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CNN STUDENT NEWS For July 23, 2002

Aired July 23, 2002 - 04:00   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: Topping our news agenda, what's next for WorldCom? We'll have that in our "Lead Story."

SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: Coming up in "Chronicle," we follow the "African Footprint" in a celebration of life.

MCMANUS: Then, preservation of life. More from South Africa where kids are being educated about AIDS and HIV.

WALCOTT: Health issues still in the spotlight as Student Bureau focuses on eating disorders.

MCMANUS: Welcome to Tuesday's broadcast, everyone. I'm Michael McManus.

WALCOTT: And I'm Shelley Walcott.

WorldCom files the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history with $41 billion in debts.

MCMANUS: The Chapter 11 filing will enable WorldCom to hold its creditors at bay while the company reconfigures its debts and operations. WorldCom CEO John Sidgmore says he doesn't expect any disruptions in service and millions of customers are hoping that's true. Now you see WorldCom has operations in 65 countries with 20 million domestic long-distance customers and almost 2 million local telephone accounts.

Meanwhile, the telecom giant went to court for approval on $2 billion in funding.

CNN's Kitty Pilgrim has more on WorldCom's historic filing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): WorldCom spent the day in court asking for approval for funding that would keep it operating. But there are a lot of worries, even with that scenario.

The U.S. Justice Department is asking for an independent examiner to look for possible mismanagement, irregularities and fraud, something WorldCom President John Sidgmore today addressed.

JOHN SIDGMORE, PRESIDENT & CEO, WORLDCOM: We have turned over every conceivable questionable item that we have found, not only to our own special investigator, but also to the SEC and the Department of Justice and the various other agencies that are now taking a look at this.

PILGRIM: President Bush discounted a further ripple effect in the markets because of the WorldCom banking issue.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the market has probably already adjusted for that. What I'm worried about in the WorldCom bankruptcy is employees that work for WorldCom.

PILGRIM: The local carriers are concerned WorldCom may leave them in the lurch. The U.S. Telecom Association today asked the FCC to make sure local carriers would get assurances of payment, writing: "Because of its size and national customer base, a WorldCom bankruptcy would affect virtually every domestic telecom service provider."

SCOTT CLELAND, THE PRECURSOR GROUP: There's a lot of ripple effects in the sense that this is the world's -- the United States' largest bankruptcy in history. And so it will spook people, much like Enron and Global Crossing spooked people. It will, you know, make people question other telecom companies because in telecom, by law, all these companies are interconnected. They must do business with each other. And the Internet forces them to be all interconnected.

So problems with one are like a virus that spread to all.

Kitty Pilgrim, CNN Financial News, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: News of the WorldCom bankruptcy is just adding to the anxiety of many investors.

CNN's Bill Schneider looks at how the market is affecting politics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: They ought to wake up and realize that the Bush/Cheney economic policy is a total catastrophe for America. They ought to tear it up and start all over again.

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Well, now, hold on. It's the stock market that's tanking, not the economy. Does a bear market mean a bad economy? Not always. As an economist once said: "The stock market has forecast nine of the last five recessions." Instead of the stock market dragging the economy down, President Bush hopes the economy will pull the stock market up.

Do Democrats have a plan to do that? Sure. Two things.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), NORTH CAROLINA: We can do that by getting the federal budget back in a disciplined state, which it is not right now.

SCHNEIDER: By doing what? Cutting spending, rolling back the tax cut? Democrats aren't saying. What else can they do to get the market up?

EDWARDS: We can do that by doing something about corporate responsibility.

SCHNEIDER: Democrats may have a winner there.

GOV. HOWARD DEAN (D), VERMONT: Republicans have essentially engaged in a permissiveness toward corporate misdeeds.

SCHNEIDER: Democrats can tout a strong record on the economy. As Al Gore said this weekend, "I don't care what anybody says, I think Bill Clinton and I did a damn good job." But the public still thinks the Republicans can do a better job improving the economy.

So have the Democrats got the economic issue back? The answer is, not yet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: And from WorldCom on the Web to Pope John Paul II. He is on the road again, and this journey will mark his 97th trip abroad. The Pontiff will travel to Canada, Guatemala and Mexico but will not visit the U.S. this time around. His arrival in Canada coincides with World Youth Day.

Now later this week, the Pope will welcome pilgrims from 173 countries. But there's plenty of downtime built into his agenda.

Our Jim Bittermann has an update on the most traveled Pope and his health.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Over the weekend on the eve of his next trip, Pope John Paul II urged young people not to be afraid of a world shaken by tragedy and conflict, a message the Pope reinforces by example. Because despite his ever- weakening physical appearance, he is carrying on unafraid, determined to carry out his calling with a missionary zeal.

In his nearly 24 years as Pope, he has traveled three times the distance from the earth to the moon. A man once known as the "great communicator" and "God's athlete." But especially in this last year, each passing holiday, each new trip has been marked with a decline in his mobility and his speaking ability.

PADRE JOSE DE VERA, JESUIT INFORMATION DIRECTOR: I think the Pope would be happy to die with the boots on in one of his trips. And those close to him might think they interpret him very well, it will be very disappointing for him to die in the bed.

BITTERMANN: But talk around the Vatican now turns on how best to accommodate (UNINTELLIGIBLE) handicaps to keep the Pope effective as long as possible.

(on camera): During his six days in Toronto, for example, there are barely 15 hours of public events on the Pope's schedule. And depending on the progression of John Paul's illness, generally thought to be a form of Parkinson's disease, still further accommodations may have to be made in the future in order to keep the Pope active.

(voice-over): In the end, perhaps the most debilitating question being raised about the 82-year-old Pope's health is not how long but how much the Pope can remain involved in decision making.

DE VERA: I see many documents coming out of the Vatican of the different congregations and all of them, of course, with the approval of the Pope. Well people I think legitimately question if the Pope really has studied these things.

BITTERMANN: And so while no one doubts John Paul's determination to carry on, doubts are beginning to surface about his control over the church.

Jim Bittermann, CNN, Vatican City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: In "News Focus" today, the nation of Burundi. It is one of the poorest, smallest and most densely populated countries on the African continent. It is also in the eighth year of a brutal civil war, a conflict that has killed more than 200,000 people and created hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Burundi's people are mostly made up of two main ethnic groups: the Hutus, who compose about 85 percent of the population and are mostly farmers, and the Tutsis, who number 14 percent and have historically dominated the government and the army. War broke out between the Hutus and the Tutsis in 1993 when Tutsi paratroopers assassinated Burundi's first democratically elected Hutu leader. The two groups signed a power sharing agreement last year, but the fighting persists, even with the transitional government in place.

Femi Oke has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEMI OKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the start there were signs that the transitional government was in trouble. Two of the main Hutu dominating rebel groups rejected the power sharing arrangement and stepped up attacks in the days leading up to the government's instillation. Today, those attacks have intensified.

MARC NTETURUY, BURUNDI AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: The rebels are conducting attacks on the civilian, making ambushes to the passengers in the buses on the road. So the situation, in terms of security, is still bad.

OKE: The government says its forces are battling rebels in the central and eastern parts of the country. Making things even more complicated, just this week Burundi's defense minister accused Tanzania of supporting the rebels. Tanzania is one of the mediators in the conflict. Its foreign minister denies the Burundian allegation.

The last peace deal brokered by former South African President Nelson Mandela was signed in the Tanzanian town of Arusha back in 2000. And Tanzania was supposed to play host to more talks this week. But the Burundian government pulled out saying the upsurge in fighting makes peace negotiations impossible.

One of the rebel groups, the Forces for the Defense of Democracy, or FDD, says it is ready to negotiate with the government, but the group is refusing to stop attacks in the absence of a cease-fire deal.

JEROME NDIHO, SPOKESPERSON FOR FDD: Our movement has (UNINTELLIGIBLE) leaders to negotiate essentially a cease-fire next week. And if the cease-fire is signed, our leader (UNINTELLIGIBLE) will sign the cessation of hostilities and our movements in the FDD will be ready to cease -- to cease -- to stop fighting. But we think that we have first of all negotiate.

OKE: International observers say the peace process is almost at stalemate and nearly all sides appear unwilling to compromise.

FRANCOIS GRIGNON, INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: The Burundian army wants a cease-fire whereby the rebellion is crushed and they don't have to accept genuine and significant reform for the security services for the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) department of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in the transition institutions. They want a cease-fire whereby they are going to keep the leadership of the Hutu community and whereby they don't see a rebellion that becomes a direct political threat for the future after the transition. And of course on the other hand, the rebellion wants a cease-fire on (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

OKE: There are some who say the Arusha Accord is still Burundi's best hope. Under the agreement, Tutsi President Pierre Buyoya will serve an 18-month term. He'd then cede power to a Hutu president who will hold office until elections are held in 2004.

This week, the president for the United Nations Security Council, British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, warned against any attempt to undermine the coalition.

Mediators hope to reschedule peace talks and somehow find a way to get all the sides back to the negotiating table.

Femi Oke, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Well coming up later in the show, African teens speak out to help their respective countries. I'll bring you that in "Perspectives."

But right now, Mike's going to introduce a story that gives us a taste of African culture -- Mike. MCMANUS: It sure does, Shelley.

Now "African Footprint" weaves a rich tapestry of sights and sounds. It is a cultural celebration that has been turned into an award winning musical and it's taking the world by storm. During the next several weeks, the production will be hitting theaters in four China provinces and South African artists couldn't be more excited.

Paul Tilsley looks at this theatrical export.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SINGING)

PAUL TILSLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These powerful thoughts have been expressed to over three million theater goers in over 800 sold out performances in Johannesburg alone. A Chinese Embassy official happened to be in the audience one night. He was so impressed with the production's uniquely African message of upliftment that he arranged to take the show to China. And this coming week, "African Footprint" begins a nationwide tour of China.

AMBASSADOR LIU CUIJIN (ph), CHINA: The spirit which has expressed from the performance is really encouraging. It's something symbolic. The "African Footprint" we think that means the marching steps of Africa.

TILSLEY (on camera): Interest in most stage productions wanes in the weeks and months following an opening night. But more than two years into the run of "African Footprint," interest in this production is still increasing.

(voice-over): From China, the cast return to Johannesburg. And if all goes as planned, they might move on to Australia, New Zealand and Japan and then, a three-year tour of the United States.

So what's so special about this African musical?

THULI MOLALOSE, CAST MEMBER: When "African Footprint" I'm an -- I'm an ambassador for black people because I sing it for me, for myself, for who I am, OK. It's got nothing to do with like other people that are in the cast. I sing "Footprint" for me, and yes (ph), and my footprint, my origin and everything.

(SINGING)

TILSLEY: For the four years since it started rehearsals, "African Footprint" has reflected the multi-racial reality of today's South Africa.

BYRON-LEE OLIVATO, CAST MEMBER: If you got -- if you've got the soul, you know, it's there. It's the union between my brothers and my sisters (UNINTELLIGIBLE), yes. Never experienced before.

TILSLEY: New numbers like Imoni Palsulu (ph) are still being shaped and put into the show as the mood of audiences has changed radically since the show first opened.

RICHARD LORING, PRODUCER: I think the world has changed since September the 11th. I think there's been a dramatic change in terms of who people are, what they're looking for, their values, what they're looking for from maybe a show such as "African Footprint" and simply the message of the show is a celebration of life.

TILSLEY: As one of the original cast members, Alethea Knight has been celebrating for night after night for four years.

ALETHEA KNIGHT, CAST MEMBER: I love this show. There's -- it's like a drug, you come back to it everyday with all the aches and pains but you're back here on this stage and you give it your all.

TILSLEY: Many find "African Footprint's" message so compelling that they've been to see it more than 30 times. I'm just a beginner, I've only seen it 17 times. And in the words of one local columnist, "it's still as explosive as an African sunset."

(SINGING)

TILSLEY: Paul Tilsley for CNN, Johannesburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

WALCOTT: Well so far during our survey of the African continent we've touched on the topics of war and art. As our discussion continues now, we turn our attention to Africa's children. Many of them have had their lives disrupted by war, famine or disease. It's a problem that was recently addressed at the United Nations in New York, but national ambassadors weren't the only ones talking.

Here again is Femi Oke with some young Africans who are speaking up for themselves.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OKE (voice-over): Africa's children, vulnerable in an uncertain world.

CAROL BELLAMY, UNICEF DIRECTOR: The victims of war these day are children. The face of war largely is a matter of women and children, not military anymore.

OKE: UNICEF Director Carol Bellamy was part of a recent United Nations Children's Summit in New York. And so was 18-year-old Akela Betty Opinye (ph). She lives in a camp for internally displaced people in Gulu District (ph) in Northern Uganda. This area continues to see intermittent skirmishes between government forces and the rebel laws resistance army.

AKELA BETTY OPINYE: Once you are in the protected camp, you are not allowed to go beyond the camp and to dig or to till land so that you have access to food. So these are the various problems that our people are facing. And I want the world to know about it and above all, to know about the suffering of our abducted children by the rebels.

OKE: Akela is co-founder and coordinator of the Gulu Youth for Action, an organization that aims to promote the rights of young people. She's also involved in AIDS education and works with the commission for refugee women and children. Akela travels the world demanding action to protect the children of Uganda.

Her story is similar to that of 15-year-old Liberian Toni Jones (ph). She and her family lived in a Liberian refugee camp during the '90s when her childhood friend was abducted and forced into a rebel army. She now lives in New York.

TONI JONES: The major difference now is probably the opportunity. And here there's an opportunity for better schooling, healthcare and a safer lifestyle.

OKE: A safer lifestyle for her, but Toni has not forgotten her roots. She started her own non-governmental organization called Brighter Tomorrow to protect children from armed conflict. She's led several letter-writing campaigns against using children as soldiers. The United Nations says Africa consistently lags behind other parts of the world when it comes to gains made in child development since 1990.

War is just one of the many obstacles to the development of children around the world. Others include famine, malnutrition, communicable diseases and the lack of educational opportunities.

Geraldine Comanda (ph) came to the summit from a rural community in Kenya. The 14-year-old is actively involved in programs aimed at helping children overcome obstacles to their development.

GERALDINE COMANDA: I escort (ph), you know, five kilometers out from our place where I walk everyday. Children there suffer a lot during the rainy season because in there the schools do not have windows nor textbooks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Now one of the greatest problems facing children in sub-Saharan Africa is AIDS. According to the United Nations, that region is home to more than 70 percent of young people living with HIV or AIDS. Ignorance about the epidemic remains pervasive among young people with half of new infections occurring among them. Efforts are underway to change that.

CNN's Charlayne Hunter-Gault and camerawoman Cynde Strand report from the South African front lines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT (voice-over): This is "No Monkey Business." Mac Monkey has just learned he has a cold germ. "No Monkey Business" is meant to be fun. How else to do you get the attention of 4, 5 and 6 year olds?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If your body's happy, you are too.

HUNTER-GAULT: But it's also about serious business, like HIV/AIDS.

LILLY LEOPARD: Maybe we can play when your cold's better.

MAC MONKEY: No way, I'm never playing with you again, Lilly Leopard. You are dirty and you've got germs living in you.

HUNTER-GAULT: Enter Mac Monkey's adult friends.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lilly has a different type of germ called HIV.

MAC MONKEY: HIV.

JANINE CAMPBELL, PUPPETEER: Not HIV.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not HIV -- H-I-V.

MAC MONKEY: HIV.

HUNTER-GAULT: Mac's adult friends teach him and these children and children like them all over the country about HIV/AIDS, especially the need for tolerance.

LILLY LEOPARD: Don't worry, I'll look after you.

HUNTER-GAULT: These performers go wherever the problem exists and it exists everywhere in white as well as black areas, in the suburbs and the rural areas.

GEORGE MANOLIOS, PRINCIPAL: It's a pity that children have to be made aware of these things, but I think it's, as I said, the opposite is worse.

MAC MONKEY: Wow! So there's like a big army of power monkeys inside me.

HUNTER-GAULT: Educators seeing the need for early basic training in this generation's war on HIV/AIDS.

CAMPBELL: This is a war that we're winning and we're trying to and spread to child -- children.

MAC MONKEY: And we can take all the South Africans, South Africa is going to win the war.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

HUNTER-GAULT (on camera): Did you learn something from this play?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You mustn't play with people's blood when they're hurt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have to be kind and you have to be respectful.

HUNTER-GAULT: Talking about HIV and AIDS with otherwise carefree young people like these might seem a little bit strange. But when I asked how many of them knew someone with HIV or AIDS, a lot of little hands went up.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN, Benoni, South Africa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: Time now to address a very different health issue, this one in the United States. The obsession with weight continues to invade society. A disturbing number of American boys and girls have an eating disorder. In fact, studies indicate eight million people in the U.S. suffer from eating disorders. The problem is most prevalent among young women, young people influenced by modeling, movies and magazine ads.

But as Chari Futterman and Kiley Lane found out, the solutions can be individual and specific.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KILEY LANE, CNN STUDENT BUREAU: Eating disorders in America and around the world are on the rise.

CHARI FUTTERMAN, CNN STUDENT BUREAU: Many young women today are more afraid of becoming fat than losing their parents, nuclear war or cancer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): While trying to maintain a healthy weight through diet and exercise, some take it too far. The result is no longer a thin healthy body, but an eating disorder.

KAREN POYNOR, RECOVERING ANOREXIC: Well I didn't admit that I had an eating disorder until my early 20s. But looking back, I know that anorexic behavior started when I was in -- about 15, 15 and a half.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Today, Karen is on the road to recovery. But when she was suffering with anorexia, she wished she was more aware of the harmful effects the disorder had on her body.

POYNOR: But I think if at that point somebody had told me, you know, what your body is doing, your body is actually eating itself up, you're losing muscle, you're losing bone, at least it would have stuck. And even if I hadn't acted differently at 17, I think I would have started a little earlier.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Girls suffering from an eating disorder tend to believe that the thinner they are the happier they will be, but that's not the case. AVIVA LEEBOW, FORMER ANOREXIC: You don't get more friends, you don't get to go out more, you don't become more sociable. Instead, you become the person you never wanted to be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The societal pressures on teenagers and young adults to act and look a certain way are overwhelming. Too often youth feel that they have to be perfect in order to fit society's image. Hollywood reinforces the idea that thin is beautiful.

LEEBOW: Because our society promotes skinniness and models and you know we airbrush pictures in magazines so that they're not what they really are so we think that people can actually be this unrealistic image and so we try to fit these unrealistic images.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are ways that we can curb this rising trend. Prevention starts with changing the mindset of society.

DR. DINA ZECKHAUSEN, PSYCHOLOGIST: The fact is teenagers are supposed to gain weight. That is necessary for girls to start menstruating and to become women. It's important that they gain some weight. You need to remind your daughters that they're bright and they're funny and they're capable and they're talented in a lot of other things besides just the way that they look.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those who suffer from an eating disorder are not alone. For those who want it, help is readily available. For those who don't, the consequences are severe.

ZECKHAUSEN: It's important if you notice these signs to go ahead and say something to your friend. Even though they may not admit it right away, they may be very defensive in fact, you could be saving their life potentially.

FUTTERMAN (on camera): Anorexia and other related eating disorders affect over eight million people in the United States.

LANE (on camera): Without treatment, over one million will die.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Society may never change, but the individual has an opportunity to do so.

LEEBOW: I am very, very happy for once in my life. You know I feel like I'm in control of not being in control. It makes life much easier just to go along with things. I go out, I have fun with friends now and I really like who I am. I feel much better about myself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Self-confidence and a positive body image are necessary to prevent and overcome an eating disorder.

FUTTERMAN: For CNN Student News, I'm Chari Futterman.

LANE: And I'm Kiley Lane.

(END VIDEOTAPE) "Where in the World" about the size of Maryland, original inhabitants were Pygmies, once a part of German East Africa? Can you name this country? Burundi.

MCMANUS: And we leave Burundi now and head to tomorrow's African destination Kenya where we'll land in an eco-friendly vacation spot -- Shelley.

WALCOTT: And just how well is eco-tourism working? Tune in to tomorrow's "Business Report" to find out.

MCMANUS: Definitely.

WALCOTT: As for today, we're done.

MCMANUS: Have a great day.

WALCOTT: Bye-bye.

MCMANUS: See you tomorrow.

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