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CNN STUDENT NEWS For June 3, 2002
Aired June 03, 2002 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN STUDENT NEWS seen in schools around the world because learning never stops and neither does the news.
MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST: Here is a quick rundown of the stories in today's show. First up, as tensions mount between India and Pakistan, find out who's not talking and why.
SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: From fighting to fanfare, we focus our attention on the Grand Jubilee of her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II.
MCMANUS: Get a new "Perspective" on inner space as we take a virtual trip inside the human body.
WALCOTT: And please pass the pupu. Don't know what pupu is stick around for Student Bureau to get the lowdown.
MCMANUS: We're glad you're starting the week with us here at CNN. I'm Michael McManus.
WALCOTT: And I'm Shelley Walcott. India and Pakistan reach the brink of war and that's where we begin today.
The world is watching South Asia closely, hoping nuclear rivals Pakistan and India will agree to peace talks. Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee arrived in Kazakhstan yesterday for a regional summit that begins today. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will also attend the 16-nation summit. Now even with the leaders of both nations at the conference in Kazakhstan, prospects of talks appear grim. Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to meet with each leader individually and urge a joint meeting. The hope is that the two leaders can resolve the dispute over Kashmir.
CNN's Mike Chinoy has some background on that deep-rooted conflict coming up, but first, Tom Mintier has the latest leading up to the summit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Well he had nothing to say in public as he left Islamabad for the summit in Kazakhstan. The Pakistani president appeared relaxed as he said goodbye to gathered military and government officials at the airport. The mood in Kazakhstan may be different. The Indian government has already indicated there will be no meeting with the Pakistani president there.
President Pervez Musharraf told CNN in an exclusive interview that he was willing to meet the Indian Prime Minister in an effort to reduce tensions.
PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, PRESIDENT OF PAKISTAN: It depends more on Prime Minister Vajpayee. I have no problems in meeting him, and I've been saying that all along. So this question needs to be put to him.
MINTIER: While Pakistan appears willing to take steps to open talks with India, it has also moved troops from the border with Afghanistan to fortify positions along the Indian border.
MUSHARRAF: We haven't moved the entire force. There is no change on the Bethlehem border. In effect -- the effects are not -- there is no change. But if the situation worsened, indeed (ph), yes we have plans to move more from the western border.
MINTIER: Along the Line of Control tensions remain high as nearly a million soldiers face off across hostile territory.
COL. NAUMAN (ph) SAEED, PAKISTANI ARMY: It's pretty tense, but we are fully prepared to take on India (ph).
MINTIER: Intense shelling by both sides in recent weeks has added to the toll in both human and economic losses.
Despite claims by India, Pakistan's president says there are no cross border infiltrations from the Pakistani side. A pledge backed up by at least one Pakistani military officer who controls the area.
BRIG. GEN. IFTIKHAR KHAN, PAKISTAN AREA COMMANDER: There is no border crossing or Line of Control crossing from (UNINTELLIGIBLE) responsibility.
MINTIER: While both sides trade charges and artillery shells, some have made the decision to get out of the way of potential conflict. The United Nations is sending people out of the region. And other diplomatic missions, including the United States, Canada, Great Britain, are doing the same. While both India and Pakistan both say war is not in the plans, it seems many don't agree and are not planning to stick around to find out.
Tom Mintier, CNN, Islamabad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): India and Pakistan have been fighting over Kashmir for more than 50 years. Its lush valleys and rugged mountains the scene of conflict dating back to the birth of both nations in 1947. Britain gave up its empire and the subcontinent was partitioned into predominately Hindu but officially secular India and overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan. Each side laid claim to the breathtakingly beautiful Himalayan region of Kashmir. After three full-scale wars and almost nonstop skirmishes, the two countries are again on the brink of all out confrontation. A million troops facing off along the line dividing the Pakistani controlled part of Kashmir and that held by India amid fears that this time the conflict could go nuclear.
(on camera): What makes this problem so intractable is that for both India and Pakistan, Kashmir is more than just a territorial dispute, it is at the heart of each country's national identity.
(voice-over): Largely Muslim Kashmir was widely expected to join Pakistan in 1947, but its Hindu Maharaja at the time opted instead to stay with India, triggering the first of three wars, leaving the territory split in two. For Pakistan, which defined itself as the homeland for South Asia's Muslims, it was and remains a devastating blow to its sense of nationhood.
BERNARD IMRASLY (ph), (ph): It has a very insecure sense of self and therefore it needs to kind of cling to this identity, to this Islamic identity. And Kashmir is a very essential part for this.
CHINOY: That helps explain why successive Pakistani governments have supported the cause of Islamic militants fighting to end Indian rule in Kashmir to the extent in the view of many diplomats and observers of offering military and logistical help.
But for India, Kashmir has become a symbol of its aspiration to be a multi-religious, multi-cultural society.
KARAN SAWHJEY (ph), POLITICAL ANALYST: India believes that a secular state is impossible without Kashmiri-Muslim citizens of India.
CHINOY: Caught in the middle, the people of Kashmir themselves. Most have little desire to be ruled from New Delhi and resent the Indian army troops deployed to combat the militants. But there's also little support for the Pakistani trained fundamentalists who have come to dominate the insurgency. And there's a profound weariness after years of violence.
With leaders in both capitals locked into hard line positions, though, and passions on both sides running high, the bloodshed that has scared Kashmir and threatened the stability of South Asia for decades shows no sign of ending.
Mike Chinoy, CNN, New Delhi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: And stay with us for "Perspectives." Amidst all the talk of conflict and war between India and Pakistan there are pledges for peace. We'll tell you how a group of Indian dancers are spreading that message right here in the U.S. That's coming up in our "Culture Report."
WALCOTT: It's a sign of new political times in Afghanistan, delegates from five provinces are meeting in Kandahar to narrow down representatives for the loya jirga. Now that's the grand council that will select Afghanistan's new government later this month. Most Afghans say they support the loya jirga, but the council says some of their members have been threatened.
Lisa Rose Weaver reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Commerce is flowing through this trade city again. In Kandahar, business is better than in the first floundering months of the new local government. But merchants are only guardedly optimistic that Afghanistan's loya jirga or grand council will be enough to stabilize the politics.
This merchant says he'll give the loya jirga a chance, but only if the government works on what the people of an impoverished nation care about most, repairing roads, providing more food and rebuilding the country.
Most Afghans are also looking for security, a concept linked by necessity with the coalition presence here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well I feel we should stay here until they make our -- I feel (ph) they should vote their conscience (ph). This far (ph) -- this few years this is necessary.
WEAVER: The Afghan public and officials agree that international peacekeepers outside the capital are also necessary to back up the political process the loya jirga is trying to launch. But so far the answer is no to sending peacekeepers elsewhere in Afghanistan.
Now on the brink of creating its political future, the government faces resistance to the loya jirga, something the authorities are anxious to downplay.
MOHAMMAD MOUSAF PASHTOOH (ph), (ph): This is the least that we should expect from the warlords. End (ph) that intimidation, forceful in the sense of the political intimidation, even they might use some social enplanes purchasing or say buying the sub-social enplanes to intimidate them (ph). This we should expect and we were expecting such a thing.
WEAVER (on camera): Despite the limitations on a political process in the midst of weak security and uneven consensus, most people in Kandahar do seem to believe that the loya jirga is a vital first step toward national unity or at the very least, the start of the rule of law and the end of the rule of the gun.
(voice-over): Kandahar remembers its past. Once the Soviets pulled out, competing anti-Communist warlords made the city their front line. When the Taliban entered, they provided security for the first time in 14 years. The real test for Afghanistan's new government may well be down the line, months or years from now when coalition forces leave or dwindle. And what lies beneath the surface calm of today becomes the Afghan reality of tomorrow.
Lisa Rose Weaver, CNN, Kandahar.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: And now some useful and fun news just for you. First things first, an important notice for our viewers. You have two weeks before our time changes for good. Time change you ask? Yes, time change. We're moving back one half hour to bring you a world of news and information even earlier. That's at 4:00 a.m. Eastern Time, 1:00 a.m. out on the West Coast. That's beginning June 17. Set your VCRs.
OK, Web news now. Remember Dr. Seuss? When you were young you probably had a favorite Dr. Seuss book. Well head to "News For You" on our Web site, CNNSTUDENTNEWS.com, and read about a memorial fit for a well-read author. My favorite, "Green Eggs and Ham."
And now over to Shelley with some news from London now -- Shelley.
WALCOTT: Thanks, Michael.
A fiery intrusion yesterday put a cloud over Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee celebration. Now officials say a fire broke out in the attic of Buckingham Palace. The Royal Family wasn't home at the time. Others inside were evacuated as a precaution.
The Queen is being honored for her years on the throne. The festivities take place between May and July.
CNN's Walter Rodgers brings us a look at her 50-year reign.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Once upon a time half a century ago, there was a beautiful princess who became a queen. She had a golden throne. But be not fooled by the jewels, good Queen Elizabeth inherited a poor kingdom. But she did not remain poor, and she did inherit an empire and her people adored her.
HAROLD BROOKS-BAKER, BURNES PELRACE (ph): The British monarchy was considered absolutely sacrisent (ph), and it is as close to being in a position of a deity as anything other than the Japanese Imperial Family which was even more so.
RODGERS: But there emerged in the east a much more powerful empire. Some called it an evil empire. It pointed deadly missiles at the Queen's realm. And there was across the ocean a second empire even more powerful, which long ago broke away from the Queen's kingdom. Compared to those greater empires, the good Queen's realm got smaller.
ROBERT JOBSON, ROYALS COMMENTATOR: The world around the Queen has changed tremendously since she took the -- took -- descended to the throne 50 years ago. But I think there's no -- there's not the deference there was. There's certainly not the respect there was for the monarchy.
RODGERS: Still the good Queen Elizabeth lives today and the other emperors are in cemeteries. And if her empire got smaller, her family got larger and larger and larger. And the good Queen had dogs, Corgis, that sometimes behaved better than her children.
SIMON PERRY, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: They're treated like kings. Carried everywhere by footman and so on and always taken with her up to Scotland and Norfolk and what have you.
RODGERS: The good Queen had many problems with her family, especially her sister Princess Margaret who wanted to marry a married man. But the good Queen acted wisely, letting her sister decide if she really wanted to give up being a princess.
BROOKS-BAKER: Princess Margaret didn't wish to do that. She had the choice, all right, and she decided against it.
RODGERS: The princess' beau, Group Captain Peter Townsend, got the royal boot.
Other princesses arose in the realm, however, more glamorous and adored and none more so than the Lady Diana who wrote her own fairytale marrying the Queen's son, a prince, and almost writing the good Queen out of existence.
BROOKS-BAKER: The Princess of Wales was definitely an unguided missile and a two-edged sword in every conceivable way. And my own feeling is that if she had remained on this earth for another few years, the monarchy would have collapsed.
RODGERS: In those days, the good Queen Elizabeth did not always act wisely. When the beautiful Princess Diana died, the good Queen Elizabeth was slow to notice. When some very evil men perpetrated the greatest mass murder in British history, the Queen ignored it, leaving some believing she was cold and unfeeling. And it was only when another terrible tragedy struck across the ocean last year that the Queen rose to the occasion displaying a human touch. That day she became a queen in many hearts.
The good Queen Elizabeth does not say much. History may remember her most for these words.
QUEEN ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF ENGLAND: 1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. It has turned out to be an amous horibilious (ph).
RODGERS: Loosely translated, that's a bum year. Her castle caught fire and three of her four children's marriages went up in smoke. Perhaps worst of all, she had to pay taxes for the first time. Her subjects had forgiven her all except dodging taxes.
JOBSON: The queen was the first monarch in modern times not to pay taxes.
RODGERS (on camera): Yet the people still love their queen because she is theirs. And while the Americans have Hollywood and the Italians have opera, the British know their monarchy is the best of all.
Walter Rodgers, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."
MCMANUS: In science class sometimes you have to dissect a frog or some other little thing to see how the insides work. For medical students, it's a human body they explore, not the easiest task. So what if you could call up a 3-D version on the computer to practice or even assist in the real deal? It's coming soon to a computer screen near you.
Lorie Hirose takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARL REINIG, VISIBLE HUMAN PROJECT ENGINEER: I can make a cut right here. I'm going to sit on top of the patella.
LORI HIROSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Karl Reinig is operating, but instead of cutting open a patient, he's slicing through layers of computerized data.
REINIG: It's really (UNINTELLIGIBLE) just a flight simulation in that you want all your problems to occur here so you can learn here. You don't want to be learning on a patient.
HIROSE: With these devices, he can get the same feel as real surgery thanks to data from the Visible Human Project.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the visible human male.
HIROSE: Since 1991, scientists have been creating a virtual tour of the inside of the human body.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's an artery running down.
HIROSE: To create the visible human, a frozen cadaver is injected with dye. A specially calibrated machine slices it in layers as small as one-tenth of a millimeter. Each layer is photographed.
DR. VICTOR SPITZER, VIRTUAL HUMAN PROJECT: See this is what photographs of the inside of the body look like and that seems to generate a lot of interest.
HIROSE (on camera): So much interest the Visible Human Project is posting its findings on the Internet. The University of Colorado Health Science Web site is hosting the project, and scientists say this is just the beginning.
SPITZER: If that is the person that you want to do surgery on tomorrow, let's make that person here today in cyberspace and you can practice their surgical procedure.
HIROSE (voice-over): That's for the long term. As a first step, the Visible Human Project will be used this summer in anatomy classes at colleges and universities in Colorado.
In Denver, Lorie Hirose reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA BUSSARD, NATRONA HEIGHTS, PENNSYLVANIA: Hi, I'm Lisa Bussard from Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania. And I have a question about sound. At what point does a loud noise damage my ears?
HOLLY KAPLAN, PH.D., CCC-A, (ph) SUPERVISOR, UNIV. OF GEORGIA: And I think we all need to realize that we live in an incredibly noisy world and that everything that we do has noise involved in it.
Noise levels that cause damage, though, and where we really start to run into trouble is when we notice that we're talking louder in order to be heard and understood. So a good example of that would be something like the lawnmower and lawn equipment, leaf blowers, power edgers. Things like that are very, very loud and very damaging to our hearing.
The government says you want to look at sounds anywhere around 85 decibels. And again, if you were thinking in your own home environment that's the typical vacuum sweepers. Being in that type of sound over a period of time throughout the day will cause hearing damage.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: An Indian dance troop is performing in the U.S. for the first time. They are promoting nonviolence rather than confrontation in dealing with India's future. In light of the conflict between India and Pakistan, which we told you about earlier in the show, the message couldn't come at a better time.
CNN's Thomas Nybo has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THOMAS NYBO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The world has received plenty of news this year out of the Indian state of Gujarati, horrific tales of people burned alive as two religions fight over a chunk of land sacred to both faiths.
This, however, is a different story, the tale of 14 Gujarati youth and their dance troupe and their journey to the United States to spread a message not of hate but of peace and understanding. They are thousands of miles from home and they speak almost no English.
KREN JOSHI (ph), (ph): Some of the kids have never even earned (ph) -- never even made out of the city. So this is a huge thing for them. It's just something they could not imagine.
NYBO: Theirs is the nonviolent message of Mahatma Gandhi and later Martin Luther King Jr. who drew his inspiration from Gandhi and even traveled to Gandhi's ashram in India. It is this link between Gandhi and King that is the unofficial theme of their tour and why Atlanta is one of their first stops.
Atlanta was the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. And on the anniversary of his assassination, the troupe performs at a school bearing King's name. Later, they visit King's birthplace. They lay flowers at his grave and even hear one of his sermons...
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I have the same statement to make because the world is all messed up.
NYBO: ... piped into the church where King served as co-pastor.
Their troop is called Ekta, and their U.S. trip is the brainchild of Brad Baldwin, an American who has spent the better part of two years making it happen. A collection of corporate and private donations is paying for their trip, which would otherwise be impossible considering all the dancers come from extreme poverty.
JOSHI: Some of these kids have to work 12, 14 hours a day to make the two ends meet. To support their family they have to work, and work in abusive manner, shoe shining out in a street, go through garbage to pick out plastics and paper to maybe make 50 cents during the day.
NYBO: For Brad, the payoff comes every night when he sees the dancers perform.
BRAD BALDWIN, EKTA: Getting them here was a hug hurdle and to see them finally here on a stage performing, you know, it's just -- it's absolutely -- it's really -- it's -- I can't describe it.
NYBO: Luckily, one of the show's choreographers can describe it.
KOTTAKAL SASHOHARAN (ph), EKTA: Happiness and bliss, no (ph) are definitely (UNINTELLIGIBLE). (UNINTELLIGIBLE) bliss.
NYBO: Back stage before the big performance, the kids prepare the props and the lone adult in the line up, one of the choreographers, hones the art of deception as he transforms himself into a young Gandhi.
(on camera): In Hindi the word Ekta means unity and that seems especially appropriate tonight. The young dancers are all Hindu but tonight they'll be performing before a mainly Muslim audience gathered here at Morehouse College. That's where Martin Luther King Jr. graduated at the young age of 19.
(voice-over): They offer an unvarnished look at Indian history. One of the most poignant moments, the plight of the Untouchables.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Untouchability (ph) of the current system, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) entire culture (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Purity of the mind. It ought to be in all manners and matter of course (ph).
NYBO: The dancers also confront illiteracy and the abuse of women.
In the end, the crowd is on its feet and the dancers are finished performing here in Atlanta, but the next day their mission and their message marches on one city and one performance at a time.
Thomas Nybo, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: OK, enough dancing, time to eat. Remember the pupu we asked you to pass at the top of the show? Go to any Hawaiian restaurant and you're bound to find a bunch on the menu.
Our CNN Student Bureau gives us a taste.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PI'ILANI MATUTINO (ph), CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): It's just like an appetizer, but in Hawaii we call it pupu. Spam musubi (ph), popei (ph), and porkei (ph) are just some of the pupu that are part of our daily lives. These appetizers are usually eaten at cookouts, on special occasions or as a snack.
A musubi is originally from Japan where the rice is shaped into a round ball or triangle and wrapped with dried seaweed. However, in Hawaii, the musubi went from being shaped as a ball to a rectangle so the slice of Spam can easily be placed on top of the rice and held together with the seaweed. Spam is a very popular meat substitute in Hawaii since the Pearl Harbor days of food rationing.
SHANA PETELO: Spam is an island favorite. It's an island delicacy. It's something that we've been all raised in and we love. We eat for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner, at any time. It's just -- it's an island favorite.
MATUTINO: The opihi (ph) is another local pupu from Hawaii. Opihi is a sea animal with a hard protective shell. Some people pick them themselves even though it is very dangerous climbing the cliffs and watching for waves.
ROEL ANDOC (ph): To acquire the opihi on their own, they would have to scale like rough waters where waves are pounding on the shore. And people have died trying to pick those -- these.
CYRUS TAMABHIRO (ph): I think they like the local flavor of it. It's opihi is not something that is substitutable. It has a unique flavor and it's genuinely Hawaiian. And people who like opihi just love opihi.
MATUTINO: The most common pupu is porkei which is sliced up pieces of raw fish. The original way of preparing porkei is with kakuin relish (ph), salt and seaweed. As the years progressed, many ingredients have been added to suit individual tastes. ALEXA ARMFRIESTER (ph): I think basically it's because it's tradition in Hawaii and it tastes good. But it's tradition. I mean we were brought up with opihi and porkei, and porkei is good.
MATUTINO (on camera): These are just some of the pupu here at Hamashiro Market (ph).
(voice-over): If the seafood is fresh and the pupu are made daily.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh I've lived in the Mainland for about four years so there's nothing really much you can do because all the stuff is mostly frozen. It's not as good as eating fresh porkei.
MATUTINO: From (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Hawaii, this is Pi'Ilani Matutino, CNN Student Bureau.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
"Where in the World" the 50th state to join the U.S. (August 21, 1959), state flower: Hibiscus, named the Sandwich Islands by English explorer Capt. James Cook? Can you name this state? Hawaii, U.S.A.
MCMANUS: And before we leave you today, we wanted to give you the lowdown on the latest space wannabe. And this time it's someone you probably know pretty well.
WALCOTT: That's right. Apparently N'Sync's Lance Bass has some cosmic aspirations. He's hoping to hitch a ride on a Soyuz rocket scheduled to blast into space in October.
MCMANUS: That's right. Bass has received all clear from Russian medical authorities to begin training as a cosmonaut. And if all goes well, the 23-year-old who has found fame and fortune on Earth could literally find a place in the stars.
WALCOTT: Lucky for him.
MCMANUS: How nice.
WALCOTT: That wraps up today's show. We'll catch you back here tomorrow.
MCMANUS: Bye-bye.
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