"teen kids news" is about to begin. here's what's happening. making a difference in the world starts with you. coming up, you'll see how easy and fun it can be. think you know what's in that hamburger and fries? you may want to think again. i'll have the story. the sport that's sweeping the muggle world. can you guess? i'll have the answer coming up. we'll take you to what was once the world's longest suspension bridge. >> and it all starts right now on "teen kids news."

welcome to "teen kids news." i'm mwanzaa. >> and i'm jessica. here's our top story for this week. changing the world is no small task, but as amanda tells us, making a difference can come in small steps and sizes. >> reporter: from a very young age, bilaal rajan thought that helping others in need was the natural thing to do. >> well, i started fund-raising in the age of 4 for an earthquake in india and, simply, i was reading through a newspaper and i saw how a priest from my own religious community had died under the rubble in india. and i decided that i had to do something. that it wasn't really fair. and i was eating a clementine at the time, and i was 4 years old, so the simplest thing to do was well sell clementines. and that's exactly what i did. >> and so he grabbed a little box from the fridge and away he went. he made up a little sign and all that sort of stuff. and we knew from that point that

a typical 4-year-old doesn't do that. >> reporter: at the end of the day, he had raised $350. this set off a passion in bilaal that has taken him all over the world to help those less fortunate. >> i've traveled to places like malawi, indonesia, sri lanka, the tsunami-affected regions, ecuador in south america. and some of the things i saw there i definitely won't forget. they had so little, yet they still had smile on their faces, while here we complain if our coffee is cold. and really that's what counts -- realizing that what we have here. another item to us is the whole world to other people. and i think that that's why it's really important to help out. to be able go out there and make a difference. >> reporter: and that, according to bilaal, is something anyone can make happen, not matter what your age. >> i'm just another kid that's taken action. and action is something that everyone else out there in the world can do. it's the first step, and it's the hardest step, but it's the most important step in making a difference. >> reporter: but his resume is

not one of just another kid. he's a motivational speaker, a fund-raiser, a unicef child ambassador, and now a published author. >> i said, well, why not give my message out to other readers, to other people, to other kids, through a book. and that's when i started speaking into a voice recorder, and i ended up getting that transcribed, and here's my book today. the message is about making change, about finding your passion and being willing to take chances. >> and you have to make sure that you're not afraid to be able to said no to. because it's part of life. and you have to just go ahead and keep on trying, no matter what it takes. and it might seem hard at the start, and it always will be hard. but you have to just keep on going. >> reporter: bilaal does work hard, but there is always room for some fun. >> i love to play tennis. i love to ski. i love to surf, and i still hang out with my friends. i still get my own time off to be able to swim and do what i really want. but i realize that i had to put

away some time for making a difference. >> reporter: and with the support he gets from his parents, there's no limit to what bilaal can accomplish. >> one of my goals -- in my perspective, a small goal -- over the next three years, i want to inspire a million kids out there to make a difference in the world and just really help out in their own community or in the global community and just give back to the world. >> reporter: and it doesn't stop there. bilaal wants to be an astronaut and a neurosurgeon when he grows up. like his father says, he might be the first to perform brain surgery in outer space. a popular video game is getting a new use. the nintendo wii is showing good results as therapy for people with an illness called parkinson's disease. the disease affects muscle control. patients who play the games regularly seem to do better at controlling their movements. they're calling it "wii-hab." stay with us. there's lots more still to come on "teen kids news." >> we'll be right back.

and now our fox in the classroom update. >> the souris river crests at historic heights in minot, north dakota, 4 feet above a record from 1881. floodwaters affecting more than 4,000 homes and displacing more than 12,000 residents. >> it's overwhelming. it's sobering. it's just sobering. when you're not in a flood, you don't realize what a flood brings. >> officials saying it will be a few weeks before the waters fully recede and months until the effected communities get back to normal. the international criminal court issues arrest warrants for libyan president colonel moammar gadhafi, his son and his chief of intelligence on charges of crimes against humanity including murder and persecution. the presiding judge saying there are reasonable grounds to hold the three men criminally

responsible for killing, wounding and imprisoning hundreds of civilians after demonstrations against the regime began in february. prosecutors at the court say the three suspects should be arrested quickly, to prevent future crimes. libyan officials are rejecting the court's authority. the los angeles dodgers filed for bankruptcy. co-owner frank mccourt blaming major league baseball for blocking the team from signing a new television deal to provide it with the cash it needs to meet the team's payroll. mccourt has been struggling to meet payroll and other financial commitments while in the midst of a bitter divorce with wife and co-owner jamie mccourt. the team will continue to operate during the reorganization, but a sale of the team to get out of bankruptcy is likely. for "teen kid news" i'm laura ingles, fox news channel in the fast food --

it's as american as apple pie. but that doesn't mean it's good for us. to make healthy choices, we need more information. felipe tells us one place to find it. >> reporter: take your favorite fast food burger. according to nutritiondata.com, a whopper and a big mac each have more than half the amount of fat you're supposed to eat in an entire day. >> you've got to educate yourself about food, and a lot of what my book is about is just trying to tell you the difference between this industrial food and real food. >> reporter: eric schlosser spent two years researching the fast food industry. he wrote a book just for kids called "chew on this -- everything you don't want to know about fast food." it includes one surprising fact about those mcdonald's french fries many of us love. >> they're salty, and mcdonald's puts a little extra something in them. and when i was doing research for the book, i discovered that little extra thing is beef flavor. so the fries have beef in them, and if you're a vegetarian, you shouldn't eat them. >> reporter: eric isn't a vegetarian. in fact, like most of us, he loves a good burger.

but he stopped eating fast food after he did his research. he already knew most fast food is not made fresh. it's processed -- created in a big factory, frozen, packaged and shipped around the world. that's why the food tastes the same no matter if you buy it in china or california. but eric was shocked to find out the taste and smell of fast food is not natural. >> this fast food is so heavily processed that while they're processing it, it loses its flavor. so there's a whole industry that's sprung up and it's an offshoot of the chemical industry that's manufacturing these elaborate chemicals that they add to the food to give it its flavor. >> reporter: the way it's processed keeps the cost of fast food low. t it addon the f, lori, lt a we end up paying a bigger pric o too manys ri and stveeit kidsec

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>> impedimenta! >> beat her! beat her! sry sorry! i'm fine, i'm just scared! no one said this was easy! qu ofitate d athleticism, minus the magic. it's also a testament to the vast amount of oppornies colleges have to offer. >> oh, definitely. i would never have known, like, l espele, you know, were as interested in harry potter as i was. it's completely amazing, and if you're not going to put yourself ou'ro n roo years, it's not fun, and then you miss out on things like is >> reporter: reporting from the pitch at vassar college, for "teen kids news," i'm hannah. some history you read about. some history you look at. but maybe the best history is history you can walk across. this lesson comes with a view, and siena's got . reporter: these towers behind me were once the tallest

ruur ithweer hesphere. you may be surprised to learn that they are the supporwers r e ooyn bridge. to learn more about this beautifustcte,e t th arittul storian justin ferate. justin is internationally coized for his expertise in new york city landmarks. why was this bridge originally built? >> in the 19th century, the city ofeworwathlaesin the country. and the third largest city was the city of brooklyn, directly across the water. but there was no way to connect e o ti. the east river was a tremendous shpi cal so ty had to fure a way to get from one side to the other and connect the citiend g over all the ships that came into the harbor. >> no one had ever attempted to build a bridge like this before. r e in t terth support the bridge would have to go deep beneath the sandy river bottom to make sure they rested on sidurface.

but that meant building underwater. so- >> they created aather amazing, simple, but amazing simple een box upsidedown, and they would sink the box andapreirn e box. d op wldo wnnt the box, digging for the foundations for the bridge. basically, you're in an upside wnoxunrnth the river. an incredibly difficult job, but it was the courage of alof those great workers whose names weilner owwhduth bridge that would give us this great construction. >> the achievement, though, came at a tremendous price. many men lost their lives building the bridge, including the bridge's designer. >> the original designer was john roebling. the bridge, would not, however, be constructed by roebling, who tragically dd lkj.

his son would be responsible for building the bridge, washington roebling. but washington roebling himself gosi. so, for many people, the heroine of the whole story is emily roebling, the wife of shgt rblg,ho supervised the construction. the original concept came about 1865. and by 1883, this rather amazing endeavour would be completed. >> the brooklyn bridge was built at a time when scores of new imgrtsercongo america. con artists often tried to take advantage of them by spinning talltales and selling merchandise they didn't even own, including the brooklyn bridge. there's an old saying that goes, "iyobeevhat, then i have a bridge i want to sell you." well, here's the bridge.

roebling was a brilliant designer. he created the bridge to last long into the future. ft,t'asuniol today as it was when he designed it more than a hundred years ago. >> because he overbuilt the bridge, the bridge is perfectly safe, perfectly strong. thk ouit it's held automobiles, it's held horses and carriages, it's held trolley cars, and it's held pedestrians since 1883. righnothe e rsenth us, people jogging, running, roller-blading, and the bridge is just fine. >> this bridge is a classic example of what's known as a suspension bridge. that means the roadway is suspended from delicate looking steel cables. those cables are in turn suspended from bigger cables, and the bigger cables are suspended from the towers. yocathk ausnsn bridge as a kind of giant hammock hanging between two

trees. that means even though it's safe, it does have one unusual characteristic. >> well, actually, when there are many, many people on the bridge, what often happens, it's stum thing, people start walking in the same rhythm. and somehow it just happens, and people go left, right, left, right, and what happens is that everything starts moving left, right, left, right, and you can actually start fli t bridge sway. when they built the bridge, there was actually a famous sign saying "break step," which you cannot walk left, right, left, right -- that everyone should aifre pace, because of that. because the original construction would sway dramatically, and imagine being high above the new york harbor and having this bridge go whoooo-ooo! >> reporter: tell us about the towers. >> the bridge is larlyotc. the shape of the bridge is a pointed arch, signifying hands in prayer.

while it is not a religiously inspired bridge, it is a spiritually inspired bridge, and the point of the arch is to reach heavenward. >> reporter: this bridge is steeped in history, both good and bad. but even today, it remains one of the world's most popular structures. just how popular? >> if you go to italy, ask for il ponte de brooklyn, or brooklyn bridge chewing gum. it's still the most popular chewing gum in italy. >> now, there's a statistic you can really sink your teeth into. reporting from one of our nation's most beautiful and enduring bridges, for "teen kids news," i'm siena. it's time for "word!" one definition is real. the others are fake. see if you can find the real one. hydrology. for starters, it's a noun. does it mean the study of the waters of the earth? or is it the tendency of a dog to seek a watering place?

or how about an illness resulting in constant thirst? hydrology is the study of the waters of the earth, as in, "her courses in hydrology at college made her an expert in evaporation." here's a verb. evince. what does it mean? maybe it's to make very clear. or perhaps evince means to make a fearful face or grimace. or just possibly evince means to conquer absolutely. give up? evince means to make very clear. "i intend to evince the meaning of evince!" how about bogus. is it a noun? a small particle of dust? or is it a verb? to borrow without permission. or is it an adjective? not real, phony. u got it right if you picked phony. as in, "there are a lot of bogus

definitions in that "word!" game on "kids news." hydrology -- the study of earth's water. evince -- to make clear. bogus -- phony. that's "word!" open a big box, and you'll often find it's filled with bits of plastic called peanuts. they're used to protect the valuable items in the box from breaking. but these plastic peanuts are a big problem for communities trying to recycle. because they're designed to take up a lot of space. the good news is that package filler can be reused. there's even a plastic peanut hotline to find out who in your area will accept them. for more information, check out our website. now here's louie with a look at a career you might consider some day. >> do you have what it takes to hold someone's life in your hands? surgeons do it every day.

they are doctors who are on the cutting edge of medicine. literally. a surgeon works in an operating room, leading a team of highly skilled doctors and nurses. the procedures are complex and require extensive knowledge of the inside of the human body. you need to have steady hands and great endurance. some operations take hours to complete. after college and medical school, surgeons train alongside experienced doctors. some surgeons specialize in particular areas of the body. they also learn to be good communicators. that way they can help patients and their families get through the operation and on the road to recovery. to learn more, visit acinet.org. that's a government website about all kinds of careers. i'm lily with "work it." that's all for now, but we'll be back soon with more "teen kids news." >> thanks for joining us, and have a great week.

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