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CNN STUDENT NEWS For May 1, 2002

Aired May 01, 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: Politics tops the chart on today's CNN STUDENT NEWS. Voters in Pakistan head to the polls. Details in our "Lead Story."

SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: Business is next on the agenda as we focus on life after Napster.

MCMANUS: Technology is still on tap in our "Student Bureau Report." Find out what one group is doing to lessen the digital divide.

WALCOTT: And finally, we take you on a trip around the world. Can you guess our destination?

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

MCMANUS: And I'm Michael McManus.

Voters in Pakistan have spoken and it appears President Pervez Musharraf will stay in power another five years.

WALCOTT: General Musharraf called for yesterday's referendum to extend his term rather than face a court mandated election. About 70 million Pakistanis are eligible to vote, but yesterday's estimates show that less than a third went to the polls. Critics of the Pakistani leader called for a boycott of the referendum saying it's unconstitutional. Political analysts say the majority opinion seems to support Musharraf.

But as CNN's Mike Chinoy reports, that doesn't guarantee a huge popular mandate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was less an election than a celebration of Pervez Musharraf's political ambitions. Amid music and fanfare, millions of Pakistanis went to the polls answering the president's request for five more years in office.

RASHID QUREISHI, PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESMAN: At the moment, I do not think that there is anyone in Pakistan who commands the hearts and minds (INAUDIBLE) as President Musharraf today.

CHINOY: Among many Pakistanis, Musharraf is genuinely popular.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because of his policies for our country, because of his stand in Afghanistan, we stand with -- behind him.

CHINOY (on camera): Did anybody here vote against President Musharraf?

(voice-over): The president is counting on such sentiments to secure the mandate he's asked for.

(on camera): But perhaps reflecting the mindset of an unelected general who's never faced the voters before, Musharraf's regime has spared no effort or expense to ensure a vast outpouring of support.

(voice-over): Local governments throughout the country have commandeered cars, buses and trucks to bring voters to over 160,000 polling stations. That's twice as many as in any previous election. Balloting procedures and identification requirements have been relaxed too, dramatically. In some polling stations we visited, they appeared to have been ignored all together. Here I found few voters asked to provide any ID and almost none with their fingers marked in indelible ink as the rules require to prevent repeat voting.

(on camera): I have seen some voters who didn't show their ID and also didn't get their finger marked with ink to show that they're -- they had voted here.

MOBEEN SHAZIB (ph): Maybe there are somewhere one or two person, but the thing is we are strictly complying with the sanctions (ph) of election commission (ph) of Pakistan.

CHINOY (voice-over): As his supporters cast their ballots, Musharraf's critics stayed away. Most of Pakistan's main political parties and several key civic and religious organizations boycotted the vote, calling it undemocratic.

PODIA TABIB (ph): The people don't want a military -- continuation of a military dictatorship. We feel that this will be a continuation of a military dictatorship rule.

CHINOY: There's little doubt Musharraf got the vast majority of votes cast in this referendum. Given the controversy though, it's less clear that will provide the president with the authentic mandate he so desires.

Mike Chinoy, Islamabad, Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Now to another election that's stirring controversy, the French presidential election. Incumbent President Jacques Chirac and extreme right presidential contender Jean-Marie Le Pen will face off in this Sunday's runoff. Le Pen's success in the first round of election sent a shock wave across the country and it's united many people in protest. Hundreds of thousands of people, including some of President Chirac's opponents, have taken to the streets. The media is one of the few outlets trying to remain neutral in the election.

Jim Bittermann explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Things started to change for Jean-Marie Le Pen the moment the election results came in. Suddenly, people had to take the extreme right candidate more seriously, especially TV people. Because in an effort to keep French elections egalitarian, television networks here have long been required to give exactly the same amount of airtime to each candidate in the campaign. That means now the ultranationalist must get equal coverage with the president Jacques Chirac. And supporters of Le Pen must get as much airtime as supporters of Chirac. It is time that is tracked right down to the second for all the candidates, and it's available for all to see on the Web site maintained by the government television regulators.

The election has been a change for journalists and editors, many of whom believed the best way to handle someone like Le Pen was to ignore him.

EMMANUEL OSTIAN, (ph) NEWS: For years television didn't cover him so he disappeared from the screens for 10 years. But during a campaign you have to broadcast any candidate and so television had to broadcast and we have to broadcast him now.

BITTERMANN: And so Le Pen is getting more concentrated media exposure than he has at any time in his political life. Some believe it will give the extreme right political acceptability. Some, but not all.

PATRICK SABATIER, LULRADON (ph) NEWSPAPER: When you deal with Dracula, with a vampire, they fear light. So if you expose them -- the more you expose them, the more you say what they are really like, the best chances you have that rationality will prevail.

BITTERMANN: Perhaps, but as the media dissects Le Pen's ideas and puts his program on an equal footing with that of President Chirac, there is growing apprehension the rough former paratrooper is gaining converse.

DAVID PUJADAS (ph), FRANCE (ph) ANCHORMAN: I think really this is the lesson we can have. When we speak a lot (ph) about him, he's going up. When we don't speak about him, he's going up also.

BITTERMANN (on camera): In fact, while there are still those who continue to blame the media for Le Pen's rise, others here have come to realize that it's not the media but his message, a message which the first round of the election seems to indicate comes closer to the concerns of the average voter than the message that comes from much of the French political establishment.

Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris. (END VIDEOTAPE)

"Politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians." (ph)

MCMANUS: If you're young, on a computer and connect to the Internet, then you're familiar with Napster. That's the online music download service. It used to be free, but it was turned into a pay service after being sued by the music industry. That hasn't stopped Napster's descendants, which are proving to be a pretty big challenge.

Richard Quest has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Music for nothing, your tunes for free. If the recording industry had hoped shutting down Napster would put an end to downloading of copyright music, they were wrong. Piracy, according to the industry, is still going on and is growing.

There's a new breed of Napsters called peer-to-peer. It's one of the factors that's costing the industry millions. Sales were down 5 percent last year and that loss is likely to grow.

JOLLYON BENN (ph), INTERNET INTERNATIONAL (ph): Each one of these peer-to-peer programs has got, you know, in excess of a million people using it at any time. And I think that that's why it's a bigger problem now for not just the music industry but all (UNINTELLIGIBLE) property owners than it was, you know, when Napster was around.

QUEST: What's making this a great deal worse is that today using these new Napster wannabe sites is becoming easier and easier. You don't have to be a computer geek to squeeze music out of the Web.

(on camera): Napster may be all but dead, but there are still plenty of opportunities for downloading music from the Web absolutely free. One of the newest kids on the block is Morpheus. Let's put it to the test. How long is it going to take me to find, download and then listen to Kylie?

First, the search.

STEVE GRIFFIN, MORPHEUS: As we move forward, it will become ubiquitous like the telephone. And there'll be someone sitting before this camera 20 years from now and they'll say remember that streamcast company, they were doing peer-to-peer, it's now as ubiquitous as the telephone. It was the greatest thing for the entertainment and media companies, but they didn't like it either. And so we look forward to that.

QUEST (voice-over): Back at my computer, the downloading's begun. The record companies aren't giving up though. Having taken out Napster, they intend to try to attack these latest upstarts to destroy whatever (AUDIO GAP). JAY BERMAN, CHAIRMAN (ph): (AUDIO GAP) legally we've been able to deal with those problems and we will continue to do. We've been very successful in forcing (AUDIO GAP). We're going to do that. We're not going to rest.

QUEST (on camera): It's taken six minutes to find, download and now begin playing Kylie. Sitting at home, that seemed like an eternity, but the fact is we are now playing one of the leading pieces of music without paying a penny.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

QUEST (voice-over): No wonder the industry is doing what it can to stop this violation. Of course, because it's so easy, it'll probably mean they'll fail.

Richard Quest, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: From surfing the Net to playing the Cube -- Game Cube that is -- or is it an XBox you prefer? Either way, if you spend time each day playing video games, then you're going to like a new cable network that might just be coming your way. The channel is dedicated to gaming, and they think it'll be worth it to watch.

Danny Sieberg takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Getting video game players off their computers is no easy task, but a new television network is hoping to do just that. G4, an all video game TV network, plans to capitalize on the country's fascination with gaming.

CHARLES HIRSCHHORN, CEO, THE 3DO COMPANY: It's the fastest growing entertainment form any way you look at it. So it's sort of our unique opportunity to present a channel to an industry we think deserves a channel.

SIEBERG: G4 will feature original programming ranging from weekly series and specials to gaming tips, news, events and reviews of the latest games.

RONNIE LEWIS, HOST, "SWEAT": Hey, what's up? I'm Ronnie Lewis, and this is "Sweat," the sports gaming show that no jockstrap can handle.

SIEBERG: But some say handling a noninteractive video game experience could be difficult for most gamers.

RYAN MACDONALD, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, GAMESPOT.COM: You know people overwhelmingly want to, you know, get to what they want to get to compared to the number that want to sit back and just watch.

SIEBERG (on camera): With 145 million Americans spending more than $9 billion on video games last year, can G4 convince gamers to put down their controllers and pick up their remote?

HIRSCHHORN: But I think anyone who is passionate about their hobby and interest would like to watch a channel about it on TV.

SIEBERG (voice-over): But TV analysts say there's no guarantee that G4 will survive in an already crowded medium, and the channel will have to compete with the Internet and magazines where gamers currently get most of the information they need.

MACDONALD: I think the Net has had such a commanding lead over all of the mediums you know it's going to be -- it's going to be interesting to see what happens.

SIEBERG: G4's target audience is kids and young adults, so how will it cover video games that are too violent for such an audience?

HIRSCHHORN: That segment of the video game business we're going to segregate to later times at night.

SIEBERG: At first G4 will be available only for Comcast Cable subscribers, but the network is talking to other cable providers so that their viewers, too, can get game.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm game.

SIEBERG: Daniel Sieberg, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: You've probably seen the Chick-Fil-A cows on billboards and commercials. Chick-Fil-A, for those of you that don't know, is a fast food restaurant, and this company's successful marketing campaign doesn't end there. The bovine beauties have their own calendar.

Keith Oppenheim tells us what it takes to get cows to smile for the camera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another day at the office for Princess, the cow, and her Holstein colleagues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you push her foot towards me a little bit?

OPPENHEIM: You might say they all responded to a cattle call to pose for the 2003 Chick-Fil-A cow calendar. The calendar's an offshoot of the southern fast food company's billboard and TV campaign where the pitchmen for chicken consumption are cows, who, though weak on spelling, are strong advocates for their very lives.

MARK BALDWIN, CHICK-FIL-A: You know this is their campaign. They've come to Chick-Fil-A, said hey, let us help you. We can get people in your store and they can save -- we can save our own hides.

OPPENHEIM: To make it happen, the cows mosey into this Chicago studio where photographer Steve Grubman coaxes his subjects into position.

STEVE GRUBMAN, PHOTOGRAPHER: It sounds like a jigsaw puzzle, able to come up with a bunch of pieces that all fit together kind of seamlessly.

OPPENHEIM: The photographic pieces are later used by graphic artists to generate the final image. This year's theme, TV shows with spoofs like "The Comedy Hour" or a soap called "All my Calves." The cows, you should know, get star treatment like their own trailer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, she's like no way. Come on.

OPPENHEIM: And realize this cow for chicken campaign has boosted Chick-Fil-A's sales some 120 percent over the past seven years and that, you could say, is worth getting excited about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's wipe the slobber from her mouth.

OPPENHEIM: Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

MCMANUS: It has been called the heart of the financial world, the crossroads of America, the center of the universe. All eyes have been trained on New York City since the September 11 attacks, and the city is receiving some extra special attention from Washington. But it's been in the political spotlight for much longer as Garrick Utley explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was moving.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can hear you.

UTLEY: It was memorable.

BUSH: Thank you, brother (ph).

UTLEY: In the intimacy of tragedy, a president and a city bonded.

(on camera): Which doesn't happen very often. New Yorkers don't see a presidential visit as some welcomed special event but rather as a big pain and traffic jam. For their part, presidents have long felt that one way to play to the American heartland is by not getting too close to the Sodom and Gomorrah of Manhattan. But just think what might have been?

(voice-over): After all, New York City, population 30,000, was the nation's first capital with the nation's first president. But New York, D.C. didn't sound quite right to the founding fathers. When the capital headed south, New Yorkers didn't mind. The old federal hall was on Wall Street where the locals believed that real power was in making money, not governing. Who needed the president?

Well New Yorkers would. As the World Trade Center was going up, a symbol of New York's financial power, the city was heading for bankruptcy. In 1975, it turned to Washington to President Gerald Ford for help. The president was not in the giving mood.

(on camera): All right, New Yorkers said, we may not be the most loveable citizens in the republic or the most deserving, they certainly are not the most Republican. The last Republican presidential candidate to win the New York City vote was Richard Nixon in his 1972 landslide. And before that, it was Calvin Coolidge.

(voice-over): In fact, in the 2000 race, Al Gore had New York City so deep in his pocket that George W. Bush ignored it. Democrats feel comfortable here as a base for a former president and a launching pad, perhaps, for a future one.

But then came that day in September and politicians and partisans called timeout.

BUSH: This morning I am sending to Congress a request for emergency funding authority.

UTLEY: The president promised $20 billion in aid to rebuild New York City, but the city's leaders worry that the promise will be ground down by the pressures of budget deficits.

Still today this president and this city are getting along just fine. Fifteen months ago, Bush won only 17 percent of the presidential vote in the city. His approval rating among registered voters here now stands at 68 percent. New York City is no longer a place to run against or run away from.

Garrick Utley, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

May 1, 1931, the Empire State Building officially opens.

WALCOTT: Some sad news out of the business world, the woman credited with creating the world's most popular doll has died. Ruth Handler passed away in California Saturday, complications of colon cancer. A cofounder of the Mattel toy company, her biggest claim to fame is Barbie.

Lisa Morando (ph) has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA MORANDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a face known around the world, Barbie, that impossibly well endowed doll with cool friends and even cooler clothes, the doll that has helped shape girls' dreams for decades.

Barbie debuted at the American Toy Fair in 1959 at a time when the typical girls' doll was a baby. Ruth Handler named her creation for her own daughter, Barbara, who she noticed liked to play with paper dolls of teenagers and career women. Barbie personified Handler's innate believe that little girls wanted a doll they could aspire to be like, not aspire to look after.

Three hundred fifty thousand Barbies were sold in that first year. More than 40 years later, the vast Barbie empire is worth an estimated $2 billion a year to the Mattel toy company. More than one billion dolls have been sold in 150 countries around the world. Based on those figures, the Barbie product line is the most successful in the history of the toy business.

RUTH HANDLER, BARBIE CREATOR: I did not think this doll could ever be this huge. I thought it -- I thought the Barbie doll would always be successful. I thought it would be a great success. It's the degree of success and the length of time that is amazing.

MORANDO: Barbie started out as a blond haired, blue-eyed model with an hourglass figure that many criticized as unrealistic. If she was human, her measurements in centimeters would have been equivalent to about 99, 46, 84. Feminists also argued that Barbie reinforced sexism by representing a young woman with questionable intelligence. Despite the criticisms, Handler's creation prevailed in the minds and imaginations of young girls.

Barbie now comes in a variety of different versions and ethnicities (ph). And perhaps more importantly, the beloved American icon has had many fascinating careers. She's been a doctor, veterinarian, astronaut, professional athlete, police officer, businesswoman, and in 1992 she was even the U.S. president.

HANDLER: I think hopefully she'll go on forever reflecting society as it changes forever.

MORANDO: Ruth Handler was 85.

Lisa Morando, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: OK, we're about a month into the baseball season now and what a great season it's been. If you were watching this past weekend, Red Sox pitcher Derek Lowe threw a no-hitter at the park I went to growing up, Fenway. Though we're enjoying the game of baseball, there are some serious underlying problems with the sport.

Fellow baseball fan John Zarrella pitches the story right over the plate in today's "Business Report."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Montreal Expos are an endangered species. By next season there's a very good chance they will be extinct, contracted out of existence.

SCOTT STRICKLAND, EXPOS PITCHER: It's a bad situation and you've got to make the most of it. And you know, what are you going to do, cry about it?

ZARRELLA: In this case, the bottom line, not the chalk line, is what counts, and the Expos are baseball's bleakest franchise. So Major League Baseball, complaining of a balance sheet in the red, plans to toss Montreal and at least one other financially poor performing club yet to be named.

The Minnesota Twins were on the top of that TBA hit list, which drew the sarcastic ire of Minnesota's governor during congressional hearings on the state of the game.

GOVERNOR JESSE VENTURA, MINNESOTA: I bet you we'll be taken off the list if we agree to build a new stadium. I bet you know magically other team will appear on the list then to be contracted rather than Minnesota.

ZARRELLA: And just what is the state of the game? That depends on who you ask. If you ask baseball's commissioner...

BUD SELIG, MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: In spite of the fact that the game's probably never been more popular, we have some very significant problems.

ZARRELLA: According to ownership, only five teams, led by the Yankees, were in the black last year. And over all, baseball's 30 teams lost $518 million, despite revenues of $3.5 billion, almost triple the 1995 number.

ANDREW ZIMBALIST, ECONOMICS PROFESSOR: That's a 17 percent growth rate per year in revenue. That means demand is growing at 17 percent a year, and Major League Baseball is proposing to reduce supply. That makes no sense.

ZARRELLA: A lot of what's going on in baseball is confusing. The lame duck Expos no longer have an owner. The team is run by Major League Baseball which bought the Expos from Jeffrey Loria who in turn purchased the Florida Marlins from John Henry who then went out and bought the Boston Red Sox. Got all that?

ALEX RODRIGUEZ, TEAM MANAGER (ph): What I don't want to see happen is another work stoppage. I know the players don't want it, the owners don't want it and I know the fans definitely don't want it.

ZARRELLA: But don't worry, both sides promise the only strike you'll see is the one called by an umpire.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: As technology continues to advance so does the digital divide between blacks and whites. Recent studies by Microsoft find only 5 percent of small businesses owned by blacks have a plan for e- commerce. Now that's compared with 35 percent of small businesses owned by whites. Now Microsoft and a black-owned media company are working to make sure African-Americans are more prepared for the digital age.

Our Student Bureau has the report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH SLIGH, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): He sees two- way pagers, digital inventions and data chips that turn the basic Game Boy into an encyclopedia of facts and music. It's the Blacks In Technology Conference 2002. The media group Tavis Smiley Presents puts it on, taking it to four cities in partnership with Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. Here minority and (ph) vendors can market their products while technology workstations entice children and adults.

RON JONES, SONGPRO.COM: We came up with a cartridge for the Game Boy that plugs into a hundred million Game Boys. There's a hundred million of these Game Boys out there. This is a Game Boy Color. This is a Game Boy Advance. We made one unit that plays both in the Game Boy and the Game Boy Advance and turns it into a digital entertainment system.

SLIGH: SongPro.com's data chips, for example, contain the first digital black history facts designed specifically for the Game Boy handheld computer device.

MARK BUSH, SONGPRO.COM: Essentially we're just converting content that exists today on a device that's already loved by over a hundred million users.

SLIGH: Microsoft's Martin Taylor says the goal of the tour is to bridge the digital divide between blacks and the world of technology.

MARTIN TAYLOR, MICROSOFT CORPORATION: I also think that sometimes we confuse it with a pure black and white divide and actually, I look at it a little bit more like what I would call economically challenged divide.

SLIGH: Thousands of people attend Blacks in Technology wanting to get in on just about every aspect of technology. Conference organizers present workshops, exhibits and panels consisting of influential African-Americans giving feedback on different areas. The Atlanta tour included panelists like Omar Wasow, Executive Director of BlackPlanet.com; Beth Stevens (ph), Global Director of Philanthropy Education for Hewlett-Packard; comedian Sinbad and a host of others.

TAVIS SMILEY, TAVIS SMILEY PRESENTS: First of all, I want to ask Americans to understand new points of technology. We're here because we want to empower African-Americans to get beyond their fear and intrepidation (ph) about technology.

TAYLOR: Congress (ph) is like (UNINTELLIGIBLE) because it first of all serves as a rallying point to say hey there -- we have some issues. So it's kind of a way to show that hey some -- there's some smoke, something's (ph) on fire, you know the building's not burned down yet but if we don't get active here you know we could lose a building in that type of an analogy.

SLIGH: But what exactly is dividing African-Americans from technical advancement? According to publisher and technology consultant Tyrone Tayborne, it's the lack of exposure to technology.

TYRONE TAYBORNE, BLACK ENGINEER INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE: Inability to have access to computer hardware and Internet access. But the design -- divide is greater than that. The divide deals a lot with employment opportunity, it deals with access of capital, it deals with opportunities for African-American companies to move into technology opportunity.

SLIGH: The three-day conference has already toured Los Angeles and Atlanta. From there it will make its way to Chicago and then New York on May 10.

Elizabeth Sligh, CNN Student Bureau, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

"Where in the World" has one of the world's most rapidly growing populations, eastern part of country became independent state of Bangladesh after 1971 civil war, effort to educate population has raised literacy rate to about 38 percent? Can you name this country? Pakistan.

MCMANUS: And our "Where in the World" today is Pakistan. And, Shelley, that must mean it is the end of the program.

WALCOTT: Must be. That wraps up today's show. We'll catch you back here tomorrow.

MCMANUS: See you tomorrow.

WALCOTT: Bye-bye.

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