.D.
DOUGHERTY: By the way, Irina did receive Mary Kay's traditional award for top saleswomen. But it's not a pink Cadillac. Here in Russia, it's a BMW.
Jill Dougherty, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: World War II was a battle that took thousands of lives before peace was reached. During that time, U.S. President Roosevelt needed help in the fight for freedom. His call was answered by many soldiers from the Philippines. This week marks the 60th anniversary of an infamous date in Filipino history, the Bataan Death March.
Our Student Bureau has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KENIA SPINOSA (ph), CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt drafted Filipino soldiers to fight for America and promised them full citizenship. It meant for them health benefits as veterans and a promise of a better life. Filipino veteran Dionisio Talle remembers preparing to go to war by going to Mass.
DIONISIO TALLE, WWII FILIPINO VETERAN (through translator): The soldiers were told to hear Mass that day. Our commander told us to prepare our cannons and bullets. We were finally at war.
SPINOSA: Those were dark days. The war went badly, and the Filipino and American soldiers in Bataan, Philippines surrendered to the Japanese troops. This began the long and treacherous march to the Japanese prison camps known today as the Bataan Death March.
TALLE (through translator): We walked 70 kilometers to the prison camps. The Japanese soldiers hit us with the batons each time we took some water. It was hard.
SPINOSA: Many soldiers died along the way. Many more died in the camps. For Filipino war survivors like Dionisio, their arduous march continues even today as Filipinos commemorate the Filipino soldiers who fought in Word War II. That's because most of those veterans have never received the full benefits they were promised by America.
ERIC LACHICA, AMERICAN COALITION FOR FILIPINO VETERANS: The Filipino World War II veteran were American soldiers during World War II. They were promised benefits by their inducting officer, by their commander-in-chief, by General MacArthur and of course, the president of the United States.
SPINOSA: Full veteran benefits that, until now, are being deprived to the bulk of the Filipino veterans, around 47,000 of them living in America and in the Philippines.
ABE ANGELES, SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF FILIPINO WWII VETERANS: When the Rescission Act of 1946 was passed, as I have learned, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) mark (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Filipino World War II veteran, he cannot have his benefits. They're not entitled to them.
SPINOSA: So despite their aging and weary bodies,...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are American citizens.
SPINOSA: ... they strongly march in the streets of America, chanting for the passage of a Senate and a House bill that would finally provide living, medical and burial expenses to these ailing veterans.
ANGELES: I'm praying that we can attain full equity for our World War II veterans. But according to our champions in the U.S. Senate and in Congress, you know, there are only certain things that can be done. They will get their benefits. The question is when?
SPINOSA: But time is crucial. According to the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, three Filipino veterans die each day in America. How much longer will these veterans have to wait before seeing the day when the benefits promised to them 60 years ago will finally be theirs?
Kenia Spinosa, CNN Student Bureau, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: That's it for today. We'll see you back here tomorrow.
MCMANUS: Bye-bye.
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