CNN news 2012-03-08 加文本

cnn news 2012-03-08

CARL AZUZ, HOST, cnn STUDENT NEWS: Ten minutes, global headlines, no commercials. Hi, everyone. I`m Carl Azuz. Thank you for spending part of your Tuesday with cnn Student News.

AZUZ: It`s not just any Tuesday. When it comes to the race for the White House, today is Super Tuesday. Four Republican candidates, 10 states, more than 400 delegates up for grabs. It happens every four years, usually in March, during primary season. A bunch of states all hold their presidential contests on the same day. That`s how it got the name.

Here`s a look at the states involved.

AZUZ (voice-over): In Super Tuesday this year, you can see that voters in the north, south, east and west will all be casting their ballots in primaries and caucuses. For the candidates, the goal in these contests is to win delegates. We have said more than 400 will be awarded, based on today`s results alone. It takes 1,144 delegates to win the Republican Party`s nomination for president.

So today could go a long way toward determining whom that nominee will be. AZUZ: One of the states getting a lot of attention today is Ohio. It`s one of the big prizes on Super Tuesday because it has 63 delegates. It`s also expected to be a battleground state in the general election in November.

Well, that general election will involve the Republican nominee and the likely Democratic nominee, of course, is President Obama. He was at the White House yesterday, meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. A big focus of that meeting was the nation of Iran.

AZUZ (voice-over): The United States and Israel both think Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran denies that claim. President Obama said both leaders would prefer a diplomatic solution to the situation -- meaning no fighting --- but he also said military force is an option.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel and the U.S. stand together, but he added that Israel has the right to defend itself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See if you can ID me. I`m a U.S. government agency that`s part of the Department of Health and Human Services. I`m responsible for protecting public health. And I do that specifically by ensuring that food and drugs are safe.

I`m the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, and I`m also responsible for regulating tobacco products.

AZUZ: The FDA regulates how tobacco products are marketed. what you see on cigarette packaging, for example. The agency came up with rules that would require tobacco companies to include graphic pictures on their products that show the potential dangers of smoking. A judge says the FDA cannot do that. Mary Snow has more on the case, and shows us some of these images.

MARY SNOW, cnn REPORTER (voice-over): Would this image of a diseased lung make you think twice about smoking? How about this warning that smoking can kill you? A 2009 congressional act mandated they be put on cigarette packages and advertising, along with warnings, such as cigarettes are addictive. But a federal judge blocked the move, ruling that forcing tobacco companies to do that on their own products, violated free speech.

Otis Brawley, MD, American Cancer Society: My initial reaction was a little bit of disgust. I really do believe we need to get the message out.

SNOW (voice-over): Anti-smoking advocates called the ruling bad for public health. But Floyd Abrams, an attorney representing Lorillard, one of the tobacco companies challenging the ruling, sees it differently.

He says it`s about free speech, and argues there`s a big difference between mandating the company to put a warning on its product versus a graphic picture.

SNOW: Where`s the line between the warnings and the images?

FLOYD ABRAMS, ATTORNEY: The basic line is that the government can require factual, purely factual and uncontradicted information to be provided to the public, so the public will know what they`re getting, so the public can be educated, so the public can choose. What they can`t do is to put a terribly emotionally laden photograph, which is designed -- and there`s no disagreement about this -- designed to persuade people to stop smoking.

But he says that if those same emotional images were used by others, including the government, to persuade people to stop smoking, tobacco companies wouldn`t feel the need to sue.

ABRAMS: If the tobacco company were forced to pay for that government campaign, I`d have absolutely no problem with it. I do however have a problem with the fact that the tobacco industry consistently is advertising making cigarette smoking look youthful, making cigarette smoking look attractive, when in reality, it is not."

SNOW: The Department of Health and Human Services says it`s confident that these efforts to stop the warnings will ultimately fail. The government plans to appeal the judge`s ruling, and some expect this case could reach the Supreme Court -- Mary Snow, cnn, New York.