And we are off and running. A big thanks to Mr. Bechsel's class for helping us kick off our last week of the school year. I am Carl Azuz, as you heard them say. Let's go ahead and get to some of today's headlines.

First up, Syria's president says his government is the target of an international conspiracy . And many world leaders have accused Syrian government forces of carrying out a massacre against civilians recently.

But in a speech yesterday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his government's forces had nothing to do with it. He said, quote, "Even monsters do not do what we saw." Al-Assad blamed the violence on terrorists.

From the crisis in Syria, we're heading to a country that went through a political revolution last year. We're talking about Egypt. For nearly 30 years, that country was run by a man named Hosni Mubarak. The protest and an uprising forced Mubarak out of power. He was put on trial for ordering the killing of protesters during that revolution. He said he didn't violate any laws.

Mubarak, who's wearing sunglasses here, was found guilty. Over the weekend, he and one of his former officials were sentenced to life in prison. That decision led to new protests. Some people were angry that Mubarak wasn't given the death penalty. Others were upset that six other former officials were cleared of the same charges.
Mubarak's lawyer said he's planning to appeal the verdict.

Today's Shoutout goes out to Mr. Runion's social studies classes at Nome-Beltz Jr.-Sr. High School in Nome,Alaska.

What part of the U.S. government collects and releases the national unemployment rate? Here we go. Is it the Commerce Department, Treasury Department, Labor Department or Interior Department? You've got three seconds, go.

Unemployment information is collected by a division of the Labor Department. That's your answer, and that's your Shoutout.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics ,which is part of the Labor Department, releases that unemployment information every month. Last Friday, the agency put out the new numbers for May, and most analysts agree the news is not good.

The national unemployment rate went up from 8.1 percent in April to 8.2 percent in May. That is the first time that this rate has increased since last June, and the economy added jobs, but only 69,000 of them last month, when economists had predicted that the number would be closer to 150,000.

The news hit Wall Street hard. After the unemployment rate came out, the stock market took a dive. Any gains that had been made so far this year were all wiped out on Friday.