We`re back on the air after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and we`ll have a related
story coming up on CNN STUDENT NEWS. I`m Carl Azuz.
First up, most of the international sanctions, penalties were removed from Iran over the
weekend. It`s part of the nuclear deal led by the Obama administration and agreed to
last year.
It will be a major boost to Iran`s economy and it coincided with the United Nations report
that said Iran is doing its part to restrict its controversial nuclear program, though
critics have said Iran will be a nuclear power in 15 years.
Shortly afterward, an exchange of prisoners was announced between the U.S. and Iran. American
officials say secret negotiations had been going on for more than a year. The results:
the U.S. released seven men who`d either been convicted or accused of illegally exporting
electronics, satellite services or military equipment to Iran. In exchange, Iran released
four Americans, a Christian pastor, a journalist, a Marine veteran, and another man who decided
to stay in Iran. That country also released a fifth American, a student, separately from
the swap.
These releases were not part of the nuclear deal. The White House says the deal accelerated
the exchange, but critics said the Americans released should have been negotiated into
the original deal, not part of a separate swap.
For the "Roll Call", our producers have chosen three from the 1,600 plus requests we got
on Friday`s transcript. Here they are:
From Daejeon, South Korea, hello to everyone watching at Daejeon Foreign Language High
School. It`s great to see you this Tuesday.
From Capon Bridge, West Virginia, we`ve got the Bobcats. Capon Bridge Middle School is
on the roll.
And in Hot Springs, Arkansas, we present the Rams. Hello to Lakeside High School.
In the U.S., the third Monday in January is Martin Luther King Day. Since the 1980s, it`s
been a federal holiday when government workers and many students have the day off. But event
organizers stress that it should be a day on, a day of service when Americans are encouraged
to volunteer and work toward improving their communities.
Dr. King was the most influential African-American civil rights leader in the 1960s. After his
assassination in 1968, cities named streets after him.
And today, there are estimated to be about 900 streets bearing his name in the U.S. and
Puerto Rico. They stand as symbols, some in line with Dr. King`s dream, some depicting
what has yet to be achieved.
There`s American nightmare that`s going on up and down King Drive.
When a person say, "Hey, meet me down on Martin Luther King Street," you know most likely
it`s going to be a dangerous environment.
As we stand here today, we`re half a century away from the time that Martin Luther King
came to Chicago to desegregate Chicago. And we face a lot of the same challenges today.
But I want to remind you today, that we are not free in Chicago, in New York --
He came in to talk about the ghettos that we were living in. He came and he lived on
the West Side of Chicago to demonstrate his commitment to breaking that cycle of poverty
that had been ensconced and entrenched in Chicago.
You see a very short summary of the black experience as you travel King Drive in Chicago.
You see a progression of depression.
We help create another organization called South Side Critical Mass. That drive starts
here at Cole Park on King Drive. When we started that drive, there were people who said, oh,
you all going to meet at night?
On the South Side?
On the South Side and ride bikes? I mean, there were people who were fearful. We know
our neighborhoods are safer than the perception and the narrative tells us they are. It doesn`t
mean we`re naive about violence in our neighborhoods, we ride to reduce violence.
Dr. King stood for unity. Dr. King stood for peace and justice, as well as economics. So,
to have such a negative stigma to be placed on the streets is kind of like a slap in the
face for Dr. King`s legacy. And so, we ought to change that.
We want to make people, when they get off their airplane, to say, hey, I want to go
to Martin Luther King. There`s a nice restaurant. There`s a nice jazz spot that we can go to.
MLK Boulevard starts down around Bay Street (ph) or around the river and traveling south,
you`ll see from the river coming back, very nice, bustling business and cultural spots
as you come up.
And somewhere around Gwinnett Street, you start seeing just -- it doesn`t look as nice
as it does the closer you are to town. Several neighborhoods, there are some housing projects,
stuff that way.
I think people do feel that there`s an economic divide there. You see a lot more construction,
a lot more investment in the northern part than they do in the southern part.
It was once a thriving street. Now, one thing that is happening or has happened that`s good
is they made, the city had, has made some efforts to rectify that. Just to have the
street and to see the name should spark something within all of us. He fought for great things
and if we find in a depressed area, then it reminds us that there`s a lot, a long way
to go. And if we find it in a great area, that reminds us that yes, what he did was
a great thing and that we have made some strides forward.
Next, rockets. They`re great at going one direction, up. Not so great at landing. Model
rockets can descend softly using a parachute, but what about the massive kind that go into
space?
In November, a private called Blue Origin managed to launch and then land a rocket upright.
A competitor named SpaceX has seen up and down results from its attempts.
In a valiant attempt but ultimately a failure for SpaceX, the private space company tried
to land this rocket on unmanned platform in the Pacific Ocean. It toppled over and exploded
after it looked like it got some solid footing there.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said ice buildup may have been a problem.
The rocket has successfully put a weather satellite into low orbit. Companies have been
trying and trying to bring those rockets back safely, land them on platforms in the ocean,
so they can use them once again.
In 2012, a ranch owner in Argentina got in touch with the museum and said he found some
fossils. Scientists believe they belong to Titanosaur.
Haven`t heard of that? That`s because it`s new, or at least newly discovered.
By the name, you can figure it`s big and though the real fossils were too heavy to set up
at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, some fiber glass models give
you a sense of Titanosaur`s size. Good thing it probably ate plants.
This animal`s only been on the ground for, you know, a little less than a year. This
animal is so new, it doesn`t even have an official species name yet.
One of the sort of like, you know, traditional dinosaur it has like a big body, a long tail,
a long neck and, you know, some familiar relatives of it are, would be, you know, what they call
Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus and that sort of thing, except that it`s much, much bigger.
New technologies were used on this where the bones were actually like laser scanned and
prototype from the laser again.
This went from concept to completely done in about nine months. That, of course, does
include how long it took to excavate the specimen and to prepare the specimen. The real bones
will be here in New York for one year before they`re returned to the new renovated museum
in Patagonia.
Well, just looking up at her could make your neck a sore. Even if the museum had (INAUDIBLE)
rapidly build her a titanic new room, she would have occupied the brunt to the space.
Scientists had just never imagined something so big as herbivore. Yes, dino puns help to
have a tyrannosaurus.
CNN STUDENT NEWS services again tomorrow.