CNN Student News 2012-05-24

(CNN Student News) -- May 24, 2012

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

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GROUP: Hey, Carl. We`re (inaudible).

GROUP: You`re watching CNN Student News.

GROUP: Where the news (inaudible).

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CARL AZUZ, HOST, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Nice, from Ms. Macarthur`s (ph) class in Illinois to the CNN Newsroom here in Atlanta, welcome to all of our viewers from around the world to CNN Student News.

First up, we`re looking at a historic election for one of the world`s oldest civilizations. In Egypt, voters began casting their ballots for president yesterday, and for the first time, no one knew ahead of time what the results would be.

You might remember that former leader Hosni Mubarak, who ruled the country for 30 years, was forced out of power during a political revolution last year.

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AZUZ (voice-over): Now Egyptians are voting for a new president, some of them waited in line for hours yesterday to do that, around a dozen candidates are on the ballot. There are some concerns about what might happen when a new president is named.

Some Egyptians have questioned whether the military, which has run Egypt since Mubarak resigned, will hand over power. Military leaders insist they will. Also, Egypt doesn`t have a new constitution yet. So the powers of the president and parliament haven`t been clearly defined.

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AZUZ: Still, some observers say the election is an achievement and one expert said that since Egypt is kind of a trendsetter in the Arab world, what happens in that country could influence other nations as well.

The U.S. presidential election is less than six months away. According to several new polls, the race is just about even. We know the Democratic nominee is President Obama.

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AZUZ (voice-over): The presumptive Republican nominee is former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. He got closer to being the official nominee when he won this week`s primary elections in Kentucky and Arkansas.

CNN took the averages from three polls that asked registered voters which candidate they support right now. Forty-seven percent backed President Obama, 45 percent support Governor Romney.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this legit? Someone who owns stock in a company is called a shareholder.

This is true. That`s because ownership is based on holding shares of stock.

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AZUZ: Some shareholders are suing Facebook and the banks involved in its initial stock offering. They claim that important financial information wasn`t made public.

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AZUZ (voice-over): Last Friday Facebook started selling stock in the company. When that happens, you expect the stock price to go up. But by the end of the day on Friday, it was back around its initial price and this week it dropped below that. That means some investors have lost money on Facebook.

Some private investors were given the chance to order shares through banks before the public was able to buy any shares. Now this is where we get to that lawsuit. The people suing say the banks knew that Facebook`s financial outlook was worse than expected. The lawsuit alleges that the banks shared that information with some clients but that they didn`t make that public.

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AZUZ: Now it`s not clear if that happened, and if it did happen, it`s not clear whether that`s illegal. Facebook says the lawsuit has no merit, and one of the banks said it followed the same procedures that it does for any initial stock offering.

Our next report today is about a different kind of lawsuit that could set a legal standard. It has to do with a car accident and texting while driving. But one of the people who`s involved in this wasn`t on the road when the crash happened. Deb Feyerick explains the situation.

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DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The accident happened in New Jersey along this winding country road. Motorcycle buffs David and Linda Kubert were out for a Sunday drive.

DAVID KUBERT, INJURED BIKER: Went around a curve and I saw a pickup truck coming right for us with -- I saw the young man with his elbows steering, his head down and he was texting. Next thing I know, he hit us.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Both David and his wife lost a leg in the head-on collision. Cell phone records show the driver, 19-year-old Kyle Best (ph), was texting a girlfriend, Shannon Colonna virtually at the moment of impact. In a potentially precedent-setting case, the Kuberts are suing them both, saying the girl knew her friend was likely driving home, especially since the two texted each other almost every day.

D. KUBERT: If Shannon Colonna knew that Kyle Best (ph) was leaving work -- and I believe she did -- and she was texting him, then I believe she`s just as responsible.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Although not physically in the car, the Kuberts` lawyer argues Colonna`s texting put her in the car electronically, saying she helped trigger the disastrous crash.

STEPHEN WEINSTEIN, KUBERTS` ATTORNEY: It is as if you are putting your hands over the eyes of the driver, preventing that driver from seeing ahead of him.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Kyle Best (ph) pleaded guilty to careless driving, failure to stay in the lane and improper use of a cell phone. The couple is suing for an unspecified amount in damages.

During a deposition, Colonna testified, in her words, "she may have known her friend was driving," but her lawyer argues the suit should be dismissed, because, quote, "a `message sender` has no way to control when, where or how a `message receiver` acts after the message is transmitted."

David Kubert lost not only his leg, but his job and insurance after the crash.

LINDA KUBERT, INJURED BIKER: It could have been prevented. It was not an accident.

FEYERICK (voice-over): A judge is set to rule Friday whether the Kuberts can move forward and sue both texters -- Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

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AZUZ (voice-over): Definitely want to get your opinion about this story. Our blog at cnnstudentnews.com is the place for you to share it. The question: does the person who texts you share some of the responsibility if they know you`re driving? We`re looking forward to what you have to say. Let us know what you think. The address: cnnstudentnews.com.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s Shoutout goes out to Ms. Brown-Lipscomb and Ms. Holden-Martin`s CRI class at Charles Herbert Flowers High School in Springdale, Maryland.

What does this road sign mean? You know what to do. Is it yield, lane reduction, merge or slippery when wet? You`ve got three seconds, go.

The line coming into that arrow indicates a merge. That`s your answer, and that`s your Shoutout.

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AZUZ: All right. You might learn that in a drivers` ed class, but how do you teach the rules of the road to a machine? Earlier this month, we reported on a car that drives itself. Brian Todd had the chance to take the thing out for a test drive -- or it was more like a test ride. Brian Todd did that recently. Here`s his report.

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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When we were out driving this thing, a truck -- a garbage truck kind of moved across the road in front of us and the car, on its own, came to an abrupt stop and it just was doing that the entire time we were in it. So a lot of really cool and very strange sensations when you`re moving around in this car.

We also got close-up looks at some of the features. And what really enables this car to go on its own are a series of sensors all around the car. You`ve got radar that is in front of the car and on the sides of it. You`ve got a laser scanner, which is a swivel on the top of the car, moving at a very high rate of speed.

You`ve got cameras that are just inside the windshield on the inside of the car. You`ve got GPS devices that are on the top of this vehicle, all of it taking in all the information, all the data of everything that`s around you, how the cars are moving, how the pedestrians are moving, where the lights are, where the turns are. It gathers all that. It feeds it into a computer.

The computer then sends the car the commands of what to do. And it all does that dozens of a times a second so that the car can move in real time, in real-life speed on the roads, like this one.

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AZUZ: We`re going shift gears slightly now, from a car that drives itself to ones that are energy efficient. Every year there`s something called the Echo Marathon.

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AZUZ (voice-over): High school and college teams build and drive energy efficient cars. They can run on diesel, solar energy, electricity. The winner is the vehicle that goes the farthest using the least amount of energy.

This year`s winner was a team of high school physics students. The team`s captain seemed impressed by taking down college competition. He said, quote, "They can build better cars than us. They have higher education. But we were able to beat them."

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AZUZ: And before we go, we`re going to check out some sports action.

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AZUZ (voice-over): Someone posted this video of an ultimate match on YouTube, and you`ll understand why in a second. Think that pass is overthrown? Watch this. Incredible diving catch, he chased it down from at least 30 yards away. The receiver is Brent Anderson (ph). He had five scores in the match, but none of them were as impressive as that. His team would go on to win 29-23.

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AZUZ: So you definitely can`t accuse him of taking a dive. Well, the clock is running out on us, but we will catch you again tomorrow. For CNN Student News, I`m Carl Azuz.

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