CNN news 2011-04-07
CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: I'm Carl Azuz and this is CNN Student News! It's the first full week of April, and we have a very full show for you today, starting things off in Japan.
First Up: Crisis in Japan
AZUZ: Workers there have figured out how radioactive materials are leaking out into the Pacific Ocean. Last week, there were tests that showed high levels of radiation about 360 yards offshore. As you could probably expect, it's coming from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and that was damaged by Japan's earthquake and tsunami last month.
The exact culprit is the crack you see right here. Doesn't look very big, but that is how the radioactive water is getting from inside the plant out into the Pacific. A Japanese official said one theory is that the water they were pumping into the reactor to cool off the nuclear fuel rods inside, somehow leaked out. Engineers are trying different ideas to plug the leak. At first, they tried to use concrete to seal it up. Didn't work. Yesterday, they tried a chemical compound that's designed to expand as it sticks.
Ivory Coast Violence
AZUZ: From Japan, we move to the African nation Ivory Coast, a country that's seeing violence and political chaos. It's been going on since a disputed election back in November. The international community has recognized Alassane Ouattara as the winner. But the man who has been president, Laurent Gbabgo, refuses to step down. The fighting between the two sides has been deadly. Hundreds of people have been killed. One million people fled the capital, Abidjan, that's been the focus of some intense fighting recently. There are about 9,000 United Nations peacekeeping forces in Ivory Coast. The International Crisis Group says the situation there is as "urgent as any facing the international community right now."
Protests in Afghanistan
AZUZ: Our next story starts off in the state of Florida, where a church in Gainesville announced recently that it had burned a Quran, the Muslim holy book. The Dove World Outreach Center said the Quran was "found guilty and a copy was burned." The announcement caused anger and outrage in Afghanistan, a Muslim country. People took to the streets, speaking out against the Quran burning. During three days of protests, more than 20 people died. That includes seven United Nations workers who were killed when protesters stormed a U.N. building in one Afghan city. Top U.S. officials in Afghanistan have condemned the Quran burning, calling it "hateful, intolerant and extremely disrespectful." The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan added, though, "that to attack and kill innocent people in response to the deplorable act of one individual is outrageous."