CNN news 2012-02-07 加文本

cnn news 2012-02-07

CARL AZUZ, HOST, cnn STUDENT NEWS: Yes, I am, and you guys are awesome, just like Fridays. We thank you for the introduction. I`m Carl Azuz, the real one here with your commercial-free headlines.

First up, a military mission that started more than a decade ago could be ending earlier than expected. Yesterday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the United States and NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, want to end their combat mission in Afghanistan next year.

AZUZ (voice-over): That`s earlier than the current deadline for troops to be out by 2014. U.S. officials say the plan is what they`re hoping to do. Nothing is final yet, but some U.S. politicians say there`s no reason to change the timeframe. Ninette Sosa has more on the reaction to this new plan and on how it would work.

NINETTE SOSA, cnn REPORTER (voice-over): The U.S. military and NATO want to end the combat mission in Afghanistan a year ahead of schedule. The Obama Administration had set a deadline of 2014 to end the fighting. But Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says he hopes the mission will shift to a training and advisory role in 2013.

President Obama painted an optimistic picture of U.S. progress in Afghanistan during his State of the Union address last month.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Taliban`s momentum has been broken and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home.

SOSA (voice-over): But a leaked NATO report has raised concerns about what will happen in Afghanistan once coalition troops pull out. The report suggests the Taliban are confident they will be ready to take over.

NATO is downplaying the significance of the report, but Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney slammed Defense Secretary Panetta for publicly revealing U.S. plans to end the combat mission early.

FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY, R-MASS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He announced that so the Taliban hears it, the Pakistanis hear it, the Afghan leaders hear it. Why in the world do you go to the people that you`re fighting with and tell them the day you`re pulling out your troops? It makes absolutely no sense.

SOSA (voice-over): U.S. officials say no plans for the mission in Afghanistan will be final until a NATO meeting in May. I`m Ninette Sosa reporting.

AZUZ: Next up, we`re heading down to the Pacific Ocean to talk about rescue efforts off the coast of Papua New Guinea. A ferry sank on its way from an island there to the mainland. The ship was about 10 miles offshore when it sank early on Thursday.

AZUZ (voice-over): There were around 350 people on board when this happened. Boats and helicopters rushed to the scene after an alert was sent out. As of Thursday afternoon, more than 230 people had been rescued.

Australian officials are coordinating the search effort for the people who are still missing. One witness who was helping with the rescue said the weather probably played a role in the ship sinking. He said the area is notorious for having strong winds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time for the Shoutout. Which of these locations is farthest north? You know what to do. Is it Cape Hatteras, Coney Island, Cape Cod or Southernmost Point? You`ve got three seconds, go.

Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is the farthest point north on that list. That`s your answer, and that`s your Shoutout.

AZUZ: Some scientists are trying to solve a mystery on Cape Cod. Dolphins have been getting stranded there. It`s not completely unusual. There are typically around 120 strandings per year. But more than 100 dolphins have gotten stranded since the start of January. Sometimes they`re washing 10 at a time.

AZUZ (voice-over): At least 81 of these dolphins were either found dead or they died shortly after being discovered. One animal welfare group director called the number "disturbing." Now, no one`s certain what`s causing the dolphin deaths.

A local harbor master says changes in water temperature could be a contributing factor. Usually the Cape Cod harbor ices over in winter, so dolphins don`t get close to shore. But the harbor master says now that the water`s warmer, more are showing up than ever before.

AZUZ: All right, here`s some lunar trivia for you. The time it takes for the moon to make one rotation on its axis is the same amount of time it takes for the moon to orbit around the Earth. So you have one side of the moon that`s always facing the Earth, and the other side is always facing away.

AZUZ (voice-over): Well, this is that other side, and these are the first video images that NASA has released of the far side of the moon from one of the pair of probes that are studying the moon`s gravitational field.

One of the interesting features here on the far side is this massive crater that scientists think might have been caused by an ancient comet or asteroid`s impact.