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	• NEWS >> ATW Script 27 March 2003 Yearly Script Program Index -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OPEN/WELCOME Hi and welcome to Assignment: The World for the week of March twenty-seventh, 2003. I’m Alicia Claussell. In our top story this week… the invasion of Iraq wages on… #1— IRAQ British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned on Monday of difficult days ahead in the war against Iraq, but said that a coalition victory was certain. Blair told the British parliament—the House of Commons—that Saddam Hussein must go and his regime must be replaced in order for the Iraqi people to have a better future. Blair also paid tribute to the fallen British soldiers in his first Commons address since the war began. In the meantime… coalition forces continued their push north Monday, in their advance toward the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The troops encountered heavy Iraqi resistance but British and American units found abandoned Iraqi defenses and destroyed any potentially dangerous devices. On Iraq’s Al-Faw peninsula, U-S Marines and British Royal Marines sealed off Iraqi fighters from their comrades in the rest of Iraq. Although the troops held some hostile Iraqi soldiers on the peninsula, they also secured an oil infrastructure and the port of Umm Qasr to allow humanitarian aid supplies. Potentially (adv) possible or capable of becoming. ATW FACT The Air Force has the largest percentage of women serving in the U-S military branches with 19.4 percent. The Army has 15.4 percent, Navy with 14.4 percent and six percent of the women represent the Marine Corps. Source: U-S Defense Department, USAToday 3/23/03 INTRO REST OF THE NEWS In the rest of the news this week… -the Caribbean Community held a summit in Cuba. -the space shuttle Endeavour returns home—finally… -and finally, President Bush nominates a new treasury secretary. #2— ARAB LEAGUE MEETS Egypt hosted an Arab League meeting Monday in Cairo where there remained a sharp divide among Arab League nations over how to regard the U-S led war on Iraq. Iraq’s Foreign Minister urged other Arab countries to condemn the U-S and British aggression against Iraq and the U-S treatment of Arab prisoners at Camp X-ray in Cuba. Following the meeting, the Secretary General of the Arab League used the opportunity to “salute the political masses throughout the United States, Europe, especially Britain, and all over the world.” Libya praised Iraqi heroism in confronting the American and British forces, which won lengthy and warm applause from many delegates and observers at the meeting. Masses (adj) the ordinary, or common people as a whole. #3— HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warned of a humanitarian crisis looming in the southern Iraqi city of Basra where water supplies and electricity have been cut off. Annan is most concerned that a city the size of Basra could not maintain sanitary conditions without water and electricity for too long. The international aid agency Red Crescent, along with British engineers, was helping and expected to have 40-percent of the water supply reconnected within the week. Sanitary (adj) conditions affecting health. #4— PROTESTS CONTINUE A few hundred U-S war veterans and their supporters rallied in Washington, D-C on Sunday, protesting the war against Iraq. During the march, the protestors stopped at the war memorials and held wreath-laying ceremonies at monuments to veterans of the Vietnam and Korean wars, and at the future site of the World War Two Memorial. A few hundred activists also turned out for a pro-military rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. American flags waved in the crowd, along with signs saying, “Freedom is not Free” and “God Bless our Troops.” In New York, one day after 100-thousand people participated in massive anti-war protests, more than a thousand gathered in support of the war in Iraq and the U-S military. Activists (n) people involved in vigorous action for achieving a goal. POP QUIZ #1 In our story about Iraq, why did U-S and British troops want to secure the port on the Al-Faw peninsula? Was it … 1- it held biological weapons 2- Getting oil out 3- Humanitarian aid shipments And the correct answer is number three… the port will be used to deliver water, food and medical supplies. OLD CLUE #1— LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA And now it’s time for the answers to last week’s clues in the news… Find the location of our first clue and you get Los Angeles, California, the site of the seventy-fifth annual Academy Awards ceremony honoring the best motion pictures of the year. The Oscars for Best Picture was presented to the film, “Chicago.” Best Actor went to Adrian Brody for his lead role in “The Pianist.” Nicole Kidman won Best Actress for her portrayal of Virginia Wolf in “The Hours.” Comedian Steve Martin hosted the ceremony held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. OLD CLUE #2—MIDEAST UPDATE Fill in the blanks of our second clue and you’d get, “Mideast Update.” Israel considered two plans to extend a barrier to separate Israelis and Palestinians. Both plans would claim more land for Israel and cloud progress on Palestinian statehood. Currently, electronic fences and concrete blocks serve as a “separation fence” to protect Israel from attacks by Palestinian militants. Palestinians accused Israel of trying to undermine international peace efforts. Israelis said the new barriers that go up could eventually be demolished if a permanent border is set for a Palestinian state. OLD CLUE #3—ILLNESS SPREADS And finally, unscramble our third clue and you’d get, “Illness Spreads.” Scientists found the mystery virus last week that has sickened hundreds of people worldwide. Now they are perfecting a test to diagnose severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and bring scientists closer to finding a cure. The progress in solving the mystery pneumonia came less than a week after the World Health Organization pulled together experts from eleven laboratories form around the world. SARS sickened almost four-hundred people and killed 11 worldwide in the past three weeks. THIS WEEK IN WORLD HISTORY This week in world history… on March twenty-ninth,1638… Swedish colonists settled in present-day Delaware. FEATURE SHARKS People have been fascinated with sharks for centuries. We went back into the ATW Archives to learn more about these fascinating creatures. Check it out! (Wyatt) All through history man has had a fascination with a mysterious, underwater predator known as the shark. through the centuries many myths about this great fish have arisen. Perhaps the biggest misconception is that all sharks are ferocious, man-eatling beasts. Thanks to fictional novels and films, many people believe these legends to be true. to help clear up some of the mysteries surrounding sharks, an exhibit called Sharks, Fact and Fantasy was developed. (Jeff Lewis) Hopefully we are going to educate people about the reality of sharks and this is a lot of misnomers about shark attacks and evil nature of the shark. In fact, we found in our research that sharks don't like to eat men. Any people that have been attacked by sharks has been by meer accident. (Wyatt) The shark is a cartiligious fish, this means that they have a skeleten made out of cartilage, not bones. And each of these torpedo shaped creatures has its own unique color, size and appetite. (Lewis) They are a predator, most of them. But some of them only eat plants. So they are a very, wide variety of species and they've actually been around longer than the dinosaurs. They are an actual prehistoric record of sea life. (Wyatt) During a visit to this exhibit you can find out many cool things about sharks. Discover how they hear, take a look at their teeth, even check out some real live shark embryos. (Lewis) We believe they are going to hatch between two and four months from now. Right now they are in their shark egg sack, they will eventually grow to full-size and break from the sack and hatch. (Wyatt) A three-hundred gallon salt water tank lets people get up close and personal with three live sharks. There is also a real live dive cage to try out too. (Lewis) There actually hasn't been a day that has gone by yet that I haven't learned something new about sharks and they are just very interesting creatures. Anything about sharks will just fill your mind with something that is very cool. (Wyatt) For ATW, I’m Wyatt Doremus. ISN’T IT COOL! Vintage Cars Some of the United States’ most beautiful and expensive cars were recently on display at a car show in Fresno, California. The 44th Annual Autorama Show featured a wide variety of extraordinary and pricey cars, some worth more than a million dollars. ISSUE Mr. Mattson’s social studies classes at Keene Middle School in Keene, New Hampshire sent in some issue ideas. Emily E- wants to know if other students enjoy learning a foreign language. Emily suggests that some kids wonder why they even have to take a second language. Because they don’t enjoy it, they don’t do well or take the classes seriously. It is difficult to choose any one language to learn in addition to English, because there are so many different languages. But Emily points out that learning a foreign language can be beneficial later in college, in a career, or in travel some day. Learning a second language can help you be a well-rounded person because you can learn about other people and cultures. Well, we’d like to know what you think… “Should students have to take a second language?” Discuss this issue with your classmates after the show and then write to us with your opinion. MAILBAG We received nearly five hundred responses to our issue question, “Should we continue restrictions on immigrants?” The majority of you, fifty three percent say yes, we should restrict immigration. Thirty five percent say no, we should not. Twelve percent are undecided. Many of you feel America was founded on principles that welcomed people from other countries. Megan A. of Cross Junction, Virginia writes, “If we denied immigrants the right to come to this land…we would be denying what the founding fathers wanted…for other cultures to come to our land to be free.” Sierra G. of Waunakee, Wisconsin adds, “It’s not very nice to keep people out. They want to move here because we’re the land of the free.” Caroline R. of Latham, New York reminds us. “If we had restrictions, a lot of us would not be here today. Thanks to the immigration of our grandparents and great-grandparents, America has turned out to be successful in many ways.” The majority of you, however, feel security needs to be our main priority today. Jennifer C. of Webster, New York writes, “We never know who or what we are letting in our country. Even though this is the land of the free, we have to watch how many people we let in.” Lacey M. of Crimora, Virginia adds, “We have to go through a certain process when we visit another country .. why should it be any different the other way around?” Joellen B. of Rochester, New York feels this is a special time in history. Joellen writes, “I don’t think the United States should let immigrants into America during times of war. We should increase security and keep immigrants away.” Finally, Tim S. of Marathon, Wisconsin writes, “The reason September 11th happened was because we let terrorists into our country. We can’t take any more chances.” 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… “Does the president deserve unconditional respect?” and “Should students have to take a second language?” 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 Basra, what is the humanitarian crisis there? Are they lacking… 1) Doctors and nurses 2) water and electricity 3) shelter and food And the correct answer is number two... the water supply and electricity was cut off in the southern Iraqi city. NEW CLUES And now it’s time for next week’s clues in the news… Our first clue is a location… 8 Degrees, 58 minutes north latitude 79 Degrees, 32 minutes west longitude Our second clue is a fill-in-the-blank, it’s two words… _ A _ I S _ A N I _ I _ I T O _ And finally, our third clue is a scrambled letter, it is two words… V T S R E E E B M C I L 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 Alicia Claussell. We’ll see you again next week. © 2003 WXXI-TV/ Assignment: The World. All Rights Reserved.