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CNN STUDENT NEWS For July 8th, 2002
Aired July 08, 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: Another week of news finds us again. Topping our show, a discussion of the global AIDS crisis.
SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: From medicine to business, we turn our "Focus" to the issue of corporate responsibility and who should pay for misdeeds.
MCMANUS: Then, take a listen as the young people of the world speak up.
WALCOTT: And later, learn about the troubling problem of child labor.
MCMANUS: And welcome to the broadcast, it's July 8. I'm Michael McManus.
WALCOTT: And I'm Shelley Walcott.
Top scientists meet to discuss the AIDS epidemic and the news isn't good.
MCMANUS: That's right. The 14th International Conference on AIDS is underway in Barcelona, Spain, and the experts are saying there is no indication the disease is letting up. Among the findings, 40 million people worldwide have HIV or AIDS. And in the U.S., after years of decline, the number of new cases has neither increased nor dropped.
CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is covering the conference and takes a look at where the epidemic stands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a time of frustration for those fighting AIDS. Twenty years into the epidemic, the disease is showing no signs of leveling off, and the money needed to contain it in the countries hardest hit just isn't available.
DR. PETER PIOT, UNAIDS: The world needs $10 billion per year to treat those with HIV in the poor nations, to make sure that the number of new infections is going down dramatically, and to take care of orphans. We are today at the $3 billion mark.
GUPTA: Without treatment, the disease means certain death. Worldwide, it's already killed 20 million. Another 40 million are currently infected.
Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit the hardest, and the disease continues to spread in places bike Botswana, which has the highest problems in the world -- almost half the adults are infected with HIV.
PIOT: This has huge implications for the economic and social development of the whole continent.
GUPTA: And what Africa is seeing now could be foreshadowing for countries where the epidemic is just beginning.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIH: It's a very serious problem in China. It is also potentially quite explosive in other Asian countries, such as India and countries in the Southeast Asia.
GUPTA: It's spreading most rapidly in the former Soviet Union, particularly Russia. One of the most pressing needs, experts say, access to treatment. In the West, half a million people are receiving HIV treatment, and last year, 25,000 died from AIDS. Compare that to Africa, where only 30,000 are receiving treatment, and last year, there were 2.2 million deaths.
PIOT: Without expanding prevention and treatment efforts in the developing world, that over the next decades, tens of millions of people are going to die. We estimate about 70 million people will die over the next 20 years. That whole economists will collapse in Africa.
GUPTA (on camera): A very bleak picture, no doubt. And the focus of this meeting here in Barcelona is how to prevent that from happening with the limited resources that exist.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Barcelona, Spain.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: One continent hit hard by AIDS is Africa. It is home to 10 percent of the world's population but 70 percent of the world's AIDS cases. The country of South Africa is one reflection of that devastation.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault continues our look at the epidemic of AIDS with the battle over babies and a controversial drug.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Many celebrations of new life begin this way. And those popping these bottles of champagne are celebrating just that, the possibility of up to 30,000 babies a year gaining a new lease on life as a result of the court decision ordering the government to provide the anti-retroviral drug Nevirapine to all HIV positive pregnant women in state hospitals.
ARTHUR CHASKALSON, SOUTH AFRICAN CHIEF JUSTICE: It is declared that a) sections 27-1 and 2 (ph) of the Constitution require the government to devise and implement within its available resources a comprehensive and coordinated program to realize progressively the rights of pregnant women and their newborn children to have access to health services to combat mother to child transmission of HIV.
HUNTER-GAULT: The 11 member constitutional court ruled that the government's program limiting the distribution of Nevirapine to 18 pilot sites fell short of its constitutional obligation to offer the best treatment available to its citizens. The government had appealed the lower court ruling on the grounds that the court exceeded its jurisdiction.
Though justices upheld the lower court in ordering the government to revise its AIDS policy saying a comprehensive and coordinated plan was necessary to help pregnant women combat HIV and that counseling and testing services should be provided at public hospitals and clinics.
The government has long opposed universally providing Nevirapine citing cost, a lack of necessary infrastructure and concerns about the drug's toxicity.
DR. HAROON SALOOJEE, SAVE OUR BABIES CAMPAIGN: No longer will the Health Ministry be allowed to discriminate and deny babies of HIV positive matters a most basic life saving measure Nevirapine. Today, doctors, nurses and health workers across the country will be celebrating. Pregnant women and their families will be celebrating. All South Africans should be celebrating. It is a moment of great joy.
HUNTER-GAULT: A government health advisor said the decision was workable.
PATRICIA LAMBERT, SPECIAL ADVISER TO MINISTRY OF HEALTH: We believe that where those -- in those hospitals where the capacity exists for the program to roll out, they will be facilitated to do so and government will continue training people so that the benefit of the prevention of mother to child transmission program reaches all women.
HUNTER-GAULT: The government has already made major revision in its AIDS policy in recent moths saying it will provide anti- retrovirals in public hospitals for rape victims. Also becoming more aggressive in its public pronouncements and programs aimed at combating and preventing HIV/AIDS.
(on camera): But encouraged by Friday's court decision, AIDS activists say they will now begin pressing government to provide anti- retroviral s for all people living with HIV/AIDS. In South Africa that's one in nine.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN, Durban, South Africa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: Please stay with us, coming up on the back half of the show our focus on AIDS continues in Brazil.
WALCOTT: Making "Headlines, severe summer weather in Texas and Colorado. The worst of the rain appears to be over in South Central Texas after a week of devastating rainstorms and flooding. At least eight deaths and millions of dollars in property damage have been reported. Torrential storms dumped more than 30 inches of rain in some areas. Some rivers crested as high as 28 feet above flood stage. Governor Rick Perry has declared 46 counties disaster areas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK PERRY, GOVERNOR OF TEXAS: The devastation is extensive. I think what you see with both film and still photography, it's -- it doesn't really show all of the damage that's occurred. Obviously when the water goes down, we're going to see the impact on residential property is going to be substantial.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALCOTT: In Colorado, residents are starting to recover from a series of devastating wildfires. Fire crews near Denver are making plans to begin replanting shrubs and grass where a 138,000 acre fire seared wooded areas. But the plan needs federal approval since it exceeds a $300,000 spending limit.
The Hayman fire, the largest fire in Colorado state history, was fully contained last Tuesday. It destroyed 133 homes. A forest service worker has been charged with starting the blaze.
In international news, lawmakers in the United States say the assassination of Afghanistan's vice president threatens the new regime in that country.
Nic Robertson has more from Kabul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a sign of respect to the military power he represented, Haji Abdul Qadir's coffin was carried to his grave strapped to a gun carriage. Hundreds of soldiers and thousands of mourners crowded Jalalabad's streets to see the former warlord, an Eastern Afghan strongman, buried. As his coffin was finally lowered into the grave, gunmen fired a volley of shots in tribute.
Mourners had been paying their respects all day, beginning in Kabul where he was killed. Amidst tight security there, government ministers and several thousand well wishers gathered at the city's main Idgar Mosque (ph) to hear funeral prayers. Overhead, a helicopter of the International Security and Assistance Force, ISAF, kept watch supplementing protection provided for dignitaries by Afghan forces on nearby rooftops. Investigations into Qadir's assassination are still ongoing. The government blames terrorists. However, much as Qadir had a popular following among some in his ethnic Pashtun group, he had made many enemies in his years as a warlord.
OMAR SAMAO, GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN: A national figure who has a history of struggle for freedom and independence in this country also has enemies.
ROBERTSON: While ISAF forces here are supporting government investigations, spokesman for the 4,000-man Kabul-based peacekeeping force are clear, they bear no responsibility for the minister's death.
SAMET OZ, ISAF SPOKESMAN: As you know, ISAF's mission is to assist the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) authority in maintaining security. It is not our main mission, it is not our responsibility for providing close protection to a person.
ROBERTSON (on camera): How disruptive Haji Abdul Qadir's death proves to be is as yet unclear. However, in an unrelated development in the Eastern Afghan city of Host (ph), sporadic fighting has broken out between two rival warlords, causing coalition forces to reconsider how they operate in that area.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Bagram, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: Well lawmakers have had just about enough of corporate America. They return from the holiday break ready to begin work on new regulatory legislation. One of the more interesting polls shows Americans trust Democrats more than Republicans when it comes to fixing all the corporate malfeasants. This is something the president has to take into consideration as he addresses Wall Street later this week.
With the latest on the business of politics, here is Kelly Wallace.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In between family outings at Kennebunkport, President Bush puts the finishing touches on his upcoming Wall Street speech. The first president with an MBA expected to call for jail time for corporate leaders who knowingly misstate company earnings; a move both parties say is a must to calm jittery investors.
REP. BILLY TAUZIN (R), LOUISIANA: I mean as soon as one or more of these major corporate figures is indicted and convicted for the thievery that occurred at the expense of the American investor, I think confidence will gradually come back.
WALLACE: Some Democrats, though, accuse the president's team of being too close to big business, singling out Harvey Pitt a former securities industry lawyer, now the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: I have to say at this point that we could do a lot better than Harvey Pitt in that position today. That cozy, permissive relationship has to end and he in large measure has orchestrated that over the last 18 months.
WALLACE: But the White House and many Republicans vigorously defend Pitt.
REP. MICHAEL OXLEY (R-OH), FINANCIAL SERVICES CHAIRMAN: I think that he has been very aggressive. He moved very quickly on this WorldCom situation, the fastest really in history that the SEC jumped in.
WALLACE: Democrats have seized on the issue and here's why. In a CNN-"USA Today"-Gallup Poll 62 percent said that Republicans were more interested in large corporations than ordinary Americans, compared with 41 percent who thought so of the president, and 36 percent who did of Democrats.
Sensing a political advantage, Democrats are raising questions again about Mr. Bush's controversial 1990 sale of Harken Energy stock when he served on the company's board of directors, the sale coming just two months before the company disclosed a major loss. The White House said the SEC took no action against Mr. Bush and accused Democrats of playing politics.
Kelly Wallace, CNN, Kennebunkport, Maine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCMANUS: Though Independence Day has passed, the spirit of the holiday remains. But what exactly does America mean to the people who live here? What draws immigrants and visitors to the U.S.? And what better place to ask these questions than the international hub that is New York City.
Let's go to NYC now for some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(SINGING)
SERENA ALTSCHUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Summer in New York City, what is it that brings people together, out and about, taking part in great American pastimes?
(SINGING)
ALTSCHUL (on camera): This is definitely one of the most beautiful places in all of New York. We're in the heart of Central Park, Sheep's Meadow. People come here just to sit, play frisbee, hang out, get some sun or play another game.
You're playing hooky?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am, yes.
ALTSCHUL: Are you going to get in trouble for this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably.
ALTSCHUL: Are you playing hooky too?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am playing a little bit hooky. I had a...
ALTSCHUL: Everybody here should like have a big H on their head like hooky players.
(voice-over): Since September 11, enjoying summer pastimes has taken on new meaning for many people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think people take less for granted anymore. I mean we look at one a mooring (ph) -- you see a lot more people smile at each other, strangers smiling at each other on the streets.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before it was just sort of like, you know, friends hanging out. And now I think I appreciate the time with my friends and being able to be out here in Central Park.
ALTSCHUL (on camera): What do you like about being out in the park in the summer in the city?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's quiet, it's peaceful. And unlike going fishing in the country, if I get hungry, I'm only 75 feet from a hotdog stand.
ALTSCHUL (voice-over): It seems that summer in the city isn't just about spending time with a fellow American, it's also about getting to know your fellow man.
(on camera): What do you like about the park in the summer in the city?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty much the cultural diffusion. It's just it's all jam-packed with so many different people from all over.
Where you from?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am from Korea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See.
ALTSCHUL: You're from Korea. Yes.
How do you all know each other? Did you just meet coming in here or...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of us are from school...
ALTSCHUL: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... and then like other people just were at the park.
ALTSCHUL: Showed up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they were just at the park.
ALTSCHUL: So just perfect strangers?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, perfect strangers.
ALTSCHUL: OK.
Where are you from?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Originally?
ALTSCHUL: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Colombia.
ALTSCHUL: Even though you're not originally from here, do you feel patriotic? Do you feel sort of part American? You feel very...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh yes, I'm definitely very pro-American.
ALTSCHUL: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean it's a great place to live. I -- you know I love the United States. And I think generally here in the park that's the feeling you get, you know, being in New York.
ALTSCHUL: There's just something sort of celebratory about, you know, your freedoms.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh definitely, freedom is something you can't take for granted, you know?
ALTSCHUL: Serena Altschul, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSE MONTGOMERY, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: Hello, my name is Jesse Montgomery. I'm from Minneapolis, Minnesota. And my question is what language has the most words?
JOHN MORSE, PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER, MERRIAM-WEBSTER, INC.: Well that's a very interesting question. I think the answer is going to be English. We're a little careful because nobody really knows how many words are in any language. But most people agree that it's probably English.
And the reason is that the English really is the coming together of two languages about a thousand years ago, the coming together of the Germanic languages, which really are the root of English, and French languages. And because those two languages came together, we have a huge word hoard, a lot more than other languages do.
But also over the years English speakers have been particularly open to incorporating words from other languages into our own language. There's a lot of talk about multiculturalism these days. Probably the most multicultural thing in the world is the English language and that really has enriched it and enlarged it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."
WALCOTT: The United Nations is giving young people a voice to discuss the issues that affect them.
Kathy Nellis reports on a very special session.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHY NELLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are from all over the globe, from Central and Eastern Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean, Asia and Africa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spanish here. French.
NELLIS: Young people from around the world with one common focus, the Children's Forum at the United Nations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We would like to welcome you all to New York and to the Special Session on Children -- welcome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, Emin (ph), I give up now.
NELLIS: It's a historic event for children, for the global community and for the United Nations.
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: My dear young friends, welcome to the United Nations. This is a very special occasion to help prepare for a very special session. Your presence here marks a new chapter in the history of the United Nations. It is the first time that the general assembly will meet in a special session just to discuss children's issues.
NELLIS: Each participating member state was allowed to send two children as government representatives and two children as NGOs or non-government delegates.
MARJORIE NEWMAN-WILLIAMS, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, UNICEF: It is about them. And if you accept that children are citizens of the world and they have a voice, then how can you have a meeting about them and they're not here.
RESHAM PATEL, AGE 16, UNITED STATES: Everybody has to have a voice and that's the point of having someone here from every country, every language, every religion, every culture, is that everyone gets represented in a certain way.
NELLIS: And while children from around the world are represented, they can also participate from their own homes or classrooms.
RHYS CAMPBELL, AGE 17, JAMAICA: Kids can show their concerns. They can tell us what they feel. There is a Web site, the Say Yes for Children Web site. I think it's GMFC.org, the Global Movement for Children. Children from anywhere across the world can log on and vote on which issues they think are parent (ph) issues and what they feel can be done and what they feel should be done.
NELLIS: That something should be done is dictated not only by the issues but by sheer numbers.
(on camera): There are 2.1 billion children in the world. That's 36 percent of the global population.
(voice-over): That means that children make up more than one- third of the world. The hundreds of young people who are at the Children's Forum are joining hands and raising their voices to be sure that kids are counted and that kids count.
Kathy Nellis, CNN, the United Nations.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: One issue facing the world's children is child labor. Millions of kids around the globe are forced to work against their will, many in very hazardous conditions.
CNN's World Report (ph) has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SONIA GURA (ph), CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every day Amir in Sialcard (ph), Pakistan swaps his school clothes for work clothes and school books for machines like this one. At the age of eight he started working. At 12, he insists he will never stop. He daily sits in a high-risk environment and has already paid a price for it. But the damage to his thumb through this machine has not stopped him from contributing his $1 a day to the family income by producing some of the world's surgical instruments.
AMIR (through translator): Yes, it's very dangerous and hazardous, but it pays more because of that.
GURA: Amir is one of 246 million children around the world engaged in work they should not be in. This means one in every six children between the ages of 5 and 17 is a child laborer. These figures are highlighted in a new global report, "A Future Without Child Labor," released by the International Labor Organization which reveals that the worst forms of child labor are much more widespread than was previously thought. It says 180 million children are engaged in what the ILO defines as the worst forms of child labor. One child out of every eight children in the world is either performing hazardous work or being trafficked.
Although media attention often focuses on the export and commercial sex sectors, the vast majority of children, 70 percent of them, work in agriculture. It is a sector with some of the highest accident rates in the developed and developing world, often with no social safety net for those struggling to survive.
With 95 percent of child laborers working in a volatile and unregulated informal economy, one of the biggest challenges will be reaching these children as well as their families and communities.
JUAN SOMAVIA, DIRECTOR, GENERAL ILO: The worst forms of child labor is something that we are going to eradicate, and we're going to make it a global cause. And this is not something that we can shy away from because we have -- we cannot have moral indifference. These are real (ph). It's reality.
GURA: Child labor not only undermines the individual development of the child but also robs the society of their contribution to help break a cycle of poverty. The report represents a renewed plea by the ILO for effective partnerships to fight child labor. The ILO itself runs over 800 projects in 75 countries as its contribution to a future without child labor.
This is Sonia Gura (ph) and Damon Leonoir (ph) from ILO Television (ph) for the CNN World Report.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: We travel to Brazil for our Student Bureau piece today. Throughout the show, we've been talking about the AIDS epidemic and medicines to help treat the disease. Well in Brazil, one young person is leading the fight in the war against AIDS. His weapon: education.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GILLIAN HAMIHOTA (ph), CNN STUDENT BUREAU, (voice-over): Yuri Ferrerira is a 19-year-old from Rio de Janeiro. He loves music like most Brazilians. Yuri has dedicated his life to fighting AIDS.
YURI FERRERIRA (through translator): I work as a volunteer in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in fight against HIV infection. I distribute condoms, and I advise people how to avoid contamination.
HAMIHOTA: Yuri does AIDS education at least twice a week. The U.N. recommends AIDS education for even younger children. Today Yuri's meeting kids who were born with AIDS through the Viva Cazuza program. Brazilians know Cazuza well. He's one of the most celebrated rock stars in the country. He died of AIDS 11 years ago. Yuri is welcomed by Cazuza's mother, who explains how the institution works.
MARIA LUCIA ARAUSO, PRESIDENT, VIVA CAZUZA SOCIETY (through translator): These kids have good food, access to new medicines, cultural activities, school classes and all kinds of assistance. Here, everybody lives as part of a very big family.
HAMIHOTA: Many kids from poor areas or from Rio de Janeiro have come to live at the Cazuza Institution, where they are supported by this program. Like Yuri, many students in Rio de Janeiro are trying to stop the spread of AIDS for those who need help the most.
FERRERIRA (through translator): As days go by, I'm getting more convinced it's really up to us. Everyone can do something to help other people.
Gillian Hamihota, CNN Student Bureau, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
"Where in the World" ruled by Portugal for three centuries, Portuguese is the official language, plagued by deforestation in the Amazon Basin? Can you name this country? Brazil.
MCMANUS: And the news continues for most of you here on CNN. But in the meantime, Shelley...
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