CNN news 2011-10-26
CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, I`m Carl Azuz. Today on CNN Student News, we`re talking about elections in Tunisia, the price tag on political uprisings, and a push to fight bullying. But we`re starting with recovery efforts in Turkey.
Thousands of emergency workers are in the nation`s eastern region. They`re trying to find victims of Sunday`s earthquake. As we told you yesterday, the quake that hit Turkey had a magnitude of 7.2. It killed hundreds of people and at least 1,300 others were hurt. Nearly a thousand buildings demolished in this.
AZUZ (voice-over): Rescue workers are trying to make their way through that rubble to find any survivors. They`re using heavy machines, shovels, in some cases they`re even using their bare hands. The military is also part of search and rescue operations.
Medical supplies and food are coming into the region by truck and by plane. The rescue workers and survivors are having to deal with temperatures that are near freezing. That makes the process that much harder.
There are ways for you to get involved here, to be part of the recovery efforts in Turkey. If you go to the Spotlight section on our home page, cnnstudentnews.com, and click the "Impact Your World" link, you`ll find information on the relief organizations that are already working in Turkey, and you`ll find information about how you can make a difference for the victims of this natural disaster.
AZUZ: Officials in the North African country of Tunisia are expected to announce final election results today, but no matter what the outcome is of these elections, they`ll still be historic, because this was Tunisia`s first national election since it became an independent country back in 1956.
AZUZ (voice-over): More than 80 percent of the country`s registered voters went to the polls on Sunday -- more than 80 percent, huge turnout. They were casting ballots for political representatives who will write a new constitution and design Tunisia`s new government.
The polling sites, as you can imagine, were packed on Sunday. Many Tunisians waited hours to vote. CNN`s Ivan Watson caught up with one, who explained that the freedom to choose his own leaders was more important than the long lines.
IVAN WATSON, CNN REPORTER: And you waited three hours to cast your ballot?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something like three and a half hours, but we didn`t feel it (ph). I mean, it was like five minutes.
WATSON: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because we were very, very happy to be inside there.
AZUZ: Tunisia`s holding elections because a revolt there threw the long-time ruler out of power. It was the start of what`s called the Arab Spring. And by Arab Spring, we`re talking about this series of uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East. The protests and revolts came with a price, a literal one. Leone Lakhani looks at the cost of the Arab Spring and how much it might take to rebuild.
LEONE LAKHANI , CNN REPORTER: The Arab Spring has changed the political landscape in the Middle East, but it`s also come at a heavy economic cost.
LAKHANI (voice-over): The worst affected countries, including Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, have stacked losses of nearly $56 billion in terms of income and extra spending. They`ve also seen a drastic reduction in revenues, because for many of these countries, their economies are at a virtual standstill. Yemen, for instance, has seen its revenues fall sharply, down 77 percent.
Libya has seen revenues drop by 84 percent. Funding for the recovery process for these countries is needed urgently. And in September, the international community, including the G-8, some of the wealthier Arab countries, and institutions, like the World Bank, promised $38 billion in financing for Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Jordan.
LAKHANI: Countless other pledges were made at a G-8 meeting back in May, but despite the promises, much of the money has yet to be delivered. And the IMF says the cost of recovery for those North African economies is more than $160 billion over the next three years -- Leone Lakhani for Marketplace Middle East, Abu Dhabi.