Warnings in my string class and a couple of other questions

Hi,
Icreated the following string class and I am getting a coupleofwarnings. Not sure if this is because I have a main in in here to test. The warnings are:

(11) : warning C4996: 'strcpy' was declared deprecated
string.h(73) : see declaration of 'strcpy'
        Message: 'This function or variable may be unsafe. Consider using strcpy_s instead. To disable deprecation, use _CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE. See online help for details.'
c:\documents and settings\administrator\my documents\visual studio 2005\projects\string\string\string.cpp(17) : warning C4996: 'strcpy' was declared deprecated
string.h(73) : see declaration of 'strcpy'
        Message: 'This function or variable may be unsafe. Consider using strcpy_s instead. To disable deprecation, use _CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE. See online help for details.'

The code is below

#ifndef strings_H
#define strings_H
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class String {
public:
      String(const char* strings ="", int len = 0):length(len){
          cout<<"\nConstructor is Called, new String object is created"<<endl;
            str = new char[length+1]; //allocate memory
            strcpy(str, strings);
      }

      String(String &strings): length(strings.length){
            cout<<"\nCopy Constructor is called: A String object is copied to another String object"<<endl;
            str = new char[length+1]; //allocate memory
            strcpy(str, strings.str);
        }
      String operator=(String strings){
          cout<<"\nAssignment Operator is called, a String object is assigned to another String object"<<endl;
            return String(strings);
      }
      ~String(){
            cout<<"\nDestructor is Called: Stirng object is Destroyed"<<endl;       
            delete [] str;
        }

private:
      int length;
      char* str;
};
#endif

int main(){
String str("Hello", 5);
String str1("World", 5);

String str2(str1);

str = str1;
return 0;
}

I also have a couple of other questions. Can you give me an opinion as to whetrher my program meets the following requirements?

Implement a simple string class in native C++ that holds a char* and an integer length as

private data members. Provide a constructor which takes an argument of type const char*,

and implement the copy constructor, assignment operator and destructor functions. Verify that

your class works. You will find it easiest to use the string functions from the <cstring> header

file. Create a main to test your class. All methods should be exercised (including the copy constructor and destructor (never called directly)).