This is CNN STUDENT NEWS.
We're starting this week with a terrorist attack at ashopping mall that turned into a hostage situation.
This happened in the East African nation of Kenya, and the capital city of Nairobi.
The Westgate Shopping Mall is a popular place for Kenyans and people from other countries.
On Saturday, people were desperate to get out of the mall, some hid in stores, bathrooms orstairwells.
Kenyan soldiers and police officersresponded after gunman stormed the building and started shooting.
At least 68 people were killed, at least the 175 others were injured.
On Sunday evening, the Kenyan military said most of the hostages inside the Westgate mallhad been rescued.
And they were making every effort to end the situation.
An extremist Islamic group called al Shabab says it's responsible for this attack.
It's based in Somalia, a country that borders Kenya.
And it's affiliated with al Qaeda, the terrorist organization that's responsible for attacks aroundthe world.
The Westgate Mall in Nairobi is what security expert consider a soft target:
it's a place that might have less security, where terrorist could potentially cause moredamage.
Margaret Conley examined safety managers at these types of locations.
It may be more than 7,000 miles from Nairobi, Kenya to the United States, but the mallmassacre halfway around the world couldn't bring a tragedy any closer to home.
Washington D.C. resident Sara Head was inside the mall when shots were fired.
She kept hidden in the stairwell with dozens of others as the chaos unfolded.
So, we just waited in the stairwell for about an hour and a half, there were two individuals withme who had superficial gunshot wounds,
well, individuals in the stairwell with me, they were not with me, but there was about probably -I don't know, 60 of us.
There were a few floors worth of people.
The attack on this so-called soft targets raises the question about mall security on U.S. soil.
Could what happened overseas, happen here?
Soft targets are always attractive to terrorists because they are usually not defended.
It's very effective way of causing a lot of panic, a lot of damage very quickly and achievingobjective of terrorizing people.
Back in this country, one more that puts its security front and center, is Minnesota's Mall ofAmerica.
One of the largest enclosed shopping centers in the country visited by 42 million people a year.
I think that if you are looking for 100 percent safety, you should probably wrap yourself inbubble wrap and never leave home.
It even has something many government facilities do not.
This is a drill. Mall of America is now going into lockdown.
Twice a month without fail its tenants and its customers participate in a lockdown drill,practicing how to shelter in backrooms of stores to try to prevent casualties in an attack.
Yes, if something bad should happen here, we don't want our response to start with - and lawenforcement will be here and they will protect you.
We want to know what can be done until law enforcement gets here.
Even with heightened security an awareness of your surroundings may end up being yourbest defense.
For the average American citizen,
you go to the grocery store, you go to the gas station, and you go to the shopping mall, andyou go to a movie theater, you take walks in your neighborhood,
anyone of those situations could make you vulnerable if other people or another person is outthere determined to conduct an attack.
See, if you can I.D. me.
I'm a form of severe weather.
I occur in the Western North Pacific Ocean around China, Japan and the Philippines.
I'm the same type of storm as the hurricane or a cyclone.
I'm a typhoon, and my name can be traced back to a Greek word that means "violent storm."
