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CNN 10
Geneva a Center for International Talks and Organizations; Freedom of Speech in China; United States` Concern about Security at Winter Olympics in Russia; Google Glass for Firefighters
Aired January 23, 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: Kicking off with a couple of international stories today on CNN STUDENT NEWS. I`m Carl Azuz. Welcome to the show. Diplomats from around the world are gathered in Geneva, Switzerland. But their focus is on the country in the Middle East. Since 2011 Syria has been torn apart by a civil war. More than 100,000 people have been killed, and more than 1.5 million Syrians have become refugees. They`ve had to leave their homes. The international meeting in Geneva is to try to find solutions, but officials aren`t expecting a breakthrough. For one thing, the U.S. wants other countries to help restore peace in Syria. Syrian officials say this is a Syrian conflict, and it needs to stay that way. Like the civil war itself, it`s complicated, and why is this meeting happening in Switzerland anyway?
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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Shaky hopes for Syria`s peace on the stable and neutral ground of Geneva. This Swiss city is known as the world`s negotiating table, where a brute force and battles won`t gain any ground. The international status of the city was cemented after World War I as the seat to the ill-fated League of Nations. Then again, after the Second World War in 1945, housing key departments of the newly established United Nations. From Vietnam to the Cold War to talks on the Balkans. The conflicts of the 20th century left a mark here, in the search for peace. One reason, Switzerland`s famed neutrality allows Geneva to be a dispassionate arbitrator. The city also name-dropped in the famous Geneva Conventions, the standard switch (ph) layout international rules for human treatment in war time.
KOFI ANNAN, FORMER SECRETARY GENERAL, U.N.: The Geneva Conventions and all other instruments of international humanitarian law must be scrupulously respected.
ANDERSON: It`s not just diplomats who gather here. FIFA, the Red Cross, (inaudible) and the famously water-tight banks. All the hard work hasn`t gone unnoticed. With 14 of the coveted Nobel Peace Prizes going to organizations and individuals from the city synonymous with the world. Becky Anderson, CNN, London.
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AZUZ: Moving across the world now to China. It`s a communist country, which means the government officially has control over politics and the economy. China`s constitution says citizens enjoy freedom of the press, but it also says that the state, the country suppresses activities that endanger state security. What that means is that if China`s government sees something as the threat, in the media or on the Internet, it can and often will censor it. One example, a trial has started for a Chinese activist. He`s accused of organizing protests against government corruption. The government wants to control what is said about the trial, and it`s cracking down on international media whose reports may not be in line with the message that the Chinese government wants to send.
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DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, we are heading towards a court in Beijing, where prominent activists goes on trial today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please wait a moment. Please. Please.
MCKENZIE: Why? This is a public space. There is no need to shut at me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (speaking Chinese)
MCKENZIE: So, the court is just behind us. The name of the activist is Xu Zhiyong, and the reason he is in trial is because he had a gathering of people several times, and was one of the founders of the new citizens` movement. That is why there are all these police surrounding me here. We are going to go try look at the entrance of the court, which is just here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible)
MCKENZIE: Sorry, you can`t stop me. It`s a public .
(voice over): Soon, the situation violently escalated. Police and plain- clothed men targeting us, taking away our phones and I.D. and breaking the camera.
(on camera): You can`t physically. They are physically manhandling us. They are physically manhandling me.
This is a public space, I`m allowed to report. I`m allowed to report.
We are reporters. We are reporting in the public space.
MCKENZIE: Au!
Hey, hey, hey, hey. Do not physically manhandle .
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (speaking Chinese)
MCKENZIE (voice over): Other international journalists were roughed up during the trial. One policeman told me they were following orders. They`ve moved us from the van into a police car.
A government spokesman said they will investigate the incident, but that without law and order there will be "chaos" in China.
(on camera): The police and the plain-clothed guys drove us to the street corner several blocks away from the court, and then just dumped us on the side of the street. We would be shooting this with our camera, but they entirely tore off the front section of the viewfinder, so Charlie can`t use it - that all. This really shows how much China wants to manage the message, but in doing so, the irony is, they betray some of the strong arm tactics they use against journalists, including, and it`s obviously it`s often far worse for Chinese nationals. David McKenzie, CNN Beijing.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time for the "Shoutout." In which field would you deal with backdrafts, helitacks and skid units? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it, mountain climbing, public relations, construction or firefighting? You`ve got three seconds, go!
Backdrafts, helitacks and skid units are all found in the field of firefighting. That`s your answer and that`s your shoutout.
AZUZ: It`s possible that Google Glass could be added to that list, to type of computer that users can wear like eye glasses. It can be used to get directions, take pictures, see text messages and potentially help people working in dangerous conditions communicate. But it has its limitations and the $2,000 price just scratches the surface.
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ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Google says Glass can make reading emails easier. It can also help you navigate in an familiar city. But can it save lives? 34-year old firefighter Patrick Jackson thinks so.
He wants firefighters to use Google Glass to receive notifications on fires in the area and to help find people trapped inside burning buildings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Go. (inaudible) plan.
ASHER: And to help rescue passengers in burning vehicles. He`s also developed a way for Google Glass to use GPS signals, such for the nearest fire hydrants.
Jackson who is based in North Carolina was one of 8,000 people selected to develop apps for Glass last year in Google`s "If I had a Glass Challenge." 150,000 people applied. His suggestion on how firefighters could use Glass to save lives caught Google`s attention. Google gave him some guidance on writing an app for firefighters. But since Jackson already had experience in computer engineering and had written android apps in the past, he didn`t need much help. Jackson says he`s still trying to iron out a few minor details. For example, Glass still doesn`t fit well inside a firefighter`s mask. So firefighters have only used it on the way to a fire, and not inside an actual burning building. There are also some questions about what would happen if Glass actually got close to a real blaze. Would they melt, for example? Also, its reliability in finding fire hydrants or receiving fire alerts depends on Internet connection and a reliable GPS signal. So, certainly still a few kinks (ph) to work out. Zain Asher, CNN, New York.
AZUZ: Who would have thought we find so many eagles in the American southeast? We are flying high with the Falkner High School Eagles who are perched in Falkner, Mississippi. We are on the wing with the Inman Middle School Eagles who are overhead right here in Atlanta, Georgia. And we are soaring with the Chesnee High School Eagles who are aloft in Chesnee, South Carolina. No particular order here, all of them are created eagle.
We`re about to put today`s show on ice, but we`re going to freeze for one more minute and take you to a Swedish town just beneath the Arctic circle. The story involves what you might call "Instruments" and an idea that was music to one man`s ears.
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SEBASTIAN SAURY, VIVEKA SJOLUND "THE VOICE OF WATER": Ice music is music, which is played on instruments that are built of ice.
My personal interest in this is to make it real music, not just clinking an dinking on like a bunch of hanging ice cubes, but real music, which is tuned right, which has got melody and harmony and rhythm, and it`s real music, as we know it.
It takes two days to freeze each plate. So, that`s four days. After that, it`s probably another four days to finish the instrument. So, it could take me a week.
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AZUZ: Sound is good enough to make your heart melt. The instruments themselves do that in the spring. Of course, you might not have heard the percussion in that piece, but if you thought it was cool, you know, you`d like to chill out while listening to it, I hear you can download it on IceTunes. OK, OK, I`m done. We`ll tune up more news and puns for you tomorrow.
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