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CNN Student News

Aired June 13, 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 are watching CNN STUDENT NEWS, seen in schools around the world, because learning never stops and neither does the news.

Time for your daily dose of current events. Headline number one: Wildfires in Colorado continue to burn. Following the fires, the colors of patriotism come into focus. This show's back half rockets off the charts into outer space. Then get things rolling with "Student Bureau."

SUSAN FRIEDMAN, CO-HOST: Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS on this Thursday, June 13. I am Susan Friedman.

SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: And I'm Shelley Walcott. What began as a campfire is now a wildfire of historic proportions.

FRIEDMAN: Colorado authorities say entire communities are threatened, and thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes. Numerous fires are raging across the state. Their magnitude is so great their smoke plume can be seen from space. Like much of the western United States, Colorado has been under a severe drought. Conditions have become increasingly dry since March.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BILL OWENS (R), COLORADO: And the state is so dry. This is our driest year in recorded history. Our snow pack is at 2 percent of normal. So what we have got here is fires that are using -- that are benefiting, as it were, from these horrible weather conditions, in terms of the wind and in terms of the dryness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRIEDMAN: Firefighters are now looking to the weather for help.

But as CNN's Keith Oppenheim reports, that may not be enough.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The biggest recorded fire in Colorado's history is at a point where if wind and heat aggravate things, it could more than double in size.

RON RALEY, FIRE INCIDENT COMMANDER: I don't want to paint a picture that we've got a handle on this thing at all. So we've got a long ways to go. There is just an awful lot of fire line to build, and that just flat takes a lot of time and effort to do that.

OPPENHEIM: And in order to do that, commanders here have requested hundreds of more firefighters to join the effort to slow what's called the Hayman Fire, which has now consumed at least 88,000 acres.

JUSTIN DUMBROWSKI, FIRE INFORMATION OFFICER: It's perfect burning conditions, winds coming up very dry, super dry fields.

OPPENHEIM: The fire has come within a few miles of suburban communities southwest of Denver. It's moving to the south as well. The fear is that Hayman could gallop like it did this past weekend, and swallow up another 120,000 acres of land. Thousands of residents are choosing to evacuate before the fire arrives.

Some, like Mark Bibbs (ph), don't want to leave their land just yet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The plan is is when we see flames, she leaves to go load the horses.

OPPENHEIM: In the small town of Trumbull, volunteer firefighters are battling away. They are worried about resources. They are worried about where they live.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hopefully, the Red Cross or the Salvation Army will get us some food up here so we can keep going on the food thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I might not have a job after this is over with, because everything is going to be burned down.

OPPENHEIM (on camera): Now, to allow firefighters to do what they have to do, all endangered species protections have been temporarily lifted around the area where the Hayman Fire is burning. And that underscores the obvious: that a fire of this size will do extensive damage to wildlife.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: In the headlines today, President Bush lays out some cold, hard facts about the war on terror. The president signed a new $4.3 billion bioterrorism bill into law Wednesday. The money will be used to expand stockpiles of drugs to protect Americans from smallpox, anthrax, and other deadly germ agents. It will also be used to improve food inspections and boost security around water systems.

Now, during the signing ceremony at the White House, the president warned Americans not to let their guard down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They are still out there. These people are -- you know, these killers -- they are still lurking around. But they picked on a group of people who are plenty determined, and that's the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALCOTT: On another front, this one way out in Afghanistan. The Afghan grand council, also known as the Loya Jirga, continued to try to construct that country's new government and select a head of state. The Council is made up of an ex-king, a U.S.-backed politician, tribal elders, religious officials, former warlords, and many more, including ordinary Afghan men and women.

Bill Delaney has more on the nuts and bolts that go into building a new Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A bridge thrown across a generation in Afghanistan at Kabul Airport. Gen. Mohammed Zarif home after an exile of nearly a quarter century, met by his son, Khaled, who returned a month or so before. For the general, an old fashioned question of honor in the wake of the return of the former Afghan king some two weeks ago.

"Our majesty, the king," he says, "served his country. I am one of his generals. My dream now is to serve my country again as long I am alive."

For his son, practical determination to rebuild. Working until recently at New York's Kennedy Airport, he has helped spearhead repairs for Kabul's war-ravaged airport.

KHALED QADIR, GEN. ZARIF'S SON: I can carry on and do the same thing that he did. Two different generations, but one goal.

DELANEY: Among as many as 4 million Afghan refugees now scattered, a small minority, like Gen. Zarif and his son, left with enough money, education to make their own way somewhere else -- but now, coming back by the hundreds, if not yet thousands.

FARHAD TARZI, INT'L. ORG. FOR MIGRATION: All segments across the board, from the working class to blue collar to white collar, the farmer, the engineer, technician, all over. The key is the HR, human resources. Afghanistan has a potential. They have qualified personnel living abroad.

DELANEY: Patriots, however pragmatic some may be too, all returning to a place, though, they say they barely recognize, determined to transform it.

(on camera): Inside the walls of this compound, here in this mostly broken Kabul neighborhood, there is a vision, a kind of dream Afghanistan, a rebirth; just in the past few weeks, coats of paint, a reviving garden, the home of Abdul Basir Omarzay (ph).

(voice-over): Step inside the walls, another world, once common enough in Kabul: sophisticated, serene. Gone 20 years, Abdul Omarzay (ph) returned just a few weeks ago from Dubai, where he owned paper plants, where he raised six children. The communists confiscated much of his land, civil war destroyed his steel factory. But the improbable lure of even a devastated native land drew him back.

Businessmen, he says, more than anyone else now are needed in Afghanistan to create jobs -- men who don't want power, but to make money. Early next year, his children will come, he says, depending on the situation then.

Meanwhile, he plans, among other things, to rebuild his steel factory.

As from the relatively humble home where Gen. Zarif is staying with relatives, to across town at Abdul Omarzay's (ph) villa, dreams of another Afghanistan, a future not forever walled in by its past.

Bill Delaney, CNN, Kabul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: High school and college students are gaining new appreciation for an activity that many people really don't know much about. Color guard has a language, history, and skill of its own. It dates back to ancient pageantry events and ceremonies where flags and props were commonplace.

This Friday, June 14, is Flag Day in the United States, so our Kathy Nellis talked to some performers about their commitment to the color guard and their country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY NELLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These days, you see the American flag just about everywhere, a sight signaling patriotism and pride. The banner, with its long and deep tradition, has given students new reason to think about what it means in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

CHRIS MCDANIEL, AGE 15: It represents our pride and our integrity. It shows how we have overcome British rule, and how we have fought for what we deserve and what we had -- become known as freedom and independence.

KRYSTEN NICKERSON, AGE 16: The American flag represents all of the people who have fought for our country.

PETER HUGHES, AGE 14: For me, it represents all of those people who fought for our country and were patriots in the world wars and in Vietnam and the Korean War and in Desert Storm. I really respect it, because many people fought and died for the flag.

MAURICE JENKINS, AGE 17: The American flag is a sign of freedoms, a sign of liberty, and something I am very proud of, which is why I always try to carry the American flag when I do color guard.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Left, right, left.

NELLIS: You might expect these students to have such ready answers. They are part of the color guard at the Junior ROTC at Shamley High School (ph), near Atlanta, Georgia. The color guard is an honor guard for the flag used in military or patriotic organizations.

As part of the color guard, these students practice three days a week to learn the moves...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Left.

NELLIS: ... and the rules.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Left face.

JENKINS: Basically, hold it straight, and make sure the flag don't touch the ground.

HUGHES: It needs to be on the right-hand side.

NELLIS: What inspired them to join?

MCDANIEL: I wanted to become part of Color Guard One, because it would help me to gain discipline and respect for this great nation that I plan on in the future serving in the United States military, and to just to show respect, to pay respect. My grandfather, he was in the Army.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Forward...

JENKINS: The color guard teaches discipline. It teaches responsibility. I have some family members that were a part of the color guard, so I kind of want to follow their tradition.

CARLA MOORE, AGE 17: It's fun. It's something to do. It keeps you out of trouble. And it's, like, just staying after school every day and being with your friends and stuff is fun. And then like we get to -- it's not all serious and stuff. We actually do laugh and joke and play and stuff.

NELLIS: It's also an opportunity to learn about the flag and its history.

(on camera): You probably know that the stripes on the American flag stand for the 13 original colonies, and there is one star for each state. But do you know when today's flag took shape?

(voice-over): The positions of the 50 stars were fixed by presidential order in 1960, a relatively recent development. Back in 1777, there was no official arrangement for the stars in the flag, and different styles were used, each one a symbol of a new nation dedicated to liberty, each an inspiration to those who defended that liberty.

1ST SGT. TERRY HORTON, ROTC INSTRUCTOR: I spent 22 years in the military, and I think about all of the patriots, persons that has gone before me that have fought and died for the country, so that we can be a free country.

NELLIS: The Shamley (ph) Color Guard think all Americans should fly the Star and Stripes as a way to show unity during a time of national tension.

HUGHES: To show that they believe in the American ideal, the American way of life.

MCDANIEL: You know, we have gained over the past 225 years.

NELLIS: A legacy centuries old, earned at great cost, and these heirs to that legacy hope it endures for centuries more.

Kathy Nellis, CNN, Atlanta, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: Asian nations are often leaders in the technology field. South Korea is no exception. In that country, soccer fans are having a lot of fun with third-generation phones. Besides taking calls, what else can they do? Well, they can get real-time scores and video clips of the matches.

Here is Lisa Barron with more on how South Korea is scoring big time with mobile wireless technology.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA BARRON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): World Cup co-host South Korea may be strutting its stuff in the soccer field, but that's not the only venue where it's showing its prowess. Korea is, in fact, ahead of all of the competition on the world telecom stage.

PERRY LAFORGE, COMA DEVELOPMENT GROUP: They had initiatives in place where they felt, from a worldwide competitive advantage, that this was an area they wanted to invest in, and I certainly think it is bearing fruit for them.

BARRON: In October, 2000, Korea's SK Telecom became the first operator in the world to commercially launch a third-generation mobile service, using CDMA 2000 technology, which can deliver multimedia applications, such as games, video-on-demand, video messages, and high-speed Internet access. There are now more than 10 million CDMA 2000 subscribers worldwide, the vast majority in Asia.

MYUNG S. LEE, VICE PRESIDENT, SK TELECOM: Our customers were willing to take our new technology, and they used it very (UNINTELLIGIBLE) than other people. And so that we are in a position to introducing these services is taken more easily than other countries.

BARRON: Next step, going global. SK Telecom and other Korean carriers have already started exporting their initiatives and know-how overseas.

LEE: We are in a position to test them in our market, on our customers, on our infrastructure, and that will help us in a very strong position in strategic markets.

BARRON (on camera): And now, South Korea's leading phone carries could help ring in changes in North Korea. Officials from those countries reached a deal this month to push ahead with mobile phone service projects in the north as early as this year.

(voice-over): Which could mean communications across the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas, who remain technically at war. They never signed a peace treaty after the civil war that ended in 1953.

YOUN-KWAN KIM, CTO, LG TELECOM: We are brothers anyway. And eventually, we are looking into unification. I don't know how long it's going to take, but unless they have a substantial, you know, economic growth, it would be more difficult to follow us as well at the time of the unification.

BARRON: Like the World Cup soccer, technology could provide an opportunity to transcend political boundaries.

Lisa Barron, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: If you are cup crazy, you can catch more games coming up. The United States and South Korea both have games on Friday. Check out Web site CNNStudentNews.com for a link to the "Sports Illustrated" soccer page, for scores, schedules, and articles.

ANNOUNCER: Exploring our World, here now is "CNN Student News Perspectives."

WALCOTT: We are still pushing boundaries and perspectives, target Milky Way -- something space tourist Mark Shuttleworth knows a lot about. In April, the South African millionaire spent eight days on the International Space Station. On Monday, Shuttleworth received a hero's welcome when he returned to Capetown. People threw flowers and released balloons as Shuttleworth rode through the streets. What a reception!

But check this out. If you are used to the star treatment, screaming fans, paparazzi, a trip into space may be the new thrill you are looking for. Just ask the latest space tourist candidate.

Matthew Chance gives us the lowdown from Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Training for any mission to the stars is grueling, but star status offers no relief. Subject to weeks of rigorous tests, the monitors show Lance Bass feeling the crushing sensations of space travel. Now one-fifth of the pop band *NSYNC, has been deemed fit to fly. It won't be an easy ride.

LANCE BASS, *NSYNC: It was crazy. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you say? It definitely felt like you know how it's going to feel when you're...

BASS: Oh, you definitely know exactly what it's going to feel like reentering (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Cool.

BASS: Yes. You know, you see the pictures of the capsule coming in?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.

BASS: That's exactly what it's going to feel like, and you'll just feel everything melting around you. It's just like after the (UNINTELLIGIBLE), exactly the same. You don't feel a difference (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You did?

BASS: Yes. (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

CHANCE: A more rested pop idol and his corporate backer RadioShack told the Moscow press he is confident of an October flight, but under no illusions about the risks involved.

BASS: I mean, of course, there is always a danger with anything you do, and this is a very dangerous thing. But when you are surrounded by so many incredible, brilliant people, down to the little nitpicky, you know, problems, you know, that might arise, they will know what to do. And so I -- you know, I put my life in, you know, hundreds of people's hands, you know, at that moment.

CHANCE: A member of one of the world's most commercially successful boy bands, Bass has already started work on a series of TV specials about his cosmic journey. And if all goes to plan, this 23- year-old, with fame and fortune here on earth, could literally find a place in the stars.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Well, here is a quick note about some folks already in orbit. Shuttle Endeavor crew members aren't just watching wildfires. They are hard at work. Today, they plan a third space walk to repair a robotic arm on the International Space Station -- good luck, guys.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: A CNN viewers wants to know who determines what day and what time it is on the Space Station.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): When you are on the International Space Station or anything else that's in low- earth orbit, it's difficult to know whether it's night or day. As a matter of fact, there is a sunrise or a sunset every 45 minutes, so deciding what time it is is a bit arbitrary.

And so when they were deciding on the International Space Station and how to run it, the United States, the Russians, and the 14 other nations that are operating that Space Station decided the best arbitrary time to go with is Greenwich Mean Time, or universal time, and this is the time that is used commonly the world over by pilots at all levels of aviation. And so it seemed to be the easiest way to set time on the Space Station, where it could be any line you draw in the sand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: OK. Well, here is another reason to spray on that mosquito repellent. Scientists say cases of West Nile virus appear to be on the rise. The disease is transmitted by mosquitoes. Your chances of actually contracting the virus are fairly slim, but thankfully, that's not stopping scientists from attacking the problem.

CNN medical correspondent Rea Blakey reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REA BLAKEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Biosafety level 3, only a level four lab where ebola or anthrax could be handled has more safety features, but this is where lab techs check for the presence of West Nile virus, in birds, in horses, in human blood, a potentially deadly virus infection transmitted by mosquitoes.

(on camera): Already here in Virginia there have been at least two birds that have been at least two birds that have been identified as being positive with West Nile Virus, yes?

DR. ROBERT STROUBE, VIRGINIA HEALTH COMMISSIONER: Correct.

BLAKELY: How does that bode for the state? What do you think that means?

STROUBE: Well, they're a lot earlier. Last year we had birds that came in the summer, and the year before, they came in October, so they're getting earlier. This is spring, so I think that's going to mean we're probably going to have a lot more birds, and the more birds you have that show the more activity, the more likelihood humans could be infected.

BLAKEY (voice-over): West Nile virus was first detected in the United States in 1999. In 2000, it was on the move, reported in 12 states. Last year, it doubled its coverage, reported in 28 states in 2001.

Now, fast forward to this spring, and a couple of weeks of steady rain throughout Northeast into Midwest. Stream levels are above normal in these regions, indicated by the black and blue dots on this map. Lots of rain on heels of a mild winter create ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes.

STROUBE: The warmer the weather and the wetter the weather, the more favorable the environmental conditions are for having mosquitos.

DR. JIM HUGHES, CDC: We should assume that it's present in virtually all states east of the Mississippi. It's possible it will spread into Texas, into Oklahoma, to Kansas, and states to the north. It's also possible, because of the way birds migrate it could show up further to the west.

STROUBE: Chances of trying to control it are virtually nil at this point in time. It's too widespread.

BLAKEY: If there is one bright spot in this story, it's the fact that most people who do become a mosquito's main course won't get sick.

(on camera): The number of people, the percentage who actually come down with West Nile virus, is fairly small, isn't it?

STROUBE: Right, the people that are usually symptomatic are people that are older, with other types of conditions, maybe a little more prone to getting infections. Those are ones you see with clinical symptoms.

BLAKEY (voice-over): So repel the blood suckers as best you can, and avoid becoming a mosquito's buffet by staying indoors at dawn, dusk, and in the early evening.

Rea Blakey, CNN, Richmond, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: You may be a fan of roller blading, or maybe you whiz around on convertible skates that turn into shoes. You know, the kind with retractable wheels? Well, today we take you to the rink for another side of roller skating.

Our "Student Bureau" provides this look into an artistic and competitive sport.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAYME FITZGIBBON, ROLLER SKATER: I started skating because my parents were skaters, and they would come and I would have nothing to do as a baby at the rink. So they put skates on me.

JACQUELINE PINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While many were just beginning kindergarten, Jayme was already competing in this sport. Many artistic roller skaters begin at a young age.

SAM PORAZZO, ROLLER SKATER: I started when I was five or six. I am 26 now, so about 20 years.

FITZGIBBON: The first year we skated together, we worked really hard all year long and kind of proved a lot of people wrong.

PORAZZO: You know, they said to me, we really want a good match where we can stay together if we wanted to. FITZGIBBON: We did a lot of work and got so that we were skating really well together.

PORAZZO: And we were one victory away from making the world team, which is really good for your first year.

FITZGIBBON: And it usually doesn't happen for like the first, you know, four or five years that you are in world-class (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and we really happy (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

PINI: And in these past 20 years, Jayme and Sam have practiced an average of 12 hours a week and spent hundreds of dollars on uniforms, travel, and practices for a sport that has not come without sacrifice.

FITZGIBBON: I didn't have much of a high school experience that is a more typical high school experience because I was always at the rink. I have gone to the regional championship, and I have 29 regional medals and seven national medals and one world medal.

PINI: The rewards of artistic ice skating do not stop at medals.

JOHN VIOLA, ARTISTIC ROLLER SKATING COACH: Very, very good for health purposes, you know? And there are so many things it's good for. It keeps you off the street. If you are a world champion in roller skating in, say, Italy, you're a celebrity. I mean, they actually pay you to skate.

PINI: But with this worldwide popularity, is artistic roller skating an Olympic sport?

(on camera): Although the sport of artistic roller skating has been considered by the Olympic Committee, and despite its similarities to figure skating, it is yet to be in the Olympics.

(voice-over): So much (UNINTELLIGIBLE) artistic roller skating in the Olympics, for many reasons.

FITZGIBBON: With roller skating, we don't look, we don't skate around as easy. So when you watch it, we look like we are moving a lot slower than moving on ice, so it's less exciting to watch.

PINI: Some skaters believe that this is one sport that is declining, due to a lack of knowledge and publicity. But young skaters today are a sign that there may be a future for artistic roller skating.

CLAYTON ROADES, ROLLER SKATER: When you skate, it's just a lot of lot of fun. When you land, stuff. And I like people clapping for me and stuff.

PINI: But the clapping and competitions will never really end for Jayme and Sam, even when they step off the rink.

PORAZZO: I don't know how many more years I am going to actually skate, but I would like to coach. FITZGIBBON: Even when I stop skating and I move on with my life, I am going to have best friends and so many memories from this. It will be my life forever.

Jacqueline Pini, CNN, Student Bureau.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Well, it's about that time to remind you that we are moving up in the world.

FRIEDMAN: We sure are. We are moving up a half hour earlier on the clock. Starting Monday, June 17, you can catch us at 4:00 a.m. Eastern, 1:00 a.m. Pacific.

WALCOTT: That's right. So be sure to reset your alarm clock and/or your VCR or TiVo.

OK, that's it -- goodbye.

FRIEDMAN: See you tomorrow.

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