CNN news 2012-02-24 加文本

cnn news 2012-02-24

CARL AZUZ, HOST, cnn STUDENT NEWS: Well, whether you`re observing Ash Wednesday, George Washington`s birthday or just marking the midpoint of the week, we are glad you`re doing it with cnn Student News. I`m your host, Carl Azuz, bringing you 10 minutes of headlines, no commercials.

New hope for Greece: the country that`s been struggling with severe debt is getting another bailout from other European countries. This is the second deal that Greece has gotten in two years. The latest one is worth $172 billion, and it`ll help keep Greece from going bankrupt.

AZUZ (voice-over): You`ve heard us talk about Greece before. In order to get money from other countries to stay afloat, Greece has had to make deep cuts in government spending, what it pays government workers and how much retirement money they get.

In the short term, Greece will be able to pay some of its debts which have been reduced by the deal. But some analysts are saying this is just a quick fix. It`s not going to help the country in the long term, and if Greece`s economy eventually goes completely under, it could significantly hurt other economies throughout Europe. They`re interconnected.

AZUZ: Well, here`s an example of how a headline you hear on our show can directly affect you. Oil prices are going up worldwide. It`ll likely mean higher gas prices, and part of the reason is the action recently taken by the Middle Eastern nation of Iran. Tommy Andres explains how it factors into what we pay at the pump, and how high gas could get in the months ahead.

TOMMY ANDRES, cnn REPORTER (voice-over): Cuts in Iranian oil exports are raising fears that the already rising price of gas could go up higher than first expected. Oil prices surged after Iran announced it`s cutting exports to Britain and France.

ANDRES: This is largely a symbolic move because Britain hasn`t been buying oil from Iran for over a year. France buys only a modest amount. And the reason oil prices spike is because there`s so little spare capacity in global oil markets right now that oil prices spike on the smallest headlines.

ANDRES (voice-over): Iran`s decision was made in retaliation against new sanctions over its nuclear program. Most of the oil the U.S. imports comes from Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico. But because oil is an internationally traded commodity, Iran`s decision is increasing prices everywhere.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York says the U.S. needs to take steps now to prevent the rising cost of oil from affecting gas prices.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: The Saudis in the Gulf states ought to pump more oil immediately. And that`s what our government ought to do. It ought to tell the Saudis, you know, we`re trying to keep Iran in line by squeezing them economically, but they ought to pump more oil so the price doesn`t go up.

ANDRES (voice-over): Already some states are seeing gas prices above 4 bucks a gallon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s outrageous, but I mean, I guess it is what it is, you know, you got to just keep working harder and hopefully it`ll go down and fluctuate as it does yearly.

ANDRES (voice-over): Analysts say the price of gas could rise on average more than 50 cents a gallon by this summer. That means some states could be looking at as high $5 a gallon gas.

I`m Tommy Andres reporting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time for the Shoutout. Which of these Middle Eastern countries is Yemen? If you think you know it, shout it out. Is it, A, B, C or D? You`ve got three seconds, go.

On this map, the letter A represents Yemen, located between the Red Sea and the nation of Oman. That`s your answer, and that`s your Shoutout.

AZUZ: Yemen`s government is categorized as a republic, and what means is that its citizens vote for people to represent them. But until last November, the country had had the same leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh, for decades. He resigned after months of protests.

AZUZ (voice-over): And on Tuesday, voters streamed to the polls to decide who to replace Saleh. There was one name on the ballot, that of the country`s former vice president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, a worker with Yemen`s interior ministry was optimistic, calling this a people`s election.

But Hadi became vice president in 1994. So some of Yemen`s citizens are skeptical about whether he`ll be able to fulfill his promises of making Yemen safer and creating more jobs there.

AZUZ: Well, one side effect of the violence going on in Syria, food and medical supplies aren`t getting to the people who need them. Fighting between government forces and the groups opposing them has killed an estimated 9,000 Syrians since last March. Now cnn can`t independently confirm that because the Syrian government has limited what journalists are allowed to do inside the country.

But the International Red Cross has called for a cease-fire. It called for that on Tuesday. And what the Red Cross wants is just a two- hour stop in the violence so that humanitarian aid can be distributed in Syria. cnn`s Arwa Damon illustrates why that is so incredibly crucial.