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STUDENT NEWS

President Obama, Pope Francis Agree to Concentrate on Poverty; Devastating Fire in Historic Neighborhood of Boston; Rising Price of Breakfast; Difficulties of Searching for Missing Plane

Aired March 28, 2014 - 04:00:00   ET

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


CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: Fridays are awesome. This is CNN STUDENT NEWS. Ten minutes of current events with no commercials. I`m Carl Azuz. Today`s show begins in Europe. A leader of the free world and a leader of a worldwide religion met for the first time yesterday. Relations between President Obama and Pope Francis have been strained over disagreements concerning issues like abortion and certain aspects of Obamacare. So, the two heads of state focused mainly on the things they do agree on like helping the poor and fighting human slavery. They met in private for an hour after exchanging gifts. The president gave the pope seeds to plant, and a custom-made timber box. The pope gave the president two medallions symbolizing peace between hemispheres and a copy of the Pope`s book "The Joy of the Gospel."

In the historic neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, a fire broke out Wednesday in a four story building? A fire chief said in his thirty years of service, he`d never seen a blaze travel so fast, escalate so quickly and cause so much damage in so little time. This was a nine alarm fire, a measure of the number of firefighters who got involved. More than 150 of them arrived to help, and two of them died after rushing into the burning building and saving several people who`d been trapped on the upper floors.

New England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady saw the fire and discussed it and the heroes who fought it on the radio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BRADY: I feel so badly for the family of the two firefighters that were lost and, obviously all the men that were associated with fighting that fire yesterday, losing, you know, one of their close friends. So. I mean we as athletes think - that were here, that when you witnessed firsthand, you know, what I saw yesterday, you realize who the real heroes are in this world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

It`s been a frustrated and incredibly difficult search. Almost three weeks after a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane vanished with 239 people aboard. Nothing has been recovered. Satellites` sightings of suspected debris are being reported daily now, focused on the southern Indian Ocean, but search planes have yet to pinpoint anything so that ships can recover it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fleet searching the southern sector to find this missing airplane, is really quite impressive. There are 11 aircraft, five ships from these various countries out here. They are scouring the water, but all you have to do is look at the map to realize why this remains a difficult job. Look at the distance from Perth where they are flying out - the planes, and where these objects were spotted in the latest satellite images. That`s 1600 miles. That means the tremendous amount of energy and times spent (ph) just getting back and forth every single day.

Here`s another way to look at it. If you consider the overall southern search area, of some 621,000 square miles, by the time they handle all this travel, and get into position and look around for a while. Basically, what they can search is about five percent of the zone every day. That means, in perfect weather, with perfect equipment, everything going right and we take them 20 days to get through this sector.

Even if you narrow that down, even if you say we are not doing the big sector, we are just doing the small area up here, which is described as being about the size of Denver. So, 12.5 miles by 12.5 miles. That`s what the math works out to here.

Imagine taking off from Washington, D.C. in the morning with a search crew, and you have to fly all the way across the country, out here across the Great Plains to Colorado and then when you land in Colorado, you have to move on up to Denver, and then in Denver you have to fly over the city and you have two or three hours to try to spot a particular mailbox or trashcan or car And if you do not spot it, you have to turn around and fly all the way back to Washington D.C. to get more fuel and a little sleep and come back and do it again the next day. That`s why this remains such a daunting task.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time for "The Shoutout." What is the translation of the terms El Desayuno, La Colazione and Petit Dejeuner? You know what to do. Is it - animal, breakfast, currency or desire? You`ve got three seconds, go.

If you`re taking a class in Romans language, you`ll know that these are terms for breakfast. That`s your answer and that`s your shoutout.

AZUZ: Breakfast has been called the most important meal of the day, and chances are you`ll be calling it more expensive in the days ahead. The price of many of the things we eat for breakfast is going up. There are tangible direct reasons for this. Such as a virus that has killed millions of pigs in the U.S. Other reasons, will combine to make breakfast prices harder to digest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For some talking (ph) into a fry-up is the perfect way to start the day. Full of fat and grease, they have satisfied customers for years. But this English staple could be under threat from higher prices.

Take this full English breakfast, for example. Everything on this plate - with the exception, perhaps, of the - being just actually increased. But even if you decide you don`t want this, you want something light or something like toast or cereal, well, that`s going up, too.

Market on (INAUDIBLE) sausages and bacon have jumped more than 40 percent this year, after deadly U.S. fire has caused a decline in the nation`s pig herd. And if you want to soak it all up with toast, well, prepare for some geopolitical indigestion. Wheat prices have soared 17 percent so far this year, impacted by the crisis in the Ukraine.

KONA HAGUE, HEAD OF AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES RESEARCH, MACQUARIE BANK: They are the largest - one of the largest corn producers and one of the largest wheat exporters as well. So, when we look down and we realize Crimea alone, which is part of the - accounts for about ten percent of Ukraine`s exports, that could potentially be disruptive should the political situation escalate.

SOARES: Even if you just want liquids, well, that may also leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth.

Well, coffee is up almost 59 percent this year alone, following one of the worst ever droughts in Brazil. The world`s biggest coffee producer.

The dry weather has also impacted the orange harvest. With orange juice up ten percent so far this year. And cocoa is up 12 percent, as the world braces for the El Nino weather phenomenon, which brings heavier rains to places like South America and India and drought conditions in Australia.

JONATHAN PARKMAN, HEAD OF AGRICULTURE, MAREX SPECTRON: The difference between supply and demand in any given year is relatively tight at the moment, cocoa prices have risen by roughly 50 percent during the last 12 months. And any - any weather threat comes along at the moment could have a dramatic effect on further increasing prices.

SOARES: Perhaps, then, best to stick to water.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: We always welcome your feedback. If you are on Facebook, we are at Facebook.com/CNN STUDENT NEWS. If you are on Twitter, we are at CNN STUDENT NEWS and at CarlAzuzCNN. And if you are at least 13 years old, you can comment on our transcript page at cnnstudentnews.com.

Some of yesterday`s comments: Evan says he agrees with Northwestern University football players who want to unionize. "As an athlete", he says, I`d like to have full coverage by the college due to an injury. Gemetria disagrees, saying "They are not employees. They are students who get an education. And also, employees pay taxes and students don`t. Ms. Lewis says, "The video of how choppy and rough the seas are in the Indian Ocean really got through to her students about why it`s so hard to find the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Matt said the fish and wildlife story about the transfer of salmon by truck, was something he`d never really heard of before.

And Eric predicted that the Girl Scouts member who broke the record for most cookie boxes sold will be a great business person someday.

Some viewers in the hawk eye state lead off today`s CNN STUDENT NEWS "Roll Call." Le Mars Community High School, the bulldogs are hunkered down in Le Mars, Iowa. Same mascot as my college alma mater. Then, it`s south to Laredo, Texas. The Panthers are stocking CNN STUDENT NEWS. Good to see you online at United South High School. And no man is an island, but many live on Rhode Island, and that`s where we are saluting the Centennials of Smithfield High School.

How old do you think Batman is? I don`t mean Christian Bale or George Clooney. I mean Batman the character. Believe it or not, the caped crusader has been saving lives and vanquishing villains for 75 years. It all started in May of 1939 with detective comics number 27. The book cost ten cents then. A vintage copy in good condition recently sold for more than a million dollars. The next film is in the series, which also involves Superman, is scheduled for 26. So, that`s when Batman returns, which ironically came out before Batman begins. I wonder if they`ll be making sequels of Batman forever. The difference between some of them is like day and night. But these puns are robin us of all our time. I`m a bit of a joker, but certainly no comic. We`ll say good bye now. Penguin again Monday and we hope you`ll book ten minutes for us.

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