CNN news 2013-08-19 加文本

cnn news 2013-08-19

Welcome to cnn Student News, briningstories from around the world right to your classroom. We're are heading thethree continents today. And we start in the North African nation of Egypt. OnMonday we review the violence of political crisis that the country went throughthis summer. Teachers you can find that report on our homepage. The violence inEgypt isn't over. Yesterday Egyptian security forces moved in the two camps ofprotestors. These are people who support Mohammed Morsi. He was electedpresident in 2012 and then removed from power this summer. Security forces usebulldozers to knock down tents in the camps. And chaos broke out withprotestors fighting against the Egyptian forces. At least 278 were reportedlykilled, including one photo journalist covering the story. cnn crews in Egyptfound themselves in the middle of the fighting.

"There are neighborhoods in this city. They're simply unrecognizable atthis hour because they have been turned into a war zone.Wow, that was... thatwas a huge explosion..."

Egypt declared a month-long state of emergency starting yesterday. Here wasSecretary of State John Kerry says the world is watching closely and is deeplyconcerned.

Is this legit? You have to be at least 45 years old to be president of UnitedStates. No, not true. The Constitution says the presidential age minimum at 35.

That's not the only requirement that the founding fathers put in the U.S.Constitution. To be eligible as president, you have to be at least 35, havebeen a resident in the U.S. for at least 14 years, and be a natural-borncitizen. It might seem pretty straightforward, but it might not be. There is adebate going on right now that involves U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and what exactlythat last presidential requirement that natural-born citizen line means. AthenaJones breaks it down.

He is a potential presidential contender, but he wasn't born in the U.S. So ishe even eligible to run? He says he is. Cruz was born in Canada to a Cubanfather and an American mother.

"My mother was born in Wilmington, Delaware. She is a U.S. citizen so I ama U.S. citizen by birth."

The Constitution says only a natural-born citizen can be president. But whatwas "natural-born" mean?

"As long as he qualified as a citizen of United States at birth which hedoes by law, then that makes him a natural-born citizen."

This citizenship question isn't new. Former GOP candidate John McCain was bornto American parents in the Panama Canal Zone, raising questions. To try to putthe matter to rest. The senate passed a nonbinding resolution in 2008recognizing McCain as a natural-born citizen. But even that resolution notedthat the Constitution doesn't define the term.

"This is an example of an interpretation of the Constitution that was reallyfleshed out by Congress itself."

Law professor Randy Barnett is talking about statute. But a 50-page report bythe Congressional Research Service provides another clue about how Congressviews the issue. That report says natural-born applies to those born brought toU.S. citizen parents. It doesn't address those born brought to one U.S. parent,but the argument goes if Cruz can claim citizenship through his mother at birthand the scholars we spoke with say he can, then he can claim to be natural-born,but that doesn't mean it's the end of the story. In the case of PresidentObama, even providing a copy of his Hawaiian birth certificate hasn't quietedso-called births like Donald Trump.

"Well I don't know was there a birth certificate, you tell me. You knowsome people say that was not his birth certificates. I'm saying I don't know,nobody knows."

So what Cruz candidacy ignite a further movement of his own? It's anybody'sguess.

Athena Jones, cnn, Washington.