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CNN STUDENT NEWS For June 14, 2002

Aired June 14, 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 and in schools around the world, because learning never stops and neither does the news.

SUSAN FRIEDMAN, CO-HOST: First up, wildfires out west are burning and many parts of the nation are drying up.

SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: Over in Afghanistan, a leader emerges, the man and his mission make our headlines.

FRIEDMAN: Our regional tour takes us to Lithuania to visit a state within a state.

WALCOTT: Then, sweet dreams are made of this.

WALCOTT: And this is CNN STUDENT NEWS. Glad you are with us. I am Shelley Walcott.

FRIEDMAN: And I am Susan Friedman. Firefighters in Colorado battle a massive inferno, but officials say it could burn all summer.

WALCOTT: The Hayman Fire, as it's called, is burning in the foothills of the Eastern Rockies just south of Denver. Now, the blaze has scorched about 135 square miles. That's about three times the area of the city of San Francisco. And that's just one of the many fires raging through the state. Weary firefighters are getting some help from reinforcement crews.

With more, here is Keith Oppenheim.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody has their boots on, you've got your shirts, all of your PPE (ph).

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fire camp, an annual part of life in the western U.S., but in Colorado this year, the season arrived surprisingly early. At a time when crews would normally be in training, they are literally being moved into the line of fire. About 1,000 crews have been assembled to battle the 90,000 acre Hayman Fire, crews hopeful they can make a difference.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have some of the top leadership in the nation here on this fire, so it should go very smoothly. OPPENHEIM: There is some reason for confidence. The weather has cooled a bit, the winds less intense, and fire officials are sounding like they may be at the point where they can shift from defense to offense and start to surround the biggest blaze in Colorado's history.

JIM SHIRE, FIRE INFORMATION OFFICER: We still need some help from nature. The winds could kick this thing right back up, and we could lose everything that we have gained so far.

OPPENHEIM: Some Colorado residents have lost nearly everything they have. The Hayman Fire has been particularly troublesome on its south side, engulfing homes built in more-forested, rural areas.

Seasoned firefighters know they have to be careful. One described his recent experience at another Colorado fire, where nature overpowered people.

CLEVE WILLIAMS, FIREFIGHTER: It blew up on us so quick. You know, it just ran us out of the valley. We couldn't do a thing with it.

OPPENHEIM (on camera): More than 5,000 people are currently evacuated by the Hayman Fire, and the worry is that number could go up. The hope is if the Hayman Fire has to move at all, that it will move in a southwest direction away from residential areas.

Keith Oppenheim, CNN, reporting in Castle Rock, Colorado.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: The National Weather Service says the hot and dry conditions that fueled this summer's wildfires could hang on until September. Natalie Pawelski reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN ENVIRONMENTAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Where there is now a sandbar, there should be a river. After years of drought in Texas, the Rio Grande doesn't have enough water to make it all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

JO JO WHITE, IRRIGATION DISTRICT MANAGER FOR THE RIO GRANDE RIVER: Obviously we're very short on water and every drop of water going down that river belongs to somebody. It's been ordered by somebody, whether it's a farmer, a city, whatever.

PAWELSKI: As spring has turned toward summer, drought has spread across much of the U.S. and now affects about a third of the country, hardest hit the Four Corners area of the Southwest. Colorado records show the driest 12 months in history, or at least in the 107 years that records have been kept, and that's fueling a brutal fire season.

GOV. BILL OWENS (R), COLORADO: Well, it's a huge challenge. Colorado is, in fact, in a crisis right now.

PAWELSKI: Next door in New Mexico, water restrictions prompted one shopkeeper to put in freeze dried shrubs that don't require watering instead of thirsty flowers, and some parched lawns are getting spruced up with green paint.

For some New Mexicans, there's not even enough water to meet basic needs.

GOV. GARY JOHNSON (R), NEW MEXICO: Twenty communities statewide have got some real problems right now with water supply and that needs to be primary focus certainly is that we have water to be able to bathe and drink.

PAWELSKI (on camera): Other parts of the country are drier than normal too. Here in the Southeast, we're in the fourth year of a drought that stretches from Georgia to Virginia. And in the Northeast, despite spring rains that have eased things for some farmers, a lot more rain is needed.

PAWELSKI (voice over): But right now it's in the Southwest that the biggest worries lie.

JOHNSON: We are in the midst of 100-year drought.

PAWELSKI: The forests are tinder dry. The streams are running low, and it's looking like a long, hot summer. Natalie Pawelski, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: Interim leader Hamid Karzai will lead Afghanistan at least two more years. He was elected the country's interim president yesterday by the Loya Jirga, or Grand Council. Nearly 1,300 votes went his way, an overwhelming majority. Delegates at the meeting broke into applause when the results of the voting were announced. The Council is now try to decide how Afghanistan's provisional government will be set up.

Karzai has been serving as interim leader of the new Afghan regime since the fall of the Taliban about six months ago. Our Sarah Mozensaki (ph) has more on the leader, who stepped into the international limelight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARAH MOZENSAKI (ph), CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His mission began in a very dangerous time. In late October last year, Abdul Haq, one of the major opposition leaders in Afghanistan, was hanged by the Taliban trying to organize opponents inside Afghanistan. Braving death, Karzai took over the leadership of the opposition troops against the Taliban. He literally went from village to village in Taliban territory to reach his people and gain their support.

HAMID KARZAI: Sometimes using motorbikes, sometimes walking. I have been walking probably sometimes 18 hours a day, sometimes riding on a motorbike, sometimes walking through a whole riverbed for maybe four hours, sometimes driving in a pickup truck through valleys full of water and mountains. It was exciting. It was a mission. MOZENSAKI (ph): That mission started in secrecy from a base in Pakistan. It reached conclusion last December in Bonn, Germany. Delegates at the U.N.-sponsored talks signed an agreement to set up a post-Taliban government that represented Afghanistan's many regions and broad range of ethnic groups. The agreement established a 29- member interim cabinet headed by Karzai.

Since then, he has traveled around the globe to win international support and foreign aid. He met world leaders in Washington, Tokyo, in Beijing, Moscow, and through all of Europe. His goal: Bring peace back and make Afghanistan a better place for the next generations.

KARZAI: I want an Afghan man, an Afghan woman, an Afghan child to live like people in the rest of the world.

MOZENSAKI (ph): But to reach peace in a country that knows more about war than peace in the last 23 years is going to be difficult. Karzai, a Pashtun leader and son of a former senator in Afghanistan, served as a junior administer before the Taliban took over in the '90s. He has lived in the United States, and some of his family still lives in Maryland.

Today, Karzai confronts warlordism, terrorism and drug trafficking. Afghanistan is thought to be responsible for 75 percent of the world's opium, and 80 percent of the heroin traded on the streets of Europe. Karzai says he needs billions of dollars and a national army to rebuild Afghanistan.

So far, he is well-accepted in Afghanistan, perhaps because he has his hand on the foreign checks and the support of the international community, or perhaps because he doesn't carry any baggage from the past.

Sarah Mozensaki (ph), CNN STUDENT NEWS.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: Coming up, the United Nations food summit comes to a close. But was anything accomplished? We'll take a look in our "Week in Review."

WALCOTT: The American flag has enjoyed lots of different looks over the years, but for people of the United States, it's the meaning that holds true. Today is Flag Day, a patriotic day dedicated to the Stars and Stripes.

Garrick Utley now on the pride and passion of the American flag.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What is an American flag worth? Can you put a price on pieces of cloth cut into stars and stripes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The last chance at $230,000. Sold to you, madam, for $230,000. UTLEY: Seventy-five flags were sold at Sotheby's Auction House recently for a total of $1.3 million, a collection put together over many years with passion and patriotism by Thomas Connelly.

THOMAS CONNELLY, COLLECTOR: They are history. It's hard not to look at these and appreciate everything that it symbolizes, which is America.

UTLEY: Even before the dawn's early light on that September morning at Fort McHenry, the American flag had been constantly changing.

NANCY DRUCKMAN, SOTHEBY'S: This flag, which is called the Grand Union Flag, is probably the flag that George Washington would have carried across the Delaware.

UTLEY (on camera): What we see here is how the flag has evolved. Yes, there have always been 13 stripes with a few exceptions, and of course, one star for each state in the Union. But until 1912, there were no hard and fast rules as to how the stars were to be arranged, so in 1860, this flag maker put 31 stars in two concentric circles. Only two years earlier, 31 stars were arranged in the shape of one giant star. And in 1845, when Texas joined the Union, the stars were arranged in -- well, you figure it out.

(voice-over): The idea of a Flag Day grew out of the flood of immigrants arriving after the Civil War. How would they be turned into true patriotic Americans? In 1885, B.J. Cigrand at this schoolhouse in Fredonia, Wisconsin began giving each pupil a flag. Flag waving and flag raising ceremonies swept the country every June 14, the anniversary of the first flag act passed by the Continental Congress in 1777.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Red, white and blue, I am for you...

UTLEY: When the United States entered World War I, Flag Day was officially established by the government to boost patriotic fervor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): And should old acquaintance be forgot, keep your eye on the Grand Old Flag.

UTLEY: Sixty-four separate pieces of cloth are stitched into the current American flag. What those pieces add up to, what the flag means, is whatever each of us wants it to mean.

CONNELLY: People can express many things in the flags. They can express it in pride. They can express it in sacrifice, in artwork. They can express it in the things they like about America, and sometimes things they don't.

UTLEY: Americans have taken their flag into battle and planted it on the moon. And since that morning in September, it has been everywhere, so that once again, Americans could see that their flag is still there.

Garrick Utley, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Well, the World Cup brings together soccer super powers from around the globe. It also brings together soccer's super fans. It seems like every team that hits the field also comes equipped with avid spectators.

Tim Lister tells us about the lively gathering that came out for the match between Brazil and Costa Rica.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIM LISTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the Amazon to Suwon, it has been a long journey for one Brazilian. Alberto (ph) says his round trip from Akrate (ph) deep in the rainforest will be more than 48,000 kilometers.

For one day only, this Korean city is home to a Latin fiesta, and a contest in footballing terms between David and Goliath. The Tikas (ph) of Costa Rica, population three million, take on the giants of Brazil, where football is not a game, it's a way of life. For both sets of fans, it has been a long journey.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We worked a lot (ph). You can't imagine how hard we worked to come here and to help (ph) these dreams become true.

LISTER: Among the Brazilian fans, four Koreans, now residents in Sapollo (ph), who came here with their car in a container ship to support their adopted country and their home country.

The rivalry is good natured, a welcome feature of what is becoming known as the friendly World Cup.

Alberto (ph) from the Amazon says the World Cup has been incredibly well-organized, and the Korean people very welcoming. "They are really wonderful," he says.

The Costa Ricans have plenty of local support, and of course, Brazil has its Bangladeshi fan club. Some have spent their life savings getting here and buying tickets at $70 and upwards.

The game makes it all worth it, a feast of attacking football that yields seven goals, three of them superb, and a rousing comeback by Costa Rica. In the end, it wasn't enough for the Tikas (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I feel a little bit sad, because we wanted to go to the second round. And we have tickets to go there, to go to Japan. But at the same time, we feel very happy, because I think we had a very good game.

LISTER: The Brazil's disciples are growing confident that the World Cup can be theirs again.

(on camera): And so the Brazilian fans swivels its way onward, perhaps all the way to the World Cup finals. For the Costa Rican fans, it's the end of an incredible journey, the beginning of a long way home.

(voice-over): Tim Lister, CNN, Suwon, South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Exploring our world, here now is CNN "Student News Perspectives."

FRIEDMAN: This week in perspectives, we had explored Russia's economy, culture and politics. We end the week with a look back at its history and forward to its new philosophy. For centuries, Russia's attitude toward the West was chilling. For generations, a closed society prevailed. But as Garrick Utley points out, Russia is changing its tune toward the rest of the world's influence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is a city of Russia's past and perhaps a symbol of its future, beautiful St. Petersburg, the window to the West, it has been called, ever since czar Peter the Great built it in his attempt to modernize Russia by moving it closer to Europe and the West. Three centuries later, Vladimir Putin is trying to do the same thing.

STEPHEN SESTANOVICH, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: He sees Russia as having fallen very far behind. The Russians have a sense that they have been marginalized by the 20th century.

UTLEY: And by the centuries before them. The Russian's soul is rooted in the Eastern Church, not the Western. The Renaissance and the Enlightenment, which led to individual freedom in the industrial revolution, had little lasting impact in Russia.

The West meant danger and invasion from Napoleon, whose army captured Moscow and burned the Kremlin before he was defeated, to Germany, whose invasion in World War II led to 20 million dead in the former Soviet Union. No wonder Russia's leaders, whether czars or communists, saw the West as a threat, rather than a friend, an enemy which led Nikita Khrushchev to boast, "We will bury you."

(on camera): Well, it didn't quite work out that way. Today, Americans lose little sleep or pay much attention to a Russia, which is no longer a Cold War threat. Out of sight, out of mind. And yet, the United States is very much in the minds of Russians. A telling example of that is something we all witnessed.

(voice-over): Remember the dispute at the Winter Olympics when the Russian figure skating pair had to share the gold medal, because of the scoring of one judge? What most people in the West saw as justice, Russians saw as a deliberate humiliation. They felt weak, voiceless and angry.

LEONID TYAGACHIOV, PRES., RUSSIAN OLYMPIC CMTE. (through translator): If Russia is not needed in the big sport, in the Olympic sport, hey, we are ready to leave the Olympic village.

UTLEY: Through their battered history, Russians have learned not to trust. Polls show that up to 75 percent of them still mistrust the United States, but Vladimir Putin is telling them it's time to look to the future, not dwell in the past, a past in which American and Russian leaders met as equals. Today, the United States is clearly in the driver's seat. That's not easy for a proud leader or nation, once a superpower, to swallow.

Garrick Utley, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: Our transcontinental journey continues now as we travel to Italy, where the U.N. Conference on Hunger has ended. The summit ended with promises but no firm commitment.

CNN's Walter Rodgers files this report on the challenges and problems facing not the world's hungry, but the diplomats at the meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The United Nations Conference on World Hunger ended with perfunctory handshakes and promises to again try to reduce by half the number of hungry people in the world, but few believe it will happen.

SAROJENI RENGAM, NGO SPOKESPERSON: Far from analyzing and correcting the problems that have made it impossible to make progress over the past five years toward eliminating hunger, this new plan of action continues the error of more of the same failed medicine.

RODGERS: 815 million people on the planet go to bed hungry at night, 200 million in Africa, 54 million in Latin America, half a billion in Asia. Six years ago, this same United Nations Conference pledged to do something about it, a second hunger summit in Rome left many angry.

VANDANA SHIVA, INDIAN DELEGATE: The declaration was written before leaders started to speak. There has been no negotiation. This is not democracy. What's wrong with that meeting is it is dead. It's dead in spirit. It's dead in intellect.

RODGERS: Africans and Asian delegates blame the developed countries for their woes, but one of the few Western leaders here rejected the criticism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): There is an Italian proverb which says that God helps those who help themselves.

RODGERS: The U.N.'s World Food and Agriculture Organization, which sponsored the hunger summit, came in for scathing criticism after feeding delegates the likes of foie gras, lobster in vinaigrette and roast goose, prompting a lecture from the Italian premier the United Nations sponsors to cut their fat. SILVIO BERLUSCONI, ITALIAN PREMIER (through translator): It was (ph) practically a scientific formula whereby every ten years, each organization should lose weight, as it were, so Mr. Diouf, you've got to lose weight.

RODGERS: Jacques Diouf, the U.N. host, was stunned by the criticism, especially by suggestions the Summit on Hunger served no purpose.

JACQUES DIOUF, DIRECTOR GENERAL (through translator): Do you really think that all of these people have congregated here just to do nothing?

RODGERS: Often, the Summit on World Hunger broke into squabbles between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots, including those who have biotechnology to produce super crops like the Americans the Europeans who do not have that technology.

JACOB RAJ, INDIAN DELEGATE: This conference in any case is a necessity, because without this, we do not have also the least option to ventilate even (ph) our anger.

RODGERS (on camera): And while everyone here ate very well, there is little to suggest any of the world's hungry people will be eating any better, because of what was said or done here.

Walter Rodgers, CNN, at the United Nations Conference on Hunger in Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRIEDMAN: Our world tour continues as we turn to Lithuania. Five years ago, an art republic was founded in one of the oldest parts of the Lithuanian capital. Many artists live and create in this particular suburb, and they are trying to bring a little life to the area. Yearly festivals of alternative art and fashion are helping them do that.

Our Student Bureau has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LINA VAITTEKUNAITE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Art Republic of Sudate (ph) in Ujapis (ph), (UNINTELLIGIBLE) capital of Lithuania. The old town of Vilnius (UNINTELLIGIBLE) projected (ph) by UNESCO as unique culture and heritage.

But five years ago, Ujapis (ph) was (ph) silent. Thus, a group of residents did create the ambitious plan to make it the best in the city and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) formation of an independent art republic.

Arturo Zuokas, a businessman and current mayor of the city, was one of the founders.

ARTURO ZUOKAS, VILMUS MAYOR (through translator): I am sure Ujapis (ph) will soon become the equivalent of Monmark (ph) or Soho (ph), but not like they are in Paris or New York today, just 100 years ago.

ROMAS LILEIKIS, ART REPUBLIC PRESIDENT (through translator): Our people do things so seriously, but we like to do it with a smile, even if it's a formation of a new state.

VAITTEKUNAITE: Each spring a loud (ph) a celebration of the independence day takes place in Ujapis (ph). Despite the bureaucratic procedures (UNINTELLIGIBLE), it has become a famous festival of the city. Everyone must get Ujapis (ph), even ambassadors.

JOHN TEFT, U.S. AMB. TO LITHUANIA: Well, this is our official visit. We have been over many times. We have in fact people at our embassy who live in Ujapis (ph).

VAITTEKUNAITE: The symbol of Ujapis (ph) is a statute of an angel (UNINTELLIGIBLE) theaters and art galleries. Locals say it symbolizes the freedom of the spirit.

NIKODEMAS, ART REPUBLIC RESIDENT (through translator): Life is so joyful in Ujapis (ph). Nobody is in a hurry, and nobody says about the future. Life flows like a river.

VAITTEKUNAITE: Ujapis (ph) states (ph) ideology declares you can always live the way you want, even if it's different and seems strange through freedom ascends (ph) our life (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

Lina Vaittekunaite, CNN Seron (ph) bureau, Lithuania, Vilnius.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: OK. So "Where in the World" has come and gone, but we are not through yet.

FRIEDMAN: It's Friday, so we decided to leave you with a little treat.

WALCOTT: It's something chocolaty good on the outside and lusciously creamy on the inside.

FRIEDMAN: Jeanne Moos serves up the delicious details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Oh, beloved baked good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't reach any more!

MOOS: Towering icon, senior citizen of sandwich cookies: Oreo's 90th birthday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They look good for 90. They have spawned colorful Oreo offspring. The latest are mint and cream and peanut butter and chocolate, but the Oreo's roots remain black and white.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Little girls have pretty curls, but I like Oreos.

MOOS: Ninety years after its birth, the Oreo is not just a mouthful; it's an eyeful.

(on camera): Do you ever eat them, or do you just put them in your eye?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I eat them.

MOOS: You're not speaking today? Oh, your mouth is full.

(voice-over): The makers of Oreos celebrated this milestone with a p.r. Extravaganza.

CROWD: Happy birthday, dear Oreo.

MOOS: For some, what took the cake was the arrival of race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a decorated car. The event took place at New York's Chelsea Market, which used to be the old Nabisco building where the very first Oreos rolled off presses like this one.

(on camera): Making Oreos wasn't easy.

(voice-over): Over the years, the Oreo has become the darling of pop cookie culture, with references in films ranging from "Rounders" to "A Star is Born."

Barbara Streisand was sandwiched between black backup singers. Some even suspected the Oreo of being subliminally featured in "The Wizard of Oz."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those little henchmen for the wicked witch, they say "or-ree-oo," "or-ree-oo."

MOOS: Actually, the screenplay shows they were chanting o-ee- yah, eoh-ah.

But, where did Oreos get their name?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They took the "re" from word cream and inserted cream between two o's in chocolate.

MOOS: Much has been made of how folks eat Oreos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please don't fiddle with the Oreo middle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: Oreos even made it onto a birthday card that says "Too much of a good thing is just right on your birthday."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this. Whoa!

MOOS (on camera): Do you think you could do that? (voice-over): Sugar and calories did not seem to count here.

(on camera): Three cookies are 160, and you've had 12?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who cares!

MOOS: What happens if I tickle you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They may be 90, but kids still have eyes for Oreos.

(on camera): Usually, you put them in your mouth, not your eyes.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Well, those 90-year old cookies still look pretty good.

FRIEDMAN: They sure do, don't they? Don't forget, Monday, we are moving to an earlier time.

WALCOTT: That's right. Starting Monday, June 17, we'll be on at 4:00 a.m. Eastern, 1:00 a.m. Pacific. So get up a little earlier or reset your VCR.

FRIEDMAN: Whatever you do, don't miss us, and we'll see you back here on Monday.

WALCOTT: And have a great weekend, and don't forget (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Sunday -- thanks for watching.

FRIEDMAN: Bye-bye.

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