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Aired May 14, 2013 – 04:00:00 ET
CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: Land, sea, air — we`re heading all over to bring you stories for this Tuesday edition of CNN STUDENT NEWS. First up, we have some election results. Over the weekend, people cast their ballots in Pakistan. Before this election, here is what some of the voters said about the issues that were on their minds.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): We want a government that won`t set Pakistan (inaudible). That won`t rob Pakistan, but build Pakistan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Corruption is the main cause of all those problems like unemployment, like inflation, like lack of education.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): The country`s economy right now has reached a very dangerous level. It has reached zero.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): We`re fed up with this system, with the same words, the same people. We need new people or at least they should fulfill their promises.
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AZUZ: Looks like Pakistan`s new leader is an old leader. Nawaz Sharif has been prime minister twice before, and based on early results he`s about to get that title for a third time. Pakistan has a parliament, kind of like the U.S. Congress, it`s made up of a Senate and a national assembly. The assembly picks the country`s prime minister who serves as the head of Pakistan`s government. So, whichever political party wins the most sits in the assembly, that party`s leader is usually selected as prime minister. And it looks like Sharif`s party won the most sits in this election.
All right, our next story today — Israel. Next month, it`s hosting an international conference. One British scientist says he`s not going. So what? Well, he`s one of the most famous scientists in the world. Stephen Hawking is a physicist, an astronomer, a mathematician, a cosmologist, an author, a professor. Originally he said he couldn`t travel to the conference because of health reasons. Then he sent a letter to the organizers that said his decision was part of a boycott against Israel.
Palestinian civil society groups organized this boycott in 2005. It encourages world figures not to visit Israel in order to pressure that country in a negotiating with Palestinians. The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians goes back decades. One of the major issues is over who controls two regions — Gaza and the West Bank. A founder of the boycott praised Hawking for his decision. The chairman of the conference called the decision wrong. The response has been split on social media, too. Some people accused Hawking of being anti-Semitic, others were offering him congratulations.
Certainly not the first time that someone famous has spoken out about a global issue. When that happens, do you think it makes a difference? That`s the question we`re asking today on our blog. When public figures use their fame to promote a cause, do the y have an influence? Tell us your thoughts cnnstudentnews.com.
Next up, we`re heading to the Horn of Africa. This is a region on the continent`s east coast. It`s where you`ll find the nation of Somalia. The waters surrounding that country are some of the most dangerous in the world when it comes to pirate attacks. Nima Elbagir rode along with some African authorities on their hunt for maritime criminals.
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NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the African Union`s Marine contingent. Every day for the last six years they patrol the waters off the coast of Somalia on the lookout for potential threats.
And they don`t have to go very far to find them.
We`ve only got about 30 kilometers up the shore, north of the capital Mogadishu and already the patrols come across a suspected pirate base. We can`t get any closer than this for security reasons, but this really illustrates how present that pirate threat continues to be here.
Since May 2012 there have been no successful pirate attacks, but that doesn`t mean that there haven`t been a fair of number of attempts nor, as we just saw, does it mean that there aren`t pirates waiting on shore for that window of opportunity.
And the African Union told us that as you go further up that coast line, there are even more pirate encampments.
The problem with the piracy might be felt at sea, but the root causes lie here on land. And tell the international community that deals with the problems that plague Somalia as a whole. Then it`s hard to see how that can be a sustainable solution, a long-term solution to the issue of piracy. Nima Elbagir, CNN, Mogadishu.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s "Shoutout" goes out to Mr. Wondra`s social studies classes at Reedsport Community Charter School in Reedsport, Oregon. What measurement of the Earth is about 7,900 miles? Is it the diameter, circumference, surface area or radius. You`ve got three seconds, go!
The Earth diameter, a straight line from side to side that passes through the center of the planet is around 7,900 miles long. That`s your answer and that`s you "Shoutout."
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AZUZ: Satellites can`t go through the middle of the planet, nor does it get from one side of the Earth to the other, that have got to take the long way around. And while they`re orbiting up there, some of them are looking down here, capturing images of how the world is changing and how people are changing it. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
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REBECCA MOORE, ENGINEERING MANAGER, GOOGLE EARTH OUTREACH AND EARTH ENGINE: What we felt is the world`s first multidecade animated time lapse of the Earth.
Working with our partners, U.S. Geological Survey and NASA, we`ve brought online millions of satellites images starting from 1984 to 2012. It`s trillions of pixels of satellite imagery data that have never been available to the public before and we`ve stitched that together into this seamless animation of the planet changing over time.
When you see the disappearing Amazon rainforest, it`s pretty shocking. It`s pretty shocking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One area of rainforest in particular that used to be about the size of Kansas, has now lost a third of its acreage in just the last 30 years. That`s a lot of trees going down very fast.
We see glaciers retreating across the surface of the world due to the impacts of climate change and other factors.
MOORE: You can see innovative, actually, water projects happening in the middle of the desert in the Middle East where they`ve created verdant agricultural fields out of nothing.
You can see artificial cities being built off — out into the ocean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you look at Las Vegas, the sprawl that came as a result partly of the housing boom, has been remarkable, except that Lake Mead, which keeps the whole area hydrated, has been shrinking in direct proportion to the growth of the city.
MOORE: NASA just launched the next Landsat satellite, Landsat 8. And yet, Congress is now considering whether to continue the Landsat Earth observing mission past Landsat 8.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That would be a terrible mistake. If we can`t see how we are changing and sometimes damaging our Earth, we certainly can`t keep ourselves accountable for it.
AZUZ: It seems like it`d be cook to watch until you realize, it`s not stopping, what`s being called an ice tsunami creepily crackling and crawling its way to a Minnesota neighborhood. Mille Lacs Lake, which is popular for ice fishing in the winter, just made news for ice creeping in the spring. Meteorologists say wind is the culprit here. What`s left of the frozen sheet that covers the lake in colder month, was apparently blown ashore by winds as high as 40 miles per hour.
Fortunately, the ice itself was moving much more slowly. You could get out of its way in plenty of time. But the homes couldn`t, and the force of it damaged doors and broke windows, giving some lakefront residents their first really bad view of the lake.
When the wave of ice stopped, and it piled 30 feet in some places, construction crews were brought in to get it away from homes to protect them from flooding. Must have been what Roberts Frost meant when we wrote that for destruction, ice is also great and would suffice.
And finally today, Chris Hadfield might be the most interesting man out of this world. Since December, the Canadian astronaut has been making science experiment videos on the International Space Station. He`s become a bit of an online star. Before he heads back to Earth next week, Hadfield put together what could be the first music video made in space.
AZUZ: Covering David Bowie`s "Space Oddity" while you`re in space. At least he`s in tune with his surroundings. His return ride on the Soyuz could be inspiration for a perfect follow-up from the rocket man, or it might be better if he waits a while before his next single, because after all, Hadfield`s music should be spaced out. It`s time for us to blast off, we`ll launch into more news tomorrow. See you then.
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