WXXI-TV | Assignment: The World |


		• NEWS >> ATW Script September 19, 2002 Yearly Script Program Index -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi and welcome back to Assignment: The World for the week of September nineteeth, 2002. I’m Elissa Marra. In our top story this week… Iraq agrees to allow weapons inspectors to return. #1-IRAQ U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan announced from New York Monday that Iraq had agreed to allow U-N weapons inspectors back into Iraq. Kofi Anan “And I can confirm to you that I have received a letter from the Iraqi authorities conveying their decision to allow the return of the inspectors without conditions to continue their work.” Annan credited President Bush’s U.N. address and pressure from Arab leaders for Iraq’s decision. The Bush administration and Britain expressed skepticism about the Iraqi offer. A senior State Department official said Iraq’s decision was “not a promise to disarm, not a promise to allow unsupervised inspections, not a promise to disclose the state of its weapons program.” The announcement followed a weeklong effort by President George W- Bush and his administration to keep up the threat of war on Iraq. On a campaign trip to the Midwest Bush said the world doesn’t need to know how close Saddam Hussein is to building a nuclear weapon before facing him down. The president issued a fresh challenge to the United Nations to prove its relevancy by showing resolve against the Iraqi leader. Bush said the U-S, as well as the U-N, must anticipate that Saddam Hussein will develop a nuclear weapon. Relevant (adj) having practical value or importance. ATW FACT Of the three-million minority Tamils living in Sri Lanka, one-and-a-half-million have been displaced in the north and east since the war started there in 1983. Source: World Television News, 9/16 REST OF THE NEWS In the rest of the news this week… six U-S men are arrested in a possible link to the al Qaeda. landmark peace talks opened in Sri Lanka Monday. and finally, voter turnout was high as elections were held over the weekend in Sweden and Macedonia. #2- AL QAEDA ARRESTS U-S federal authorities arrested five members of an alleged al Qaeda terrorist cell based in western New York last Friday night and a sixth man on Monday. The five men, all American-born and of Yemen descent, were arraigned in a Buffalo courtroom on Saturday. They were charged with providing material support and resources to foreign terrorist organizations. The judge entered a “not guilty” plea for each and ordered the men jailed until a detention hearing on Wednesday. Federal authorities said the men had trained at an al Qaeda terrorist camp in Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden gave a speech promoting his anti-American and anti-Israeli views. Two of the five confirmed that they and six associates had attended the camp in Afghanistan and officials indicated that some of the accused might have contacted the al Qaeda recently. The investigation into the cell began early in the summer of 2001, about the time the men returned from Afghanistan. Terrorist cell (n) a small group acting as a unit within a larger organization. #3-SRI LANKAN PEACE TALKS Sri Lankan government negotiators and Tamil Tiger rebels opened historic peace talks Monday, pledging to do their best to end one of Asia’s longest running separatist wars. The negotiators spent three days secluded in a Thai naval base in the first face-to-face talks between the two sides in seven years. The talks, brokered by Norway and hosted by Thailand, come seven months after government forces and rebels signed a cease-fire, which has resulted in the longest period of peace in the country since the war started in 1983. The Tamil Tiger rebels have been fighting nineteen years for a separate state for the island’s three million minority Tamils. Separatist (n) a person who separates from their government or church. #4-VARIOUS ELECTIONS Several countries held elections over the weekend. Macedonians and ethnic Albanians jockeyed for political power on Sunday in parliamentary elections, the first elections in the region since last year’s armed rebellion. More than three-thousand candidates from thirty different parties were competing for one-hundred and twenty seats in Macedonia’s parliament. Voters in Sweden also went to the polls Sunday. They cast their ballots in the country’s general election. Prime Minister, Goran Persson, won as expected since his party, the Social Democrats, have led Sweden for six of the past seven decades. Rebellion (n) open, organized and armed resistance to a government. POP QUIZ #1 In our story about Iraq, what announcement did U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan make Monday? Was it that Iraq… had developed a nuclear weapon Refused new inspectors Will allow weapons inspectors back And the correct answer is number three… Iraq agreed Monday to allow weapon inspectors back. OLD CLUE #1— KABUL, AFGHANISTAN 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’d get Kabul, Afghanistan. In the continuing war against terrorism, government agents have uncovered numerous calls from difficult-to-track prepaid cell phones, prepaid phone cards and pay phones in the U-S to known al-Qaeda locations overseas. In neighboring Pakistan, the government turned over four terrorists to the U-S Monday, including a man who helped plan the September eleventh attacks. OLD CLUE #2—BUSH ADDRESS Fill in the blanks of our second clue and you’d get “Bush Address.” President Bush spoke to the United Nations’ General Assembly in New York City last week. During his address, Bush said that Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein poses a “grave and gathering danger” to peace. Bush urged the United Nations to act quickly to stop the threat. Bush’s speech amounted to an ultimatum to both the Iraqi leader and to the U-N while Bush demanded that Saddam immediately give up his quest for nuclear weapons, end all support for terrorism and stop mistreating his ethnic minorities. OLD CLUE #3—PERVEZ MUSHARRAF And finally, find the role of our newsmaker and you’d discover that Pervez Musharraf is the president of Pakistan. Last week, Musharraf made a weeklong visit to the U-S, where he underscored his support for the American-led international coalition against terrorism and praised the American military in rebuilding Afghanistan. He attended a ceremony in New York on the anniversary of the September eleventh attacks and he was a keynote speaker at the U-N General Assembly. During his speech, Musharraf criticized India for its ongoing massive military build-up. THIS WEEK IN WORLD HISTORY This week in world history… on September seventeenth, 1862…Union forces pushed back a Confederate invasion in Maryland in the Civil War Battle of Antietam. ATW FEATURE - Blue Angels (...) The United State's Navy Blue Angels is the Navy Flight demonstration squadron. We are founded in 1946. It's history is unbelievable. Fifty six years and about two hundred and eight pilots have flown for the Blue Angels over that period of time. We've traveled the country to thirty-six different show sights throughout the year. All fifty states demonstrating to the American public what Navy aviation is all about. During the demonstration we fly down to 100 knots and speeds as high as .99 mach which is one percent below the speed of sound. That is just in the demonstration. The F-18 itself can fly at 1.7 mach in full afterburner, altitude in a combat scenario. On a beautiful day like we have here we do a full high show which is thirty nine minutes of constant action. We take the six aircraft and break them down into two formations. The world-renown diamond formation, that's one through four, they fly in sets as close as a coke can apart. Wingtip to canopy separation of about eighteen inches. The Blue Angels trademark is to look as though we are welded at the wing and maneuver the entire formation as if it is one aircraft. When they are off the show line, the two solo pilots come at each other at eight hundred knots of closure which is one mile every four and half seconds. The solo pilot demonstrates the maximum performance capability of the FA-18. The slow speed, high speed, high g maneuvering and all of its combat capabilities. (music) "Its a beautiful morning...it's a beautiful day.." (Kartvedt) There is no doubt in my mind that I have the best job in the world! This type of work demands one hundred percent concentration, it is by far and away the most intense thing I have ever done in my life. If a child wanted to be a Blue Angel, the most important thing for them is to pursue that goal, determine what it takes to get to that goal. If that is the ultimate goal you need to set small goals before that. If Scott Kartvedt can stand before you as a Blue Angel and the lead solo pilot, then anything is possible if you put your mind to it. ISN'T IT COOL? Washington D.C.’s National Zoo threw a party recently for some of its most famous residents. It was a birthday celebration for Mei Xiang (MAY ZHIHNG) and Tian Tian (tee-YAHN’ tee-YAHN). Zoo officials marked the event with a cake decorated with replicas of pandas and bamboo. Thousand of zoo visitors each got a slice. Neither seemed too excited. Tian Tian slept in his air-conditioned grotto while Mei Xiang munched on a big block of ice with fruit in the middle. ISSUE Los Angeles County school officials in California recently voted to ban the sale of soft drinks in an effort to battle childhood obesity. Some school administrators say they will have trouble paying for such things as dances and band uniforms without the income from soda sales. The decision to ban soda by the second largest school system in the country has been closely watched by educators and activists across the United States. Studies show that the percentage of American children who are overweight has nearly tripled in the last twenty years. The trend has been blamed on junk food and lack of exercise. Those opposed to the ban say sugary drinks are only part of a larger health and junk food problem. A spokesman for the National Soft Drink Association said sodas were being unfairly blamed for childhood obesity. Industry data shows that the average American secondary student drinks two 12-ounce cans of soft drinks at school each week. Well, we'd like to know what you think? "Should soda sales be banned in schools?" Discuss this issue with your classmates after the show and then write to us with your opinion. MAILBAG We look forward to receiving your responses to our two latest issue questions… “Is it okay for individual rights to be set aside for homeland security?” and “Should soda sales be banned in schools?” If you would like to receive an Assignment: The World Press card, please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. You may send issue question ideas and 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 www.wxxi.org/ATW . We also read e-mail at atw@wxxi.org. POP QUIZ #2 In our story about Sri Lanka, peace talks followed what agreement… was it a nuclear arms treaty a successful cease-fire a new election date And the correct answer is number one… they met to discuss a strategy for dealing with Saddam Hussein. NEW CLUES And now it’s time for next week’s clues in the news… Our first clue is a location… 41 Degrees, 40 minutes north latitude 44 Degrees, 45 minutes east longitude Our second clue is a fill-in-the-blank, it’s two words… P _ A _ E D _ Y And finally, our third clue is a scrambled letter, it is two words… N G A E M R S E N L O E I C T 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! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.