CNN 2011-03-07

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Today's awesome¹ edition of CNN Student News is dedicated² to the students and teachers of M.D. Roberts Middle School in Jonesboro, Georgia. Thanks for stopping by CNN Center yesterday! I'm Carl Azuz, and I'm here to bring you the headlines.

First up, Mexican President Felipe Calderon travels north of the border for a two-day visit to the U.S. He's scheduled to meet with American business leaders, leaders in Congress, and he's meeting with President Obama, the two leaders getting together yesterday at the White House. They talked about immigration policies, organized crime and violence along the U.S./Mexico border. And of course, they discussed trade. Mexico is America's third-largest trading partner. And it's the second-largest market for American products that get sold outside the U.S.

And it wasn't just the presidents who got together on Thursday. First lady Michelle Obama and the first lady of Mexico went to a D.C.-area elementary school as part of the "Read Across America" efforts. And one thing about the school they visited: it's bilingual. The students learn in English and Spanish.

The North African nation of Libya is anything but stable. The Libyan military dropped more bombs on towns that are under control of anti-government rebels. These air attacks have some U.S. officials pushing for a no-fly zone. Now, a no-fly zone is when airplanes -- both military and civilian³ -- are not allowed to fly over an area without permission. Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court says it's investigating Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi for alleged⁴ crimes against humanity. The court says if Libyan troops commit crimes, Colonel Gadhafi could be held responsible. That's what's going on now. Michael Holmes takes a look back to give us some background on Libya, its leader Gadhafi, and how this situation got started.

You had these people for 42 years being angry, upset, disenfranchised. And what they saw happen in those other countries emboldened⁵ them to speak out.

What we're seeing happen in Libya is really just sort of a replay of what we saw happen right throughout the Middle East and North Africa. It started with some common denominators: high unemployment, massively young populations who are unemployed⁶, over-educated in some cases, in some of the countries. Unable to have a say in what's going on in their own countries; disenfranchised from the system. And when we've seen them speak out in the past over the 42 years of Gadhafi's rein⁷, we've seen those protests, if you like, or uprisings put down in brutal⁸ fashion, with thousands of people being killed over the years.

At the moment, it would appear that Gadhafi's goal is just simply to survive. I mean, he seems to have adopted a "head in sand" attitude that none of this is going on. He denied there'd even been protests in Tripoli; said everybody loves him. He seems to be in survival mode at the moment. He is clearly encircled. Clearly, his future is not bright.

The tribal⁹ nature of Libya can't be understated. It is, like a lot of the Middle East, very tribal. And he has been able to control the mood of the tribes, if you like, basically paying them off or threatening them. Gadhafi himself is from a very small tribe. He was born in a tent in the desert. But he's been able to, through patronage¹⁰ and fear, keep it under control. What we've seen lately is even the tribes starting to turn against him and say, "Well, we don't back him anymore." Saw that first in the east. We're now seeing that in parts of the west, as well. The tribes turning against him has been very significant, as, of course, have been the defections from the military, when people, soldiers have basically switched sides. It's taken a lot of the sting out of his ability to strike back. What we have seen, though, he still can strike back. He's had jets bombing places in his own country. He's had soldiers on the street shooting at his own people.