CNN news 2011-11-12
CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: There`s a test happening today. No one`s going to pass and no one`s going to fail, but the whole country is going to be affected. If that sounds confusing, it`ll all make sense after you watch today`s edition of CNN Student News.
First up, a pair of European countries look like they`re about to get new leaders. Both nations are dealing with massive debt, and those financial struggles seem to be playing a big role in the changes of leadership, as you might expect.
Let`s start with Italy. Yesterday we told you about the pressure on Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
AZUZ (voice-over): We also mentioned a budget vote that was key for his chances to stay in power. Well, the budget passed, but more than half the members of Italy`s parliament didn`t vote at all.
They wanted the budget to pass, but they didn`t want to support Berlusconi. Not voting was how they got that message across. So yesterday Berlusconi`s office announced that he is going to step down as prime minister.
Over in Greece, Prime Minister George Papandreou has already said he`s leaving power. But he and other Greek leaders are trying to figure out who will take over. They were hoping to wrap up those negotiations late yesterday.
AZUZ: Next up today, we are looking at Iran and the country`s controversial nuclear program. Iran has always said the program is designed for peaceful purposes. Other countries, including the United States, have a different view. They accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons.
There`s a new report out from the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iranian officials say the report`s a complete lie, but it includes serious concerns about the country`s nuclear program. Jill Dougherty has the details for us.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Iran has mastered the critical steps necessary to design and construct a nuclear weapon, but Iran`s leaders have not yet made the decision to build it. That`s what diplomats and experts briefed on the new report from the U.N.`s nuclear watchdog agency tells CNN.
One key document obtained by IAEA member states, they say, shows planning for a component that could be used to trigger a nuclear weapon.
DAVID ALBRIGHT, INSTITUTE FOR SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY: It`s not by any means a smoking gun, but it`s another piece of evidence that the IAEA has that points to ongoing efforts to build nuclear weapons by Iran.
DOUGHERTY (voice-over): David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector, has spoken with experts who wrote the IAEA report.
He says in spite of assertions by the United States, that Iran stopped its program in 2003, Tehran actually continued running a complex, sophisticated and well-hidden program to develop skills needed to make and test a weapon small enough to fit on the warhead of its Shahab missiles.
ALBRIGHT: It looks very apparent now that they want to be able to build a nuclear weapon quickly if they make that decision. And, therefore, they have to have certain capabilities in place to do that.
DOUGHERTY (voice-over): The release this week of the IAEA report has fueled speculation that Israel might launch a military strike to take out Iran`s nuclear program. But Albright says the new data is not a shock to Israel, which already was aware of it.
ALBRIGHT: So I think this is not a -- in any way a sign for Israel to strike Iran, because they know.
DOUGHERTY: Iran, meanwhile, calls this controversy 100 percent political. But Tehran also announced this summer that it`s moving part of its enrichment process to a facility near the city of Qom, deeply buried under rock, a way of protecting it from any possible military attack -- Jill Dougherty, CNN, the State Department.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See if you can ID me. I`m a U.S. government agency that was created in 1979. I`m part of the Department of Homeland Security. I help the country prepare for all kinds of disasters, and I coordinate the government`s response to them.
I`m FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
AZUZ: FEMA uses warning systems to help prepare for disasters. The agency is using one today. This is that no-pass, no-fail test we mentioned at the start of the show.
AZUZ (voice-over): This afternoon, the Emergency Alert System will send out a message on TVs and radios across the U.S. It`s the first time the system has ever been used for a nationwide test. FEMA officials say they want to see how it works and if any upgrades need to be made.
AZUZ: While you`re on campus, your school might not allow you to buy certain drinks, like sodas and what are called sugar-sweetened beverages. But a new study says school bans don`t keep students from drinking them.
AZUZ (voice-over): From the archives of "Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine," eighth graders were asked in 2007 about the sugary drinks they drank. In some schools, students couldn`t buy them on campus; in others, they could.
But it didn`t matter. Eighty-five percent of the students surveyed said they`d had a sugary drink during the week of the study, regardless of whether they could get it at school.
Banning these drinks on campus limited students` access to them, but it didn`t have any effect on how many drinks students had overall. Sports drinks, sodas, certain fruit juices are blamed for contributing to childhood obesity, so some government officials are trying to discourage students from having them.
This begs an interesting question for our blog. Should schools with bans on sugary drinks start to allow them again? Or do you think a campus ban helps discourage childhood obesity? The address is cnnstudentnews.com. The rule is first names only, no initials, no classes.