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CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hi. I`m Carl Azuz. Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS.
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On September, 20th 2001 President George W. Bush declared the U.S. war on terror.
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It`s something you`ve grown up with.
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Two U.S. military operations that happened this weekend show it`s not over.
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The operations were both in Africa, in countries that are 3,000 miles apart.
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The first was in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
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This is Abu Anas al Libi. He is the member of the al Qaeda terrorist organization.
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Early Saturday morning, a group of ten men surprised him on his way back to his home.
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The men were U.S. Special Operations Forces.
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A terrorism expert says that in a very precise operation the men snatched al Libi and were gone.
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He was one of the FBI`s most wanted terrorists because of his alleged role in two bombings in 1998.
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More than 200 people were killed and another 5,000 wounded when the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were attacked by al Qaeda.
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Libya`s interim government called the U.S. capture of al Libi a kidnapping.
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It wants an explanation from Washington.
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An American officials said the Libyan government knew about the operation.
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The other weekend operation happened just a few hours earlier.
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This was in the nation of Somalia, at a compound controlled by al Shabaab.
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Now, that`s the terrorist group that was responsible for last month deadly attack in the shopping mall in Kenya.
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Al Shabaab is also affiliated with al Qaeda.
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On Saturday, a group of U.S. Navy SEALs raided the compound in Somalia.
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A firefight broke out and the SEALS eventually withdrew.
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They couldn`t confirm whether their target was killed, but no Americans were hurt in the raid.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the two raids should send a clear message that the United States will never stop in its effort to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror.
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ANNOUNCER: It`s time for "The Shoutout."
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Which of these states is part of Tornado Alley?
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If you think you know it, then shout it out.
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Is it West Virginia? Nebraska? Nevada? Or Tennessee?
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You`ve got three seconds, go.
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Nebraska is part of the region known as Tornado Alley.
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The state sees around 50 twisters per year.
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That`s your answer and that`s your shoutout.
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AZUZ: At least one tornado touched down in Nebraska last Friday.
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This storm flipped cars, raptured a gas line in the city of Wayne, Nebraska.
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You can see some of the damage that it left behind right here.
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The mayor of Wayne said luckily no one was killed.
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Tornadoes usually hit in the spring and early summer, so the timing of this one was a little unusual.
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That wasn`t the only severe weather around U.S. this weekend.
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A strong winter storm slammed parts of South Dakota and Wyoming.
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National Weather Service said reports of 20 inches of snow or more are pretty common throughout the region, some spots got up to four feet of snow.
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And in Louisville, Kentucky, residents waded through knee-high water when heavy rains led to flooding there.
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More than 80 people were evacuated from their homes, rescue crews had to use boats to get some of them to shelter.
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One severe weather threat turned out not to make much of an impact.
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Tropical Storm Karen was degraded to a tropical depression before it fizzled out over the Gulf of Mexico Sunday.
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It broke out before it reached land.
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Much of the U.S. government is still shut down.
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National parks are closed, certain government services and reports were delayed.
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But there are two bright spots for many government workers who have been furloughed, forced to take time off without pay.
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One, the House passed a bill Saturday that promised they would be paid eventually.
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The White House says the president would sign it, but we don`t know yet when the Senate will vote on it, that has to happen first.
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Two, about half of those federal workers sent home are being called back into work starting tomorrow.
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We`re talking about 400,000 people who are employees of the U.S. defense department.
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More than 3 million government workers were not affected by the shutdown.
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Has it affected you? Have you noticed effects from the partial shutdown?
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If you`re at least 13 you can comment on our blog at cnnstudentnews.com.
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If you`re already on Facebook, you can find us and like us at Facebook.com/CNN Student News.
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And if you`re on Twitter, we are #cnnstudentnews and #carlazuzcnn.
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The debate over the shutdown is about how the U.S. government spends money.
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The debt ceiling is the limit on how much the government is allowed to owe for a spending it`s committed to.
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It`s a separate debate, but it`s one that`s heating up because the country is getting close to that ceiling.
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The treasury secretary says if the U.S. hits it, the consequences would be unthinkable.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Take a look right over there. October, 17th.
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That is the red letter date according to the Treasury, that is the date, upon which the government will have $30 billion to pay its debts,
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and that`s a lot of money, but not compared to the money we owe.
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About $60 billion on that day.
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So, what are they going to do? Same thing you do if you had this kind of problem in your house?
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They`re going to look at everything they can spend money on and pick some priorities.
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For example, they might put money into Social Security, because that`s an important group a lot of people count on,
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maybe some money into the interest on the debt, to keep it from getting any worse.
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How about some money into Medicare and then maybe something into veterans and the military, and perhaps some money into Supplemental Security Income,
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and then there is the problem:
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the money is all gone, and yet hundreds of thousands of federal workers are now being unpaid,
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all sorts of agencies are not being serviced, the FBI, the FAA, and many others. So, what can they do?
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Well, first of all, they can realize that revenue keeps coming in,
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and because a little bit comes in every few days, they could try to fund everybody to sort of a subsistence level,
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not really making them healthy, but keeping them from closing down.
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But that`s not really the solution, is it?
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No, everybody here seems to agree the real solution is getting the debt ceiling solved,
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so there is enough money to pay for everything fully, but that`s a whole different fight.
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And until it`s solved, that red letter date just keeps looming.
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ANNOUNCER: See, if you can I.D. me.
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I`m part of the U.S. government.
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My annual term starts on the first Monday in October.
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I was established by Article 3 of the U.S. Constitution.
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My members have included John Jay, Thurgood Marshall and Sandra Day O`Connor.
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I`m the U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.
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AZUZ: You know the Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S.
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Here are five things you might not know about it.
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Number one, it`s made up of nine justices.
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Not judges, justices.
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And those nine include the chief justice of the United States.
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The Constitution gives Congress the power to determine the number of justices,
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but it doesn`t say they have to be lawyers or judges first.
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It also doesn`t` say how old they have to be to serve on the court.
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The president nominates the justices, it`s up to the Senate to confirm them and once that`s done, they can serve as long as they want, unless they are impeached.
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Two, Supreme Court justices decide what cases they`ll hear.
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Every year about 7,000 petitions or cases are brought before the court.
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70 percent of them are turned away.
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The court usually hears two arguments per day on the cases it chooses.
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Its terms start in October, and they end whenever the court has heard all the cases it said it would.
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Third thing, this is a different kind of courtroom.
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There`s no jury, there are no witnesses.
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Justices review each case in the form of a printed record.
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Then they throw questions to attorneys on each side of the case.
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Sometimes things get emotional, sometimes there`s laughter.
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Fourth, no cameras are currently allowed in the Supreme Court, but that could change.
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This has been debated in recent years with some justices saying it would make the court more open to the public;
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others saying they might have a negative impact on the arguments.
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The court does allow audio recordings to be played after proceedings are finished,
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but as far as visuals go, you can only see sketches of what happens inside.
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Number five, only one U.S. president has also been a Supreme Court justice.
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William Howard Taft served as president of the United States from 1909 to 1913,
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and then as chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930.
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Check it, we`re adding three more states to our roll call map, and to do it, we`re leaving the contiguous and continental United States.
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But we start in Nevada, with the Las Vegas Wild Cats from Las Vegas High School.
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Thank you for watching.
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Next we`re going to hop over to Alaska and check in with the Colony High School Knights.
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Hello, everyone.
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Finally, the Chargers from Pearl City High School in Hawaii put the 50th state on our roll call map.
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Wrapping things up now with a tale out of Canada.
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Here it is.
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It`s a tail, dinosaur tail, or at least a fossil of one.
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A construction crew accidentally dug it up last week when its equipment hit a rock with the tail inside.
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The crew immediately stopped working, which is good news for fossil fanatics.
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It turns out the rock is pretty fragile, and if the crew had kept digging, the fossil would have fallen apart.
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If that had robbed scientists of the chance to check out this dino, you can bet it would have been a sore subject.
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Thankfully, that`s not how the tale ended, but we have reached the tail end of today`s show, so we hope you have a great day.
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We`ll see you tomorrow.
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END