美国有线新闻 CNN 2012-09-17

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I’m Carl Azuz. Today on CNN Student News,we are going to be talking about teachers’ strike and a new case of a diseasethat’s usually associated with the middle ages. But we start in Northern Africa. Violence and anger in Egypt and Libya, directed at American citizensand American facilities. This happened on Tuesday night in the Egyptian capitalcity of Cairo, protesters attacked the U.S. embassy.That’s the building where an ambassador, the diplomat¹ who represents the United Statesand other countries and his or her staff work. In Egypt, the protesters tore down theAmerican flag at the embassy. But the situation was much more violent at theAmerican consulate² in Benghazi, Libya.Consulates³ are like embassies, but they are not located in capital cities. In Benghazi, four Americans including the U.S. ambassadorto Libya Chris Stevens were killed. There was a protest outside the consulate. U.S. sourcestold CNN that the people who attacked the building used that protest as adiversion. The United Statespromised to track down whoever is behind the killings⁴. The violence left manyAmericans and many American leaders with questions. 

“How couldthis happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate⁵, in a citywe helped save from destruction? This question reflects just how complicatedand at times how confounding the world can be. But we must be clear-eyed, evenin our grief. This was an attack, by a small and savage⁶ group. Not the peopleor government of Libya.”

 

Libya’sgovernment spoke⁷ out against that violence as well. Libyan officials apologizefor the attack, and called it a cowardly criminal act. Elise Labott who coversforeign affairs for CNN talks with us about why this event is so significant.

 

An attack on a U.S. consulate of facilitiesis such a traumatic event, because these are U.S. diplomats⁸ that are puttingtheir lives on the line to help further U.S. policy and to help reach out to acountry, you know, Secretary Clinton, though, she says that U..S diplomats areon the frontlines of U.S.diplomacy⁹. So when you attack a U.S.facility and you attack U.S.personnel, it’s almost like you are attacking America. In fact, it is like youare attacking America.And so it’s really everyone is obviously very sad about the loss of life andthe danger to U.S.personnel, but it really is an affront¹⁰ to what America’s trying to do in anyvarious countries. 

 

The protests in both countries, Libya and Egypt were linked to an online filmthat was considered offensive to Islam. American religious leaders from severalfaiths including Muslim leaders spoke out yesterday. They condemned¹¹ the movieand the violence in northern Africa.Meanwhile, the U.S. sentabout 50 Marines to Libya tohelp secure American facilities there, and U.S. embassies around the worldhave been ordered to increase their security as well.

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