[本期导读] 

希腊、法国、德国、英国…… 一场前所未有的罢工潮席卷欧洲，一起来了解一下罢工所带来的全方面影响。

全美84%的大学生至少拥有一张信用卡，平均每人4.6张，2009年的信用卡债务平均欠下9000美元… 美国大学生已经成为了名副其实的“卡奴”，随着信用卡新规的正式生效，在低迷的经济和高涨的学费的背景下，他们又有什么新的感受？

Always wear your seat belt! 不要把安全带当成你驾车时的束缚，是它给了你生命的拥抱。

3英尺7英寸，足以让George成为世界上最高的狗，不知道在狗狗的世界里，当姚明的感觉是怎么样的~

(CNN Student News) -- February 23, 2010

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: From cars to planes to shuttles, modes of transportation, a big subject in today's show. Let's hit the road. I'm Carl Azuz. CNN Student News starts right now.

First Up: Former VP Cheney

AZUZ: First up, former Vice President Dick Cheney was resting comfortably last night after he was hospitalized with chest pains yesterday. Cheney has a history of heart problems, and his doctors are evaluating the situation. For the latest details on this story, you can always go to .

Health Care Debate

AZUZ: Next today, you heard a lot last semester about health care reform. This issue is back in the political spotlight, President Obama releasing a new proposal that he hopes will be a compromise between health care bills passed by the House and the Senate last year. The original Senate plan was estimated to cost around $871 billion over the next 10 years. The House version checked in at more than a trillion dollars. President Obama's new plan is in between: around $950 billion. One big point about it: This new proposal does not include the so-called public option, a government-run health insurance program. That's been a big sticking point in the debate surrounding this controversial issue. Some Republicans have criticized President Obama’s new proposal. They want to scrap the current bills that are in Congress and start over on a new piece of law. President Obama is scheduled to meet with Republican leaders on Thursday to talk about health care reform.

Toyota

AZUZ: New troubles for Toyota. This carmaker has been subpoenaed -- ordered by a court -- to turn over documents related to sudden acceleration problems with some of its vehicles. The company says it plans to cooperate with any investigations. Meantime, a document has come out in which Toyota employees bragged about saving the company money by negotiating a smaller recall for cars that had some of these problems. This document was only meant to be seen by Toyota staff. The company reacted to the fact that it got out by saying, "Our first priority is the safety of our customers and to conclude otherwise on the basis of one internal presentation is wrong."

Guilty Plea

AZUZ: A guilty plea in a terror plot that authorities say is the most serious one since 9/11. Najibullah Zazi says that in 2008, he planned with others to join the Taliban, to fight with the Taliban against the United States, and that he was recruited to the al Qaeda terrorist group. Zazi was arrested last September as part of a widespread investigation. You can see him here in these court sketches. He pled guilty to three different charges yesterday: conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing material support to a terrorist organization. Zazi faces a life sentence for the first two charges and an additional 15 years in prison for the third.

Word to the Wise

TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: A Word to the Wise...

strike (noun) a stopping of work by a group of workers in order to force an employer to meet their demands

source:

Airline Strikes

AZUZ: The biggest strike in German aviation history is on hold, at least for the moment. It involves Lufthansa, a German airline that's one of the largest in the world, and more than 4,000 pilots who walked off the job at midnight on Sunday. Just a few hours later, both sides agreed to suspend the strike to try and work out a deal. It might have lasted less than a day, but the strike still caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled, and it threatened to mess up travel plans on dozens of airlines that are partners with Lufthansa. One of the main issues is pay. The pilots want a salary increase, while the airline's looking to cut costs.

British Airways, facing a similar situation. The airline has been planning to change hours and working conditions for crew members in an effort to save money. But the union that represents those cabin crews isn't happy about it. Yesterday, union members voted to strike, although they didn't set a date for when the strike would happen.

Shuttle Lands

AZUZ: What goes up must come down. And the space shuttle Endeavour is back on the ground after finishing up a two-week trip to the international space station. The shuttle took off at night, and you can see right here it landed in the dark, too, touching down in Florida a little after 10 p.m. Sunday night. The 5.7-million mile mission, which NASA officials described as "flawless," was Endeavour's 10th trip to the space station. The crew dropped off more than 36,000 pounds of hardware while they were there. The space shuttle program is set to end soon. In fact, there are just four more shuttle launches scheduled. The next one, Discovery, set to blast off in April.

New Credit Rules

AZUZ: Yesterday, we told you about new laws that might make it harder to get a credit card. One place where this could really be felt is on college campuses. Students might use credit cards to pay for expenses. They can also rack up debt that follows them long after they've finished with school. Poppy Harlow examines the impact of these new laws on campus.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

PROFESSOR HAROLD TAKOOSHIAN, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: The availability of credit is both an American dream as well as an American nightmare.

GERRI DETWEILER, PERSONAL FINANCE ADVISOR, CREDIT.COM: The days of easy credit cards for college students are largely over.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT: New consumer protections regulating credit cards take effect and American college students are taking notice, like these ones attending the STEP panel at Fordham University in New York.

FRANCIS PARSTORELLE, STUDENT, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: You know, it just was something that was so easy just to swipe it and, you know, I could tell myself that I was actually benefiting myself by building this credit history. You know, it's just one of those things where you don't really think about the risks until it's there in front of you in your statement.

HARLOW: The new rules set limits on how credit card companies can raise rates and fees, a problem that has hit Americans of all ages. But new protections for those 21 and under mean many college students now have to prove that they can pay their balances in full or have a co-signer on the account.

According to Sallie Mae, 84 percent of undergraduates have at least one credit card. And they're carrying record high balances, averaging in excess of $3,000. And with the nation's economic downturn, students are charging more than ever before, even for necessities like textbooks, just to get by.

PARSTORELLE: As soon as I would get it down a little bit, there would be another debt that I had to put on, some kind of medical bill or, you know textbooks. So, it would just always feel like it was a weight that I just couldn't get out from underneath.

HARLOW: That weight can be a burden students carry with them well into adulthood. Until now, credit card companies targeted students with enticing terms.

CHARLIE PUENTE, STUDENT, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: They were flashing, you know, like zero APR or, like, no payments the first year, you get this and this platinum card.

HARLOW: But those terms later reset much higher. Still, even wary students often feel compelled to open accounts. Why? To start building their credit. But here's the problem: As the debt piles higher, many students end up hurting their credit scores for years beyond graduation.

(END VIDEO)

Seat Belt Safety

AZUZ: There's a new PSA out there, a public service announcement, that's getting a lot of attention. We want to talk to you about it. First, we want you to see it.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

Public Service Announcement video

(END VIDEO)

AZUZ: So, as you can tell, very powerful image. It's called "Embrace Life," and as you might guess, it's gone viral. The PSA's director talked recently about why he created it and the message that he wanted it to deliver.

DANIEL COX, DIRECTOR, "EMBRACE LIFE": The inspiration for "Embrace Life" came from wanting to offer a positive message towards road safety, really. A lot of the campaigns focus on the more graphic and horrific outcomes of accidents, whereas I really wanted to bring people into the conversation. The house represents a safety area, an area of where you're normally surrounded by your loved ones, and the car can be an extension of that. It's not only yourself that's impacted if something unfortunately goes wrong, but also a family; family and friends.

AZUZ: Some numbers for you here. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, using a seat belt reduces the risk of a fatal injury by 45 percent; that's almost half! Seat belts are credited with saving more than 13,000 lives in 2008. And as of last year, seat belt use was up to around 84 percent around the U.S.

Blog Promo

AZUZ: Okay, so you've seen the numbers on this story. You've heard the stories; you've heard people talking about it; you've probably seen some pretty graphic PSAs in the past. Yet some people still don't wear seat belts. Now, we're not going to preach to you about it. We just want you to tell us why you think that is: Why don't folks wear seat belts? Head to our blog at and share your thoughts!

Before We Go

AZUZ: Finally today, from time to time, we report on some tall tales. This one is the tallest, at least when it comes to dogs. Meet Giant George. He stands 3 feet, 7 inches from paw to shoulder. And that makes this Great Dane the world's tallest dog. It's only by three-quarters of an inch, but come on, are you gonna try to take the title away from this colossal canine? Didn't think so. Since George is the new king...

Goodbye

AZUZ: We guess all the other dogs have to bow-wow down. Man, that was ruff! We'll try to do better tomorrow. For CNN Student News, I'm Carl Azuz.


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