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Quick Guide & Transcript: Baghdad university bombed, Wild weather strikes parts of U.S.

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(CNN Student News) -- February 26, 2007

Quick Guide

The Fight for Iraq - Just hours after Iraqi officials detailed a security crackdown, insurgents reminded Baghdad of their power.

Wicked Weather - In the Deep South, tornadoes wreaked havoc, while in the Midwest, bitter cold kept travelers from their destinations on a weekend of wicked weather.

The Making of Oscar - From ingot to shiny statuette, follow the creation of the Motion Picture Academy's highest honor.

Transcript

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Welcome to this Monday, February 26th edition of CNN Student News! I'm Thomas Roberts reporting from the CNN Center. An unnerving assault. Insurgents once again train their bombs on an Iraqi university for the second time this year. Up close with an exceptional prize. One reporter gets his hands on a statuette that most actors never touch. And a sport of speed. If you thought you needed to be fast for football, see if your eyes can keep up with an event that's everything it's stacked up to be!

First Up: The Fight for Iraq

ROBERTS: First up, an attack that shows Iraq's insurgency is indiscriminate when it comes to taking lives. The Iraqi government says a suicide bomber killed at least 40 people, mostly students, at a Baghdad university Sunday. When you hear about violence in Iraq, you often hear the terms sectarian or insurgent. "Sectarian" violence usually refers to religious attacks between Sunni and Shiite Muslims; Insurgent violence can target anyone from Iraqis to coalition forces. But Arwa Damon shows us the only thing that's immediately clear when an attack is launched, is that people suffer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARWA DAMON, CNN REPORTER: At the main entrance of the Business and Management campus of Mustansariye University, a chilling reminder of the insurgency's power to strike.

WITNESS: A suicide bomber walked into the college and killed the innocent people.

DAMON: The attack killed and wounded dozens of students and employees. The carnage left behind bringing back memories of the devastating January 16th attack, when twin explosions ripped through another campus of the same university, killing at least 70 students and employees. The Iraqi government has been trying to hail a recent crackdown on violence in the capital as a success, but attacks like this one make that more difficult.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki telling the nation on Saturday of 'positive results' of the Baghdad crackdown. A statement taken one step further by Iraq's national security advisor, at about the same time emergency workers were evacuating the wounded.

MOWAFFAK AL-RUBAIE, IRAQ NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: We've got a reduction in the violence and we've got a huge, considerable reduction in the execution style killings, and the charged, charged IEDs, and we've got the confidence of our people in the Iraqi security forces is sky high.

DAMON: But for the second weekend in a row, less than 24 hours after such statements, the capital has been hit by renewed waves of violence, further damaging the government's already shaky credibility. While there appears to be a decrease in sectarian killings, a trend that we have seen in the past once U.S. troops enter an area, with more than 50 people killed in under four hours, the insurgency here is reminding Iraqi's of its brutal power and continuous ability to strike. Arwa Damon, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

I.D. Me

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS: See if you can ID Me! I became the nation's 25th state back in 1836. I'm a Southern state, and the Mississippi River forms part of my eastern border. My capital and largest city is Little Rock. Arkansas, the Natural State, is the answer. A dinosaur fossil found there was named "Arkansaurus"!

Wicked Weather

ROBERTS: Parts of Arkansas are recovering from the southern edge of a storm system that stretched as far north as Wisconsin, causing problems everywhere in between. Imagine what it'd be like to see parts of cars hanging in trees! That's what the National Weather Service reported from a town in southeast Arkansas. John Lorinc tells us how one survivor weathered the storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN LORINC, CNN REPORTER: An eerily quiet feeling on the streets of Dumas, Arkansas, hit head on by a suspected tornado several hours before. The storm left much of the town's main thoroughfare unrecognizable, with dozens of reported injures. One woman who was working when the storm hit, said she was so frightened she began to pray.

PERSON ON THE STREET: All the debris was falling on us: the iron, the tin, the racks, the clothes racks everything was falling on us and I said Lord all I want you to do is save us today.

LORINC: Some motorists in Chicago got a scare of their own during a snowstorm. Several people said their windshields were smashed by snow launched from a snowplow.

PEOPLE ON THE STREET: We were just shocked, we were like what happened. We were like "whoa, it's hitting us."

LORINC: There were road fatalities reported in parts of the Midwest. In Wisconsin, at least seven traffic deaths are being blamed on the weather. Finally, stuck planes meant stuck passengers at Chicago's O'Hare airport. Some 230 flights were canceled on Saturday, and airport officials feared more cancellations Sunday. For CNN Student News, I'm John Lorinc.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Shoutout

AZUZ: If you are thanking 'the Academy' in front of millions of people, what are you most likely receiving? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) A Tony B) A Pulitzer C) A Razzie D) An Oscar You've got three seconds--GO! Oscar is another term for an Academy Award, given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout!

The Making of Oscar

ROBERTS: For some of you, drama class could be your first step on the road to getting an Oscar. It's a coveted award that some of Hollywood's brightest stars, both on and off the screen, carried home last night. The statue itself: Just under 14 inches tall, eight-and-a-half-pounds, said to be named by an Academy secretary who said its face looked like her uncle Oscar. Richard Quest looks behind that face, into the award's mystique.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN REPORTER: Oscar is born at the factory of R.S. Owens on the outskirts of Chicago, Illinois. The company's president, Scott Siegel, showed me around and made it clear that where this statue is concerned, nothing can go wrong.

SCOTT SIEGEL, R.S. OWENS: It's very important. It's the most prestigious award in the world so you want to make them perfect. We're given the opportunity by the Motion Picture Academy to manufacture these each year, and we're only as good as what we do each year.

QUEST: For such a valuable statue, this is how Oscar begins his life: a Britannia ingot that's melted down in these redhot furnaces and then cast into the familiar statue. Any whiff of imperfection, any abnormality, the whole process starts again.

QUEST: What are you looking for?

WORKER: Right here, it's very important: the face.

QUEST: After careful hand-casting, it's time for Oscar to be polished.

QUEST: What are we doing now with the Oscars?

WORKER: We're now going to start shining it. You want to try it? Go ahead. Just don't put too much pressure. Just like this.

QUEST: It's getting shiny!.

QUEST: Oscar is dipped in copper, nickel, silver, and then gold. The Academy forbids Scott from telling me just how much real gold goes on every statue.

QUEST: This is probably the closest I'll ever get, so I want to make the most of it. I want to thank all those made it possible. And I want to thank my mother and that music teacher I never liked. And those people who gave me such insight into life. I want to thank them all...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Before We Go

ROBERTS: When you think of a sport, you probably think of a team, a ball, a court or a field. So what kind of competition would require students to build up and break down a common household item? Mike Teselle of affiliate KCRA reports on an event whose objective isn't the Stanley Cup or the World Cup, but the drinking cup.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BACKGROUND SOUND: Let it flo man!

MIKE TESELLE, KCRA REPORTER: In the blink...

11-YEAR OLD BOY: It's like wow.

TESELLE: Of an eye...

PAULA COOK, TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR: You blink, you miss it.

TESELLE: It's just that fast.

DAVID MECHAM, SPORT STACKING DAD: Speed is phenomenal. Almost a blur it goes so quickly.

TESELLE: This is the city of Sacramento's second annual sport stacking competition. Never heard of it? Take a look.

PAUL PEARCE, 11-YR. OLD SPORT STACKER: The object is to stack the cups up and stack them down.

GIRL: Without messing up. Yeah.

TESELLE: It's a sport that astounds....

KEN BAUDER, SPECTATOR: It is really amazing how fast hey go.

MARK MONTALBANO, SPEED STACKING DAD: Their eye-hand coordination is astounding.

TESELLE: It's a sport that's booming.

COOK: It's worldwide.

TOM PHILLIPS, COACH: It's so huge now it's unbelievable.

TESELLE: Today, some 200 kids in Sacramento raced against the clock--in hopes of qualifying for the world championships in April. The pressure for some overwhelming.

FATHER: Don't be too sad, kiddo.

TESELLE: This girl:11-year old McKail Mammaril is California's brightest star.

COOK: She's currently ranked 20th in the world from the world championships last year.

TESELLE: So what's the appeal? Why are so many kids getting into a sport that's nothing more than cups and clock? The answer obvious.

CHERYL: It's a lotta fun.

EMMA: Just really fun, it's cool.

DANIEL: It's a fun sport.

TESELLE: Fun, I the blink of an eye. In Sacramento, Mike Teselle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Goodbye

ROBERTS: And that stacks up all our stories for the day! For CNN Student News, I'm Thomas Roberts. There's more headline news just around the corner.


SPECIAL REPORT

• Interactive: Who's who in Iraq
• Interactive: Sectarian divide
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