CNN news 2011-10-19
CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: Bringing today`s headlines from the CNN Newsroom here in Atlanta, Georgia, right to your classrooms around the world. I`m Carl Azuz, and this is CNN Student News.
First up, we`re talking about violence and protests in the Middle Eastern nation of Yemen. People there have been protesting against their country`s government for months. They want it to change, especially at the level of Yemen`s leadership.
AZUZ (voice-over): Yemen`s located between Saudi Arabia and Oman. It was established as a nation in 1990, and the same man, Ali Abdullah Saleh has been president the entire time. The protesters want him out of power.
Mohammed Jamjoom has the latest details on the reports of violence between protesters and Yemen`s government forces.
MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): They carried signs saying, "We are not armed. Don`t attack us with gunfire." But that`s exactly what anti-government demonstrators say happened in Yemen Sunday when they gathered for a march through the streets of Sanaa. For the second straight day, they say they were fired upon by security forces and snipers.
Medics said at least five of the protesters were killed, and dozens of wounded were entering the hospital by the minute. They called on people to donate blood. But Sanaa wasn`t the only flashpoint.
In the southern city of Taiz, another demonstration and a death that has shocked even those jaded by the seemingly unending cycle of violence in Yemen: eyewitnesses and medics say a woman named Azezah Othman Khalid was killed by a shot to the head from a government sniper. Yemeni activists say she was 20 years old, and the first woman to be killed while marching against the government.
ATLAF ALWAZLR, ONLINE ACTIVIST: The fear now is that today`s attack against -- the sniper attack against one woman, who was killed (inaudible) is really an escalation and it`s a sign that the government security forces will not release -- stop shooting, even if there are women, because culturally woman, you know, may have been beaten, arrested at times, but never directly shot at.
JAMJOOM (voice-over): CNN has not independently confirmed the details of the reported violence in Sanaa or Taiz, nor has the government responded to our requests for comment.
The protesters remain determined, promising they`ll continue their peaceful revolution despite any threats or dangers they may face, vowing to keep flooding the streets until the reign of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has come to an end -- Mohammed Jamjoom, CNN, Abu Dhabi.
AZUZ (voice-over): So you just heard Mohammed Jamjoom talk about reports that a woman had been killed in recent protests. That news led to this: a protest of just women, thousands of them gathered in Yemen`s capital on Monday.
They demanded that the United Nations get involved in the situation, and they said they want President Saleh to be tried by the international criminal court. Saleh says U.N. officials don`t get the full picture of what`s happening in his country. He says that people who are against him just want to take power.
AZUZ: We`re moving east now to Thailand. This is a country that is used to being flooded. It usually gets some floods every single year. Nothing, though, like what it`s going through right now.
AZUZ (voice-over): This is the worst flooding that Thailand has seen in half a century. More than 300 people have been killed, 81/2 million people have been affected by the rising waters. There were some concerned that the capital city of Bangkok would be swamped.
That hasn`t happened, but other parts of the country were hit hard. Roads were washed away in some spots, making it hard to get help to the victims. Thai officials say the floods could cause more than $2 billion in damages. Donations are coming in from other parts of the country and from around the world.