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CNN 10
Titanic Remebered; More Than a Hundred Tornadoes Reported
Aired April 16, 2012 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, HOST, CNN STUDENT NEWS: My name is Carl Azuz, reporting from the CNN Newsroom in Atlanta, Georgia, welcoming our viewers from around the world to a new week of CNN Student News.
First up, we`re reporting on some severe weather. Around the midwestern United States, people are recovering from a series of powerful storms and tornadoes. These things were going on all weekend. Forecasters predicted the most dangerous conditions yesterday would be in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. Several states got hit on Saturday, including Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.
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AZUZ (voice-over): There were more than 120 reports of possible tornado touchdowns. You can see one of those here, along with some of the damage that came from it. There were reports of at least five deaths. Rob Marciano described the conditions as one tornado formed.
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ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We just came on the eastern flank of this storm, and the tornado just dropped out of the clouds. This has had a history of producing tornadoes south and west of here towards Woodward. And it`s moving north at about 30-35 miles an hour.
Just pulled over to get a better look at it. You can see the condensation swirling around it. You can -- you can see also the inflow, the rear flank downdraft. This is just how they describe them in textbooks. Sirens from vehicles and sirens in the town of Carmen (ph) happening right now.
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AZUZ (voice-over): Checking out a few international headlines now, starting with North Korea, the country ran a controversial rocket launch late last week. The rocket broke apart less than two minutes after the launch, but it still led to harsh criticism from other countries. The U.S. suspended a deal to send food aid to North Korea because of this launch.
Moving west now to Afghanistan, where the Taliban says it`s responsible for a wave of attacks across the country on Sunday. The Taliban is the militant group that used to rule most of Afghanistan. Officials praise Afghan security forces for their quick and effective response to the attacks, saving lives.
Finally, last week`s temporary halt to the fighting in Syria, that seems to be over. Opposition groups reported that government helicopters were firing on the city of Homs yesterday. The government blames armed terrorists for breaking the ceasefire.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See if you can ID me. I was founded in 1872. I`m a university that includes a military college. I`m located in Blacksburg, Virginia, and my mascot is the Hokie.
I`m Virginia Tech, attended by more than 30,000 students.
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AZUZ: Today will likely be a day of remembrance for many of those students and the Virginia Tech community. It was exactly five years ago today when a student went on a shooting spree at Virginia Tech. He killed dozens of people, including students and teachers, before he took his own life.
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AZUZ (voice-over): Every year since, special ceremonies and events have honored the victims of that shooting. This video from 2008 shows some of the memorials on the Virginia Tech campus. This year, the university`s day of remembrance includes the lighting of a ceremonial candle, which will stay lit for 24 hours. There will also be a candlelight vigil, a memorial exhibit and a statewide moment of silence.
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AZUZ: Yesterday marked another tragic anniversary. On April 15th, 1912, exactly 100 years ago, the Titanic sank after it hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. There have been plenty of books, TV specials, movies about this disaster.
The story is almost as much pop culture as it is history. But what about the time in which Titanic existed. Michael Holmes has something really cool today. He`s going to give you an idea of what life was like in 1912.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (voice-over): Most of the passengers on the Titanic`s maiden voyage were dining and dancing that fateful night, dressed in their finest. 1912 was a more formal time. Men wore striped trousers and top hats. Women buttoned and squeezed themselves into tea gowns and corsets. The zipper, as we know it today, hadn`t been invented yet.
Ragtime music was all the rage as the hip couples danced the one-step and the tango. And going to the movies cost around 5 cents a ticket -- without snacks. In 1912, the hottest thing to own was not an iPad but a Model T Ford. Cars still shared the roads with horses back then. The car, about $690, roughly $15,000 in today`s money.
A gallon of gas to run it? As little as 7 cents -- 7 cents, $1.61 today. And forget the Happy Meal. It was the first year children could get a prize from a box of Cracker Jacks (sic). And in the U.S., everyone was trying out the brand new Life Savers candy, Pep-O-Mint flavor only.
Of course, there were no cell phones or Internet or television, but it was the dawn of radio. Before 1912, there was no such thing as the Dixie cup, the vitamin pill or stainless steel. In sports, boxing had its first African-American heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson.
And the fifth Summer Olympics -- yes, the fifth -- introduced women`s swimming and diving events. These Aussie ladies took the gold and silver in the 100 meter freestyle, in style.
It was how life was lived back then, as the Titanic left port, bound for tragedy and the history books -- Michael Holmes, CNN, Atlanta.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time for the Shoutout. What city hosts the world`s oldest annual marathon race? If you think you know it, then shout it out. Is it New York, New York; London, United Kingdom; Boston, Massachusetts or Marathon, Greece? You`ve got three seconds, go.
Boston is home to the world`s oldest annual marathon. It`s been run there for more than 100 years in a row. That`s your answer, and that`s your Shoutout.
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AZUZ: Only 15 people ran the first Boston Marathon. Now tens of thousands of runners from all over the world come to the city to take on the 26.2 mile course. One of the participates in today`s race is Cameron Kerr, the military veteran was wounded while serving in Afghanistan and crossing the finish line today will the latest step in his recovery.
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CAMERON KERR, U.S. VETERAN, RUNNER: At Walter Reed, we had a thing called our Alive Day, which we celebrate just as anyone would a birthday. It`s the day that we didn`t die and we cheated death and got to see the sun rise the next day.
For most of us, it was the day we stepped on an IED or our vehicles hit an IED or we got shot or what have you.
My name is Cameron Kerr. I served as a platoon leader in Zhari District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. My Alive Day is February 16th, 2011. I didn`t sleep that first night. I started thinking about what life as an amputee would be like. But at a certain point, I switched from what`s going to be different to what`s going to be better.
And I started thinking about little things, like, oh, well, now I won`t have to fold socks. And I`m going to get to go to all these hospitals and meet a bunch of cute nurses. Back when I was 13 or 14 is when I started first getting involved, through my parents, with the Sudanese Lost Boys, and started getting a new kind of first appreciation for everything that was given to me, just by virtue of being born in the States.
As a high schooler, I started thinking very seriously about the Army, which terrified my mother, obviously.
Running the Boston Marathon is something I had never entertained as a thought. When I lost my leg, some of the folks at Achilles (ph) introduced me to the opportunities that they presented for wounded veterans. That`s when I started thinking about actually doing these events when I got my prosthetic and then I started walking and ditched my canes and my crutches.
Starting off small and just walking five miles in Central Park last June, I moved on to the Marine Corps Marathon 10K in D.C., the New York City Marathon. I hand-cycled 16 miles and then ran the last 10. Just in January, the Disney Half-Marathon, which today is the furthest I`ve ever run in my life. And myself, my running partner, decided if we can do that, why not Boston?
And after that, I feel I`d be completely ready for really anything that challenges me in the future. If I can run a marathon with one leg, really, I can do whatever I put my mind to.
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AZUZ: Great stuff.
Finally, today, we have a story for you about being in the right place at the right time.
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WOODY ROSELAND, WINNER: I live downtown. I have my glove, and so I said, let`s do that.
AZUZ (voice-over): That was Woody Roseland`s reaction when Colorado Rockies pitcher Jeremy Guthrie asked on Twitter if anyone wanted to play catch. Roseland replied. The next thing you know, he was at the Rockies Stadium tossing around the ball.
Roseland lost his leg to cancer. The 21-year old has been fighting the disease for five years. That`s why the visit to the stadium was the second-best thing that happened to Roseland that day. Earlier in the morning, he found out from his doctor that he`s cancer-free.
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AZUZ: That kind of great news followed by a random meeting with a Major Leaguer sounds like the perfect double header. It shows you should always keep your eyes open, because you never know when these kinds of opportunities might pop up. We`re going to throw it back to your teachers now, but we will catch up with you tomorrow for more CNN Student News. Have a great day.
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