WXXI-TV | Assignment: The World |




	• NEWS >> ATW May 3, 2007 Yearly Script Program Index -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OPEN/WELCOME Hi and welcome to Assignment: The World for the week of May 3rd, I’m Scott Fybush. Teej Jenkins is on assignment. Our top story this week…new talks come on the heels of a deadly month in Iraq. 1—IRAQ 33 DEGREES, 21 MINUTES NORTH 44 DEGREES, 25 MINUTES EAST The US and Iran are among the nations attending a regional conference in Egypt. Amid mounting violence in Iraq, Iraq's neighbors are being asked to be a part of measures to stabilize the region. It will be the first time in nearly 30 years that high level diplomats from the US have met with their counterparts from Iran. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice emphasized that Iraq and not Iran's nuclear program would be on the table for discussion. The talks began as April came to a close. More than 100 American soldiers and hundreds more Iraqi civilians died in April making it one of the deadliest months since 2003. Its also the month in which former CIA Director George Tenet released a controversial new book that claims the Bush administration did not listen to facts before invading Iraq. Diplomats (n) one skilled in the art of conducting international relations ATW Fact In 1685, surveyors set out a road along the lines of an old protective stockade in New York City. It was on that street, Wall Street, in 1792 that the Buttonwood Agreement essentially created what would become the New York Stock Exchange. INTRO REST OF THE NEWS In the rest of the news this week… --a fiery explosion creates a commuting nightmare... ---good news means better times on the stock market... ---and problems grow despite peace in Somalia. #2—SOMALIA UPDATE 02 degrees, 04 minutes north 45 degrees, 22 minutes east Hundreds of thousands of people are trying to return to their homes in the capitol of Somalia. They had fled a week of continued fighting that has claimed more than one thousand people. More than 4-hundred of those died in one week in late April alone. The fighting involved Islamic insurgents and government troops from both Somalia and Ethiopia. While a Somali colonel claimed victory, the militants have sworn to launch an Iraq-style insurgency. Somalia hasn't had an effective national government since 1991. The current administration was formed in 2004 but has yet to wield any significant power or control. Calm now has been established in Mogadishu, U-N officials say government workers are hampering efforts to help the thousands of people forced from their homes. They say the refugees are in dire need of “everything from food to water to medicine to shelter.” Insurgents (n) people who revolt against civil authority or a government in power #3—HIGHWAY COLLAPSE 37 degrees, 48 minutes north 122 degrees, 16 minutes west 280-thousand commuters are looking for new ways to get into San Francisco. A gasoline tanker truck overturned on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Sunday and caught fire. Flames from the 86-hundred gallons of gas rose 200 feet into the air and were hot enough to melt part of the freeway. While the driver was able to walk away with only minor injuries, the collapse of the roadway will cause commuting headaches for perhaps months ahead. 75-thousand vehicles use the road every day and the accident occurred where three highways converge. It is the worst disruption for commuters in the Bay area since 1989 when an earthquake damaged a section of the Bay Bridge itself. Melt (v) to be changed from a solid to a liquid state by application of heat or pressure #4— —STOCK MARKET SETS RECORD 40 degrees, 43 minutes north 74 degrees, 00 minutes west A growing US economy and increased corporate profits sent the Dow Jones industrial average to a new record last week. The Dow shot past 13-thousand points for the first time after news that many of the country's biggest companies had surpassed first quarter earnings projections. The earnings and economic data point to slow, stable growth. That's an ideal formula for people who want to invest in the stock market. Investors are also hoping that the Federal Reserve Board will not raise interest rates as a way to halt inflation. The Commerce Department had one other bit of good news: sales of new homes rebounded slightly in March. Projections (n) a plan for an anticipated course of action POP QUIZ #1 In our story about Iraq, how long did we tell you it has been since formal diplomatic meetings between the US and Iran. Is it nearly 20 years 30 years 40 years And the answer is number 2. The US broke off formal diplomatic relations with Iran in 1979. OLD CLUE # 1—MALI ELECTION Time now for answers to last week’s Clues in the News. Our first clue was the location of Bamako, the capitol of Mali. As expected, current President Amadou Toumani Toure won a second five year term. The nearest of his seven challengers was Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the president of Mali's General Assembly. While there were no reports of violence, turnout on Sunday was low as more than a third of potential voters failed to pick up their registration cards. President Toure played a leading role in ending Mali's longtime military dictatorship 16 years ago. By law, he will not be able to run for a third term. OLD CLUE # 2— DEMOCRATS DEBATE Unscramble our second clue and you got Democrats debate. The 8 Democrats who want to be their party's nominee for president in 2008 faced off in the earliest debate ever held last week. Front runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were joined by John Edwards, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Chris Dodd and Mike Gravel. The candidates took few shots at each other, spending most of their time criticizing President Bush and his policies concerning the war in Iraq. The debate, which took place in South Carolina, was held 9 months before the first Democratic primary. OLD CLUE # 3—DARFUR CONFERENCE And finally, fill in the blanks on our third clue and you got Darfur conference. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi welcomed envoys from the U-N, the African Union, the US and 8 other countries to a week of talks about Darfur. An estimated 200-thousand people have died over the past four years in fighting in the western region of Sudan. As the conference was beginning, rallies were held in cities around the world to urge quick and effective action in Darfur. Some activists criticized the US and the UN for doing little beyond talking about the situation there. THIS WEEK IN WORLD HISTORY This week in world history… May 5, 1862, Mexican soldiers defeat a much larger force of French regulars at what would become known as the Battle of Puebla. Though it would take another five years for Mexico to finally win back its independence, Puebla is remembered every year in the Cinco de Mayo celebrations. ATW FEATURE With fuel prices continuing to rise it is even more important that we develop alternative fuel possibilities. Wyatt Doremus checks one out. ATW FEATURE (Wyatt) There are many companies stepping up to the plate these days to combat the effects of burning fossil fuels. GM, one of the leading car makers in America, is also leading the way in the development of ways to use hydrogen fuel cell technology to power the next generation of automobiles. (Matt) Hydrogen, if you think about that, is the first element in the periodic table. So the smallest atom. There is some free hydrogen in the air, but it pretty much combines and makes water or some other materials. But it is pretty easy to separate and make into a fuel core or something like a fuel cell. The reason we'd like to use hydrogen as a fuel, especially for fuel cells is, well the first part is hydrogen used in a fuel cell makes no emissions that we know of today. So you're internal combustion engine makes carbon monoxide and other emissions that are regulated. When we use hydrogen as a fuel we basically make have water and heat as our emissions. So its really good for the environment. In a fuel cell car, it is a little different than an internal combustion engine. So if you think about chemistry, what we really are doing is separating the proton from the electron and using that electron to make enough electricity to drive a car. So, we're not burning it, we're actually separating the atoms. We'd basically put hydrogen as a fuel and make electricity. You could think of it as a battery that has a continuous fuel supply. So you don't have a range problem as far as battery where you run out of charge and have to plug it in. You have to refill this just like a gasoline car. Then what we do is make electricity and drive an electric motor.Today most of our drives are either front wheel drive or rear wheel drive, but in the future we may have wheel motors in each of the corners, which you can do some interesting things with the car. But it can be configured in a very similar manner to today where you have front wheel drive or four wheel drive depending on the application of the vehicle. (Wyatt) GM is working with Dow Chemical Company and the military to test this technology under different, real world conditions. (Matt) What we're trying to do is take waste hydrogen off some chemical processes that Dow is making down there and run our fuel cells, make electricity from that waste fuel, and allow us to get some experience with the durability of the systems in real operations. (Wyatt) For Assignment the World, I'm Wyatt Doremus. ISN’T IT COOL CHERRY BLOSSOMS Spring has finally sprung in New York and the best evidence of that is the 26th annual cherry blossom festival held at Brooklyn’s Botanical Gardens. Showcasing over 220 different types of trees and at least 50 varieties of blossoms the garden’s collection is the largest and most diverse outside of Japan. With events like traditional Japanese dancing and samurai sword fighting the festival hopes to attract more visitors this year than ever before. ISSUE Miguel V. who goes to school in Rochester, New York had a timely idea for an issue question: should school be year round? The National Association for Year Round Education says there are ample statistics to answer yes. Students who have shorter but more frequent breaks retain more of what they are taught. Some experts say students’ problems can be caught and corrected earlier. And some say its time to scrap a school schedule that made sense when most students lived on farms or when schools had no air conditioning, facts that are no longer even remotely true. But opponents say test scores do not always go up. Others argue that the higher costs of maintenance and paying teachers would be prohibitive. Some point to summer jobs and to sports schedules as two examples of disruptions that would hurt families and students. And for families with students in different schools with different schedules, they say family vacations would be impossible. So, what do you think? Should school be year round? Discuss this issue with your classmates after the show and then write to us with your opinions. MAILBAG We received nearly four hundred responses to our issue question, “Should eating and other activities in cars be banned?” The majority of you, 56 percent say no other activities should not be banned. 35 percent say yes they should. 9 percent are undecided. Many of you feel it would be safer if eating and other activities while driving was not allowed. Amanda D. of Pardeville, Wisconsin writes, “The driver must only focus on driving. All in all I think multi-tasking while driving should be banned.” Stacey N. of Waverly, Iowa agrees and offers this scenario. “Just imagine if a woman gets in her car (and) stops (for) a small snack. She drops her drink and when she bends down to get, she loses control of her car. If people don’t do distracting things may you could prevent things like this from happening.” Brittany B. of Lancaster, New York adds, “When they are eating, they are only concentrating on the food and not on the road.” Many of you, however, think enforcing a law like this would be next to impossible. Darica D. of Carlisle, Iowa writes, “It if were banned the town would have to hire a lot more officers to catch every person that eats or does other activities while driving.” Brandon B. of Fairfield, Virginia agrees and adds, “If the government keeps banning things we won’t havae any freedoms before too long.” Katie P. of Ticonderoga, New York also thinks it would be hard to enforce the law. Katie writes, “Lots and lots of people eat and drink in their car. It would be ridiculous to be pulling over every car.” Finally, Nicole K. of Walker, Michigan offers this alternative. “It would be impossible to stop people. Instead, we should just have yearly driver’s tests.” We look forward to your responses to our two latest questions: “Is further gun control needed?” and “Should school be year round?” We'll put some of the more thought provoking letters and e-mails on the air. 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 stock market, what record level did we tell you was surpassed? Was it 13,000 points 14,000 points 15,000 points And the correct answer is number 1. The Dow Jones Industrial Average went for the first time over 13,000 point. NEW CLUES And now it’s time for next week’s clues in the news… Our first clue a location… 48 Degrees, 52 minutes north latitude 02 Degrees, 20 minutes west longitude Our second clue is a scrambled letter, two words First word A B U N S P L I C E R Second word B A D T E E And finally, our third clue is a fill in the blanks, two words First word K blank N T blank C blank Y Second word D blank R blank Y 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 Scott Fybush. We’ll see you again next week. © 2007 WXXI-TV/ Assignment: The World. All Rights Reserved.