CNN 2012-02-15

 Alright, it's true. The weekend is over and I'm sorry about that, but that does mean it's the start of the whole new week of CNN Student News - that's a good thing. I'm Carl Azuz, bringing you today's headlines from the CNN news room in Atlanta, Georgia.

 
If you've been on the Internet or on Twitter or if you've watched last night's Grammy awards, you know about the death of Whitney Houston. The pop superstar was found dead on Saturday. Officials are trying to figure out what caused Houston's death. She was 48 years old. Whitney Houston was a musical icon 1. The singer launched her career in 1980s. She sold more than 170 million albums and won six Grammy awards. And her success extended to movies too. In recent years, Houston made headlines because of her battles with drag addiction 2. There were reports she was making a comeback with new concerts and a movie in the works. There's more on Whitney Houston's life, death and musical legacy 3 at cnn.com.
 
Is this legit? A presidential candidate who wins a political straw poll is awarded delegates. Not legit. Straw polls are unofficial votes that indicate general opinions.
 
The general opinion expressed by one recent straw poll is that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt 4 Romney is the leading Republican presidential candidate. The poll was taken at the CPAC conference last week. That's the Conservative Political Action Committee. It's an annual meeting of political conservatives in Washington D.C. The straw poll doesn't officially affect the race for the Republican presidential nomination 5. What is official are the results of Maine's Republican caucuses 6. They wrapped up on Saturday and former Governor Romney came in the first place there as well. He got 39% of the vote. Representative Ron Paul was a close second with 36%. Former Senator Rick Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who didn't do much campaigning in Maine, came in third and fourth places.
 
The Arab League is trying to figure out what it might do about the crisis in Syria. The group is considering sanctions or penalties against Syria. It's also  talking about sending military experts into the country to examine the violence there. Syria says it rejects any decision that the Arab League might make. Ivan Watson has the latest on the crisis.
 
Residents of the besieged 7 Syrian city of Homs awoke once again at dawn on Saturday morning to another day of sustained bombardment from the Syrian military - that is routine - a deadly routine they have lived for, for the better part of a week, a routine that has killed hundreds of people and wounded hundreds of more at the hands, according to the US ambassador to Syria, of the Syrian military. Take a listen to what Ambassador Robert Ford 8 had to say to CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Friday night.
 
"We know who's shelling Homs and it is not the armed opposition 9 groups. It's the government and that's why I wanted that picture put our Facebook account so that people can see there is the artillery 10 and that's what's firing at Homs right now. The armed opposition has rifles and has machine guns and even has a few rocket-propelled grenades but it doesn't have artillery. Only one side in this has artillery."
 
The Syrian government has consistently argued since the beginning of this uprising nearly 11 months ago that it is fighting armed terrorists linked to al-Qaeda. That is how they have termed what started as peaceful protests around the country. Increasingly we are seeing signs that the opposition is resorting to the use of arms to fight back against the Syrian security forces. One Syrian opposition group claimed responsibility for killing 11 10 Syrian soldiers in the northern province of Idlib as a result of an improvised 12 explosive device and an ambush 13. Now Turkey has made an announcement, the Turkish foreign minister visiting Washington, that it is going to start a process, going to apply to the United Nations at its headquarters in Geneva to try to find some way to start sending humanitarian 14 aid to Syria. The potential obstacles to trying to send aid in would be significant and would probably require the permission of the Syrian regime itself, which is accused of encircling cities like Homs and preventing fresh supplies of food and basic medicines. Ivan Watson, CNN, Istanbul.