CNN news 2012-01-19 加文本

cnn news 2012-01-19

AZUZ: As you might expect, many South Africans hope to avoid being part of that unemployment statistic by going to college. But there are a lot more students who want to enroll and who are actually qualified than there are spaces for them at the schools, and that equaled a dangerous situation in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

AZUZ (voice-over): One woman died,. and more than a dozen other people were hurt after a stampede happened on the University of Johannesburg campus. Thousands of people had lined up at the gates to try to get an admission spot. Some slept out overnight.

Even after the ambulances left the scene of the stampede, hundreds of people were still lined up, hoping for a chance to enroll.

AZUZ: Moving from South Africa to the Middle Eastern nation of Syria, international journalists like our own Nic Robertson have been allowed into the Syria for the first time in months. Protesters there have been fighting with Syrian government forces. And these journalists are giving us a rare first-hand look at the tension and the conflict.

NIC ROBERTSON, cnn REPORTER: The level of anger and passion here is absolutely palpable. We`re just a few miles from the center of Damascus, and (inaudible) crowd here (inaudible) --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

ROBERTSON: Thank you. Thank you. This is a crowd here of perhaps several thousand people. They`ve taken over this whole area. They`ve put rocks in the road to prevent the police coming in here.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): It is a rare opportunity to meet the people who want to overthrow Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The situation is very bad. We are only -- want to be like you, like the Western people. We want to be freedom (sic). We want to be free people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m afraid, when I`m talking to you right now, why? Because gal left this scarf. I`m going to my home and I`m not sure, 100 percent sure, that I`m going to be safe, because if not today, if not tomorrow, they will arrest me.

OBERTSON (voice-over): Their defiance possible because two orange- jacketed Arab League monitors are here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are here, without them, you don`t -- you will never going to see any protester.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Even so, protesters told us they didn`t trust the Arab League mission.

ROBERTSON: They`re absolutely desperate to show us the level of suffering. And they say they can`t go to the hospitals because if they do, the government hospitals, they fear being arrested.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): When the monitors leave, so do we. Within minutes, they are stopped.

ROBERTSON: We`re barely half a mile from that anti-government rally. And here, there are pro-government supporters now, blocking the road, a small group, trying to show the monitors that their support for Bashar al- Assad. This appears to be an impromptu demonstration. But it`s surprising, because clearly they knew this was the way the monitors were going to come.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): And it`s not the only pro-government rally in town. At least two others. Here, a huge P.A. system blasts the president`s message, government troops dancing with the crowds.

ROBERTSON: The most striking difference between this pro-government rally and the opposition rallies that we`ve seen, here it`s a celebration, it`s a carnival atmosphere. At the opposition rallies, there is absolute real fear in people`s eyes. They`re terrified of their situation.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Here, they say they trust the president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) if you want see, you can see. That`s real here.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): For now, Assad remains in control

Nic Robertson, cnn, Damascus, Syria.

AZUZ:

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the

AZUZ (voice-over): The impact, enormous --

Experts estimate that one-third of Haiti`s population

Countries, organizations and individuals

Two years after the quake, the country has transitioned

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