CNN news 2012-02-02 加文本

cnn news 2012-02-02

CARL AZUZ, HOST, cnn STUDENT NEWS: Give us 10 minutes, we`ll give you the headlines. You`re starting your week off with cnn Student News, and we thank you for it. I`m your anchor, Carl Azuz.

We`re starting the week off with a report about Syria. There`s been an apparent spike in violence between Syrian government troops and the people protecting against the government. It`s gotten so bad that the Arab League, which had sent monitors to Syria to try to protect civilians, says it`s unable to continue that mission right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

AZUZ (voice-over): This video comes to us from YouTube. According to a group that opposed the Syrian government, dozens of people were killed in the country yesterday; dozens of others were killed on Saturday.

Now cnn can`t confirm these reports, because the Syrian government has limited what our journalists are able to do there. The protesters want Syrian President Bashar al-Assad out of power. So does the international community. The country`s ambassador says Syria is going to stay as it is.

East of Syria, you`ll find Iran, where inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have arrived. They`re there to investigate the country`s controversial nuclear program. The United States and other nations believe Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons, and they`ve asked it to stop.

AZUZ: The country has refused, insisting its nuclear program is peaceful. The European Union is among those who don`t believe that, so it`s putting sanctions, a form of punishment, on Iran, saying E.U. member countries will stop buying Iranian oil in July. Matthew Chance explains how that would hit Iran in its pocketbook.

MATTHEW CHANCE, cnn REPORTER (voice-over): The sanctions are a direct attack on Iran`s major source of revenue, meant to force the regime to negotiate.

Iran`s oil exports account for the vast majority of its income, but European countries by just 20 percent. Most is sold in Asia, China, India, South Korea and Japan. Analysts say Europe`s oil sanctions may damage Iran`s economy, but they won`t destroy it.

MARK FITZPATRICK, ANALYST: I don`t think anyone is expecting that China, in particular, or India, or some of the other major Asian markets are going to cut off purchases of Iranian oil. Their economies are too dependent on it. But if Europe and Japan and a couple other countries cut off, that will be a major blow to Iran.

CHANCE (voice-over): But will it be enough to give Iran pause and restart nuclear talks?

CHANCE: The answer, say experts, is maybe. There`s no way these E.U. sanctions are going to get Iran to reverse its nuclear policy, they say, or to end its uranium enrichment activities, but it may just get Tehran back to the table. And for European countries nervous about Iran`s nuclear ambitions, that`s progress.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this legit? In the U.S., the FCC monitors contributions to political campaigns.

Not true. It`s the FEC, the Federal Election Commission, that keeps tabs on campaign contributions.

AZUZ: And in election years, the FEC has its work cut out for it. There are rules about how campaign money is handled. For example, Americans can each contribute up to $2,500 to a candidate per election. But they can give over $30,000 to a national political party. Tom Foreman tallies up just how much is spent and where it all goes.