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Stomach virus races through cruise ship passengers

HONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) — A highly contagious virus that causes stomach flu sickened about 220 passengers aboard a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship that returned Monday to Honolulu after its weekly seven-day cruise around the islands, officials said.

Lab tests confirmed a norovirus — which causes nausea, vomiting and diarrhea — aboard the Pride of Hawaii, said Janice Okubo, spokeswoman for the Hawaii Department of Health.

It’s one of the common viruses we’ve been seeing on cruise lines, Okubo said. Most of the time, people recover.

The Norwalk-like virus infected about 9 percent of the ship’s 2,500 passengers, and no one was hospitalized, the cruise line said. Virus symptoms typically last a day.

Passengers who felt sick, as well as their cabinmates, were asked to remain in their rooms for 24 hours. Norwegian said it was giving those passengers a $200 on-ship credit.

Surfaces in the ship were cleaned to eliminate lingering viruses, it said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating, Okubo said.

Norwegian describes Pride of Hawaii as the largest and most expensive U.S.-flagged cruise ship ever built. It began service last year.

Norwegian was acquired in February 2000 by Star Cruises PLC of Malaysia, according to the cruise line’s Web site. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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CNN Student News Transcript: November 13, 2007

(CNN Student News) — November 13, 2007

Quick Guide

Bay Area Oil Spill - Learn about recent oil spills in the San Francisco Bay and the Black Sea.

Black Sea Storm - Visit a drought-stricken town that only turns on the faucets once a day.

Deflating Supply - Find out why helium supplies aren’t keeping up with demand for the element

Transcript

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

MONICA LLOYD, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I’m Monica Lloyd. We’re glad you’re spending part of your Tuesday with CNN Student News, where today’s show is all about science and nature. So let’s see what’s up first.

First Up: Bay Area Oil Spill

LLOYD: Clean-up efforts have recovered about 20-percent of a container ship’s recent oil spill in the San Francisco Bay. The ship struck part of the Bay Bridge last week and ripped a hole in its side that was more than 200 feet long! The collision dumped nearly 60-thousand gallons of oil into the water. Christy Henry has more on the effects of the spill and the investigation into what caused it. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTY HENRY, CNN REPORTER: The San Francisco Bay, tainted by a 58,000 gallon oil spill. Hundreds of dead and sick birds, polluted beaches shut down.

ADM. THAD ALLEN, U.S. COAST GUARD COMMANDANT: It’s understandable that people are upset.

HENRY: Federal investigators are now on the case as lawmakers criticize the handling of the spill. One point of contention: The initial low estimate of oil in the water. The highest ranking Coast Guard official is on the defensive.

ALLEN: There was an eyeball estimate made there was 140 gallons, and that probably shouldn’t even have been released because it’s very very difficult to assess how much oil has been spilled once it’s on the water. But that did not slow the response, we had skimming equipment and booms out there right away.

HENRY: It was last week when the container ship rammed into the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, gashed its side and spilled the oil. Local politicians, along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, went to the bay Monday and got a first hand look at the damage.

NANCY PELOSI: There are many questions that have been raised, I think we can only get to the bottom of them all, get the answers, by having independent hearings of this situation. It’s not just about this, but it’s about preventing what will happen in the future.

HENRY: Admiral Allen says human error likely played a part. Authorities have been questioning the ship’s captain and crew as clean-up continues. I’m Christy Henry, reporting from Atlanta.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Black Sea Storm

LLOYD: That’s not the only oil spill creating problems right now. The one in San Francisco may have been caused by human error. But severe weather is being blamed for a spill in an area between Russia and Ukraine. And as Damon Green explains, the deadly storms in the region are taking a toll on a lot more than just one ship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAMON GREEN, ITV NEWS REPORTER: It’s the worst storm in years and forecasters say it’s only just begun. This, just one of around a dozen ships run aground or sunk on the Black Sea coast by huge waves whose power no vessel could escape. The crew of this freighter carrying agricultural equipment, lucky to escape with their lives. But many others haven’t been so fortunate. The word from Moscow is that as many as 17 ships are fighting for their lives in the waters between Russia and Ukraine, with more storms still due to break. This sailor, one of just two survivors picked up from the wreck of a freighter bound for Syria. He showed his rescuers how many crew had been on board. The others have been lost. One of the sunken vessels was a fuel tanker, which broke up in the heavy seas, spilling at least 2000 tons of oil into the narrow straits of Kerch. In places where the storm has died down the cost of that wreck is just starting to become clear. Over-wintering sea birds condemned to die from the pollution thrown up on the shore. And with some forecasts predicting that the storm will continue in the Black Sea for another three days, many fear that the danger to human and to animal life is far from over. Damon Green, ITV News.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Shoutout

CARL AZUZ: Time for the Shoutout! How do you spell …? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Drout, B) Drougt, C) Draut or D) Drought? D-r-o-u-g-h-t is the correct spelling for a long run of dry weather that’s harmful to crops.

Going Dry

LLOYD: Parts of the southeastern U.S. are struggling through a horrible drought right now. Think about all the different ways you use water every day. Not just drinking. We’re talking about doing the laundry, cooking, showering. Now imagine you could only use a limited amount for all of your daily water needs. Rusty Dornin takes us to a town where that scenario’s really happening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN REPORTER: Dinner’s on the stove, but Debbie Cash has much more urgent matters on her mind.

DORNIN: How many buckets do you fll?

DEBBIE CASH: About six today.

DORNIN: It’s evening rush in Orme, Tennessee. The taps are on for just 3 hours, after that they are dry until the same time tomorrow. The town ran out of water on August first. The 145 residents who live here don’t conserve water, they hoard it.

LOCAL RESIDENT: That’s what’s left out of a 55 gallon drum.

DORNIN: And that’s it since last night.

The town’s only water source; a sad reminder of days gone by.

BILL RICHARDSON, RESIDENT: Years ago, it run off these bluffs here, I mean water would.

DORNIN: A big waterfall right?

RICHARDSON: A big waterfall; pretty.

DORNIN: Now, the only way to get water is to fire up the 1961 fire engine and head two miles to the a fire hydrant in Alabama for water donated by another town. They hook up the hose..fill er up, then it’s back to the town’s tank to unload.

DORNIN: So, how many times do you have to make the round trip in a day?

RICHARDSON: Oh about 7 times, about 7 loads.

DORNIN: Back and forth every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, then the moment parched residents are waiting for: Mayor Tony Reames cranks open the water valve; down below Debbie Cash waits.

CASH: Nothing, nothing, nothing.

DORNIN: And then how long does it take after he turns the water on for it to come out of the faucet?

CASH: Just a few minutes.

DORNIN: Luckily there is help on the way. By thanksgiving….Orme should have water piped in. But Reames says his town’s predicament is a warning to others.

MAYOR TONY REAMES, ORME TENNESSEE: All these people on river systems better take note, because once you’re mountain streams, your tributaries to the river starts drying up, the river ain’ t far behind.

DORNIN: Debbie Cash says, never take your natural resources for granted.

CASH: Cherish the water you got and be kinda careful with it, cuz you never know if you will be out of water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Is this legit

AZUZ: Is This Legit? On the periodic table, the symbol for helium is He. Yes! And the atomic number of this noble gas is 2.

Deflating Supply

LLOYD: Here are a few more facts about helium. It’s colorless, and it doesn’t have a smell or a taste. But the element is in high demand. After all, think of all the birthday balloons that get filled with it. The problem is, there’s only a limited amount of helium to go around. Gabriel Morales of affiliate KFDA has more on the shrinking supply.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GABRIEL MORALES, NEWSCHANNEL 10: Balloons are a favorite for several occasions, but party store owners, like Terry Bogey, say don’t take them for granted. She says her helium distributor sent her a warning.

TERRY BOGEY, PARTY AMERICA: The price may go up, there may be a shortage we may not get it on time. that’s why we have to, what do they call it? stockpile.

MORALES: And that price increase may affect you. Experts say an increasing global demand for helium and a lack of new plants coming on line, are causing a helium crunch.

LESLIE THEISS/BUREAU LAND MANAGEMENT: Basically demand is rapidly outstripping supply and it’s not getting any better right now that’s the problem.

MORALES: IN 1996, The U.S. government decided to get out of the helium business, except for a reserve: One plant, near Dumas. The hope is that private companies will step up to fill the gap.

THEISS: That’s not been happening, they’ve not been able to bring new sources and supply online fast enough, so the demand is rapidly outpacing everything else.

MORALES: But right now, Bogey says she’s forced to buy more helium tanks at one time.

BOGEY: Not only are you paying for the helium but you’re also paying a rental charge which that is going to come back to haunt you because now I have to have more tanks in the back.

MORALES: Bogey says she may eventually have to raise the price of her balloons by about 9 to 10 cents to offset costs. She already says she’s not making a profit.

BOGEY: When I feel it enough, then they’ll feel it. Cause it’s not a non-profit organization.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Before We Go

LLOYD: And finally, a story in Oklahoma sparked our interest. Sure did. You’re not looking at special effects, or even something made with photoshop. That’s actual lightning, and it’s in this man’s backyard! He even has a check-list of things to do before flipping the switch. Put the dogs inside? Yeah, we’re guessing rover’s high-tailing it to the house on his own. Still, the crackling creation makes for an electrifying view.

Goodbye

LLOYD: And that lightning bug is the last flicker in today’s show. But we’ll see you tomorrow for more CNN Student News. Thanks for watching, everyone. I’m Monica Lloyd. E-mail to a friend

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Clinton camp accuses Edwards of acting like Bush

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) — In a sign of the increasingly bitter feud between the leading Democratic presidential contenders, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign Monday accused John Edwards of acting like President Bush and dividing Democrats.

On Saturday, Edwards, while campaigning in Iowa, criticized the Clinton camp for planting a question in the audience, saying the practice is what George Bush does.

George Bush goes to events that are staged, where people are screened, where they’re only allowed to ask questions if the questions are favorable to George Bush and set up in his favor, the former senator from North Carolina said.

But it is Edwards who is acting more like the sitting Republican president, the Clinton camp says.

What George Bush does is attack Democrats and divide the country, Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee said Monday. Sen. Edwards’ campaign resembles that more and more every day. Watch how the ‘planted question’ controversy is brewing

Edwards comments came after the Grinnell College’s Scarlet and Black newspaper reported a student’s account of being pulled aside before a campaign stop in Newton, Iowa, and asked to pose a specific question.

They were canned, Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff said in an interview with the newspaper. One of the senior staffers told me what [to ask].

Gallo-Chasanoff said she was told the campaign wanted the question, about what Clinton would do for the environment, to be asked by a college student. She said Clinton was prompted to call on her as well as another student seen in conversation with staffers before the event.

The Clinton camp acknowledges they suggested a student ask a certain question, but said Clinton did not know which questioners she was calling on during the event.

It was news to me, Clinton told reporters, and neither I nor my campaign approve of that, and it will certainly not be tolerated.

A second person has also come forward saying a Clinton staffer encouraged him to ask Clinton a question at an event in Iowa this spring.

He asked me if I would ask Sen. Clinton about ways she was going to confront the president on the war in Iraq, specifically war funding, said Geoffrey Mitchell, an Obama supporter. I told him it was not a question I felt comfortable with.

No questions were taken at the event. Elleithee said the staffer bumped into someone he marginally knew and during a conversation with Mitchell, Iraq came up. Elleithee denied the campaign tried to plant him as a friendly questioner in the audience.

But Mitchell said he’d never met the Clinton staffer before that event.

Edwards was not the only rival for the Democratic presidential nomination to criticize Clinton. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois also made a subtle dig at the front-runner while campaigning in New Hampshire Monday.

I’ll let Sen. Clinton answer for her campaign, Obama told reporters. When I go into a town hall meeting, I never know what questions to expect and that’s a good thing, because the people of New Hampshire should expect that their candidates are going to hear what’s on the voters’ minds and not what’s been concocted by the candidate’s staff.

After saying that he has sometimes received questions on the campaign trail that have stumped him, Obama said planting questions is not a practice that we’ve ever engaged in and it’s not a practice that we ever plan to engage in.

On Saturday, another candidate, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut, said, It’s not a terribly wise thing to do.

Speaking at an event in Trident Technical College, in North Charleston, South Carolina, Monday, former President Clinton said his wife could take the criticism, The Associated Press reported.

Even though those boys have been getting tough on her lately, she can handle it, Clinton said, according to the AP.

One Iowa political science professor said he doesn’t believe planted questions are a big deal, but said they provide ammunition to opponents.

This is just one more, essentially, distraction and one more piece of a general sort of raising of questions about her competence as a campaigner, said Steffen Schmidt of Iowa State University.
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White House blasts Democrats for delaying funding for veterans care

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The White House is blasting Congressional Democrats for not sending a bill that would fund veterans’ care programs to the president’s desk by Veterans Day.

There’s absolutely no reason that the veterans’ bill could not have been signed by the president today, except for the political games that the Democrats decided to play with it, White House press secretary Dana Perino said Sunday in Crawford, Texas.

Congressional Democrats had attached legislation funding veterans programs to a $150.7 billion bill that also funded a number of domestic priorities, including health, labor and education. Democrats also added $3.7 billion to what the president budgeted for veterans programs.

The labor-health-education bill would increase funding by more than $10 billion over last year’s funding for those programs. The president has threatened to veto the bill because of the added spending.

The House passed a health-labor-education bill 269-142 last week with the veterans funding attached, but the Senate later voted to strip out the veterans funding and send the health-labor-education bill to the president.

Perino accused the Democrats of trying to hold hostage our veterans to extra domestic spending or increases in taxes.

The president wants clean legislation, a clean bill to fund the veterans, Perino said.

On Saturday, the Democratic congressional leadership sent a letter to President Bush saying they welcomed a dialogue on spending, sayings disagreements over funding levels have never been so great that we cannot reach agreement on a spending plan that meets the needs of the American people.

Key to this dialogue, however, is some willingness on your part to actually find common ground, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said in the letter.

The leadership said last year’s Congress, which was still under Republican control, had never passed a separate bill funding veterans programs.

Congress also sent to the president legislation that would fund veterans care at the levels requested by the president through December 14, the leadership said.

The current funding level is still below the $3.9 billion extra that we passed, said Nadeam Elshami, spokesman Pelosi. We are committed to getting the extra funding that the Congress already voted on the president’s desk for his signature.

The leadership blamed Republican members of Congress for stalling the funding for the veterans programs by blocking its inclusion in the larger spending bill.

Perino, though, said the Democrats could still send a separate bill to the president funding the veterans program that passed both chambers of Congress.

The Democrats decided not to send the president this bill, Perino said. That has to be laid at their feet.
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Bhutto put under house arrest ahead of protest march

LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) — Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was placed under house arrest Monday, a day ahead of a planned march protesting President Pervez Musharraf’s declared state of emergency.

Police have declared Bhutto’s house in Lahore a subjail and sent jail staff to monitor the situation. Several hundred police officers were surrounding the house Monday, allowing no one in or out of the property. Bhutto is refusing to acknowledge her house arrest, however.

When police arrived at the to serve the former prime minister with the house arrest warrant, they were told she was not available to sign it, police said.

Critics see the emergency as an attempt by Musharraf — who seized power in a 1999 coup and promised to restore democracy — to strengthen his grip over the nuclear-armed country amid calls for him to quit as army chief.

In London, Commonwealth foreign ministers were discussing a possible suspension from the 53-nation club, a move unlikely to faze Musharraf who suffered the same rebuke in 1999 but saw Pakistan reinstated five years later.

An international think tank issued also issued a report Monday calling on Pakistan’s allies to impose graduated sanctions against the country.

As opposition to emergency rule gathered pace in Pakistan, government sources told CNN that she could be placed under house arrest to prevent her staging a three-day march from the city of Lahore to Islamabad on Tuesday.

They indicated there could be a danger to Bhutto, who was targeted by a deadly suicide bomb attack on October 18 in Karachi as supporters greeted her return from a self-imposed exile.

The former prime minister — also barred from joining a major opposition protest on Friday — on Monday ruled out a power-sharing deal with Musharraf, a move rumored since he waived corruption charges that had forced her to quit the country.

In a news conference on Sunday, Musharraf restated his vow to step down as military chief once a newly installed Supreme Court approves his third term in office. His opponents say the previous court would have ruled against him. Watch Musharraf defend his state of emergency

The U.S., which views Muslim Pakistan as a key ally in its battle against al Qaeda-linked extremism, welcomed Musharraf’s vote pledge but renewed calls for the emergency to be lifted.

Under emergency rule, thousands of Musharraf’s critics have been locked up while rallies have been banned and independent TV networks blacked out. Watch how journalists are trying to beat the blackout

The president has also widened powers allowing civilians to be tried in army courts for offenses such as treason and inciting public unrest.

A report from Brussels-based International Crisis Group — titled Winding Back Martial Law in Pakistan — denounces the United States and Britain for supporting Musharraf while offering limited criticism of his state of emergency, which the report says amounts to martial law.

The focus [of the United States and Britain] has been on the need for Musharraf to remove his [military] uniform and conduct elections — not on the necessity of restoring the constitutional order and the rule of law, the ICG report states.

The mistakes of the international response in the past to Pakistan are being repeated.

Washington fears that if Musharraf is removed from office, a power vacuum may be created in the nuclear nation that would empower the extremists that have set up a safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal regions.

But the ICG report roundly criticizes Musharraf for doing little to halt the rise of extremist groups in Pakistan during his eight years in power.
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