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Here is the assignment:You will write a TV news segment, which includes four elements – Reader, VO-SOT, VO and Package.There is no time limit to the segment, but each of the video elements does have a specified length.(PACKAGE)U.S. Approves Plan to Help Citigroup Weather Losses By ERIC DASHFederal regulators approved a radical plan to stabilize Citigroup in an arrangement in which the government could soak up billions of dollars in losses at the struggling bank, the government announced late Sunday night.The complex plan calls for the government to back about $306 billion in loans and securities and directly invest about $20 billion in the company. The plan, emerging after a harrowing week in the financial markets, is the government’s third effort in three months to contain the deepening economic crisis and may set the precedent for other multibillion-dollar financial rescues. Citigroup executives presented a plan to federal officials on Friday evening after a weeklong plunge in the company’s share price threatened to engulf other big banks. In tense, round-the-clock negotiations that stretched until almost midnight on Sunday, it became clear that the crisis of confidence had to be defused now or the financial markets could plunge further. (VO-SOT)UC students protest proposed funding cutsAbout 1,000 from across the state gather at UCLA, chanting such slogans as 'Bail out education.'By Ari B. BloomekatzNovember 24, 2008The undocumented student from Peru recounted a gloomy tale: She had to quit UCLA this fall because her family fell on hard times. She needed to earn enough money to re-enroll in her political science courses.On Sunday, 18-year-old Sofia Campos stood in front of hundreds of university students from across the state and asked how she was supposed to finish her studies if tuition keeps rising."Tell me," she said, "how I'm supposed to do that. Please!" Campos was among about 1,000 students who gathered in Bruin Plaza in the center of the Westwood campus to protest Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget cuts to higher education. The student protesters had been attending the annual Student of Color Conference, which is held each year at a different University of California campus and concentrates on how minority students can succeed in the university system. The students, who had just finished their two-day conference at UCLA, marched from the campus to the nearby Federal Building outside Westwood Village, where they continued their public appeal.The governor's proposed cuts, they said, would result in higher tuition, lower enrollment, larger class sizes and fewer student services.Schwarzenegger recently recommended a $65-million cut from the $3 billion in state money the UC system expected for the 2008-09 school year.He also recommended a $66-million midyear cut to the 23-campus California State University system, which has weathered repeated state cuts since at least 2002. Last week, UC regents threatened to place unspecified limits on freshman enrollment next year if they do notreceive adequate government funding, while the California State University system adopted a plan to reduce its 450,000 enrollment by 10,000.During their protests Sunday, the college students, angry at what they see as narrowing opportunities, chanted messages such as "They say cut back, we say fight back." They carried signs that read "Bail out education" and "Affordable education now."(VO) Astronauts finish longest spacewalk outside station By Chris BaltimoreReutersSaturday, November 22, 2008; 10:41 PMHOUSTON (Reuters) - Two shuttle Endeavour astronauts finished the longest of their planned spacewalks outside the orbiting International Space Station on Saturday, a nearly seven-hour effort aimed at cleaning and repairing a contaminated joint on the station's solar power array.Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Stephen Bowen returned to the station's Quest airlock at 7:58 p.m. EST after spending six hours and 57 minutes working in the vacuum of space as the station sailed about 225 miles over Earth.While astronauts worked outside the station, engineers on the ground puzzled over problems with a new water recycling system that was installed in the outpost's Destiny laboratory earlier this week. The device is designed to purify urine and other wastewater so that it can be used by the crew for drinking and for producing oxygen.NASA needs to have the system working before the station's crew size can be expanded from three people to six next year.A centrifuge in part of the machine that distills urine has shut down repeatedly since its initial activation on Thursday. NASA hopes to resolve the problem in time for shuttle Endeavour to bring back samples of the purified water for analysis on Earth.The shuttle is scheduled to depart the station on Thursday and return home to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida next Saturday.(READER) Airfares fall as oil prices dropBy Steve JohnsonMercury NewsPosted: 11/24/2008 12:00:00 AM PSTPrompted by a plunge in jet fuel prices, airfares have been dropping just in time for the holidays, offering a relatively bright spot amid the economic gloom.But don't get giddy yet.Although fuel costs have fallen 50 percent since July, the average airfare — which previously had increased as fast as fuel prices — has come down by only about 17 percent, according to an analysis of 100 U.S. travel destinations by Farecast, a unit of Microsoft.And while some experts say ticket prices are likely to slide further, others are skeptical, noting that the beleaguered airline industry desperately needs to ramp up profits."I am expecting 2009 to have some very stiff price increases," said Rick Seaney of FareCompare.com, which also tracks ticket costs. He feels that way because airlines have been aggressively cutting flights, which makes the planes they still fly fuller and increases competition for available seats.

• Release Date

  Nov 24, 2008

• Runtime

  00:07