CNN news 2011-01-27 加文本

cnn news 2011-01-27

It's all thanks to new technology that a student in Texas is doing something he thought might be impossible: be in class with his friends. And how he's doing it is really gonna amaze you. That story's coming up. I'm Carl Azuz. A new week of cnn Student News starts right now!

All right, up first today, we're looking at some international headlines, starting with political shifts in Ireland. The government of that country is under pressure because it asked for a financial bailout, after it insisted for a long time that it didn't need one. In the U.S., there are two main political parties. But in Ireland, there are a lot of political parties. And right now, the Irish parliament is controlled by a coalition, a merger of several of those parties.

That coalition seems to be falling apart. Yesterday, the Green Party announced that it's pulling out of the coalition government. That could lead to early elections in the country. The Green Party's announcement coming one day after the current prime minister, Brian Cowen, said that he's not planning to lead his party after upcoming elections. Cowen said part of the reason he's stepping down is because of criticism of his leadership from inside his own party.

Well, from Ireland, we move to Australia, a country that's home to around 21 million people. More than 3 million of them - that is more than 10 percent of Australia's population! - have been affected by this: massive flooding in eastern Australia. Authorities calling this one of the most costly disasters in Australia's history. The floods have had a big impact on crops, on tourism, retail and manufacturing. Part of the reason this is worse than previous floods or fires is that Queensland -- the area where all this is happening -- has had a big jump in population. One official said the government has already made about $227 million in recovery payments.

The last stop on our tour of international headlines is the North African country of Tunisia. Protests against the government there have left more than a hundred people dead. And the country's longtime leader was removed from power. Now, some Tunisians are protesting against the new government. Brian Todd looks at how what's happening in Tunisia could have an impact on that region and the rest of the world.