CNN news 2012-05-02 加文本

cnn news 2012-05-02

I`m Carl Azuz. This is cnn Student News. Our first headline today takes us from the Netherlands to Africa.

Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, has been found guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone. There`s a lot of information behind that headline, but here`s why it`s significant. This is the first time since 1946 that an international court has convicted a former world leader of war crimes.

The last time this happened it involved Nazi leaders right after World War II.

AZUZ (voice-over): From 1997 through 2003, Charles Taylor was the president of Liberia. It`s a West African country that is on the Atlantic Ocean. Taylor`s policies, how he ran Liberia, led the country into multiple problems. There was no power or running water for many Liberians. Rebels tried to overthrow Taylor`s government. The United Nations put sanctions -- punishments -- on Liberia.

Taylor was forced out of power in 2003. He was arrested three years later and he`s been on trial since 2007. The charges against Taylor are connected to a civil war in Sierra Leone. That`s one of the countries that borders Liberia.

Taylor was accused of funding and giving orders to rebel fighters in Sierra Leone. The war crimes charges also involved murder, slavery and forcing young teens to fight in the war. Taylor`s trial took place at The Hague in the Netherlands. That`s where the International Criminal Court is located. Taylor claimed he was innocent and pled not guilty. But the court convicted him on all 11 charges against him.

AZUZ: When it did, it made Taylor the first former head of state in more than 60 years to be convicted of war crimes by a international court. There`s no death penalty in international criminal law. A sentencing hearing for Charles Taylor is scheduled for the middle of next month.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s first Shoutout goes out to Ms. Ingram`s journalism classes at Gainesville Middle School in Gainesville, Virginia.

The word bovine refers to which of these animals? Here we go. Is it alligators, bears, cows or ducks? You`ve got three seconds, go.

Bovine comes from a Latin word, and it refers to cows or oxen. That`s your answer, and that`s your Shoutout.

AZUZ: So if you hear about bovine spongiform encephalopathy, you might be able to figure it has to do with cows. That`s the technical name for mad cow disease. A case of that was recently discovered in California. And it has some people worried about the possibility of humans getting sick. Scientists have made a connection between eating contaminated meat and developing a deadly brain disease.

AZUZ (voice-over): Public health officials say the risk is pretty low in this case. The animal in question had a rare form of mad cow disease. Officials also say it never entered the human food chain. But one South Korean company is suspending the sale of American beef because of this discovery. This is the fourth case of mad cow that`s ever been confirmed in the U.S. Some critics say the government needs to do more testing for this disease.

A new study about teens and distracted driving says girls are more likely to engage in dangerous or distracting behaviors by almost 15 percent. The girls who were surveyed said some of the biggest distractions include reading texts, eating behind the wheel and having other passengers in the car.

Experts say 16-year olds have higher crash rates than drivers of any other age, but the number of teen drivers involved in fatal accidents is decreasing.