Assignment The World; 4209

Hi welcome to one side of the world for the week of November 9th 2000. I'm Jenny Batchelor in the news this week congressional results from Election Day. Heavy fighting continues in the Middle East. Thousands rally against their president in the Philippines. And in our top story the race for the presidency is too close to call. Here's our top story. The race for the US Presidency team down to the state of Florida. And as of Wednesday the race was still too close to call with nearly 6 million votes cast in the Sunshine State. Texas Governor George W. Bush led by as little as 200 votes and thousands of absentee ballots still needed to be counted. Florida is the deciding state this year because of its 25 electoral college vote early Wednesday morning Vice President Al Gore held 20 states with a total of 260 electoral votes. George W. Bush led in 29

states with a total of two hundred forty six electoral votes a candidate needs 270 Electoral College votes to win the presidency. It was a confusing election night as television networks first reported Florida going to gore and then to Bush. Gore even called Bush to concede the election when it appeared that Bush had won Florida. He then retracted his concession when the outcome came into question when an election is this close in the state of Florida. A recount is automatically called to ensure the outcome. It is possible that the candidate that wins the Electoral College will not receive the majority of the popular vote. Not since 1960 when John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon as a race for the presidency gone this long before a winner was declared. The states with the lowest percentage of voter turnout are Nevada Hawaii Texas and South Carolina.

Only thirty eight point three percent of eligible voters in Nevada go to the polls. Americans didn't vote just for the president on Election Day Tuesday there were congressional races all across the country. The most watched Senate race was in New York state where Hillary Rodham Clinton was running for the seat vacated by Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Clinton defeated Republican Rick Lazio to become the first first lady to hold an elected office in the U.S. Also making big news was the New Jersey Senate race the winner Democrat John Kors and spend an unprecedented 60 million dollars of his own money on his campaign with several races still too close to call democratic gains are anticipated. But the Republican Party is expected to maintain control in both houses of Congress.

Heavy fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunman took the lives of two more Palestinians Monday. Nearly one hundred and fifty people mostly Palestinians have died in the recent weeks of fighting in the West Bank and in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak once again accused the Palestinians of not doing enough to end the violence. But Palestinian leaders claim that Iraq must understand that the Palestinian revolt will not end until Israel pulls out of Palestinian land. Meanwhile nearly 50000 Israeli peace supporters flocked to a rally on Memorial dedication honoring the late Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin who signed the Oslo Peace Accord with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat back in 1905. Tens of thousands of Filipinos rallied on Saturday demanding President Joseph Estrada resign over allegations that he received millions of dollars from an illegal

numbers game. Several prominent lawmakers deserted the president's L A M D party in recent days and 50 more L.A. MP Congress members said they would support an impeachment motion in their House of Representatives as drawn as crisis surfaced last month when a governor testified that the president had asked him to coordinate the nationwide collection of payoffs from an illegal numbers game called Wei Tang and he is accused of receiving more than 80 million in white Tang payoffs and nearly three million dollars from tobacco taxes. In our story about the Middle East we told you that a rally was held in memory of which Prime Minister of Israel. Was it. Benjamin Netanyahu Itzhak Rabin a good Barack. The correct answer is number two. The late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Peace Accord in 1905 and now it's time for the

answers to last week's clues in the new. Find the location of our first clue when you get Rome Italy where European foreign ministers gathered last week to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the European Human Rights Convention. The convention was considered a foundation of the reconstruction of Europe after World War Two. You get electoral college the Electoral College vote empowers an individual voter it is made up of five hundred and thirty eight electors. The number of electors equal to the number of congressional representatives senators. It takes 270 electoral votes to elect a president. The four states with the largest votes are California New York Texas and Florida. And finally fill in the blanks of our third clue when you get Home Rule revolt. Last week 51 staged a revolt against President Alberto Fujimori demanding he resign. After weeks of political turmoil and military control

Congress proved that will cut president short an April election date and Fujimori's term four years early. This week in world history. November 4th 1900 Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in. A male gorilla was born Monday at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego California weighing in at just over 1.5 kilograms. Wyatt Duran us checks it out. I only eat a nine year old female gave birth to her second baby. A male gorilla. Both mother and infant are doing fine.

About 6:30 we entered the grow house and found a newborn male gorilla to a female that had given birth last year. And is doing really really well with her new infant. She's holding onto it well and she's become a model mother. Colbert said the animal care staff hadn't yet decided on a name for the engine. He said the entire troupe of gorillas in the exhibit are aware of the newest addition and are allowing Ione to have private time with their new infant. The zoo intends to monitor closely the new baby especially after Ione rejected her previous offspring. Last year. The unique thing about this particular infant and mother is that last year she had given birth to a female offspring and rejected that offspring after seven days. So this time we were very guarded and were trying to keep things as normal as possible for I own the mother and this particular offspring we restricted access to the house and we've kept everything as normal as possible including releasing the animals out to the display. That's unique for us in that we usually keep the

animals off this play for about 24 hours following a birth but felt that in this case it's probably not warranted it's warm enough right now and we didn't feel that that would interfere with the health of the infant. The western lowland gorilla is classified as endangered because of intense human activity and its habitat for some of the world the remains of. What does the pope like on his pizza mozzarella zucchini flowers and yellow peppers of course. The pizza which features the Vatican colors white and yellow is just one of many pieces on display at St. Peter's Square. Where thousands of pizza chefs gathered to receive Pope John Paul the second blessing for his jubilee of the pizza maker. The founding fathers of our country devised a form of indirect popular election to work along with the people's vote called the Electoral College. They worried back in the 18th century that the average voter wouldn't be informed enough to choose a national

candidate so each state selected wise men whose role was to choose the president. But now in the 21st century all voters are more informed about through instant communications televised debate and the saturation of news coverage. Even though the system appears outdated it does serve to empower the smaller states and it forces candidates to build grassroots support in every region across the country instead of just the largest cities. For some people however they think the electoral college votes are outdated. They want to move to a popular vote only because it doesn't seem right that a candidate could win the popular vote but then lose the Electoral College vote. Well we'd like to know what you think is the Electoral College outdated. Discuss this issue with your classmates after the show then write to us with your opinion. And thanks to Todd Dubik of Winchester Virginia for this week's issue idea. We received nearly 600 responses to our issue question would you live on the International Space Station a majority of you 50 percent say no you would rather stay here on Earth. Thirty eight percent say

yes you would live on the US 12 percent undecided. Many of you think living on the space station sounds like a great idea. Hannah Whistler Orchard Park New York writes It is a very rare honor to be chosen very few people get to do this. Bradley Dunsmore of Weyers Cave Virginia adds it would be awesome to live in a 13 story steel building in space I think it would be fun. Rebecca Quint of Concord Massachusetts writes I have always been interested in outer space and I also like science. I would find it a very fun opportunity. The majority of you however think it's too much of a risk. Abby Marsh of Manchester Vermont writes What a big problem happens in space one of an asteroid hit the space station. Michelle Johnson a for Defiance Virginia adds Personally I would like to stay on solid ground where I won't float into a never ending space. Kristen Jackson a very Dayo Washington agrees. Kristen writes I wouldn't want to wear all that space gear all the time it would probably get heavy. And finally Kayla rock of Keene New Hampshire adds I would really miss my family and friends plus there is no

gravity and although that might be fun for a while I don't think I could adjust. We look forward to receiving your issue question ideas and your responses to our two latest issue questions should U.S. troops help other countries. And is the Electoral College outdated in order to include your opinions we need to receive your responses to this week's issue question by November 28. If you would like to receive it a sign of the world press card you may write to us here to sign with the world care of Post Office Box 3 0 0 21 Rochester New York 1 4 6 0 3. Or contact us by using the World Wide Web at w w w dot WXXI dot o r g slash W or send us an email at 80 W at WXXI dot au RG. You know the story about the Philippines. Why are top members of the president's own party deserving the party. Is it because the president is. Up for re-election. Changing parties accused of a payoff scandal. The correct answer is number three. President is accused of taking millions of payoffs

and now it's time for next week's clues in the news. Our first clue is a location. It's 18 degrees 35 minutes north latitude 72 degrees 20 That's west longitude. Our second clue is a Scrabble letter clue two words first word and c l o l i t an S. word P T I R. And finally our third clue is a fill in the blank also two words first word blank blank a blank blank second word blank. A l blank house. These are clues of stories we think will happen in the coming week. You can find the answers on radio and television newscasts and newspapers and newsmagazines will reveal the answers next week. And that's it for this week's show from all of us here to sign with the world I'm Judy Batchelor. We'll see you again next week. It's.

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