CNN news 2012-02-19 加文本

cnn news 2012-02-19

CARL AZUZ, HOST, cnn STUDENT NEWS: Hey, happy Thursday. I`m Carl Azuz. This is cnn Student News. It`s your passport to 10 minutes of global headlines. Today we`re spending time in North, Central and South America, but we start in the Middle East.

The nation of Iran has a controversial nuclear program. Iran says the program is designed for peaceful uses, but other countries, including the U.S., believe Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon. One thing we know for sure is that this program is moving forward.

AZUZ (voice-over): This is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the middle of your screen. He was part of a presentation yesterday where fuel rods were loaded into the core of a nuclear reactor. These are the first nuclear fuel rods made inside Iran, so this is a big advancement for the country`s nuclear program.

The United Nations and European Union have put sanctions -- penalties -- on Iran in part because of its nuclear program. Those sanctions have been affecting Iran`s economy and its citizens. President Ahmadinejad responded to the latest sanctions yesterday. He said Iran will cut oil exports to six European countries.

AZUZ: Moving to the Central American nation of Honduras, where officials are investigating a deadly fire at one of the country`s prisons. It happened overnight on Tuesday, and as of Wednesday afternoon, at least 272 inmates had died. The fate of more than 100 others was unknown.

AZUZ (voice-over): This was a minimum security prison that can hold around 850 prisoners. More than half of the facility was affected by the fire. One survivor said he and other prisoners were asleep when they heard screams.

He said everyone ran for their lives. Authorities don`t know how the fire started. They`re looking into whether a short circuit might have sparked it, or whether a prisoner might have set a mattress on fire.

AZUZ: All right. Let`s say you`re China`s vice president and you`re visiting the United States. Where do you want to go? Muscatine, Iowa, is where. Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping insisted on a stop in the town yesterday. It`s because he spent two weeks in Muscatine back in 1985, and he wanted to visit with his old friends.

Ted Rowlands has more on Vice President Xi and what his leadership could mean for the relationship between U.S. and China.

TED ROWLANDS, cnn REPORTER (voice-over): Iowa Governor Terry Branstad was serving his first stint as governor when Xi came in `85. The two met again last fall in Beijing, and Branstad says the next Chinese leader said he wanted to come back.

GOVERNOR TERRY BRANDSTAD (R) IOWA: He was so pleased with the warm and friendly welcome he received, and he really considers Iowans his old friend.

ROWLANDS (voice-over): Experts say for years, Xi was known mostly for his famous wife, a Chinese singer, while his lineage runs deeps in the Communist Party, he represents a new generation of leaders. Former Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman believes Xi could be good for American business.

JON HUNTSMAN, FORMER AMBASSADOR TO CHINA: He`s gone out of his way in recent years to bone up on economics and trade, knowing full well that these are the issues that are going to determine whether or not the United States and China are able to get through the years to come.

ROWLANDS (voice-over): China has been blamed for the loss of thousands of American jobs, some of them here. But China buys soybeans, pork, farm machinery and other products from Iowa. In fact, from 2000 to 2010, the state enjoyed a 1,200 percent increase in exports to China.

Governor Branstad wants to expand that relationship and thinks Xi will help.

BRANSTAD: Personal relationships are really important to the Chinese people. Having this kind of relationship with the next leader of China, I think, is very helpful to the state of Iowa.

ROWLANDS (voice-over): People here are exciting, including the Maeglins, who say they are honored that the man standing in their kitchen 27 years ago wants to come back.

DICK MAEGLIN, MUSCATINE, IOWA, HOST: Just for a little time, time spend an hour, hour and a half, in the room with, as he says, his old friends. That`s significant. That`s significant if he weren`t the president.