Iraqi Boy Recovers From Horrific Attack

伊拉克男孩死里逃生

CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: CNN STUDENT NEWS starts right now. I`m Carl Azuz. First story today, more threats from North Korea. The country says it`s telling certain military units to be ready to fight. Military units that can target South Korea and some U.S. Bases in the Pacific.

Two main reasons why the North is angry: one, the United States and South Korea who were allies had been practicing military drills like this one as they do every year. Two, the United Nations is punishing North Korea for a nuclear program that they are not supposed to have. And North Korean government Web site showed this a few days ago: the White House in crosshairs, in a simulated attack on the U.S. Capitol building. The U.S. Military says it`s fully capable of defending itself and its allies against any possible attack from North Korea.

Part of the challenge of dealing with North Korea is it`s made these kinds of threats before, sometimes to get attention, sometimes to get other countries to give them what they want.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are so many threats streaming out of North Korea these days, it`s hard to know which ones, if any, to take seriously. Certainly Pyongyang is not believed to have the capability to effectively strike at the United States. And observers are left puzzling at what on Earth this secretive increasingly belligerent country is playing at.

AZUZ: 2013 is the ten year anniversary of when the Iraq war began. It involved dozens of countries led by the United States fighting Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. He was deposed and later hanged for crimes against humanity. A lot was accomplished in bringing democracy to the Middle Eastern nation. But Iraq is still struggling to recover and there were a lot of dark stories that came out of the conflict including one of a random attack on a five-year old boy. Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows how far this boy has come, and teachers, so you know, some of the pictures in the story are graphic.

YOUSSIF: So, this is like our classroom, I sit in that seat over there.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It`s amazing to me what a typical American 10-year old kid Youssif has become.

YOUSSIF: (inaudible) faster.

GUPTA (on camera): This was Youssif, just five years old at the time. He was attacked by masked man right in front of his home in Baghdad. They poured gasoline on his face and then set him on fire.

(on camera): What`s the first thing you remember about all that?

YOUSSIF: I just like remember a doctor, then a sponge, it`s like huh.

GUPTA: In Iraq?

YOUSSIF: Yeah.

GUPTA: They had a sponge?

YOUSSIF: And they (inaudible) like scratching on me or something.

GUPTA: They were trying to take off some of the ...

YOUSSIF: Yeah.

GUPTA: ... burned skin.

(voice over): Youssif`s parents were desperate to see their boy smile again. So just months after the attack, they came to the United States with a single suitcase.

Their living expenses and their medical expenses, all of it was paid for by the kindness of strangers, and we have followed their journey since 2007. Youssif has had 19 operations, a total of 61 procedures to help correct the burn damage.

GUPTA: Youssif`s father still doesn`t want to show his face for fear of retaliation.

(on camera): Do you tell people what happened to him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have to tell them when they ask. I mean sometimes it bothers me when they don`t ask and they keep just looking. It`s really bothering me.

GUPTA (voice over): But it doesn`t bother Youssif.

He`s a happy kid. He`s smart. Confident. His parents say, he never complains, he never asks about the scars on his face.

YOUSSIF: This one, I could see that there is like one, two, three (inaudible).

GUPTA: Youssif`s parents say all of this still feels like a dream.

And do you have a hard time making friends at all?

YOUSSIF: No. It`s like - is it - like whenever a new kid comes like the next day, we`re like just friends.

GUPTA: Is that right?

YOUSSIF: Yeah.

GUPTA: Is anybody ever mean to you?

YOUSSIF: No.

GUPTA (voice over): Once victims, now a family, full of strength. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Canoga Park, California.

AZUZ: A couple of years ago a British high school student named Nick D`Aloisio created a smartphone application. He said he taught himself to code while using books and how to videos. So Nick made Summly, and it helped people find news and picture. Two years later, it found Nick a job: Yahoo! liked to look at the app, but it especially liked the technology behind it. So, the company offered to buy the rights to Summly. Nick accepted in a deal reportedly worth $30 million. He`s going to work for Yahoo! And since he still has a year and a half left of high school, he`ll be studying, too. One more interesting point here: Yahoo! Isn`t going to keep Summly around: it`s shutting down the app, but it`s going to use the technology that Nick invented in its own Smartphone apps.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s "Shoutout" goes out to Mrs. Lowther`s history classes at Stafford Schools in Stafford, Kansas. What city is hosting the 2013 men`s final four NCAA championship? Here we go, team: Is it Atlanta, Georgia? San Antonio, Texas, New Orleans, Louisiana or Indianapolis, Indiana? You`ve got three seconds, go!

The final four will be played early next month at the Georgia Dome in where else - Atlanta, Georgia. That`s your answer and that`s your "Shoutout."

AZUZ: And that`s the same Georgia dome that I can see from my desk here at CNN, from where I wrote this script, I just turned my head like you see here on Carl cam, and there is the stadium where the big bands will be held. It`s too bad the University of Georgia won`t be playing here in April, though another team, a true Cinderella story could be. While a lot of you might have heard of the University of Georgia Bulldogs, there is a good chance that only a few have heard of the Eagles. At least the Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles. Here`s George Howell.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A 15-seated team in the NCAA basketball tournament advancing to the Sweet 16, they defied the odds, but even with all the media hype and cameras rolling, these players still keep it loose on the court at a school most of the country had never heard of, even one of the team star players at bits:

(on camera): Before you got the offer to come here and play, had you heard of FGCU?

SHERWOOD BROWN, FGCU SHOOTING GUARD: To be honest, I hadn`t - and everyone heard of it. And I was actually going to school in Orlando at the time, and I never even heard of Florida Gulf Coast.

HOWELL (voice over): But now Florida Gulf Coast University is on the radar. And everybody is talking about them.

DAVID MOULTON, CO-HOST, "MILLER AND MOULTON IN THE AFTERNOON: A lot of people in Southwest Florida hadn`t followed this school until Friday night. We are a region of people from everywhere else in the country, and nothing unites us except the potential hurricane, and now we have something to unite us.

HOWELL: Since defeating second-seated Georgetown in their first-ever NCAA tournament game, then going on to beat San Diego State, the FGCU Eagles surprised everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody is so excited to see their little small town and their community at Fort Myers, we`re getting so much, you know, national attention.

HOWELL: Officials say sales at the schools bookstore shut up by 1000 percent this weekend with fans buying up t-shirts and team merchandise. And then there`s the story about the team`s coach, a self-made millionaire, Andy Enfield left it all to coach college basketball.

ANDY ENFIELD, FGCU COACH: We`re up (ph) on our offense, we play tough defense like Florida State did when I was there.

HOWELL: And now his team is winning the hearts of fans who had never heard of this school. George Howell, CNN, Fort Myers, Florida.

AZUZ: Well, we`ll be watching. Our next story today: should what you weigh determine what you pay when you fly? There is an economics professor in Norway who says that people and luggage who weigh more, should get charged more, but it might not be why you think. The professor says, this is about saving fuel and reducing pollution. The lighter an airplane is, the less gasoline it would use and the less carbon dioxide it give off. So, he is saying that people and their luggage should both get weighed before they get on the plane. Lower total weight could mean lower ticket prices, higher total weight could mean higher prices. On one hand, it would encourage people to bring less and lighter luggage with them when they fly. On the other, it would cost the airlines to put in scales to weigh everybody. And it`d take more time to get through security and the weigh in. Of course, there are other reasons why people might criticize or support this, and, of course, we`re talking about it on today`s blog. Swing by cnnstudentnews.com and tell us what you think. Please, remember, we can only publish first names on the blog.

We told you our last story today was about a deer in someone`s house. You might picture a nine point buck hanging over a fire place. This is a little deer friend. After finding a doe, a deer, a female deer in really bad shape, a veterinarian and her husband nursed the animal back to health, then they adopted her. She lives inside, has her own bed, helps clean the house. Not sure whether she is litter box trained, or gets walks, but she sure looks adeerable. In fact, when they found out how sweet she was, they just to make room (ph) in it. Even if you think the whole ideer of adeerpting a deer is a little deeranged, she`s really come to symbolize what her owners hold dear. That about closes the doe on today`s show, but we`re hoping your teachers will tell us what you thought at CNN STUDENT NEWS.com. Bye now.