Return to Transcripts main page
CNN 10
CNN STUDENT NEWS For June 27, 2002
Aired June 27, 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.
SUSAN FREIDMAN, CO-HOST: News from Wall Streets tops our Thursday program agenda. Learn why things are getting hot for business giant WorldCom.
SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: We cover a fire of another kind in "Chronicle" as we give you some tips for a safe 4th of July.
FREIDMAN: Later, meet some robots programmed to get their groove on.
WALCOTT: Then our science studies take us out of this world.
FREIDMAN: Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Susan Freidman.
WALCOTT: And I'm Shelley Walcott.
President Bush puts corporate America on notice, abuse your powers and you will be prosecuted.
FREIDMAN: The president's comments follow revelations that long distance giant WorldCom overstated its profits to the tune of nearly $4 billion. This latest accounting scandal deals a harsh blow to Wall Street. Stocks hit an eight-month low yesterday. Senate leaders say it's a wake up call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BYRON DORGAN (D), NORTH DAKOTA: This morning's news is once again unnerving to this country's economy. It is simply one more piece of evidence that there is an avarice and a corruption and a greed that exists in some areas in this country that desperately cries out for effective regulatory oversight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FREIDMAN: Paying the price for WorldCom's financial mess are thousands of employees whom the company plans to layoff.
CNN's Deborah Feyerick has more now on WorldCom's troubles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From long distance ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.
FEYERICK: ... to cell phones and the Internet, WorldCom built itself into a telecom giant. Its 70 companies and 20 million customers worldwide making it once a hot stock to have. Then Tuesday, in the blink of an eye, last year's profits vanished -- $3.8 billion evaporated. The reason?
MARK HOLLAND, INVESTMENT MANAGER: Earnings they reported over the last couple of years aren't there. They simply aren't there. They lied about their earnings.
FEYERICK: WorldCom officials hid expenses by listing them as investments to be paid in the future. The cash flow looked bigger, the profits larger than they actually were.
MARGARET FINRERTY, FRAUD PROTECTION ATTORNEY: It seems to me that maybe they got too big too fast. I mean this was a trend that we - we're still seeing this trend and I think companies get out ahead of themselves and they incur a tremendous amount of debt and then they can't handle it.
FEYERICK: With WorldCom facing bankruptcy, some analysts say consumers may not get the same level of services, a blow for the company that broke up the AT&T monopoly and brought long distance competition.
GENE KIMMELMAN, CONSUMER UNION: This is really a double-whammy. We have consumers here possibly losing one of the best competitors in long distance and potential competitors against local phone monopolies, and then consumers as investors were just scammed. They were misled about the viability of this company.
FEYERICK: WorldCom stock reached a high of $62 a share in June 1999. It's been dropping since then after suffering a series of setbacks, including an SEC investigation. Following the company's announcement about restating profits, the stock plummeted to 83 cents a share. A crisis, says investment manager Michael Holland, that dwarfs the Enron scandal.
HOLLAND: This one is worse because the issue of trust has been broken. These people simply lied about the numbers. They said something that wasn't true and the markets understand that very readily.
FEYERICK (on camera): An yet like Enron, analysts say some people may have lost their life savings. As for the future, it's unclear whether banks will continue extending credit to a company facing bankruptcy and possible criminal prosecution.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREIDMAN: This latest financial earthquake isn't just rocking corporate America, it's being felt around the world.
Jim Bolden looks at WorldCom's European business dealings.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BOLDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): WorldCom supplies companies with every kind of high speed data and telecommunication offering from voice calls to hosting data to Internet networks. It's literally the technology tether for thousands of companies worldwide. But the market in Europe has slowed as the number of competitors to WorldCom has grown.
SCOTT SMITH, THE YANKEE GROUP: WorldCom has sort of been playing alongside a number of the sort of new entrants in Europe for the past few years, companies like KPNQwest, Colt, et cetera, alongside also companies like Cable and Wireless, and the large incumbents, the BT's of the world endorse telecoms that have been playing here.
BOLDEN: Today's WorldCom is made up of Internet networking firm UUNET, one of Europe's digital high speed pioneers of the early 1990s. It's also U.S. long distance giant MCI, one time courted by British Telecom.
But WorldCom's troubles are leading to comparisons with the crumbling Dutch based KPNQwest. If WorldCom struggles to stay afloat as well, Europe's big incumbent telcos could benefit greatly.
SMITH: The incumbents have a big door to step in to right now. A great sort of window of opportunity to step in and sort of capture some really marquee customers to be able to offer their portfolio of services and show that in many ways they are too big to fail. The incumbents are in a much more stable position than some of the newer entrants who are independent.
BOLDEN: WorldCom insists it's still a viable company and indeed it's trying to woo KPNQwest customers. But analysts say Tuesday night's shock announcement is a body blow to confidence in WorldCom and confidence is everything these days.
Jim Bolden, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREIDMAN: The G8 continues in Canada. And though leaders have been busy discussing the Mid East and various other important issues, they took time out for a class photo. The leaders are meeting at a remote site outside Calgary, away from protesters. The crux of the summit centers on programs for the poor. One major plan involves billions of dollars in African aid.
To South Africa now and an interview with President Mbeki. CNN's Charlayne Hunter-Gault spoke with him about the African economic recovery program. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN JOHANNESBURG BUREAU CHIEF (voice- over): He may have been listening here as his fellow heads of state discuss their homegrown marshal plan, the New Partnership for African Development known as NEPAD, but Thabo Mbeki has crisscrossed the globe doing most of the talking about the ambitious plan. You could call him Mr. NEPAD Man (ph).
THABO MBEKI, SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT: I am absolutely sure it is right for Africa because we can't continue with the situation we have where you have millions of Africans poor, millions of Africans suffering in the way that they do. We've got to arrive at a situation where the Africans they are as successful as everybody else in terms of the improvement of conditions of life and all the general upliftment of people I think is very important.
HUNTER-GAULT: Mbeki, an economist by training, says he and his colleagues are not coming with a begging bowl, that they've already sold the G8 on NEPAD's new deal, African states would commit themselves to democracy, good governments and peace in exchange for increased aid, investment, debt relief and trade opportunity.
MBEKI: What all of us have said on the continent is that antrel (ph) African experience over the last 40 years shows that where you don't have democracy, where you've got military governments, where you've got civil conflicts, where you've got no observance of the rule of law, that all of these things need to be addressed in order to clear the business for development.
HUNTER-GAULT: Even some of Mbeki's toughest critics support him on NEPAD.
TONY LEON, DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE: The good and great thing about NEPAD, it actually says here we are, we're standing on our own two feet as Africans, we are prepared to engage the world on the terms of the world.
HUNTER-GAULT: Mbeki says what the African leaders want from the G8 now are concrete projects that will help Africa out of poverty: clean water, better health delivery, improving agriculture and education and structures for peace and security and good governments.
MBEKI: I don't have any anxieties if both sides, both the African side and the G8 side keep to the commitments that we've made.
HUNTER-GAULT (on camera): No anxieties, but lurking in the background are leaders like Libya's ruler Moammar Ghadafi who call NEPAD a racist tool of neocolonialists. The only thing that'll blunt that and other criticisms of NEPAD is for the G8 to help deliver people out of this kind of misery.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN, Alexandra, South Africa.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WALCOTT: In the past we've told you about the Enron scandal, the problems at WorldCom are fast coming to light and the stock questions involving Martha Stewart are far from over. Have Americans foregone their basic principles for a quick buck for some other kind of self- fulfillment?
Allan Chernoff offers us some perspective on ethics in America.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): FBI officials squelching leads that might have caught terrorists because of their own careerism.
COLEEN ROWLEY, FBI AGENT: I think that the FBI does have a problem with that. And if I remember right, it means promoting one's career over integrity.
CHERNOFF: Church leaders concerned with appearances in the dioceses protecting sexual predators.
REV. THOMAS REESE: They forgot that the family that they're responsible for includes not just the priests, but also the people who were abused.
CHERNOFF: Corporate executives making off with millions as stockholders lose their shirts.
Though the scandals may appear unrelated, they do have a common thread: All involve self-interest at the expense of the common good.
JOSHUA HALPERSTAM, AUTHOR, "EVERYDAY ETHICS": And what you're seeing is not merely the old story of one person being very greedy, going out there and defying the system, but we're seeing a breakdown of organizational morality.
CHERNOFF: In today's success-driven society, the win-at-all costs mentality often develops at an early age. A recent national survey of high school students found three-quarters cheat.
Alice Newhall freely admits to it.
ALICE NEWHALL, GEORGE MASON H.S.: What's important is getting ahead. You know, the better grades you have, you know, the better school you get into is, you know, the better you're going to do in life. And if you learn to cut corners to do that, you know, you're going to be saving yourself time and energy.
And in the real world, you know, that's what's going to be going on.
CHERNOFF: And the consequences of getting caught?
In Piper, Kansas, parents protested when a biology teacher flunked 28 high school students for plagiarizing. The school board caved in to the parents. More than one-quarter of the teachers responded by quitting.
The pressure to cut corners and exaggerate accomplishments doesn't end in school. Historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose admitted they lifted passages from other authors for use in their books.
Then there's resume padding. Pulitzer Prize-winner Joseph Ellis confessed his claims he had served in Vietnam were a lie. U.S. Olympic Committee Chair Sandra Baldwin recently resigned after admitting she had never finished the PhD, nor graduated from the undergraduate college listed on her resume.
GEORGE O'LEARY, NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL COACH: I'm very proud to be coach at Notre Dame.
CHERNOFF: And George O'Leary stepped down five days after being appointed Notre Dame football coach. He never received the masters degree, nor the letters in football claimed on his resume.
HALPERSTAM: It's very easy to judge all these guys as bad guys. And they'll tell you right away, hey, we've all been doing this. Everybody knows this has been going on. Why are you giving me a hard time?
But somebody has to actually step up there and take the fall, because this activity, in fact, deserves to be knocked down.
Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: And we'll have more on ethics next Monday as we explore an epidemic of cheating in high school. Who's doing it and why? Join us for this report next week.
Meantime, from a question of ethics to a constitutional dilemma. A federal appeals court has ruled the Pledge of Allegiance is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion because of the addition of the phrase "under God" by Congress in 1954. What do you think? Weigh in on our quick vote. Do you believe the phrase "under God" makes the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional? To vote, head to CNNSTUDENTNEWS.com.
FREIDMAN: With Flag Day just behind us and the 4th of July just ahead, it's easy to get in the patriotic spirit. And thanks to one family full of green thumbs that spirit of red, white and blue is blooming.
CNN's Thelma Gutierrez has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nestled in a place called Lompoc, off the central California coast, is a sea of blossoms in red, white and blue. (on camera): I'm standing in this field surrounded by 400,000 larkspur plants. They were carefully placed in the ground back on January 14. The whole idea was to end up with six and a half acres of stars and stripes for Flag Day.
JACK BODGER, SEED PRODUCER: This is the first year that we're making five pointed stars.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Fifty five-pointed stars.
BODGER: Always in the past we just had a block of white flowers to represent the stars. But this time with a big metal frame in the shape of a star we planted in the white flowers.
GUTIERREZ: You can call it an act of love, patriotism and tradition for Jack Bodger, a fourth generation seed producer.
BODGER: The first flag was planted a week after Pearl Harbor during World War II, and it was a response by the family to do -- to create something that was a part of our life, which is growing flowers, to support the troops overseas.
GUTIERREZ: The flowering flag was planted again in 1943, then 1945 for the end of the war and 1952 during the Korean Conflict.
BODGER: This is the first time in 50 years that we've planted it. And it was a direct result of the 9/11 tragedy.
GUTIERREZ: Bodger Seed has been around for more than a hundred years. It's still a family-run business.
BODGER: This is one of our seed warehouses. We store seeds that have been cleaned and are ready for shipment to our customers.
GUTIERREZ (on camera): They go all over the world.
BODGER: They go all over the world.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): A vision that began in 1890 with a poor immigrant from England, J.C. Bodger.
BODGER: He came across through Ellis Island, took a train across America to Los Angeles and he carried a couple of chickens with him and that was his food source.
GUTIERREZ: And this was Bodger's way of recognizing the country that helped him realize his dream.
One hundred man-hours and $40,000 later, Bodger's six and a half acre flag is beginning to bloom.
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Lompoc, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREIDMAN: No matter how you celebrate the coming Independence Day, safety is key, especially if fireworks are involved.
Here's Julie Vallese on the potential hazard of fireworks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIE VALLESE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is an illegal M-1000 that blows up this house and a legal bottle rocket that burns this mannequin of a little boy. Both examples of the dangers of fireworks.
THOMAS MOORE, ACTING CHAIRMAN CPSC: Illegal fireworks with their incredible explosive power can turn a backyard celebration into a rush to the emergency room.
VALLESE: Different states have different laws on what are illegal fireworks, but the federal government has banned cherry bombs, quarter sticks and professional grade explosives such as M-80s and M- 1000s.
(on camera): Last year, more than 9,000 people were treated in hospital emergency rooms for firework-related injuries, more than half were children. The majority of injuries, burns to the hand and face.
(voice-over): One of the most popular thought safe for kids, sparklers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good old sparklers. I used to play with them. These sparklers can hurt, especially young children. Sparklers burn at temperatures of about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
VALLESE: The commission urges consumers to leave firework displays in the hands of professionals but says if you choose to set off your own fireworks, follow their safety recommendations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never allow young children to play with or ignite fireworks. A responsible adult should closely supervise all fireworks activities. Read and follow the warning labels and instructions. Never try to re-light fireworks that have not functioned.
VALLESE: Experts say all fireworks should be considered explosives and dangerous. But if used safely, they can also be beautiful and patriotic.
In Washington, Julie Vallese reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."
WALCOTT: Some engineers in Japan recently showed off their latest metallic creations, and you've never seen anything quite like this before.
Rebecca MacKinnon has our report. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN TOKYO BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Move over Madonna? Maybe not quite yet. These new entertainment robots made by Sony aren't about to win a Grammy, but they are talented. Aside from sing and dance, they can recognize human faces and names.
This is ASIMO, Honda's latest pride and joy. It moves with greater flexibility and spontaneity than any other robot on earth. It also learns. One museum already uses it as a tour guide.
These robots are part of Japan's second ever robot expo, Robodex. It's goal: to show off Japan's latest robotics innovations and encourage engineers to share ideas.
Some robots now under development in Japan are meant to save lives. This one detects land mines. Still, others mimic humans -- this one with facial expressions. This one recognizes and follows different colored objects.
Yet another has been taught to play the flute, with special sensitivity in its robotic lips, tongue and fingertips. Many speak at least some Japanese.
(on camera): Konichiwa.
ROBOT: Konichiwa.
MACKINNON: Robots may not yet take over our jobs -- at least in our lifetime -- but they are likely to enhance our lives both at home and at work in ways we still can't predict. And Japan wants to be at the forefront of the robot revolution.
(voice-over): A healing robot made to look like a baby seal is already used for therapy with senior citizens and in pediatric wards in Japan. It responds to human touch. Like a real pet, it has been clinically proven to reduce stress without the hygiene issues of real animals.
Robot expo organizers hope to inspire a new generation of robot inventors.
"I'd like to create a robot that can communicate with human beings in a warm way," says this university student. "I think robots will change human culture. It will be like coexisting with beings from another planet."
(on camera): Konichiwa.
(voice-over): First those beings had better learn to understand "Hello" when spoken in a foreign accent.
(on camera): Fine, be that way.
(voice-over): Rebecca MacKinnon, CNN, Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: From robots to the red planet. In our "Science Report," we check out the possibility of water on Mars. Scientists say there's evidence of it. Now what does this mean to us here on Earth, well some think it will lead to future space travel.
Ann Kellan reports on the big find.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Purple marks the spot. The evidence that there's lots of water on Mars, a potential boon for future space exploration.
BILL FELDMAN: We knew that it was there. We just didn't know that it was going to be that much. So we are ecstatic.
KELLAN: Substantial amounts of hydrogen were found at the Mars poles. This NASA image highlights those areas in blue and purple. Scientists suspect hydrogen in these quantities means water, and lots of it.
Actually, scientists think it's water ice, mixed with dirt and rocks, one to two feet underground. From on board the unmanned Mars Odyssey spacecraft, instruments that measure gamma rays and neutrons made the discovery.
We've all seen earlier images of the Mars surface, which show valleys and canyons. They look like dry river beds, and suggest evidence that this ice trapped underground could have once existed on its surface.
Could Mars have had oceans like Earth?
JIM BELL, NASA: Mars was, perhaps, much more like the Earth a long time ago early in its history. The atmospheric pressure may have been higher, the temperature may have been warmer, and liquid water may have been stable on its surface.
KELLAN: One astronomer says this is probably just the tip of the Martian iceberg, speculating icy layers could go as much as one mile deep.
Are they sure it's water ice?
FELDMAN: In the north and south, there's so much of it there, it could be nothing else but water ice.
KELLAN: Today, Mars is a cold, dry, hostile environment, with no atmosphere, no rain to replenish surface water, but the potential of so much underground water expands the scope for space exploration.
Imagine using Mars as a stop-over point for water and refueling. As for determining whether life ever existed on Mars...
FELDMAN: It would be very, very exciting if we found life. You know, the old question, are we alone?
KELLAN: To answer that, NASA says it would take sending a robot to the Red Planet, to scoop up and bring samples back to Earth to study. Even though NASA's talked about it, no such missions are planned. But at least now, thanks to Odyssey, they're getting some good maps of where to look.
Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: When you think of Bangladesh what comes to mind? Well unfortunately this South Asian nation is often associated with floods, poverty and overpopulation. But Bangladesh is also home to a beautiful tropical forest, a lush piece of land now facing a problem becoming all too common in the rest of the world.
Our Student Bureau reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAX UPHAUO (ph), CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): When you step into Lawachara National Forest, you feel like you are entering a world apart from the rest of Bangladesh. Home to over 200 different species of wildlife and 112 varieties of plants, Lawachara is a true treasure- trove of biodiversity in Bangladesh's otherwise denuded landscape. Most importantly, the forest is the last remaining home in Bangladesh for several primate species, including the pigtailed macock (ph) and fulog niban (ph). This refuge, however, is under assault.
Today Lawachara is only a small island of forest in the midst of tea, pineapple and other monoculture plantations. Busy highways and rail lines both run through the forest. Also, despite government protection, logging continues in Lawachara, both commercial logging and cutting of firewood by local villagers.
MUHAMMED DULAI MIA, WOOD CUTTER (through translator): We leave our houses at 8:00 in the morning and go to the forest of Lawachara. Then we go to the hills and cut firewood and put it in bundles. We take it to town and sell it to provide for the family.
UPHAUO: For the animals of the forest, especially the primates, this means the destruction of more habitat that they can ill afford to lose. Twenty species of wildlife have already become extinct in Bangladesh. The macoxin givens (ph) of Lawachara could be next.
DR. MUSTAFA FEEROZ: When I was in early 1990, the forest is almost as today as we see, but the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of the whole forest become declining and the rate of the declining is also alarming. If this rate is going continue, then within I think five years I think there will be very little left for the wildlife species.
UPHAUO (on camera): Once much of Bangladesh was covered by lush biodiverse tropical forests like Lawachara. However, most of it has ended up like this, but the damage is not confined to the forest alone, its repercussions are also felt downstream. (voice-over): In the valley below Lawachara lies the wetland area called Hail Haor, one of the most important fishing grounds in Bangladesh and 60,000 people depend on this key resource. However, the deforestation around Lawachara has caused a serious erosion problem. Soil in the highlands no longer being held down by forest cover is washed into the many rivers that run into the Haor.
AROSH MIA, FISHERMAN (through translator): The problem is that when the water comes down the hills it brings down sand and soil filling up the Haor.
UPHAUO: Eventually, this eroded soil ends up in the Haor. Because it has no outlet, the Haor is beginning to fill up with this soil. If this process of sedimentation continues, the vital fishing grounds here will be lost.
MIA (through translator): The difference in fish catches between now and 20 years ago is like day and night.
UPHAUO: The problems of Lawachara and the Hail Haor are complex and interconnected. But in the end, they have one source, continuing deforestation. The example of Lawachara shows us that people and their environment are linked and humans will ultimately feel the affects of their actions.
MIA (through translator): More fish instead of soil would come down from the hills, if the fish stay.
UPHAUO: Max Uphauo, CNN Student Bureau, Lawachara Forest, Bangladesh.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
"Where in the World" has a tropical climate, formerly known as East Pakistan, about a third of this country annually floods? Can you name this country? Bangladesh.
FREIDMAN: Well that wraps up another show, but we'll see you back here tomorrow. I'm Susan Freidman.
WALCOTT: I'm Shelley Walcott. Have a great day. Bye-bye.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
