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STUDENT NEWS

Deadly Tornadoes in Arkansas; Commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel and Europe; Recent Breakthroughs in Medical Technology Helping Us Live Longer; Lingering Effects of the Cold War

Aired April 29, 2014 - 04:00:00   ET

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


CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: Yesterday on CNN STUDENT NEWS we talked about how conditions and geography factor in to the U.S. tornado season. A line of severe storms struck in three U.S. states Sunday night. More were expected, and that`s where we start today`s show.

Vilonia, Arkansas, part of tornado alley where twisters are relatively calm at this time of year. This was one of the hardest hit areas on Sunday. Buildings were leveled, cars were flipped and tossed down the road. In Arkansas alone, 14 people were killed, two other deaths were reported in Iowa and Oklahoma. The National Weather Service says a tornado that could have been half a mile wide roared through Mayflower, Arkansas. Around 18,000 homes and businesses lost power, schools were closed, shelters were set up in a church and a high school. If you are looking for ways to help those affected, CNN has a few ideas on its "Impact Your World" Website. You can find that at cnn.com/impact. Relief workers and investigators are in the communities that were hit. They are looking at the type of damage caused to figure out what kind of tornado caused it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: This building was a concrete block, a cinder-block building. Some type of machine shop because I`m finding all the kinds of bar clamps and things like that. This was a moving, operating factory of some sort, and now which is completely destroyed, but the real problem today for the search and the rescue teams and for the people picking up their lives in Mayflower, Vilonia, El Paso is this. Let me show you this. Take - pick this up. Put a light on it. That - that was nails (INAUDIBLE) everywhere out here. The buildings are shattered, the nails are everywhere. More people can get hurt after the storm than during the storm if they are not very careful.

Now, minor injuries, we do believe now that most of the power has been shut off, but for a while, a lot of the power lines were full. I want to be very careful moving through here because of those nails, because of everything else. But here`s the electrical box from this building. All the (INAUDIBLE) right there. A big structure, a very sturdy structure completely destroyed. We know that I`m probably saying that this is F3 damage, because I can still see some walls, but there are buildings in Vilonia that we know of, especially one Dollar Store that there`s nothing left except the concrete that that building was seating on. Everything else completely gone. That indicated damage probably up greater than EF3, somewhere in the four or maybe even the five, the National Weather Service will be out here looking at it.

I think now, though, counting the dead, helping the injured and rescuing those that still may be trapped. It is such a wide area that there may still be people that need to be rescued.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: From Sunday into Monday evening, people around the world paused for a solemn event. It was Holocaust Remembrance Day. In Israel, where 75 percent of the population is Jewish, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Perez commemorated the Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. The ceremony followed the sounding of a siren. Israelis all over the country stopped wherever they were to stand in silence.

In Poland, an event called the March of the Living brought together Jewish teenagers, adults and Holocaust survivors. They marched about two miles from Auschwitz to Birkenau, two Nazi concentration camps and tribute to those who perished there during World War II. 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Millions of others fled or were forced to leave their homes. And when the allied forces liberated concentration camps, they immediately began hunting the Nazis responsible. Holocaust Remembrance Day aims to ensure this never happens again.

On our "Roll Call" this April 29th we are taking you to the North East, the South and the Wild West. First, I got to say hello to the Tigers. Tunkhannock High School in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, great to have you on our roll. Next, we are headed to Alabama, West Morgan Middle School is watching, home of the rebels of Trinity. And galloping out to the Centennial Day we are riding with the Colts. They are online at Pueblo South High School in Pueblo, Colorado.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time for "The Shoutout." Which of these medical breakthroughs was made first? If you think you know it, shout it out!

Was it the artificial heart, penicillin, x-ray or ultrasound? You`ve got three seconds, go!

Everything here was invented or discovered in the 20th century except x- rays which were discovered in 1895. That`s your answer and that`s your "Shoutout."

AZUZ: These inventions and discoveries changed lives. They`ve helped people live longer. On the horizon in the 21st Century, creating organs with the 3D printer. That`s what bioengineers at the University of Michigan are working on. Operations without a single cut into the skin. Surgeons in Alabama and Washington State are learning that. From neurology to computer programming to architecture, traffic is getting sicker at the intersection of medicine and technology.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Instead of ink coming from that printer cartridge it was living human cells.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Personalized cell therapy, doctors twit immune system to make his own body rid itself of cancer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Surgery without incisions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s something new going on in sights now. Using the power of genomics and big data.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Overuse of antibiotics is blamed for the rise of superbugs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Purified air, filtered water, vitamins C infused showers, posture perfect floors, all part of a new way to design, build and live.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Al right. From the future to the past. Our next story deals with a lingering effect of the Cold War. This was a rivalry between the democratic United States and its allies, and the Communist Soviet Union and its allies.

It started shortly after World War II and lasted until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The Berlin Wall, the Iron Curtain, they`ve fallen, but seems some old boundaries remain.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pundits have said that the crisis between Russia and the West over Ukraine is a symbol of a new Cold War. There`s been much talk about old dividing lines, Russia has been accused of building a new Berlin Wall, Putin has said he doesn`t want another Iron Curtain. But did you know that those old Cold War boundaries are actually still dictating lives today? Here`s how. Straddling the border between the Czech Republic and Germany, lies the largest protected wildlife zone in Central Europe. During the Cold War when that border was between communist Czechoslovakia and capitalist West Germany, it was heavily fortified with electric fences. Just as people were physically divided, a large herd of deer was split apart. A recent study of deer population used satellite tracking to follow the movements of 100 red deer. 50 in Germany, and 50 in the Czech Republic. The fences have been gone for a quarter century, and the land is open for migration, but researchers found the new generation of deer still respect the boundaries of the Iron Curtain. According to the scientists who led the project, biologically it would make sense for a mountain range to be the natural barrier between populations of deer, not this invisible fence. But mothers pass on to their young a sense of where it is safe to go. The electrified fence was a no-go, and these habits live on a generation later. Perhaps the deer are teaching us all a lesson, it can take a lot longer to break down barriers than to put them up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: Many of us got started on a simple playground slide, and it was a pool slide or a slipping slide, then we graduated to water parks. This is Fert (ph). That`s German for crazy. It`s also the name of this beast, which at 168 feet tall is the world`s tallest water slide. The water park that has it says it`s taller than Niagara Falls and hopefully safer to go down. Those who climb the 264 steps to the top will slides at speeds faster than 65 miles per hour. Which will make some of their friends ask, what are you thinking? Why would you fall for something like that? Are you slipping? Are you want a downslide, are you age to (ph) out of your mind? We`ll let you pour over those for a while and slide more stories your way tomorrow on CNN STUDENT NEWS.

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