CNN Student News 받아적기 (11.28)

 

First up, the Arab League votes for sanctions of a form of punishment against Mddle Easrn nation of Syria. Citizens there have been protesing against their government for months now. Syrian milliary forces have cracked down on the protesters. There are estimates that thousands of people have died and one Arab league official said, quote,

'We have responsibilities not only as Arabs but as human beings to stop the bloodshed in syria'

One way the Arab League is trying to do that is with these economic sanctions. 19 countries voted for them. Iraq and Lebanon did not. Those are two of syria's biggest economic partners. So there is some debate now about how effective sanction's going to be if those countries don't participate. Arab League officials say they are trying to resolve this situation before other countries get involved.


Next up, Egypt, the country has a new prime minister but he might just be a temporary one. Parliamentary elections are scheduled to start today and the new parliament will decide whether to keep the new prime minister or not. Egypt's current millitary rulers are fighting with protesters who are angry about how the millitary has been running things. There has been violence but on Sunday, our reporter said the moods seemed to be shifting.

Reporter:
The crowds are back here in Tahrir square; A sea of humanity really. And instead of selling gas masks like there were just a few days ago, when the bloody street battles were underway, now trinkets in patriotic Egyption colors for sale.
Many people are calling this an extension of the previous revolution that brought down the Hosni Mubarak. Those protests in January and February that helped force out the former president, but part of the anger here is directed against the ruling millitary council that replaced him.


Our final stop in this part of the world today is in Kuwait.
That is where thousands of American troops are going is they head home from serving in Iraq which is right next door to Kuwait. The U.S. is schudueled to pull all of its troops out of Iraq by the end of this year. He is in Kuwait. He is going to explain the process that those man and woman will go through on their way home.

Reporter:
This is the main staging area for the convoys that have been coming out of Iraq and are in the process of going home. Most of these soldiers should spend about 5 to 8 days here. They wait for the flights to return to States, time to decompress, time to do the paperwork, and time to do a lot of packing.
Remember, the president said that he wants all U.S troops out of Iraq by december 31st
Three months ago, there were 50,000 troops that were in Iraq, right now we're told that the number is down to 11,000. But what it really means is that over the next 2 weeks, it's really going to be a crunch time, not only at this bases, but also at a number of other bases in Kuwait.


That's why the day after Thanksgiving is called 'Black Friday' It's the start of the holiday shopping season and a time when a lot of companies hope to make enough sales to get in the black. These folks are racing to be a part of it. A lot of stores offer deals to to bring in the crows. It might have worked, though there was some fighting among customers. According to a company that tracks shoppers, Black Friday brought in estimated sales of around $11.4 billion. That's a big jump from last year. But the experts also said it's just one day. There's no guarantee that the strong sales will last through the holiday shopping season.
But they are expected to continue online today. It's cyber Monday when companies start offering big holiday deals on their websites. Analysts are expecting another billion dollars or so in sales online today.


The NBA's lockout is over. Players and owners announced over the weekend that they did reach a tentative deal to end the labor dispute, still has to be approved by both sides. This whole thing, as you might remember, started back in July. Owners and players couldn't agree on how to spilt up the money that the NBA makes. The last time we reported on this story, NBA commissioner warned the entire season could get canceled.
Now, it looks like it will just be shorter. 66 games instead of the usual 82. It'll all start on Christmas day. This lockout lasted more than 140 days. That's shoter than the last time the NBA went through this in 1998. That lockout for lasted more than 200 days.


There's a new report out by a couple of university researchers that says you don't actually yawn because you are tired, or bored or when you need oxygen. They say you yarn to cool your brain. A university of Marlyland news release said brains are like computers; they work best when they cool and that yawning opens up part of your sinuses to push cool air to your brain. Is this debatable? Of course, it is.
The National Institutes of Health says drowsiness is usually the reason why we yawn. But this new study can give doctors something new to research and give you a new excuse when you yawn in class. Of couse never during the CNN news.


And certainly not when you see the airplane, that is the focus of our next report. This thing is the first thing of its kind. Its creators have an ambition to go for it, to fly around without using a single drop of feul.

Reporter:
With the same wingspan as a jumbo jet, the weight of a family car and the power of the scooter, the solar impulse is one of a kind.

'The airplane has no feul, makes no pollution and creats no soot'

It has 12,000 solar cells across its wings, four electric propeller engines, each with a battery pack with room for just one passanger, the pilot. It is the first aircraft in the world that can fly without fuel during the day and night.

'People don't just want to fly. I mane, we want to show what can be done with this technologies.'

And the idea of solar impulse also came from outside the aviation industry. Bertrand Piccard made the first balloon flights around the world in 1991, but only just. He nearly ran out of propane.

'We almost failed because of lack of fuel, and on that moment I made promise that the next time I would fly around the world, it would be with no feul at all independant from fossil energy.'

And this is really how the vision of Solar Impulse was born. It was not until Bertrand met Andre Borschberg 7 years ago that he could begin to fulfill that promise. Now both pilots are getting as much experience as possible handling the solar powered aircraft.

'I don't feel vulnerable, but I feel that it's a big responsibilty to fly the plane when you know how many people worked to bulit it during the last 7 years.'

With a budget of 134 million dollars over 10 years, Solar Impulse has the sponsors and the support to realize the goal of flying around the world without fuel in 2014.

'An airplane like this has never been done before.'

'When the Wright Brothers did the frist flight in 1903. It took 25 years for Charles Lindbergh to cross the Atlantic. He did it alone. Another 25 years to have a hundred passengers airplanes over Atlantic.'

As the solar impulse takes flight, Andre and Bertrand also want their place in history as pioneers in flights.


Before we go, we have a little mystery for you. This is a ram. That's not the mystery. What no one knows is where it came from or how it ended up running around Miami over the weekend. I Guess it just wanted to do some rambling. Maybe it was a feeling a little rambunctious. One thing's for sure it definitely wasn't sheepish. Officials were eventually able to crowd the creature without any kind of confrontation. Luckily they caught up with him before he reached ram-ming speed.
While he was running around Miami, I was running through the streets of Marietta, Georgia, and ran into teachers and some students. It was great to seeing you guys at the Gobble Jog on Thanksgiving day.