CNN 2011-11-16

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Our first stop is in Hawaii, where an economic conference brings world leaders together. This is the APEC meeting. It stands for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. There are 21 members, and that includes the United States, who hosted the weekend meeting in Hawaii.

 

 

 

President Obama had individual meetings with other leaders from China, Russia and Japan. He talked about business flowing back and forth¹ between the U.S. and other APEC nations. And President Obama said he thinks the U.S. could do more to sell more American products overseas, and to encourage other countries to invest in the United States.

 

 

 

These APEC meetings focus on economic issues in the Asia Pacific region, but Europe's debt crisis also came up over the weekend, especially some of the efforts to come up with solutions to help resolve it.

 

 

 

Some European countries are turning to new leaders to try to turn things around during this economic crisis. One of those nations is Italy, where former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned on Saturday. 

 

 

 

Italian political leaders got together over the weekend to talk about choices for the country's next prime minister. Yesterday, Mario Monti was nominated for the job. He's a economist².One Italian official described him as experienced and well respected. But he is not prime minister yet. The Italian parliament has to decide whether or not to approve Monti for the position.

 

 

 

Today's first Shoutout goes out to the students of Team Columbia at Michael E. Fossum Middle School in McAllen, Texas, and to Michael Fossum himself on the International Space Station.

 

 

 

Which country is hosting soccer's 2014 World Cup? Is it A, B, C or D? You've got three seconds, go.

 

 

 

Brazil is hosting the 2014 World Cup, and the 2016 Summer Olympics. That's your answer, and that's your Shoutout.

 

 

 

There's a lot to do to get ready to host these kind of major sporting events, and we're not just talking about building stadiums and training workers.The Brazilian government is trying to crack down on violence and illegal drugs, especially in some of the nation's shanty³ towns.

 

 

 

 

 

These are slums, and in larger cities like Rio de Janeiro, a lot of people live in them. They can be incredibly dangerous. This weekend, thousands of Brazilian police and security forces raided shanty towns in Rio. Late Sunday officials said they'd taken control of the slums, away from drug dealers⁴. Next, they promised to search for the criminals who escaped.

 

 

 

What you are looking at now are up-close, ground-level pictures of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. This is the plant that had that massive meltdown after an earthquake and tsunami⁵ hit back in March. 

 

 

 

Journalists got their first tour of the plant on Saturday. As they got near it, the radiation readings increased, although they never hit a level that's believed to mean an immediate⁶ health risk. Technicians are working to control the damage caused by the meltdown. The power plant's owners say they're making progress, but it could take decades to completely clean up this facility.

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