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Passenger Ferry Capsized in South Korea; Al Qaeda Massive Gathering in Yemen; T-Rex`s Bones for Smithsonian Museum; Remembering Jackie Robinson
Aired April 17, 2014 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN STUDENT NEWS. My name is Carl Azuz. It`s good to see you this Thursday. First up, people around the world are praying for South Korea. On Wednesday, there was an accident on a ferry headed for a resort island. It was carrying 459 people. The weather was good. The seas were calm. But witnesses say that around 9 a.m. the ship started to list. At some point, there was a loud bang. It`s unclear whether that was before or after the ship began tilting. People were told over a loudspeaker to stay where they were, that it`d be too dangerous to move, but over the next couple of hours, the ship capsized, and the passengers many of whom were high school students, were in desperate need of rescue. Paula Hancocks reported on this in the hours after the accident.
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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It`s a heartbreaking scene here, just outside Jindo auditorium on the southwest tip of South Korea. This is really the staging area for where the rescued had come earlier this morning, but now where the parents of those who are still missing are congregated desperately waiting for any news of their children.
There is a list behind me, which is basically of the people who have been rescued and the names of the hospitals if they have been taken to hospital. We are seeing families arrive in a desperate state, looking through those names, pouring over the list and breaking down when they see that their child`s name is not on that list. Now, we now that the majority of the passengers on this ship were high school students. They were on their way to Jeju Island, just size of South Korea, but hundred kilometers south. It`s a tourist area. They were on a full day field trip. We know at this point almost 300 people are still missing. Now, as you can see darkness has fallen and, of course, with it hopes are falling as well of finding many more survivors. We do know that the search and rescue operation is still very much underway. Helicopters are trying to see if anyone is in the water. We know that Navy divers have been trying to get inside the sunken ship, throughout the day. It`s unclear whether or not they were able to. We know they were having difficulty because of strong currents. There`s also a USS Navy ship from the U.S. Seventh Fleet trying to lend their hand as well. A desperate situation as the search continues for those who are still missing. But of course, these waters are cold of South Korea, and we are hearing from the coast guard that the expectation of survival really is no more than two hours.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, Jindo, South Korea.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Next story today concerns the Middle Eastern nation of Yemen. It`s not just what it shows that troubles the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon. It`s also whom it shows. This is believed to be the largest gathering of terrorists in years. They are affiliated with al Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for this September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. And they are meeting out in the open, blatantly risking a possible strike by a U.S. drone. In the video, the group`s leader acknowledges this risk and calls on terrorists to attack America again.
Experts say the CIA and the U.S. military either didn`t know about the meeting, or they couldn`t get a drone there in time to attack. But after its recent appearance on militant Islamist Websites, U.S. officials are analyzing every frame.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See if you can I.D. me. My history can be traced back to an English scientist named James Smithson. But most of my buildings are located in Washington, D.C. I`m the world`s largest museum and research complex. I`m the Smithsonian Institution comprising 19 museums and galleries and the National Zoo.
AZUZ: One of those museums, the Museum of Natural History houses 30 million insects, 7 million fish and one big old Tyrannosaur Rex. Except unlike the other animals, the T-Rex is a fake. It`s a replica. In a way, it`s been sort of a placeholder since 1999, but its days are numbered. A real T-Rex or at least a fossilized one has migrated east in 16 crates.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The brand scull in Bozmon (ph), Montana, is a symbol of this story. Way back in 1988, a rancher made an unexpected discovery. Not a Hollywood-style dinosaur like in "Jurassic Park", but a nearly pristine skeleton of one of history`s most infamous prehistoric predators embedded in federal land.
KIRK JOHNSON, SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY DIRECTOR: And it lay in the ground much as it died on the shores of a stream in Montana just over 66 million years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The skeleton is one of the largest in most complete specimens every discovered. It was excavated, and remained in Montana until now. Thanks to the Army Corps of Engineers, the dinosaur was divided into shipping crates, than packed into a FedEx truck and sent to Washington.
LT. GEN. THOMAS BOSTICK, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Bringing the nation`s T- Rex to the nation`s capitals where it can educate and inspire future generations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The animal`s massive femur bone was unveiled for the crowd at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History Tuesday, which is closing the dinosaur hole that has existed here since 1911 or renovations.
But visitors will be able to watch as the stuff unpacked catalogue and photograph, the fossils in the new temporary Rex room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this specimen was one of the first ones discovered that had an intact arm.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are also banana-sized teeth, a glimpse of which will have to suffice until the fully reconstructed skeleton is unveiled in a new exhibit in 2019.
After 66 million years, perhaps impatient paleontology fans can bare to wait just five more. In Washington, I`m Stacy Cohen reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: When we say today`s "Roll Call" is going cross country, we mean it`s continental. First school is in Haines, Alaska, the glacier bears are watching there are Haines High School. Deeping South East, we`ve got some lions in Tennessee. It`s good to see you, guys, at Concord Academy. It`s in Memphis. And back up north, in the pine tree state, we are waiting to the wild cats of Presque Isle High School. They are watching in Presque, Isle Main (ph).
If you are a baseball fan like I am, you might have noticed that on Tuesday, everyone playing in the major leagues were number 42. That was the number of Jackie Robinson, the first African American player in the major leagues. His first game, on April 15th, 1947. That was a year before the U.S. military was integrated. Seven years before the Supreme Court ruled that schools had to be integrated as well. The Brooklyn Dodgers` infielder and outfielder played for almost ten years, and the number 42 was eventually retired from all of Major League Baseball. That means from here on out, no one will wear it again. Today, about 8.5 percent of Major League players are African American.
All right, next story today. They may be on scholarship, having the cost of higher education covered. They may be in championships, having their faces broadcast to households nationwide. Some may even become pro- athletes, but some of them are not getting enough to eat. For months, the National Collegian Athletic Association, the NCAA, has been discussing ways to change its rules concerning meals for athletes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The NCAA approved a proposal on Tuesday to expand the meal plan for college athletes. Under this new proposal, anyone who plays in the Division One sport including walkons (ph), will be given unlimited meals and snacks.
Previously, schools were allowed to provide three meals a day to only scholarship athletes, and this topic has been debated for months, but it was thrust into the spotlight during the NCAA tournament when UConn star guard and the final four`s most outstanding player Shabazz Napier said, that some nights he goes to bed hungry
SHABAZZ NAPIER, UCONN BASKETBALL PLAYER: We definitely (inaudible) a scholarship to our universities. But at the end of the day, that doesn`t cover everything, you know. We do have hungry nights that we don`t have enough money to get food and sometimes, you know, need a money - money is needed. So, you know, but I don`t think - you know you should stretch it out to hundreds to thousands dollars for players, you know, because that`s not - you know, a lot of times God knows (ph) how to handle - for money. So. But I think - you know, (INAUDIBLE) has idea, and you see - see where it goes.
SCHOLES: The new meal plan comes on the heels of the decisions by the National Labor Relations Board in Chicago. There are football players in Northwestern University qualify as employees and are allowed to unionize. Now, those Westerners appealing that decision unlike the NCAA maintain that players are students, not employees. The new mill proposal still must be approved by the Board of Directors, which means April 24. From the CNN center, I`m Andy Scholes.
We are wrapping things up today, with a World War One era love story. The owners of a home in Indiana were remodeling recently. As a contractor pulled away some insulation in the attic, pages appeared. Letters, written in 1918 from a man preparing this ship off to war, to his sweetheart back home. It`s a mystery how they ended up in this attic. Though, the soldier does have modern day relatives leaving in the same town. The letters were returned to the family. The soldier who wrote them eventually married the woman he sent them to. So, you can see what made this roman tick. It`s clear he did the right thing, even if he didn`t letter alone. His actions composed the kind of story. We just love to tell. I`m Carl Azuz, for CNN STUDENT NEWS.
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