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	• NEWS >> ATW Script 20 March 2003 Yearly Script Program Index -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OPEN/WELCOME Hi and welcome to Assignment: The World for the week of March twentieth, 2003. I’m Elissa Marra. In our top story this week… President Bush issues an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein. #1— IRAQ President Bush addressed the world and nation in a televised speech Monday night. In an unprecedented ultimatum, Bush gave Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein forty-eight hours to leave Iraq with his sons or face the full force of the United States military. The forty-eight hour deadline expires Wednesday night. Bush described the atrocities of the leader’s regime over the past twelve years and said the danger of doing nothing is now more perilous than ever before and that military action is needed in order to safeguard peace. Bush said the world has engaged in twelve years of diplomacy and our good faith has not been returned. Bush also described how the Iraqi people would realize a liberated lifestyle once Saddam Hussein leaves. The president pledged to provide the citizens of Iraq with the necessary food and medicines and he added that the money from oil sales would continue to belong to the Iraqi people. Atrocity (n) shockingly evil actions. ATW FACT The average price of gasoline hit a nationwide record of $1.719 a gallon for regular unleaded this week. The highest state average is in California where unleaded gasoline is going for an average $2.171 a gallon. Source: AAA INTRO REST OF THE NEWS In the rest of the news this week… --allied leaders hold a summit … -- Iraqis and others prepare for war. --and finally, protests continue worldwide. #2— AZORES SUMMIT Prior to Monday’s ultimatum, President Bush met with the prime ministers of Britain, Spain and Portugal Monday at an American air base in the Azores (A-zohrs) Islands, a Portuguese archipelago. The allied leaders agreed on one final attempt to win world backing for the swift disarmament of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said they would make a final appeal to the international community to unite and force Saddam to disarm. Bush expressed his disapproval of France’s veto threat of any second resolution in the Security Council. France reiterated that war should be a last resort only. At the conclusion of the summit, the leaders issued a statement of commitment to the Iraqi people. It said that in the event of military action, the allied countries would support a democracy and a rebuilding in Iraq. Archipelago (n) a large group or chain of islands. #3— PREPARATION FOR WAR The United Nations urged all of its three-hundred employees stationed in Iraq to leave the region Monday, including weapons inspectors. Countries closed their embassies, Russian, German and American citizens living in Baghdad also left as diplomatic efforts to avert an American-led attack failed. Iraqis stocked up on food, bottled water and gasoline. Across the capital, people mobbed pharmacies to buy antibiotics and tranquilizers, while workers sandbagged positions outside the government buildings. Saddam Hussein warned that if Iraq were attacked, it would take war anywhere in the world “where there is sky, land or water.” Also on Monday, Australia and Poland said they would send troops to join the U-S but Canada agreed to assist in rebuilding Iraq only after Saddam is removed, and said they would not participate in any aggression against Iraq without a U-N resolution. Sandbag (v) to use a sand-filled bag as fortification. #4— PROTESTS France, Russia and Germany issued a joint declaration Saturday that said there was no justification for war on Iraq and that weapons inspections were working. The statement came as more hundreds of thousands took to the streets around the world to voice their opposition to a war against Iraq. In Tokyo, about 10-thousand protestors chanted “no war.” Two large anti-war rallies took place in Moscow and more than 50-thousand protestors marched in Paris underscoring the popular support for French President Jacques Chirac’s push to block a quick U-S-led invasion of Iraq. Underscore (v) to stress or emphasize. POP QUIZ #1 In our story about Iraq, about Iraq, what is it that Bush wants to keep safe? Is it… 1- U-S money from foreign oil 2- U-S peace 3- U-S investments in Iraq And the correct answer is number two… Bush says in order to safeguard peace, Saddam must go. OLD CLUE #1— PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA And now it’s time for the answers to our last clues in the news… Find the location of our first clue and you get Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea accused the U-S Monday of refusing one-on-one talks to dodge its responsibility for the five-month-long stand-off over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Tension has been building on the peninsula since the U-S disclosure last October that North Korea had been running a secret nuclear weapons program based on enriched uranium. The U-S instead called for multilateral talks, which it says should include regional players Japan, China, Russia and South Korea. OLD CLUE #2—IRISH VISITOR Fill in the blanks of our second clue and you’d get, “Irish Visitor.” Northern Ireland Protestant leader David Trimble, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, as well as other Irish leaders, all visited Washington and attended the annual Saint Patrick's Day luncheon in the Capitol and a related ceremony at the White House. Trimble and Adams agreed that the peace accord, known as the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, is the only path worth forging to find a political space in which Catholics and Protestants can coexist in the six most northern counties that make up Northern Ireland. OLD CLUE #3—MAHMOUD ABBAS And finally, find the role of our newsmaker and you’d discover that Mahmoud Abbas is the new Palestinian prime minister, created for a power-sharing agreement. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reluctantly agreed last month to appoint the new position and Abbas was his first choice. President Bush has said the Palestinians needed to choose new leaders as a precondition to statehood. Many Israeli leaders favor the Abbas appointment because he is an outspoken critic of the attacks on Israel. THIS WEEK IN WORLD HISTORY This week in world history… on March twenty-second, 1765… Britain enacted the Stamp Act to raise money from the American colonies. The Act was repealed almost a year later. FEATURE Native American Winter Games Jeanette Miller: The friends of Gonandagan are here to support Gonandagan State Historic Site, which is the site of a 17th century Seneca village. The Native American winter games event today that is being held; what we’re trying to do is to have people be able to see some of the things that would of maybe taken place in the hill up here many, many years ago. John Bilodeau` Red Eye: Bili Red Sled Dogs is the name of our dog sled kennel. My dog sled team is comprised mostly of purebred Siberian Huskies; I also have Alaskan Huskies. My specific role here today is to illustrate the sport and or the style of dog usage as it was in the old day—In the Northern Territories sledding was not only a way of life but a way of survival. Fred Kennedy: You asked what Snow Snake is—Snow Snake is a game given to us by The Creator as a way of communication; so now that we have the telephones we just use Snow Snake as just a game! The sport has been with our people for 500 years as a game—It’s only the Haudenosaunee people that play it. It takes 4 points to win a game and whoever gets 4 points first wins the game. It’s distance; the distance that you go…if one team gets 4 sticks the furthest he just games out. Right now our longest throw has been recorded at a mile and a half. Jeanette: I hope people walk away from here having fun and going away with an education about the history and traditional arts of the Iroquois people. ISN’T IT COOL! New Panda The San Diego Zoo welcomed it’s newest giant panda amid hopes he will be more successful in mating with the zoo’s resident female panda. Eleven-year-old Gao Gao arrived in January from China’s Wolong Nature Reserve as part of their 12-year loan research agreement to study how pandas communicate with each other. San Diego Zoo researchers are looking forward to observing a male panda in the prime of his life. Only about one-thousand pandas remain in the wild in western and central China. Another 150 live in captivity. ISSUE Last week, a popular American country music group made an uncomplimentary comment about President Bush while on tour in London, England. The British concertgoers enjoyed the slam, but the comment set off a mass of protests back in the U-S-A. Stations across the country heard from hundreds of thousands of listeners and pulled the Dixie Chicks music from their play lists to protest the disrespectful comment about the president. The lead singer later apologized, but said she just doesn’t want us to go to war. There are many Americans who feel that whether we agree with our president or not, we should always be respectful of the office, especially when we represent the United States in a foreign country. While these are tense times and we see people protesting the war by the millions, some people still feel strongly that we should show respect. Well, we’d like to know what you think… “Does the President deserve unconditional respect?” Discuss this issue with your classmates after the show and then write to us with your opinion. MAILBAG We received nearly six hundred responses to our issue question, “Should we change the Pledge of Allegiance?” The majority of you, seventy two percent say no, we should not change the Pledge of Allegiance. Twenty two percent say yes, we should. Six percent are undecided. Some of you feel changing the Pledge is the right thing to do. Bob A. of Auburndale, Wisconsin writes, “The original pledge had no reference to God in it. I think it is more important to emphasize that the U.S. is ‘one nation … with liberty and justice for ALL.” Maddy B. of Loudonville, New York adds, “It’s like saying that only people who believe in God can be American. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion so children have the right not to say the Pledge.” The majority of you, however, feel changing the Pledge is a bad idea. Keri C. of Ticonderoga, New York writes, “… just because some people think it is wrong does not mean you have to change it. If they do not want to say it, they do not have to.” Jake S. of Webster, New York reminds us it was President Eisenhower in 1954 who first changed the pledge. Jake writes, “He felt it showed the importance of religion in the past … and the future of our nation. The words … help us to remember that (many) came to this country for freedom of religion.” Nicolette H. of Mequon (Mek-wan), Wisconsin writes, “We have been reciting the pledge for a very long time, it is not worth changing now! If we change (it) … we are changing America!” Finally Eric G. of Fairfield, Virginia sees both sides and feels there is a simple solution. Eric writes, “… it does interfere with other religions. Some people do not believe in God. (But) if you don’t like it, just don’t say it.” MAILBAG CLOSE We look forward to receiving your responses to our two latest issue questions… ard to receiving your responses to our two latest issue questions… “Should we continue restrictions on immigrants?” and “Does the president deserve unconditional respect?” If you would like to receive an Assignment: The World Press card, please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. You may write to us here at Assignment: The World, Post Office Box three-zero-zero-twenty-one, Rochester, New York… one-4-6-zero-3… or you may contact us at the A-T-W website at http://atwonline.org./ We also read e-mail at atw@wxxi.org. POP QUIZ #2 In our story about the possible war, which countries agreed to send troops to Iraq? Was it… 1) Poland and Australia 2) France and Germany 3) Russia and North Korea And the correct answer is number one… Poland and Australia agreed to send troops to the Gulf region. NEW CLUES And now it’s time for next week’s clues in the news… Our first clue is a location… 34 Degrees, 03 minutes north latitude 118 Degrees, 14 minutes west longitude Our second clue is a fill-in-the-blank, it’s two words… _ I _ E _ S _ U _ _ A _ E And finally, our third clue is a scrambled letter, it is two words… S E L S I L N S S A E R P D These are clues to stories we think will happen in the coming week. You can find the answers on radio and television newscasts and in newspapers and newsmagazines. We’ll reveal the answers on next week’s show. Good luck! GOOD-BYE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And that’s it for this week’s show. From all of us here at Assignment: The World, I’m Elissa Marra. We’ll see you again next week. © 2003 WXXI-TV/ Assignment: The World. All Rights Reserved.