CNN news 2011-11-13
The words of legendary football coach Joe Paterno, "This is a tragedy, one of the great sorrows of my life. I wish I had done more."
Paterno announced he`ll be retiring at the end of this season. No charges have been filed against the Penn State coach, but a former assistant coach, named Jerry Sandusky, has been accused of sexually abusing several children.
AZUZ (voice-over): Sandusky was Penn State`s defensive coordinator for 23 years. He retired in 1999. The kids he`s been accused of abusing weren`t Penn State players. He met most of them through a charity that he started to help troubled youth.
According to grand jury testimony, a graduate assistant told Coach Paterno in 2002 that he had witnessed Sandusky abusing a child. Paterno told two of his bosses about the accusations. Those officials have been arrested and accused of failing to report the abuse to police.
Paterno is the face of Penn State football. People have come out to show support for the coach in the middle of this scandal. But others argued that Paterno should have done more himself to report the abuse, including personally telling police about it.
In a statement on Wednesday, Paterno said, quote, "I have come to work every day for the last 61 years with one clear goal in mind: to serve the best interests of this university and the young men who have been entrusted to my care.
"I have that same goal today. That`s why I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of the season." Paterno also said, quote, "I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief."
AZUZ: Well, next up today, a hurricane-strength storm slammed one U.S. state. It`s not along the East Coast, though, or on the Gulf of Mexico.
AZUZ (voice-over): This storm hit Alaska. It`s a winter storm, so it`s not technically a hurricane, but it did have winds up to 100 miles per hour and that`s the kind of wind speed you`d see in a category 2 hurricane.
This thing brought blizzard conditions with it. You can see the snow whipping around in this video. It also called big waves out in the sea, so there were concerns about low-lying islands and coastal areas getting damaged.
AZUZ: The Marshall Islands are about halfway between Hawaii and Australia, and seven men got stranded on one of the Marshall Islands over the weekend. The island was deserted, and the men needed supplies.
AZUZ (voice-over): That`s where the U.S. Coast Guard came in. Working with the Australian navy, they located the missing men, and airdropped supplies from this plane down to the beach. It`s really great video of the supply drop you see here. Eventually, the men who were stranded were picked up and returned home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time for the Shoutout. On this map of North Africa, what country is highlighted? If you think you know it, then shout it out. Is it Libya, Egypt, Algeria or Tunisia? You`ve got three seconds, go.
This map is highlighting Egypt, a country that`s home to more than 82 million people. That`s your answer, and that`s your Shoutout.
AZUZ: A lot of those people are struggling with unemployment, just like in the United States. The unemployment rate is higher for young people than for the country overall. But some Egyptians are hoping to turn those numbers around by starting their own small businesses. Frederik Pleitgen looks at classes that try to help these aspiring entrepreneurs achieve their goals.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Twenty-three-year-old Hoda Dawood spends hours every day at her loom, weaving colorful traditional burqa scarves. The work is hard, but Hoda believes it will pay off, because she has something not many weavers in the Egyptian village Qum-el-Dabbah (ph) have: a business plan.
"I want to have my own factory," she says. "I want to expand the business, and I`m also seeing that my sisters are interested, and I want them to follow in my footsteps."
Hoda has already designed a variety of scarves and even baby clothes. But she says she`s not afraid to think big, even if the odds seem to be against her. Egypt`s youth unemployment rate is currently about 26 percent. Hoda has a college degree, but says even with an education, for a young woman in this village, employment is almost impossible to come by.
PLEITGEN: Youth unemployment is one of Egypt`s biggest social problems. It`s exceptionally bad in rural areas, like this one, and especially young women find it almost impossible to find a job in places like this.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): For Hoda and many other young people in this village, the answer could lie in this classroom. The UNICEF problem, "Building Young Futures," which is funded by Barclays Bank, helps young people gain confidence and skills, like putting together a feasibility plan for a small business.
The classes are taught by young people, who have already gone through the program, a peer educator system.
"Thanks to the training, I was able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of my competitors," she says, "and that helped me identify the gap I could push through to make it into the market." Hoda is working hard to realize her dream, to build a better life for herself, but also to contribute to the effort to help fight youth unemployment, a problem that has plagued Egypt for so long.