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THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Today on NEXT@CNN, archaeologists find a new pyramid in the Egyptian desert.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To discover a pyramid, that is the most exciting thing.
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ANNOUNCER: Find out who's buried there and why it's different from other pyramids.
Also, a digital camera so tiny you can put it inside your wallet with the credit cards, but how good are the pictures?
And a baby orangutan gets a second chance from a charity that usually helps human babies.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To me, a little kid with orange hair.
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ANNOUNCER: All that and more on NEXT.
JAMES HATTORI, HOST: Hi, everybody, and welcome to NEXT@CNN, this week from the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. I'm James Hattori.
Anthrax as a weapon was back in the news this week, with tests indicating traces of anthrax on mail sent to the Federal Reserve Bank. It's not clear how that discovery relates to last fall's anthrax deaths. Investigators have yet to isolate the lab, which manufactures the deadly bacteria used in those attacks.
But researchers have discovered what makes some batches of anthrax different from others, and as Ann Kellan reports, that could help produce a big break in the case.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The anthrax that killed Florida photo editor Robert Stephens is helping scientists learn more about its genetics and could help the FBI narrow its search for the bioterrorist.
CLAIR FRASER, TIGR PRESIDENT: We did find new information. We did find informative markers, and some had suggested that we wouldn't find anything new.
KELLAN: Researchers at the Institute for Genomic Research, known by its acronym, TIGR, put the anthrax under the ultimate microscope and found subtle differences in the genetic code. That might be enough to crack the case. The FBI already knew the anthrax used in the bioterror attacks was a garden variety, the AIM (ph) strain used in labs throughout the United States since 1981.
Coincidentally, TIGR scientists had been analyzing the entire code of the anthrax AIM strain. When the Anthrax attacks hit last fall, they stepped up to bat. They took their nearly complete anthrax analysis, this is what it looks like, and compared it to the anthrax that killed Stephens. Researchers found 11 differences, not a lot considering anthrax contains more than five million pieces of genetic code.
TIM READ, TIGR RESEARCHER: It's a cliche, but it is a needle in a haystack.
KELLAN: More significant, says TIGR researcher Tim Read, are differences discovered in another area of DNA called the plasmids, a separate chain of DNA that makes anthrax poisonous.
READ: This is part of the genome that changes more frequently than any other part.
KELLAN: Those changes could help distinguish one batch of anthrax from another.
READ: This is telling us that you can find changes that occur over a short period of time.
KELLAN: Would you say that's a key finding?
READ: Yes, that is a finding from the work.
KELLAN (on camera): Knowing these genetic differences will help scientists develop better tests that they hope will differentiate one batch of anthrax strain from another. Will it be successful? No one know.
(voice-over): Investigators like Paul Kime (ph), who have hundreds of AIM strain samples from all over the country at his lab, will use these study results to develop more precise tests to screen all the samples in his library to look for a match.
RON ATLAS, AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR MICROBIOLOGY: The fact we now have a number of sites in the genome to look at helps us eliminate some labs and concentrate on others.
KELLAN: A long shot maybe, but in a case that has so far baffled investigators, any lead is worth pursuing.
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HATTORI: Another mystery surrounds a team of computer hackers that broke into a number of government and business Web sites recently. The mystery isn't so much how they hacked into the systems as much as why. As Bruce Francis explains, they say they're doing it in the name of national security.
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BRUCE FRANCIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's one of the most important jobs for government computers, tracking and keeping the nation's fliers safe in the air, and since September 11th, safety and security have become an even higher priority.
But the FAA Web site was hacked recently. It's home page defaced with the logo for hackers calling themselves the Deceptive Duo.
MARK RASCH, COMPUTER SECURITY CONSULTANT: If you can get into that mainframe and take over the web page, the odds are pretty good that you'll be able to get in and get data as well.
FRANCIS: And they did. The duo actually posted information stolen from an agency database on screeners. The FAA says that the information is about two years old and not particularly sensitive. It was part of a wave of recent attacks targeted at the U.S. Navy, Sandia National Labs, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. They even hit a Colorado airport and several regional banks, in one case, posting customer names, phone numbers, and bank account numbers.
But in an unusual twist, these cyber vandals draped themselves in the flag. Their manifest reads: "Tighten the security before a foreign attack forces you to. At a time like this, we can not risk the possibility of compromise by a foreign enemy."
KEVIN POULSEN, SECURITY FOCUS: There are a lot of security experts that aren't willing to dismiss the deceptive duo out of hand, because there's been a lot of talk about the possibility of terrorist groups or foreign governments attacking U.S. computers.
FRANCIS (on camera): But Poulsen points to what he calls the over-the-top graphics and sloganeering. He says that might mean that the motivation here is the ultimate hacker prize of media attention.
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ANNOUNCER: Coming up, thousands of small red crabs on a California beach could mean wild weather ahead for people around the world. And later in the show, a $20,000 cell phone, find out what's it made of, and who's likely to buy it, and why.
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HATTORI: The plan to store nuclear waste in Nevada's Yucca Mountain moved a step closer to reality this week. The House voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposal, which is supported by the Bush administration and opposed by most Nevada officials.
The idea is to store spent nuclear fuel from more than 100 nuclear plants deep inside the mountain so it can be protected in one central location. Opponents say it will be dangerous to ship all that waste across the country and that it could contaminate the environment at Yucca Mountain. The next step is up to the Senate, which has until July to make its decision on the project.
Environmentalists scored a victory against the coal mining industry in a West Virginia courtroom this week. The Federal Court ruling concerns a method of mining that gets coal out of the ground by sheering off the tops of mountains. U.S. District Judge Charles Hayden Wednesday ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to stop issuing permits for mountaintop mining. Environmentalists oppose the practice because dirt and rocks are dumped into nearby streams. This week's ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by an activist group against the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Thousands of little red crabs have been washing up on San Diego's beaches over the past week, and scientists say that probably means El Nino is on its way. The crabs are normally found further south off Baja, California. The weather phenomenon known as El Nino occurs when warm Pacific water moves further north than usual.
When that happens, the warm water brings along tropical marine life, so the appearance of the red crab is usually a sign of El Nino conditions. El Nino occurs every four or five years and causes storms in some parts of the world and drought in others. This past week, NOAA, the U.S. Agency which follows weather and climate issues, predicted that we'll see weak to moderate El Nino conditions in the Pacific by the end of this year.
El Nino is worrying marine biologists studying the world's biggest coral system, Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Experts say when the next El Nino arrives, it could do irreparable damage since the reef is already undergoing major bleaching. Sarah Clarke from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has more.
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SARAH CLARKE, AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the last two decades, the Great Barrier Reef has felt the effects of coral bleaching, an event triggered by rising sea temperatures. 1998 was the worst year on record, severely damaging around 25 percent of coral on the inner shoals. This year, some scientists predict the devastation is actually worse.
PROFESSOR OVE HOEGH-GULDBERG, MARINE SCIENTIST: It is really quite striking, the number of corals and the extent of the damage that's seen around islands on or near the Great Barrier Reef. CLARKE: Bleaching occurs when coral under stress expels algae. If distress is extremely, the coral can die. The event usually occurs during an El Nino cycle. This year, that's not the case.
HOEGH-GULDBERG: This could be the first of these major events outside an El Nino cycle. You won't have corals for very long if it gets either more regular or worse.
CLARKE: Professor Hoegh-Guldberg has studied the effects of coral bleaching for more than 15 years. His research team says this year the mortality rate will be worse. If it continues to occur outside an El Nino cycle, he believes it may become an annual event.
(on camera): A rise in just one degree Celsius is enough to cause problems for the coral, but climate projections are suggesting a rise of between two and six degrees by the turn of the century, and this research team believes that's too much for the coral to sustain.
PETER WILLIAMS, DIVE OPERATOR: Well, the water's been a lot warmer. We peaked at about 29 degrees in January.
CLARKE (voice-over): The colors of this coral are not a good sign. Instead, it's evidence of a reef showing the first signs of imminent mortality.
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HATTORI: Another massive iceberg broke off the edge of Antarctica recently. Satellite images show the new iceberg is about 10 times the area of New York's Manhattan island. NOAA scientists spotted it this week. It's the latest in an every-increasing series of icebergs breaking off Antarctica. Some scientists believe that's a sign of global warming.
Afghanistan has suffered war, famine, earthquakes, and now a plague of locusts. Hundreds of millions of the insects are sweeping across large areas of northern Afghanistan. The United Nations says the locusts are threatening up to two-thirds of the regions crop production. Authorities are fighting the infestation with 1,300 handheld sprayers and five vehicle-mounted sprayers. The outbreak is the biggest since the 1970s. Political instability and security concerns have hampered efforts to control locusts in recent years.
Two environmental activists accused of blowing themselves up are getting their day in court. Rusty Dornin reports from a federal courtroom not far from here in Oakland, California.
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RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When it came to saving trees, Earth First used such tough tactics -- spiking trees, toppling towers -- that they infuriated as many people as they inspired on purpose but with limits.
DARRYL CHERNEY, EARTH FIRST: Earth First used as shock value sabotage in defense of the environment to be justifiable, but never the use of explosives.
DORNIN: But when explosives nearly took the lives of Earth First organizers, Darryl Cherney and Judy Barry, those same tough tactics led police to suspect them.
LIEUTENANT MIKE SIMS, OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT: We don't have enough information at this time to determine whether it was a bomb being carried by them or one that was planted in the car.
DORNIN: This was the car they drove down an Oakland, California street on May 24, 1990.
CHERNEY: There was no warning. One minute Judy Barry and I are talking about how fast the lead car in front of us was driving, the one we're following, and the next minute, reality is altered forever. My head is ringing, the car is grinding. I have no idea what's going on. My first thought was that I was dead.
DORNIN: Cherney and Barry were arrested, the charges later dropped for lack of evidence. But Barry and Cherney wanted their name back and filed suit against Oakland police and the FBI, claiming the agencies essentially slandered them, that by not pursuing other leads, it left them to look guilty.
To get the case into federal court, they claimed the slander violated their civil rights. Former FBI agent Rick Smith worked in San Francisco during the investigation.
(on camera): Their allegation is that the FBI didn't follow up on these other, you know, death threats that they had received and so forth.
RICH SMITH, FORMER FBI AGENT: Yes. I just -- my understanding is that there were no other suspects. You know these people didn't cooperate at all with the investigation. They never cooperated and to suggest that the FBI denied them constitutional rights, is just nonsense.
DORNIN (voice over): Cherney and Barry claim the FBI ignored a letter from someone calling himself the Lord's Avenger, that took responsibility for the bombing.
SMITH: And to suggest that the FBI was persecuting Earth First and was looking for an issue like this, that's just ridiculous.
DORNIN: Some FBI agents and police are being sued personally. While Judy Barry died in 1997, Cherney remains determined, all doing legal battle to protect their name.
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ANNOUNCER: Coming up, shooting a film without any film, why "Attack of the Clones" may be ushering in the next generation of movie making.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HATTORI: The upcoming "Star Wars" picture, "Attack of the Clones," may be the fifth movie in the series, but it's a first when it comes to digital technology. George Lucas and company are at the leading edge of a trend to take the film out of film making.
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HATTORI (voice over): Whether it's "Spider-Man" adrenalin- pumping acrobatics catapulting your emotions or the grim horrors of clones marching on the imperiled republic, filmmakers are pushing the cinematic envelope with images enhanced or created by computer wizardry. Now "Star Wars II" goes a step further. It's the first major motion picture shot completely with a high definition video camera, no film whatsoever.
GEORGE LUCAS, FILMMAKER: For a fantasy film, this kind of technology is almost a must in order to get your story told, and before your stories were constrained. You couldn't tell these kind of stories just because the technology wouldn't let you.
ELIZABETH DALEY, DEAN, USC SCHOOL OF CINEMA AND TV: It's a tremendous freedom to create a new kind of explosive imagery.
HATTORI: Elizabeth Daley, dean of the University of Southern California's School of Cinema and Television says, technology lets filmmakers not just assemble and tweak images, but profoundly alter them.
DALEY: Now, if you don't like it, change it, manipulate it, play with it like a painter or a sculptor would.
HATTORI: Or, in the case of Yoda, even replace a puppet with a digital reincarnation.
BILL DILL, AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE CONSERVATORY: These are new tools that it's possible may change the audience's expectations of what a movie can do.
HATTORI (on camera): Here in Hollywood, while special effects technology has advanced in quantum leaps over the past 20 years, to the point where audiences now take it for granted, there's still one part of the film industry that hasn't changed fundamentally over the past 100 years.
(voice-over): Theaters today still rely on sprockets, bulbs, and rolls of celluloid. Digital projectors have yet to catch on due to costs and competing formats, despite giving moviegoers a more consistent experience.
LUCAS: If you go after the first weekend, you're not going to see scratches. You're not going to see it all torn up. You're not going to see it jiggle around.
HATTORI: As theaters compete for customers with increasingly sophisticated home video systems, they may be forced to upgrade. Still, no one believes technology will ever be the real box office draw.
STTEPHEN POSTER, AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS: If the movie is good, people are going to want to see it. They're not going to want to see it just because it was done digitally.
HATTORI: In fact, maybe the best film technology is the one so real the audience won't notice it.
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HATTORI: Speaking of hard to notice, how about a digital camera that's so small you could practically hide it behind a credit card? Bruce Burkhardt has the skinny in this weeks' "Technofile."
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BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It might bring to mind images of spy versus spy, but this pocket digital camera is designed for the casual photographer, not James Bond.
Produced by Logitech, this lightweight camera with its brushed aluminum surface is only half of an inch thick, about the size of a credit card. It snaps up to 52 pictures, but at a resolution of 1.3 mega pixels, images are not as sharp as those from other digital cameras.
The pocket camera has no flash. It also has no preview screen, like most digital cameras, so you must transfer the images to the MGI Photo Suite software included with the camera, in order to view your photos and select the good ones from the well, not so good.
The Photo Suite allows you to edit your pictures, play around with its many features and organize your photos in albums. You can also send a finished product to your friends. And, while connected to your computer through the USB cable, the camera recharges itself.
It's price is as slim as the camera is. For $130, you could soon be able to snap up one of these tiny picture takers in stores or through the Internet.
I'm Bruce Burkhardt, and that's "Technofile."
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HATTORI: Blog, sounds like something Dracula says before he drinks your blood, but if you listen to Josh Quittner, Editor of Business 2.0 Magazine, Web sites known as blogs could someday replace guys like me. Bruce Burkhardt again now, with some tools for finding blogs.
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BURKHARDT: What is a blog and why did they call it that awful word, blog?
JOSH QUITTNER, EDITOR, BUSINESS 2.0 MAGAZINE: It's a great word. I love the word "blog."
BURKHARDT: Do you? It just sounds...
QUITTNER: The word blog is nothing more than a combination of two words, "Web" plus "log," "blog."
BURKHARDT: What's the difference between it and just a Web site?
QUITTNER: What a blog typically is, is a collection of links out to interesting things on the World Wide Web. The typical format is link a tiny bit of commentary and then point it to everyone else's commentary. From that process of tugging on it, tearing it apart, adding to it, augmenting it, taking away truth emergence.
BURKHARDT: How do you find a blog?
QUITTNER: A really interesting place to start, a top level place to start is at MIT, at the Media Lab there. They have a thing called Blogdex, which the name would indicate is an index of blogs. That almost sounds ridiculous, a blogdex could indicate anything.
BURKHARDT: We're two grown men, John.
QUITTNER: But I like it there. That's blogdex.media.mit.edu.
BURKHARDT: So it's an MIT site?
QUITTNER: Right.
BURKHARDT: This community of users that you're talking about is relatively small right now?
QUITTNER: They're reaching a point where it's exploding. There are new ones coming on line every day. My favorite, the site called Slashdot.com. The cool thing that Slashdot does though is its software has this really interesting algorithm that weights how many times people actually hit on a particular link and how valuable they found it. So the good commentary floats to the top.
BURKHARDT: And as determined by the popularity of the comments?
QUITTNER: It's totally democratic. It's a democratic journal. It's journalism by the masses.
BURKHARDT: It's equally capable, it seems to me, of miscommunication and distorting the truth or spreading mistruth, agree or disagree?
QUITTNER: Totally disagree. When you stand up on a blog and say something that's stupid or outright wrong, everybody is going to jump down your throat and say, "you idiot. How could you say this when clearly this is the truth? And not only is this the truth, here's a link to something supporting it."
In some respects, this is the future of journalists, and here's why. We tend, we in the media business, tend to become instant experts. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we're not.
BURKHARDT: Speak for yourself John.
QUITTNER: I'm speaking for myself. I know, Bruce, that you're always right. There's something about it that's very much peer review. The idea here is you take something, you put it out there and everyone has at it.
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HATTORI: You can find out more about blogs and other stories from our program on our Web site. Just go to cnn.com/next.
ANNOUNCER: Still ahead, a find is a dream come true for archaeologists. It's turning into a nightmare for people who live nearby. And weight loss Web sites, can they really help? Those stories and a lot more are coming up in a few minutes. First we'll take a break and get the latest headlines from the CNN newsroom. Don't go away.
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HATTORI: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN, this week from the University of California at Berkeley. Archaeologists in Egypt have found a new pyramid. It's not quite as impressive at the Great Pyramids a few miles away, but it's a treasure trove of information about the ancient queen buried there. Sandy Petrykowski reports from Cairo.
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SANDY PETRYKOWSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Egypt is home to the pharaohs and their pyramids, the Great Pyramids of Giza, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Many people think these are the only pyramids.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, before I came here, I thought there was only three. Now they tell me there's a lot of them.
PETRYKOWSKI: And now, just two miles away there is one more. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's leading archaeologist, says a new pyramid has just been discovered, number 110.
ZAHI HAWASS, EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES DEPARTMENT: To discover a tomb is very exciting. To discover a statue is wonderful. But to discover a pyramid, that is the most exciting thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we have discovered a new one? Really? Where?
PETRYKOWSKI: To the non-archaeologist, it may look at first glance like a pile of rocks. There's no triangle or pyramid shape at the top. But forgetting geometry, there is a burial chamber inside, which makes it a pyramid.
HAWASS: And evidence of burial that has been found in this pyramid proves that this pyramid was once for a queen, the wife of Jeditrah (ph), son of the great King Kyops (ph), the builder of the great pyramid.
PETRYKOWSKI (on camera): In Egypt, the pyramids built for the kings were made of huge blocks, several feet high, but this newly- discovered pyramid, because it's for a queen, is much smaller and built off the side of what is believed to be her husband's tomb.
(voice-over): Archaeologists have been working here for years, but only recently cleared this area. Though not quite as big, not quite as perfect as the Great Pyramids, this discovery shows that many secrets are still hidden in the sands of Egypt.
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HATTORI: Hidden in the soil below a Peruvian shanty town is a remarkable collection of Incan mummies. Archaeologists were thrilled at the discovery as we reported last month, but as Kathy Healey reports, it's not so thrilling for people living on top of the dig.
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KATHY HEALEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mid-April on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, a dusty shanty town called Tupacamaru a rare find for archaeologists and now sharp questions about how it affects the people who live there; buried under this neighborhood more than 2,000 Incan mummies dating back some 500 years to the time of Columbus. A (UNINTELLIGIBLE) archaeologist called it the largest such find ever.
GUILLERMO COCK, ARCHAEOLOGIST (through translator): We have recovered a complete sample of the population of that time. We have populations, all ranges and all ages. This sample is especially valuable for the stuffy of the society and the individual.
HEALEY: With a cross section of society to study, scientists hope to learn more about diets, disease, and life among the Incas. Many of the bodies were preserved by the mummification, and buried with them, ceramics, woven bags, animal skins, the stuff of daily life.
For the current residents, the discovery has been a burden. Twelve thousand people here get by on little more than a dollar a day. They are the ones who raised most of the money for the initial excavation, about $100,000. It began when the applied for titles, intending to legalize the homes they had built from nothing.
JOEL LUYO, TUPACAMARU COUNCIL MEMBER (through translator): In looking for a new place to live, we found this land and we stayed on it without knowing what was beneath. It was totally filled with garbage in complete disorder.
HEALEY: To get the titles, the homeowners had to pay for an excavation. It's a practice denounced by many in the archaeological community and some residents fear that when it's all over, they'll have to move.
JORGE GARCIAS, TUPACAMARU RESIDENT (through translator): All of a sudden, they could transfer us to another site and give us land where we could build in the same capacity, the same value that we actually have here.
HEALEY: The scientists say they don't want anybody evicted, but there could be a lot more to find and the clock is ticking. Water and sewage seeping from the shanty town is decomposing the mummies. The residents have a glimmer of hope that an archaeological museum could bring tourists and money to their neighborhood and any such payoff on their investment would be a long way off.
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ANNOUNCER: Next up on NEXT, can the Web help you get fit? We put three Web sites and three volunteers to a three-month test. Find out how they did when NEXT@CNN returns.
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HATTORI: Can you get in shape on the Internet? No, this isn't some kind of Web scam. We put that challenge to three people a few months ago and signed them up for a fitness-related Web site. In this week's "Nothin' but Net," Ann Kellan checks in with them to see if they've reached their goal.
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ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Can the Web really help people achieve their fitness goals? That's the question we set out to answer with three volunteers. We signed each one up for a different Web site.
(on camera): It has been three and a half months. Let's check in to see if the Web sites work. Well, at least they're still working out.
(voice over): Back in January, Kevyn Giggers weighed 260 pounds. His goal was to lose 20 pounds. Look at him today.
KEVYN GIGGERS: 239, 20 pounds, mission accomplished.
KELLAN: Kevin used a Web site designed to help people achieve goals of all kinds.
GIGGERS: It was Mygoals.com. It just sent an e-mail reminder, but you know that kind of, you know, initiated the motivation, but I think just staying focused was really the key.
KELLAN: But will Kevyn pay the $10 a month to remain a member of the Web site?
GIGGERS: Honestly, I doubt it. I doubt if I will continue to use it.
KELLAN: Stacy Dullum was a student and workout queen, in the gym six days a week. Stacy's goal to get into even better shape, if you can believe it. STACY DULLUM: I'd like to be able to run a full 30 minutes without panting and dying at the end.
KELLAN: But Stacy in the past three months got a full-time job.
DULLUM: It's a long day and by the time 5:30 rolls around, when I've woken up at 5:30 in the morning, the last thing I want to do is go to they gym.
KELLAN: We assigned Stacy Webfitnesstools.com, a free Web site for tracking your calorie intake and workout plan. Stacy is back at the gym six days a week, but she doesn't accredit that to the Web site.
DULLUM: I find it more of something interesting to use a couple times a week to find out where I've been that week as far as weight wise, workout wise, and eating wise.
KELLAN: Finally, remember Arimenta Jackson.
ARIMENTA JACKSON: I want to lose all the weight that I gained since before I was fine, you know.
KELLAN: She is on her way, seven pounds lighter.
JACKSON: Well, what I really feel good about is the fact that I've gone from an 18 to a size 12. So that's what really matters.
KELLAN: She used Weightwatchers.com, which costs about $15 a month. The site uses a point system so people can track the amount of food they eat.
JACKSON: Well, let me say the Web site that you guys purchased for me, it's a good Web site. The information is accurate. For a person that is into following the point system and doing the Weight Watchers things, I highly recommend it.
KELLAN: But she says she didn't follow the system and won't pay to continue to use the Web site. So what can we conclude about these sites? Maybe the Web can help you get started, but the rest is up to you.
I'm Ann Kellan and that's "Nothin' but Net."
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HATTORI: You can find out more on our Web site, cnn.com/next.
ANNOUNCER: High fashion accessory or building block for a better life? Two very different takes on cell phones when we come back.
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HATTORI: Cell phones may be a necessity of modern life, but they can also be a fashion statement. Just ask any of coeds here. You've probably seen phones in wild colors and patterns. But Kristie Lu Stout found what may be the ultimate fashion phone in Hong Kong.
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SUGUNA MADHAVAN, VICE PRESIDENT, VERTU: Something for the young at heart, very funky as well.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Nokia's got a new groove, a mobile subsidiary called Vertu out to deliver not just a cell phone but what it calls an unparalleled communication experience.
MADHAVAN: Anything that works beautifully, looks beautiful, and part of it was making sure that every single detail that was created off of something very unique in the tactile or the physical experience and the ringing melody is one small example.
STOUT (on camera): Now, this is a handset for the seriously loaded. This handcrafted platinum phone has Rolls Royce leather sides, a ceramic back, and a sapphire crystal screen, all yours for a cool $20,000 U.S., but money alone won't let you score one since it's sold by invitation only.
TONY CHAN, TELECOM JOURNALIST: It gives a product some kind of status, I guess, and it gives Vertu (UNINTELLIGIBLE) status as well. I guess it's that whole -- it's an haute couture thing, right, where you have to go and make an appointment and you have to you know get your body measured.
STOUT: But bringing fashion to phones is really nothing new. The handset is already considered an accessory, a gauge of just how cool the color is. But Vertu goes one step further, creating a phone that could age like fine jewelry.
CHAN: Why not make a phone like they used to make watches, like (UNINTELLIGIBLE) or whatever, some of the fancy watch names and use that motto to sell mobile phones.
MADHAVAN: Our early customers are building a very strong emotional attachment to it. Some of them are already telling us, this is going to be a collector's item. But more importantly, the idea of making sure that our clients can use the Vertu signature products five years down the road when the market moves into GPRAs (ph) or the market moves into new technology is something that we want to assure.
STOUT: Promises of upgradeable chic may be what's needed to win over a small but valuable market. Last year, handset sales declined for the first time in history, and as mobile phone makers face an increasingly saturated market, moving into luxury may help bring up the profit. Vertu is not shy to admit that its handsets were not designed for mass market appeal.
MADHAVAN: Quite a few of the ladies in Hong Kong are asking for diamonds because it fits with their lifestyle and their style also in terms of materials that they tend to buy.
STOUT: A finicky audience that may be worth the fuss. After all, whether the economy is up or down, the ultra rich will always have a need for that ultra experience.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: For some, cell phones may be an extravagance, but in Afghanistan, where the country's first mobile phones hit the market recently, they're an economic tool. And as Elina Fuhrman reports, they could help the country recover from decades of war.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELINA FUHRMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An Afghan guard is making sure people lined up for the very first mobile phones here behave themselves. There was a quiet excitement here in this central post office in Kabul, as the first batch of cell phones has made its way to this conservative Islamic society.
For over a decade now, telephones in Afghanistan ceased to be dependable, and these brand new mobiles are not just a connection with the outside world, but also political victory.
GAVIN JEFFERY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, AFGHAN WIRELESS: One of the necessary precursors of building a successful economy and also for reasons of political unity, the existence of a reliable telecommunications system is absolutely necessary.
FUHRMAN: It is also important in wrestling power away from local warlords who use lack of communication to bolster their might.
"We are very happy with the launch of this mobile phone system here in Kabul" says this man. "I was even able to call Dubai. We're so happy" he adds.
For now, the mobiles are more of a status symbol than a communication device, since so few can afford to buy them, and even those who are not ready to own their own phone just yet, are eager to learn how it works, hoping the new phone will change their lives and help a new generation of Afghans to rebuild their war-torn country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, bringing up baby, a baby orangutan, with a rare medical condition. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Finally this week, for decades the Easter Seals organization has been helping children born with disabilities. Now one chapter of the group has expanded its reach. John Zarrella reports on why the charity is going ape.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Millie is one of a kind.
LINDA JACOBS, MILLIE'S CAREGIVER: Can I have a kiss? Thank you. Aren't you the sweetest girl?
ZARRELLA: At 22 months old, this orangutan toddler is believed to be the only one of her kind alive who suffers from cerebral palsy. She was born with little strength, no balance, nearly non-existent motor skills. Linda Jacobs, Millie's caregiver saw it firsthand.
JACOBS: She couldn't even open her hands. The mom knew there was something wrong right away.
ZARRELLA: At nine days old, she was abandoned by her mom, left to die, but because she was born in captivity, Millie has a chance to live.
JACOBS: The first time I held her in my arms, I knew that I was meant to be her mom.
ZARRELLA: At Parrot Jungle, where the orangutan lives with her half brother, Jacobs spends nearly every day with the toddler. When they're not here, they're at Miami's Easter Seals rehabilitation center, where Millie is learning to use her body to do what orangutans do, swing from a rope, climb.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You could just sit down and look at this and not know where to put her body and so the fact that she can climb in, get around, climb up, grab her stuff and come back down, is fantastic. It's a fantastic improvement.
ZARRELLA: When Easter Seals heard about Millie three months ago, they decided treatments, nearly the same kind of physical therapy given to children, would work for Millie.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And orangutan mothers tickle their babies, so it's important that we tickle her too.
ZARRELLA: And they have. Why? Because orangutans are closely related to humans.
JACKSON: She's to me a little kid with orange hair.
ZARRELLA: A little kid who has her favorite toys, who has her favorite blanket.
JACKSON: Yes, very good.
ZARRELLA: The time donated to Millie's care may or may not help researchers learn anything about dealing with cerebral palsy, but that Easter Seals says, was never the point. It was simply the right thing to do.
JACKSON: She certainly lets us know when she loses it. That's "I need a break" right there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Well, we need a break too because we're about out of time. First, take a look at what's coming up next week. The world's polar bears are facing a new threat. Could global warming reek havoc with their habitats? And password overload.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One for the ATM, one to get in the garage door, one to get on AOL.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Personal, I probably have six, and then at work, I have seven or eight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HATTORI: There's got to be a better way, and our Jeanne Moos may have found it. That and a lot more coming up on NEXT. Until then, let us know how we're doing. You can drop us e-mail. Our address is next@cnn.com.
Thanks so much for joining us this week. Thanks to our friends here at UC Berkeley, and for all of us on the sci-tech beat, I'm James Hattori. See you next time.
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Fits in Wallet; Baby Orangutan Gets Second Chance>
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