CNN news 2009-12-14 加文本

2009-12-14 cnn

Hi, I'm Carl Azuz. Welcome to cnn Student News, as we're kicking off our last week of shows before the holiday break.

We begin today in Denmark, where week two of the U.N.'s climate conference is getting underway. One of the big goals of this meeting, was to put together a deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. World leaders, including President Obama, are heading to Copenhagen later on this week, to try and finalize an agreement. But some analysts have said there hasn't been much progress so far. And there are some questions about how the deal would be paid for.

Thousands of demonstrators in the streets of the Danish capital during the conference demanded that participants create a climate-change agreement. Most of the protests have been peaceful; some did turn violent. On Saturday, more than 900 demonstrators were detained by police. Nearly all of them were later released.

Over in Thailand, authorities have detained five men who were on board a cargo plane that stopped to refuel there on its way from North Korea to Sri Lanka. The concern: what was inside: 35 tons of weapons, including rocket launchers and tubes that could be parts for missiles. Thai authorities say the men are facing charges of illegal weapons smuggling. Sri Lanka officials say there was no shipment scheduled to come in from North Korea.

In the United States, President Obama is scheduled to sit down today with the heads of some of the country's biggest banks to talk about small businesses, ones that have 500 or fewer employees. Many of them are having a hard time getting loans from banks. But banks argue that the policies put in place because of this financial crisis have affected how they can offer loans. Kate Bolduan looks at how today's meeting could impact the situation.