CNN news 2011-12-08 加文本

cnn news 2011-12-08

Leaders in Europe are trying to prevent another debt crisis with a new money plan, and this is needed because some European countries are spending much more money than they`re taking in. They`re running on huge deficits. And because many of them share the same currency -- the euro -- if one of these governments goes under, it could hurt all of their economies, the U.S. economy, and others worldwide.

AZUZ (voice-over): Here are two of the major players, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, getting out of the car here, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. These two leaders represent the two largest economies in Europe.

They believe their new plan will prevent another major debt crisis and stabilize Europe`s economies. But it still has to be ratified by most members of the European Union and what`s unknown is if it will be and if it will work.

AZUZ: Well, geography is playing a part in the latest disagreement between the U.S. and Iran. These two countries are not friendly, and Iran claims it recently shot down a U.S. drone, an unmanned aircraft used by the military to gather information.

Iran says the drone was flying over its airspace. The U.S. says its drones don`t fly over Iranian airspace. Barbara Starr explains how else geography factors in and why this is bad new for U.S. intelligence if Iran is telling the truth.

BARBARA STARR, cnn REPORTER: Iranian authorities say they shot down a highly classified U.S. unmanned spy plane over its territory along its eastern border with Afghanistan. Iran says the drone they shot down is an RQ-170. Now that`s one of the most secret drones in the U.S. military and intelligence arsenal, a stealth drone that can fly largely undetected, gathering intelligence and targeting information.

So far the U.S., using the NATO alliance in Afghanistan to issue a statement, is only saying, quote, "The UAV to which the Iranians are referring may be a U.S. unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week. The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status."

That according to the statement. Now U.S. officials tell cnn the flight crew operating the drone did report a loss of flight controls before the drone went down. But they`re not saying it was shot down and they`re not saying it`s an RQ-170.

The key question now is, shot down or not, do the Iranians have their hands on classified U.S. intelligence technology? If the Iranians do, the U.S. knows it`s not getting any of that back -- Barbara Starr, cnn, Washington.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See if you can ID me. I`m a country located in southeast Asia just north of Malaysia. I`ve been in the news recently for months of historic flooding. My largest city is also my capital, Bangkok.

I`m Thailand, home to the world`s longest serving monarch.