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CNN Student News

Aired May 03, 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: A countdown to a runoff tops today's CNN STUDENT NEWS as France prepares to return to the polls this weekend.

SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: From politics to pop stars, these are the faces of some of the hottest and youngest celebrities.

MCMANUS: Up next, an exhibit highlighting the lasting legacy of a former first lady.

WALCOTT: And finally, Student Bureau profiles the man charged with protecting the nation.

MCMANUS: And welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Michael McManus.

WALCOTT: And I'm Shelley Walcott.

French voters will take to the polls this weekend for what has turned out to be a very controversial presidential runoff.

MCMANUS: That's right. Emotions are high as extreme right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen prepares to face off Sunday against incumbent President Jacques Chirac. Opponents and supporters of Le Pen took to the streets Wednesday for May Day marches. May 1 was chosen in the 1800s as a day for demonstrations in support of the eight-hour workday. But in many nations like France, the focus of this year's demonstrations was politics.

Chris Burns has more now on Le Pen and his campaign efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dark clouds rain on this port city, France's second largest metropolis. Unemployment and rising crime have made it a hotbed for Jean-Marie Le Pen's message. He walked away with the largest number of votes in the first round of the presidential election, nearly one-fourth of the ballots cast here, and he hopes to do better than that Sunday in his showdown with conservative President Jacques Chirac. At his final campaign rally, Le Pen fails to fill an indoor sports arena here. He blames it on the rain and on threats against supporters. He keeps up his populist attack on Chirac and other mainstream politicians that he says have failed to reduce crime, immigration and unemployment, now at over 9 percent. He bashes what he calls Euro globalization, the European Union and its euro currency that he says have only caused more misery, killing French jobs and opening France's doors to more immigration.

"And I think there could be next Sunday a surprise even more extraordinary than last Sunday," he says.

To his supporters, Le Pen is their brightest hope to save France from decline.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The only one we haven't tried out is Jean-Marie Le Pen, and I think his program would help sort out all the things that keep getting worse.

BURNS: Le Pen's opponents demonstrate in the pouring rain, marching away from his rally, symbolically turning their backs on it. This, a day after more than 1.3 million French took to the streets in a massive call to get out to vote to block Le Pen from power, even if it means voting for Chirac whom leftists detest.

But even a group of Muslim and Jewish community leaders urging calm and conciliation demand the political mainstream address the concerns of those who cast their vote for Le Pen to fight crime.

NOREDONE HAGOUG, LOCAL OFFICIAL: If someone does something bad he's got to go to jail. We're -- and we've got to say that very frankly, very frankly, first of all. Even if his -- if his Arabic is Jewish, if he's poor, it's not an excuse.

BURNS (on camera): Even if he stands virtually no chance of winning Sunday's runoff, Jean-Marie Le Pen says he will fight on in parliamentary elections next month and beyond. Analysts say that his National Front could gain further support if the political mainstream fails to address the problems that have turned a French (ph) candidate into a political force.

Chris Burns, CNN, Marseilles, France.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Despite huge demonstrations against him, Le Pen is pressing on. Meanwhile, Jacques Chirac slammed his rival saying Le Pen -- quote -- "sullies the image and honor of France." Polls predict Chirac will win by a landslide, but both candidates held big campaign rallies yesterday.

Hala Gorani talked to some folks in a predominately immigrant Parisian neighborhood about the recent rise of Le Pen. Here's what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the Parisian neighborhood of Barbes, plenty of immigrants here, just some of the five million across France. Le Pen's surprised success in the first round of the presidential election has left some in this community shocked and angry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Le Pen is an assassin. I say Le Pen is the son of Hitler. And just as Europe beat Hitler, we will beat Le Pen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Well most French people are racist. They think we are all thieves.

GORANI (on camera): People in this neighborhood also say they are tired of being a campaign issue. Some even say they don't care Le Pen made it to the second round. But despite all that, any mention of the man's name stirs up a passionate response.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What does he want? If he gets his way, there wouldn't be anyone left in this neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It's a catastrophe, nobody is more racist than Le Pen.

GORANI (voice-over): This woman from the French island of Martinique (ph) was walking back from an anti-Le Pen protest in Paris. She says she wanted her son to see that there are more people, in her words, protesting against fascism than voting for it. She says voters confuse crime with immigration.

"When you bring up crime," she said, "people are frightened and they blame the visible minorities."

But despite Le Pen's upset, the concerns here in Barbes are more down to earth with many here saying they just want politicians to leave them alone.

Hala Gorani, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Jean-Marie Le Pen isn't the only politician with a far- right platform. In fact, conservatism seems to be popping up in various places across Europe.

Here's Robin Oakley with a survey of the political landscape.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Delirium, supporters of Jean-Marie Le Pen greeting his arrival in the second round of the French presidential election. But even as the enthusiasts chanted, commentators were cooler. It wasn't Le Pen's success they said, more the gallness (ph) of the other candidates. Le Pen differs, arguing he speaks for ordinary people. JEAN-MARIE LE PEN, NATIONAL FRONT LEADER (through translator): They know immigration in our country is linked to insecurity and unemployment so people trust me because I can see the connection.

OAKLEY: Talking tough on crime and immigration has boosted the right across Europe. In Austria, Jorg Haider's Freedom Party won a place in government, prompting European Union leaders temporarily to downgrade Austria's participation in their affairs. In Denmark, Pia Kjaersgaard and her People's Party gained enough seats to have influence. Umberto Bossi, rebel-rousing leader of Italy's Lega Nord (ph), won a place in Berlusconi's government. And now the right is advancing, too, in traditionally moderate Holland via the flamboyant Pim Fortuyn who says Muslims represent a backward culture.

PIM FORTUYN, LEADER, LAST (ph) FORTUYN PARTY: It is a backward culture. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from our point of view. Once you have this discrimination of woman, is it backward or is it forward?

OAKLEY: Nobody it seems suffers from playing the anti- immigration card. There were race riots last year in Britain. And though Tony Blair's new Labour coasted through last year's general election, the extremist British National Party hopes now to win some local government contests. Again, with a simple scapegoating message.

COLIN SMITH, BRITISH NATIONAL PARTY: We can see by statistics over the years crime has gone up, immigration has come up. We've got people coming into our country now that don't respect our laws.

OAKLEY: Could a black person join the BNP?

SMITH: Not at this stage. We've got a lot of support from ethnic minorities on the doorsteps, a lot of people saying they're sick and tired of crime and they're going to vote for us. At this stage, we -- we're a British party and because of immigration is fairly recent into this country, we're still a British party.

OAKLEY: Some confusion there between British and white. But does it all add up to an irresistible sweet right? No, says a leading British pollster.

ROBERT WORCESTER, MORI POLLS: It's a protest vote. And Le Pen's clever approach was to couple this feeling of we're French for the French and to capture or have build on that captured ground with the anti-European and the anti-Europe vote three or four months after the introduction of the single European currency and the destruction of the French franc.

OAKLEY: It isn't, he says, a thirst across Europe for the right's agenda, it's a hearing problem among Europe's politicians.

WORCESTER: It is the feeling on the part of the disenfranchised, as they see themselves, that nobody is listening to them, nobody is thinking about what does the man and woman in the street think about that. And they're so busy stitching up deals with fellow politicians right across Europe, whether it's in Brussels or whether it's in the capital of their country or in the regions and local communities, the public in every country that we look at tell us they're fed up and they want to be paid attention to.

OAKLEY (on camera): Protest votes take different forms in different countries. It's not so much the triumph of the right as the alienation of the people from the political classes. And pollsters warn that if the mainstream parties want to be sure of beating off the challenge from the extremes, then they're going to have to learn once more to talk the language of the streets themselves.

Robin Oakley, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: On to some young newsmakers now, stars like Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen and don't forget Kirsten Dunst. Young celebrities are busy playing leads in big budget productions and gracing magazine covers. You probably have your own favorites, and we're going to do our best to profile a few.

Our own Kathy Nellis takes us behind the scenes to get the buzz behind the biz.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY NELLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You know their name and their face and they're not much older than you. They may be young, but their success in movies, music or a myriad of other fields makes them one of "Teen People's" 25 Hottest Stars Under 25. They include Alexis Ledel (ph), Ludacris, Alicia Keys and Mya, who is one- fourth of the Grammy-winning group Lady Marmalade.

MYA, AGE 20: Feels great to be part of "Teen People's" Hottest Stars Under 25. Reason one, feels great to be hot. And No. 2, it feels great to be under 25 still.

NELLIS (on camera): How do you get to be hot? Appeal is what it's all about for the 25 under 25.

ANNE HATHAWAY, AGE 19: "The Princess Diaries" really did a lot to sort of take me to a new level in my career. And now it's very strange when I am saying please give me a job and people say OK. I'm used to having -- working a little harder than that. But hot, oh (ph) I hope so. It'd certainly make things easier, but I don't -- I don't think about that too much. It's really more about the work than being hot or being famous or anything silly and putting up with that.

NELLIS (voice-over): Actor Josh Hartnett is definitely hot with rave reviews for his performance in "Pearl Harbor" added to roles in two other war flicks.

JOSH HARTNETT, AGE 23: Well guess what, it's not training over there, it's war.

NELLIS: That brought success and new labels like "rising star" and "heartthrob."

HARTNETT: You can't get caught up in that nonsense so I don't know, I don't think about it.

(SINGING)

NELLIS: Another pick, Usher who took home his first Grammy this year for his hit single "You Remind Me." The 24-year-old singer says a new music era is on the way, soulful R&B, and he plans to help usher it in.

(SINGING)

NELLIS: Making it big on "Smallville," an actress still in her teens. She's always imagined a career in environmental science, but she's making her mark on TV.

KRISTIN KREUK, AGE 19: I think that "Smallville's" a really big family show and it's got a lot going for it. It's got, you know, the action element, it's got the heart element, it's got family, and I think that's why it appealed to people of all ages.

NELLIS: Most of these young stars don't plan to rest on these laurels but use their fame to further their careers and not let it get to their heads.

HATHAWAY: If you mean hot as in you have a lot of buzz behind you. I guess hot is when you have an audience out there that responds to your work and who really respects you and wants to go see you in more movies or doing whatever sort of artistic and creative endeavors you're currently working on.

But for me hot I guess is a more personal thing. It's somebody who has supreme confidence in their self (ph), that they are just going to -- that they are just the best person that they can be and that they're going to be that person no matter who it is if then if it's a person who doesn't necessarily fall into some neat little category and fits outside the box.

NELLIS (on camera): Meantime, what's inside the box is spreading the name and spreading the fame of these young celebrities.

For CNN STUDENT NEWS, I'm Kathy Nellis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

WALCOTT: Forty years after Jacqueline Kennedy first captivated the world as America's first lady, an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is showcasing her international style. To find out more on the former first lady's impeccable style, CNN's Judy Woodruff sat down with Letitia Baldridge, author of 14 books on manners and entertaining. More to the point, she was also Mrs. Kennedy's chief of staff and social secretary, and she shares those memories with us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LETITIA BALDRIDGE, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF, JACQUELINE KENNEDY: She always had a spark. She was a leader. She wrote better than anybody else. She painted beautiful little pictures. Her sense of humor was incredible. And her chic -- you know, she wore jeans, she wore leather belts, she wore scarves and sweaters, but like nobody else did. We all knew that she did something with the scarf and her neck that none of us could do. We all looked as though we were losing our scarves. But Jackie was chic.

WOODRUFF: Why is it important, do you think, to look at these clothes from 40 years ago?

BALDRIDGE: It's important because they were beautiful, and they represented something that's called classic taste. That is my favorite dress, because the brocade, the embroidery took months of work by French artisans. It's by Balanciaga. It is so beautiful. It is one of the best dresses of the French trade.

And she looked so glorious, as the guest of General De Gaulle and Madame De Gaulle, sitting in the grand opera box. Her hair and her jewelry, and the top of that dress. That's what everybody looked at, and just went, oh! So I liked it. It was my favorite, and it was her favorite, too.

WOODRUFF: Did she really love clothes?

BALDRIDGE: She really did. As I say, she didn't -- she wasn't obsessed by them. She didn't spend all of her time thinking about them. It's just that she had this natural, flamboyant good taste. And she trusted her own taste, and so she didn't spend a lot of time laboring over it.

She made a decision and wore it, and it was the right thing. And of course, all of America followed her, with 24.95 knock-offs. Not quite the same.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A charming visit, then.

BALDRIDGE: She disliked having to wear hats. That was a real negative in her life. And the minute she could take it off, she would take it off.

WOODRUFF: Isn't that interesting, because...

BALDRIDGE: And of course, the pill box...

WOODRUFF: People think of her with the hats.

BALDRIDGE: I know it. But she hated to wear them and she never wore them unless it was a head of state or something that -- or going to see Mrs. Woodrow Wilson at her house for lunch, that kind of thing. She'd wear a hat. Her mother had trained her properly.

And of course she was criticized for having these beautiful clothes. Mrs. Nixon said, you know, I don't even -- I can't even buy her underwear. And she retorted something like, well, you know, I'm not wearing mink underwear. They had a great battle going on over the clothes.

WOODRUFF: It's one thing to be fashion conscious. Is it another thing altogether to be fashion conscious in Washington, which is the nation's capital. And it's a place that, historically, where a lot of things have mattered. Clothes and fashion have not mattered as much here.

BALDRIDGE: I would say that in comparison to New York, Washington is exceedingly dowdy. I'll probably have the apartment burned down because of having said that. Clothes do not mean as much here. You can wear the same evening dress for five years and get away with it. The dust collects on it. Jackie was New York fashion right, and Paris fashion right.

WOODRUFF: What was her view, in 1960, '61, '62, '63, when her husband was running for president, and president, as the role of first lady, and how important was it to her that the first lady have a certain look? How did she view all that?

BALDRIDGE: I think she had studied the role of the first lady. She was an historian. She studied history. She knew all about the first ladies, starting with Martha Washington. And she particularly admired Dolly Madison, who was such a fashion (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

She knew her history. And she also knew the White House, because she had been there many times with the senator.

WOODRUFF: What do you think would be the reaction today, if there were a first lady like Jacqueline -- or if she lived today, with her inedible sense of fashion and her incredible sense of style?

BALDRIDGE: Well, you know, today's woman can't spend that much time being a great mother, housekeeper, hostess. It was a different world when Jackie was mistress of the White House. We've had Hillary Clinton, and we've had a lot. And we now have wonderful Mrs. Bush. But she has enormous agendas -- literacy.

Every woman has a lot of work to do today in the White House. You can't go around having a fine arts commission, and deciding you've got to get the Louvre to cough up the Mona Lisa for a special showing. There isn't time for that anymore. We have moved on.

WOODRUFF: What do you miss the most about her? You knew her very well.

BALDRIDGE: Well, I miss the most, her presence. How she jacked us all up and made us all want to look better and read what she was reading. I mean, America followed her, just like slaves. They followed her. Everything she wanted to do and wanted to know.

I think young girls who look at the way she moved in her clothes, to look at her posture, her sense of dignity. To listen to her choice of words. She had a wonderful command of rhetoric.

WOODRUFF (voice-over): Judy Woodruff, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Since the U.S. war on terror began, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has become an important ally. He pledged support and crackdown on extremists in his own country. In doing so, some say he risked his own life. So you think he would be applauded after winning a referendum giving the military general five more years in power, right? Well not everybody's clapping.

Here's Joel Hochmuth with our "Week in Review."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOEL HOCHMUTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Pakistanis prepared to go to the polls, President Pervez Musharraf took one last opportunity to get out the vote.

GENERAL PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, PAKISTANI PRESIDENT (through translator): I need your power to go forward. I will fully accept your decision and it will be final for me. I am sure you will make your decision with full confidence and careful consideration. This is your country and the future is in your hands. The decision is yours. Long live Pakistan.

HOCHMUTH: The final outcome was never really in doubt. Final figures showed, as expected, a wide majority of Pakistanis, nearly 98 percent, voted in favor of a referendum to extent Musharraf's rule by five years. What is in doubt is what it all means. Musharraf's information minister called the results a massive victory for the people of Pakistan, but opposition groups are crying fraud.

FAROOQ (ph) HASSAN, OPPOSITION LAWYER: This is what you call democracy that General Musharraf was tried to project and misuse the government machinery. Totally the television, the state officials, policemen, military, they were all there out in the full to give the appearance that the people are behind him.

HOCHMUTH: Officially the government put voter turnout at about 70 percent, but Musharraf's opponents say the figure is highly inflated. They say they have evidence of people voting several times or voting without proper ID. Others charge many government employees were coerced into voting.

INAYAT ULLAH (ph): I have other doubts how many of these people have come voluntarily and how many of them had a duty to the department to which they belong. That question cannot be answered.

HOCHMUTH: Musharraf is Pakistan's fourth military ruler since independence in 1947. He came to power in 1999 after a nonviolence coup. He brought a sense of stability to a nation fed up after a series of civilian governments collapsed under allegations of corruption in the '90s. He developed a reputation as a benign dictator, more interested in modernizing Pakistan than ruling it with a heavy hand. It remains to be seen how much he has squandered that reputation with this week's referendum. For now, the Bush administration is being careful not to criticize. RICHARD BOUCHER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: In the end it's for the Pakistani people to decide what the referendum means in terms of the kind of government they want and the kind of future they want for their country.

HOCHMUTH: Musharraf has become a close ally to the U.S. in the war on terrorism. The Bush administration clearly has reasons for wanting him to stay in power. Musharraf had hoped Tuesday's referendum would cement his position in advance of parliamentary elections promised for October.

BOUCHER: We believe these elections are the most crucial element in returning the country to democratic rule. So we look forward to a period of healthy political debate where all the parties are allowed to express their views freely and to bring their case to the public without hindrance.

HOCHMUTH: It may be the new parliament that ultimately determines the real meaning of this week's referendum, it's up to it to decide whether to ratify Musharraf's newly won five-year term.

Joel Hochmuth, CNN STUDENT NEWS.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: He is the man in charge of security on the home front, the man who calls information from dozens of sources, including the FBI, CIA and the National Guard. It's a challenging role, but Tom Ridge said he was up for it when President Bush named him director of Homeland Security last September.

Our CNN Student Bureau spoke to Ridge and some of the people who know him best.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM RIDGE, DIRECTOR OF HOMELAND SECURITY: I learned to value and respect people and other people's opinions. I learned that my family was very important. And perhaps as I got older, I didn't realize it as a kid but I realized it when I got older, no matter what kind of success I enjoyed in life probably the most important title that I'd ever have wasn't congressman, it wasn't governor, it wasn't this adviser to the president, it would father and husband.

LEAH BURFIELD, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): Caring family and close friends can help a lot with succeeding in life, but that's not all. Personality can also be the key.

DAVE RIDGE, BROTHER: He's always been very consistent. You know despite the fact he really is in the upper levels of government, he has always kept his feet very firmly on the ground. He's really a down to earth person.

MARLENE MOSCO, FRIEND: He truly is the same person that I -- that I knew years ago that he is today. Obviously no matter what he's doing, what his position was, whether he was a student, whether he was in the military, an attorney, a congressman, a governor, he's always given 1,000 percent.

T. RIDGE: The president has given me a rather unique and historic opportunity to serve this country and the president has been my friend for nearly 20 years, and I'm grateful that he's given me this opportunity.

JIM LECORCHICK, FRIEND: Tom Ridge was happy being governor, but he took the job of Homeland Security because he answered the call. He was a great soldier in Vietnam. He's a great person.

BURFIELD: Commitment, seriousness, down to earth and intelligence are just some things that have made these accomplishments possible.

T. RIDGE: Education was the ultimate tool of empowerment. And if I could say this to -- and I say it to any group of young men and women whenever I go into grade schools or high schools, education, education, education.

D. RIDGE: And I know when he became -- he was offered the job of director of Homeland Security, I just frankly told him brother to brother, there's no one else I'd want protecting my kids and protecting all the kids of the United States.

LECORCHICK: I think America's getting a good deal no matter what Tom Ridge is doing. Tom Ridge is a fine worker, a fine family man. I consider him a good friend. He comes from a good family. He has a good family. That's -- you know that's pretty much what I can say. He's the all-American guy, Tom Ridge.

BURFIELD (on camera): Family, friends, personality, hopes and dreams are what made Tom Ridge who he is. Without these qualities, who knows where he would be today.

Reporting from the White House in Washington, D.C., I'm Leah Burfield for CNN Student Bureau.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: We've reached the end of another week of CNN Student News.

WALCOTT: Have a great weekend, and we'll catch you back here Monday.

MCMANUS: Bye-bye.

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