CNN news 2012-01-16 加文本

cnn news 2012-01-16

First up, it`s round two in the U.S. presidential primary season as the race for the Republican nomination moves to New Hampshire. Officials in the Granite State were predicting a possible record turnout for yesterday`s primary.

AZUZ (voice-over): Around 250,000 voters were expected to cast ballots. New Hampshire holds the nation`s first primary, but two small towns there really get a jump on things. Dixville Notch and Hart`s Location open their polls just after midnight, although they don`t have that many registered voters.

For example, in Dixville Notch, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman tied for first. They had two votes each. In Hart`s Location, Romney beat out U.S. Representative Ron Paul five votes to four.

AZUZ: As the results started to come in last night, cnn projected that former Governor Romney would win the contest. He was expected to come in first, so a big question was how the other Republican candidates would finish. cnn projected that Representative Paul would come in second, and former Governor Huntsman would come in third.

AZUZ (voice-over): If you`re looking for the full results from New Hampshire, you can get them from our website. Go to the "Spotlight" section at cnnstudentnews.com, and click on the cnn Election Center link.

We`ll have more on the New Hampshire primary in tomorrow`s show.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s Shoutout goes out to Mr. Anderson`s and Ms. Eggers` social studies classes at Groves Academy in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

What`s the term for financial aid that a government gives to people or groups? You know what to do. Is it a subsidy, commodity, dividend or share? You`ve got three seconds, go.

That government financial aid is called a subsidy. That`s your answer, and that`s your Shoutout.

AZUZ: Subsidies are designed to make products more affordable for people. The flip side is that if you remove a subsidy, the cost of the product will likely go up.

AZUZ (voice-over): That`s what`s happening in the African nation of Nigeria, where the government stopped giving out fuel subsidies. The price of fuel shot way up, leading many Nigerians to protest against the decision and to hold a nationwide strike.

Ralitsa Vassileva has more on what`s going on in Nigeria.

RALITSA VASSILEVA, cnn REPORTER (voice-over): The streets of Africa`s biggest oil producer exploded with anger Monday over the doubling of the price of gas following the removal of a popular subsidy. A nationwide strike brought the country to a standstill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

VASSILEVA (voice-over): And many took to the streets, demanding the government restore the subsidy, leading to violent clashes between protesters and police with some reports of injuries and death. But President Goodluck Jonathan told Nigerians the government needs to invest the money saved to build up the country`s crumbling infrastructure. Some international experts believe the measure will help Nigerian roads economy.

CHARLKIE ROBERTSON, CHIEF ECONOMIST, RENAISSANCE CAPITAL: If they`ve been prepared to try this petroleum subsidy removal, then perhaps they`re going to push forward electricity reform, too. If they do that, Nigerian growth, instead of being 7 or 8 percent a year, it could be up at 10 or 11 percent.

VASSILEVA (voice-over): But for most Nigerians living on $2 a day, the price of reform is unbearable. Since removing the gas subsidy on January the 1st, the price of petrol has doubled to about 80 cents a liter, driving up the cost of most basic goods and services. And most Nigerians believe the vanishing fuel subsidies will only end up lining the pockets of politicians, not securing their country`s future -- Ralitsa Vassileva, cnn, Atlanta.

AZUZ: Fuel is pretty expensive in Nome, Alaska, too. It sells for almost $6 a gallon there. Part of the reason is because it`s hard to get fuel into Nome. You can`t deliver it by land.

AZUZ (voice-over): The last major fuel shipment couldn`t get in by sea, either. There were heavy winter storms hammering Alaska`s west coast and made a delivery of fuel impossible.

So now they`re trying something that`s never been done before: supplying fuel to Nome through sea ice. The ship in front here is a Coast Guard icebreaker. It`s clearing a way for a Russian tanker ship.

The two could get to Nome as early as tomorrow. The tanker is carrying more than a million gallons of fuel. Right now Nome has enough to last through March, but officials were worried that if they waited until then, it might be even more difficult to make the delivery through the ice.

AZUZ: From the largest U.S. state, we`re heading to the second biggest now. Texas has been suffering through a severe drought. In fact, experts say 2011 was the driest year ever for Texas. But earlier this week, parts of the state suffered from the opposite type of severe weather.

AZUZ (voice-over): Huge storms and at least two confirmed tornadoes hit the Houston area. Some spots got up to six inches of rain. You can see the effects this had on the roads. Cars got stuck in the water. Hundreds of drivers were stranded by flash floods.

Fire departments were called out to rescue some of them, but in some areas, the water was actually too high for the emergency vehicles.