(CNN Student News) -- April 11, 2012
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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CARL AZUZ, HOST, CNN STUDENT NEWS: It`s Wednesday, I`m Carl Azuz. This is CNN Student News. Today, we`re talking about U.S. wildfires, a deadline in Syria, a suspension and baseball and a Titanic anniversary.
First up, though, a shakeup in the race for the Republican Party`s presidential nomination. Yesterday, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum announced he is suspending his campaign.
Santorum won nearly a dozen primary and caucus events. But he had less than half as many delegates as the front-runner, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. And yesterday, Santorum said his campaign may be over, but his fight isn`t.
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FORMER SEN. RICK SANTORUM, R-PA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We made the decision to get into this race at our kitchen table, and against all the odds. And we made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over for me, and we will suspend our campaign effective today, we are not done fighting.
We are going to continue to fight for those voices. We`re going to continue to fight for the Americans who stood up and gave us that air under our wings, that allowed us to accomplish things that no political expert would have ever expected.
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AZUZ: Next up, wildfires. They`re not in Texas or out west in California, where these blazes are often reported. These fires are happening in the northeastern United States --
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AZUZ (voice-over): -- places like New Jersey, where this fire spread around about 1,000 acres. One official said strong winds were helping fan the flames. That was true with several of these wildfires, high winds and dry conditions helping them spread.
This blaze in Connecticut covered about 60 acres. There were fires in Pennsylvania and New York this week as well. The New York fire led officials in one county to declare a state of emergency.
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AZUZ: Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says the violence in Syria must stop now. He came up with a peace plan that the Syrian government had agreed to. It included a deadline for Syrian troops to leave cities and towns. That deadline was yesterday. It was not met.
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AZUZ (voice-over): This YouTube video that was reportedly shot yesterday shows the city of Homs under artillery attack. In fact, there`s been a surge in violence in the last few days. At least 65 people were killed in Syria yesterday.
The government blames that violence on armed terrorists, and it demanded that they put down their weapons. The government and rebel fighters have refused to back down until the other side does.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just the facts: Fidel Castro was born in Cuba in 1926. He led a revolution to overthrow the country`s leader in 1959. Then Castro took over Cuba`s government, turned it into a communist nation and stayed in power for nearly 50 years. During his rule, Castro was criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech.
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AZUZ: That opposition led thousands of Cubans to leave their home country. Many of them came to the United States and settled in South Florida. And right now, some of that Cuban community in Miami is talking about boycotting the city`s Major League baseball team, the Miami Marlins. That`s because of comments that manager Ozzie Guillen made about Fidel Castro.
During a recent interview, Guillen said that he respects the former communist leader. He later apologized, saying his comments were misunderstood. But his team, the Marlins, suspended Guillen for five games.
Major League Baseball `s commissioner supported that decision. He said, quote, "Mr. Guillen`s remarks have no place in our game." The Marlins` manager said he`s hoping to make amends for what happened.
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OZZIE GUILLEN, MANAGER, MIAMI MARLINS: I`m very, very, very sorry about the problem, about what happening. And I will do everything to make him better.
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AZUZ: A college professor said that Guillen had the right to make those comments about Fidel Castro. The professor said the problem is, he, Guillen, is in Miami. That`s a place where people are particularly sensitive about Castro.
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AZUZ (voice-over): That leads to today`s question on our blog. Just because you can say something, should you? Check it out at cnnstudentnews.com.
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AZUZ: A new report says the rate of American teens who give birth is at the lowest level since 1946. These findings are based on the number of births in a group of 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 19.
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AZUZ (voice-over): The national rate in 2010 was just over 34. That means for every thousand women in that age group, 34 of them had a baby. It`s 9 percent lower than in 2009. One researcher says it`s hard to pinpoint why the rate went down, but experts suggest education programs about abstinence and contraception are part of the reason.
The U.S. is still behind other industrialized nations when it comes to teen birth rates. For example, Canada`s rate is 14 per every thousand, compared to 34 in the United States.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s Shoutout goes out to Mr. Sloan`s broadcast production class at Pelion High School in Pelion, South Carolina.
What was the Titanic`s intended destination? You know what to do. Was it sailing to Boston, New York, Miami or Washington, D.C.? You`ve got three seconds, go.
The Titanic was traveling from England to New York on its maiden voyage. That`s your answer, and that`s your Shoutout.
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AZUZ: Of course, you know, the Titanic never arrived in New York. It hit an iceberg and sank. More than 1,500 people died in the disaster and it happened 100 years ago this coming weekend.
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AZUZ (voice-over): A memorial crew set sail from New York yesterday. It`s heading to the site where Titanic went down in the Atlantic Ocean. The captain explained why this cruise is important.
CAPT. JASON IKLADIS, AZEMARA JOURNEY: I think it`s just the significance of it all. It`s remembering the people that died on that night, and also being grateful for the improvements in safety that have come about from that disaster.
But one of the most important developments since the Titanic disaster was the creation of what we call the International Ice Patrol. So that`s a cooperation between the U.S. and the Canadian Coast Guards, where they regularly patrol this area here marked on the chart. If they encounter any ice, they distribute that information to all shipping.
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AZUZ: Richard Roth explores another angle of this anniversary, the dock where the supposedly unsinkable ship was supposed to but never arrived.
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RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The morning fog on New York`s Hudson River just stirs the imagination even more. A century ago, the Titanic would have sailed up New York Harbor, concluding her maiden transatlantic voyage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s a pretty awe-inspiring place to be, and just imagine what it was like 100 years ago, and waiting on a ship that never came.
ROTH (voice-over): Titanic would have turned into this dock amid celebration.
DANA THAYER, MARKETING DIRECTOR, CHELSEA PIERS: The Titanic was supposed to dock at Pier 59 100 years ago.
ROTH: Right over here?
THAYER: Right over here.
ROTH (voice-over): Now Pier 59 is a golf driving range. The only ship to come out of the mist on this day was a ferry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) souls on board (ph), so, you know, it was just a tragic loss, you know, it was a long time ago.
ROTH (voice-over): There was a ship that did arrive 100 years ago, the Carpathia, which set out from New York days earlier from Europe and received Titanic`s distress calls. Seven hundred five passengers and crewmen were rescued from the sea. P.H. Nargeolet, who has dived on the wreck of the Titanic 30 times, describes the atmosphere.
P.H. NARGEOLET, TITANIC EXPERT: It was windy. It was horrible. And there were like almost 10,000 people waiting for the survivor.
ROTH (voice-over): Carpathia bypassed its own dock, 54, and then approached Pier 59.
THAYER: The significance of Pier 59 is this is where the Carpathia landed with the lifeboats from the Titanic. It was actually the pier that the Titanic was supposed to -- was headed to land to.
ROTH (voice-over): She should know. The marketing director of the Chelsea Piers sports complex, whose own husband lost family members on the Titanic.
ROTH: Many of New York City`s great historic piers are now gone, rotting hulks, or used for real estate, little trace here of the Titanic and where it would have arrived 100 years ago.
ROTH (voice-over): There is a piece of history that New Yorkers go right by every day. It`s where the Carpathia docked.
NARGEOLET: You can see there are still the names, the Cunard Line on the left side, and White Star.
ROTH (voice-over): The companies that owned the Carpathia and the Titanic, which later merged. Having dropped off Titanic`s lifeboats, the Carpathia ultimately arrived here at Pier 54, its decks full of survivors, who reached New York City, but not the way they expected -- Richard Roth, CNN, New York.
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AZUZ: All right. Before we go, some world record attempts are child`s play.
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AZUZ (voice-over): For example, this event at a Kentucky university. Students had a good reason to turn their campus into a playground. They`re trying to set the world record for the most teeter-totterers teeter- tottering in one place at the same time. It`s not a joke. The event is totally on the "lever." Hopefully, they didn`t get into a battle with another school for the record, because that kind of thing --
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AZUZ: -- would just seesaw back and forth. These students have classes to worry about, too. We`re not saying they shouldn`t aim for their teeter-totter goal, just try to find a balance. Back with more headlines tomorrow. For CNN Student News, I`m Carl Azuz.
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