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CNN Student News

Aired May 07, 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.

SUSAN FRIEDMAN, CO-HOST: The United Nations Children's Forum tops our news agenda for this Tuesday. The word unique starts with UN and describes this week's special event. We'll take you there in our "Lead Story."

MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST: The "Afronaut" returns. We'll "Chronicle" Mark Shuttleworth's trip to space.

FRIEDMAN: Then, could too much time in front of the tube affect you? Check out our "Health Report."

MCMANUS: And Student Bureau brings us the voice of young Pakistan.

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

FRIEDMAN: And I'm Susan Friedman.

More than 70 presidents and prime ministers will gather in New York tomorrow for a special United Nations session. Their focus, the world's children.

MCMANUS: The three-day U.N. session will include high ranking officials from all 189 member states. They are expected to develop a plan of action called a World Fit for Children. Young people from around the globe will also have a major voice in the session.

Our Kathy Nellis takes us to the Children's Forum, a special event which kicked off this weekend and is still underway.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY NELLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are from all over the globe, from Central and Eastern Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean, Asia and Africa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spanish here. French.

NELLIS: Young people from around the world with one common focus, the Children's Forum at the United Nations. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We would like to welcome you all to New York and to the Special Session on Children -- welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, Emin (ph), I give up now.

NELLIS: It's a historic event for children, for the global community and for the United Nations.

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: My dear young friends, welcome to the United Nations. This is a very special occasion to help prepare for a very special session. Your presence here marks a new chapter in the history of the United Nations. It is the first time that the general assembly will meet in a special session just to discuss children's issues.

NELLIS: Each participating member state was allowed to send two children as government representatives and two children as NGOs or non-government delegates.

MARJORIE NEWMAN-WILLIAMS, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, UNICEF: It is about them. And if you accept that children are citizens of the world and they have a voice, then how can you have a meeting about them and they're not here.

RESHAM PATEL, AGE 16, UNITED STATES: Everybody has to have a voice and that's the point of having someone here from every country, every language, every religion, every culture, is that everyone gets represented in a certain way.

NELLIS: And while children from around the world are represented, they can also participate from their own homes or classrooms.

RHYS CAMPBELL, AGE 17, JAMAICA: Kids can show their concerns. They can tell us what they feel. There is a Web site, the Say Yes for Children Web site. I think it's GMFC.org, the Global Movement for Children. Children from anywhere across the world can log on and vote on which issues they think are parent (ph) issues and what they feel can be done and what they feel should be done.

NELLIS: That something should be done is dictated not only by the issues but by sheer numbers.

(on camera): There are 2.1 billion children in the world. That's 36 percent of the global population.

(voice-over): That means that children make up more than one- third of the world. The hundreds of young people who are at the Children's Forum are joining hands and raising their voices to be sure that kids are counted and that kids count.

Kathy Nellis, CNN, the United Nations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: We'll have more on the Children's Forum and the U.N. Special Session all week. You'll hear the issues and meet the delegates. Today, meet 16-year-old Abigail Fabrigus representing the Philippines. She's been working for girl's rights and children's rights for several years. She also helped launch the Say Yes Campaign for Children in the Philippines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABIGAIL FABRIGAS, AGE 16, PHILIPPINES: We are not just pesky little rascals. We are not just small voices but we could change the world. We could make a great difference by just holding hands together, working hard together and falling out for our rights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCMANUS: Learn more about Abigail on the Web at www.unicef.org. She'll be filing an online diary from the U.N. all week long.

Meanwhile, turning our attention to "Headlines," we focus on French politics. The presidential election is over in France. And for his first order of business, Jacques Chirac chose a new interim prime minister. Parliamentary elections take place there next month.

Now both voters and politicians are picking up the pieces of a hard fought battle, but now questions are being raised about the political system itself. You see France has both a prime minister and a president and some are saying it's time to change that.

Here's Robin Oakley now from Paris.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When French voters contrived to make the second round of the presidential election a choice between Jacques Chirac and National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, many took to the streets in protest. I'm ashamed to be French, read some of their placards.

On how it had happened, there was less agreement. Some blamed the cluster of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) candidates for splintering the left- wing vote. More pointed the finger at Lionel Jospin, the Socialist Prime Minister, for his lackluster campaigning. But by May Day when more than a million voiced their protests against Le Pen, plenty were asking if the French Constitution was to blame, having for the third time produced a president from one party and a prime minister from another in cohabitation. The system had forced those wanting to make a protest towards the extremes.

PHILIPPE MOREAU-DESFARGES, (ph): After this election many things could change and it gives (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I mean among the profits (ph) or among the academics. There is a strong debate about the French Constitution. It's clear that this French Constitution is really not adapted to the present world. It's supports a strong president. It's supports a president which was able to lead the country. And probably after Chirac's term, it's clear that we must (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

OAKLEY: At summits and on the world stage, the French like a little grandeur, a symbol of their sovereignty. But not trusting anybody with too much power at home, they've also enjoyed hobbling their president, sometimes with a prime minister of different views. It leads some to ask if the French need a president at all, although there is a problem.

MOREAU-DESFARGES: If many people agree that we need to change the system on this side (ph) we don't know what kind of system we need. But of course there's the debate between presidential system and parliamentary system. If you look at history, which is one thing which can be looked at, if you look at history, it's clear that France is much more into parliamentary tradition like Britain than in the presidential tradition like the United States.

OAKLEY: For the moment, the French public are keener on street protests than on thinking about a new constitution, but they may yet be persuaded to do so.

(on camera): Sharing decisions between presidents and prime ministers of different political colors blurs power and responsibility. Some argue it helps extremists win support. The chattering classes, academics, journalists, politicians have begun calling for changes in the French constitution to stop it happening again, even if they don't quite know how. Many of them believe that if this year's parliamentary elections produce another bout of power sharing cohabitation, then the public will join the call for changes too.

Robin Oakley, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: Turning now to the Middle East, hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians have been killed since the Palestinian uprising against occupation began more than a year and a half ago. Countless parents have had to bury their children who all too often get caught in the crossfire fighting.

CTV's Rodney Palmer (ph) looks at the violence and the death of innocence. The story's a bit disturbing in that it deals with children and guns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RODNEY PALMER, CTV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A Palestinian commander buries his children. They were accidentally killed by an Israeli tank shell. Other Palestinian children are not so accidentally involved in this struggle. This is more than idol hero worship, a child social worker says it's a distressing pattern. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, CHILD SOCIAL WORKER: Now so many of the children also have their own heroes. People who are fighters, people who carry guns.

PALMER: The fighters parade through the streets and the youngsters emulate their heroes. Even children have become heroes in their own right. When 12-year-old Mohammed Aldura was killed by Israeli soldiers, he became an instant folk hero.

Six-year-old Saja (ph) sings an ode to Mohammed Aldura. The machine gun belongs to her father. He's a commander in the al Aqsa Brigade, a militant group behind several suicide attacks. The song says Mohammed's father tried but was unable to save his son.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mohammed Aldura was hiding. He was trying to protect himself and still he died. And the caretakers, like the father, usually for children are heroes that are supposed to protect them. And in this situation, the child was not -- the father was not able to protect the child so that actually made children feel more insecure.

PALMER: In a Bethlehem refugee camp, children have abandoned their toys. Instead, they play with live ammunition. They're part of a new generation born into violence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel very bitter that our children are forced to be -- to narrow their aspirations instead of feeling that they have the whole world in front of them. They are limited and restricted in now every aspect of their life and this is frightening.

PALMER: Especially frightening if they follow in the footsteps of their heroes.

(on camera): So while adults are hoping for peace, the children are absorbing lessons of war, lessons that could last them a lifetime.

Rodney Palmer, CTV News, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: There was a celebration this weekend in the nation's capital for a group of people who help protect school children. They aren't police officers, they aren't firefighters either, they're kids. Safety patrollers, to be exact.

And Kathleen Koch reports their bravery has stopped crime and saved lives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The end of the school day can be stressful for 11-year-old Greg Whitaker, safety patrol captain of his Fairfax, Virginia, elementary school. That didn't keep him from thinking fast when a first grader was approached and questioned by a stranger. GREG WHITAKER, SAFETY PATROLLER, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: I thought at first he knew the man in the van. But as the questions got more personal, I thought it wasn't right. So I said -- announced that we needed to leave. And so I took little boy home to his house. Memorized the license plate number, the description of the man, and the description of the vehicle.

KOCH: Greg called his principal who called police. The man was a wanted felon and Greg's tip led to his arrest.

DR. JANIS PAUSHTER, PRINCIPLE, FAIRHILL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: I thought what Greg did was incredible. It's hard for me to imagine that even an adult would have the presence of mind that Greg had to quickly assess the situation, get the little boy out of danger, and actually get the license plate.

KOCH: Saturday, Greg and five other safety patrollers from across the country were honored at the National Safety Parade in Washington for their quick action that saved lives; most pulling classmates out of the path of oncoming cars.

KATHRYN DELZOPPO, SAFETY PATROLLER: I didn't think much of it because I thought I was just doing what I was supposed to do.

KOCH (on camera): Organizers say honoring these safety patrollers here in the nation's capital was especially appropriate because many of them end up here.

CHARLES BUTLER, DIRECTOR, AAA: Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton were school safety patrols.

KOCH: As were Virginia Senator John warner, and five Supreme Court justices.

BUTLER: It really builds leadership. It really instills discipline, and foremost I think it builds a concern for others.

KOCH: And, thanks to safety patrollers, pedestrian fatality rates near schools are the lowest they've ever been.

Though Greg, like most of the 500,000 children on Safety Patrol around the country, don't think they've done anything special.

Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Once again Mark Shuttleworth has his feet firmly planted on the terra firma. The millionaire's 10-day space trip was history making. He is only the second space tourist to visit the International Space Station, or the ISS, and he is the first South African astronaut. So was the experience worth its $20 million price tag?

Jill Dougherty talked to Shuttleworth to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They plummeted back from space at 20 times the speed of sound, slowing as they hit the atmosphere, the heat so intense it scorched their Soyuz capsule black. At times a frightening experience, Mark Shuttleworth told CNN later.

MARK SHUTTLEWORTH, SPACE TOURIST: ... nuts and bolts, great big sheets of materials, you know, some fiber (UNINTELLIGIBLE) this type material and large pieces of maple (ph) coming -- sort of drifting past you out your windows (ph).

DOUGHERTY: Shuttleworth was the last to emerge after Italian engineer Roberto DeTori and Russian commander Yuri Godzenko (ph). Doctors checked their pulse -- normal.

The Sunday return fell on Russian Orthodox Easter. Rescue crews greeted them with colored eggs and cakes, then off to a tent for more medical evaluation.

(on camera): The first thing these men feel back on earth is how heavy everything feels. After 10 days of weightlessness in space, they have to get used to gravity again, and they'll need several days of rehabilitation to do that.

(voice-over): Mark Shuttleworth's 10 days on the International Space Station made him a hero back home in South Africa where he was dubbed "The Afronaut." In an interview a few days before his return, Shuttleworth told me his seven months of training in Russia helped him adapt quickly to space.

M. SHUTTLEWORTH: I feel just as I do on the ground. I don't feel any strange effects other than the fact that things don't stay where you put them.

DOUGHERTY: Shuttleworth conducted experiments while on the ISS and brought one of them back with him, how animal embryos adapt to weightlessness.

RICK SHUTTLEWORTH, MARK'S FATHER: Once Mark decides to do something, there's no stopping him. So there's no point in deciding it's not a good idea. But I know Mark and I know the way that he does things, he does things in a way that benefit many people.

DOUGHERTY: Back on earth, a hug from his father, Rick.

Space tourist, Mark Shuttleworth doesn't see it that way. He says he's an amateur astronaut. After paying $20 million for his ticket to space, Shuttleworth has two more purchases he hopes to make, the Soyuz capsule he rode in and the spacesuit he wore.

Jill Dougherty, CNN, Kazakstan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAVE LEFLAR, BARRINGTON, ILLINOIS: Hi, my name is Dave Leflar from Barrington, Illinois.

And my question for CNN is: How much waste does NASA leave in space in a year?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Dave, NASA is not much of a litterbug in space. As a matter of fact, the people who keep track of orbital debris at NASA and at Space Command -- the folks who keep track of all things that orbit the planet -- tell me that NASA's amount of waste that it leaves behind is negligible. It really can't even be measured.

Occasionally, during a space walk, a spacewalker will lose control of a bolt or a tool or a piece of the space station. And those pieces might stay in orbit for some time before they eventually decay and reenter the atmosphere.

But as far as the shuttle goes, there's not a single piece that it leaves behind in orbit. And the space station itself, it generates waste, of course. But all the waste that is generated on there is sealed up and returned to Earth, either in a shuttle or in an unmanned Russian freighter.

So, as it turns out, the space agencies are very sensitive to this idea of leaving waste behind in orbit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

FRIEDMAN: When you hear someone refer to the United Nations, what comes to mind? Do you think of an international team of diplomats gathered in a flag-draped building in New York City or maybe you think of a group of people who mediate conflict and try to look out for the world's children? Well the United Nations is all of this and so much more.

Kathy Nellis returns once again, this time with a profile.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY NELLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an organization that works for world peace and security. And while those goals may seem a bit shaky at the moment, the United Nations stands committed to promoting cooperation between countries. Over the years, the United Nations has focused on important international issues, things like AIDS, human rights, the environment and refugee relief.

And as the Afghan refugees flee their country, the United Nations Refugee Agency is appealing for $50 million in aid to care for the desperate and displaced families arriving in Pakistan.

While it works to provide care and comfort to the war weary, the United Nations is also focused on many other global issues, particularly the children of the world. The U.N. will hold a special session on children next year. AMBASSADOR PATRICIA DURRANT, U.N. SPECIAL SESSION ON CHILDREN: We want to ensure that every child has a good start in life, has a healthy life, has a quality education and as adolescents, will be prepared for the participation in the work force.

NELLIS: Education is a key issue since 125 million children in the world never open a book or see the inside a schoolhouse, never learn to read or write or add, experts say.

DAVID MORRISON, PRESIDENT, NETAID: There's nothing more important than education for children and that goes equally for children in rich countries as it is -- or as it does for children in poor countries.

NELLIS: Another subject in the spotlight, children's health.

(on camera): More than 10 million children still die each year from preventable causes and more than 150 million still suffer from malnutrition.

(voice-over): Those numbers are staggering and they put a very human face on a problem plaguing billions around the world, poverty, according to the head medical officer for UNICEF.

DR. YVES BERGEVIN, HEAD MEDICAL OFFICER, UNICEF: We're talking about a third to a half of the world's children who live in poverty and often poverty is linked -- with poverty you get overcrowding, you get poor access to clean water -- you know inadequate access to clean water, poor sanitation, poor nutrition and then infectious diseases take a hold and spread from child to child. And we should really think of each child who dies and remember that each day 30,000 children die of largely preventable causes.

CHILDREN: Say yes to children. Say yes to children.

NELLIS: But children can be part of the solution, according to United Nations officials.

CORINNE WOODS, INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR SAY YES FOR CHILDREN: Essentially where we've seen over the -- over the years where we've seen changes, it's when people -- individual people say, you know what, I'm going to do something about this. I'm going to make my voice heard and I'm going to make a difference and children have often been at the forefront -- young people have been at the forefront of those changes. And so we believe that children's voices are important and they have the power to change the world. And government leaders will listen to them, we just have to give them access to have their voices heard and we have to ensure the government leaders do -- actually are ready to listen to them.

NELLIS: Those leaders will be on hand when this special session on children convenes in New York, a city that's now a symbol of rebuilding and pulling together. That spirit, that sense of cooperation and unity is what the United Nations hopes to convey to the children of the world. CAROL BELLAMY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNICEF: I just think that young people should understand they have an enormous opportunity to help influence their own lives. So I hope that they will listen, but I also hope they will learn and I hope they will speak out. They have the power to change their lives.

NELLIS: Kathy Nellis, CNN, the United Nations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: How much TV do you watch daily? Well if you're a teenager watching more than three hours of TV a day researchers say you could have some behavior problems later in life.

Sean Callebs explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's not unusual to find Mick (ph) and Sonia (ph) Karn playing a board game after school. Their mom, Bethany, says she limits the amount of TV they watch to two hours a day. But she says it is a constant battle.

BETHANY KARN, MOTHER: It's all day long. I know children who get up at 3:00 in the morning and turn on the TV set.

CALLEBS: But fighting that battle could very well help her children as they grow up. A new study headed up by Columbia University shows that teenagers who watch more than an hour of TV a day are more likely to be violent as they grow up.

KARN: What I see aimed at adolescents scares me far more than what I see in my children. And I worry about the future of what my children will want to watch and what TV will expose them to.

CALLEBS: The study followed TV viewing habits of both urban and suburban families in upstate New York over a 17-year period. It shows only about 5 percent of teens watching TV less than an hour a day are likely to commit an aggressive act. But the percentage escalates to more than 22 percent for kids watching three hours of TV and up to nearly 29 percent for those watching more than three hours a day. The study defines violence as fights, robberies and assaults.

JEFFREY G. JOHNSON, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: So that over time the more negative -- the more violent scenes that people see, the less they're disturbed or upset by them and they tend to think of them as being more and more acceptable.

CALLEBS: Researchers say 60 percent of TV shows contain some kind of violence. They aren't urging a ban on television, but be aware that children are affected by what they watch.

In Atlanta, I'm Sean Callebs.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MCMANUS: If young people from around the world had the opportunity to communicate with each other, what would they say? Better yet, how much would they have in common? Hoping to answer those questions, CNN Student Bureau reporter Sid Akbar talked to some kids in Pakistan about what they'd like their U.S. counterparts to know.

Here is their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SID AKBAR, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): Islamabad, Pakistan, one would think that youth from this part of the world would have different interests than what American teens have.

FAHAD REHMAN, AGE 17: I like pop music mostly and sometimes also rock.

FAIZA INAYAT, AGE 16 (ph): I love going to restaurants. I love going out and it's great having a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) open, for a Pizza Hut to open in Islamabad because you have Pizza Hut in all those places in Lahore.

ALIA AMIR ALI, AGE 17: What I'm really into right now is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) actually downloaded and stuff.

REHMAN: I also like Archie comics which is like my unifab (ph). I love it.

ALI: You obviously can't be, you know, dressed in a way that is not acceptable around here, but Western clothing is still all right.

AKBAR: Since they pretty much like what Americans like, I asked them what their feelings were towards the U.S.

INAYAT: I sort of have this impression that people or young people in the West and people in the West especially, they're very naive. They are ignorant of what is going on in the rest of the world.

REHMAN: U.S. foreign policy, I think it's kind of aggressive.

ALI: I have nothing against the people of America. I have something against America's foreign policy, not (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

REHMAN: Actually, we don't hate Americans, it's just that Americans don't know much about us.

ALI: I think the U.S. just needs to, you know, stop trying to control every part of the world.

INAYAT: Muslims do not hate you. I am a Muslim. I sit here, I watch West movies.

AKBAR: I also asked them about a very controversial Muslim.

ALI: I think Osama is a complete maniac.

REHMAN: Many was (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that he's a freedom fighter and he's fighting for the cause of Muslims, but personally I feel that he's a kind (ph) put at risk and he's misguided.

INAYAT: Osama was once a good man. I mean excuse me for saying this, but I think a lot of people of my age, my family, we hate Osama for what he's done for the cause of Islam.

REHMAN: Islam is a religion, which we Muslims believe in.

ALI: Islam is another religion just like many others that exist in the world, you know, as simple as that. It has its own particular set of beliefs just like any other religion does.

INAYAT: All religion of the world give the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) peace and harmony so I don't think anybody can be against one religion and for one religion.

AKBAR: Inspired by these cross-cultural similarities, the California-based nonprofit Earth Train (ph) is organizing a satellite- based dialog this summer. Youth from around the world will have the opportunity to communicate with each other.

Sid Akbar, CNN Student Bureau.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

"Where in the World" agriculture employs almost 50 percent of population, Urdu is the official language, the Indus is the nation's chief river and its lifeline. Can you name this country? Pakistan.

MCMANUS: Our 30 minutes are up today. I'm Michael McManus.

FRIEDMAN: And I'm Susan Friedman. We'll see you tomorrow.

MCMANUS: Bye-.

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