ARGENTINA: Mining Funds Pose Ethical Conflict for Universities

An Argentine non-governmental organisation has warned that a mining consortium under scrutiny for polluting the environment has been funding public universities for the past two years, bringing into question the independence of any technical reports the universities may be asked to submit.

EDUCATION: Not This Romanian Way

One of three students in Romania studies at Spiru Haret University, the largest private university in the country. But more than 100,000 students, recent and older graduates, could be left without their diplomas because the authorities dispute the quality of education provided by the institution.

CUBA: What Schools Can and Cannot Do for Equality

They are sisters, just two years apart, and had the same upbringing and education, but they have completely different aspirations. While Ana, the younger, dreams of going to university and following a professional career, Marlén is only interested in boyfriends, getting married and living happily and quietly at home.

RIGHTS: No Safe Haven for Ugandan Girls

A year ago, a mother in Kashari County took the law into her own hands and castrated a man she caught raping her seven-year-old daughter.

MAURITANIA: First Steps for Women's Cooperatives

In December 2008, a group of young women staged a protest against the common practice of fattening women before marriage, intended to make them more attractive in the eyes of men. The protest did not immediately result in the end of the practice, but it was a landmark event showing a new assertiveness among Mauritanian women in a society where men use tradition and sharia law to maintain their dominance.

SOUTH AFRICA: Fight Sexism to Help Young Mothers

"My mother was surprised that my breasts were getting bigger, and told me to go to the clinic to take a pregnancy test. The nurses told me I was pregnant and so I cried. I cried because I thought I was too young to have a baby and I thought I wouldn't manage."

SOUTH AFRICA: Young, Educated and Unemployed

Unemployment among young South Africans is hovering at 30 percent, shooting up to over 60 percent for youths in their late teens and early twenties. But tertiary education and skills development seem not to be making much of a dent in what is now regarded as a crisis.

DEVELOPMENT-ZIMBABWE: Investor Absence Fuels Retrenchments

Forty-year-old Thelma Dube was this month told by her long-time employer to stay home. She will be called back to work when business picks up. Her husband got the same instruction, as did hundreds of other workers at the company Textile Mills in Zimbabwe’s second largest city.

URUGUAY: Rural Schools Threatened by Emptying Countryside

Cono Perdigón rides a bus that bounces its way down a dusty, pitted road to reach the rural schoolhouse where he teaches.

PARAGUAY: University Opens Doors to Native Students

Video camera in hand, Isidro Romero is getting ready for another day of classes in the Paraguayan capital. He is studying Communications as part of a programme aimed at breaking down the barriers that have blocked access to university level studies by the country’s small indigenous minority.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Shades of Abu Ghraib in College Ragging Rituals

As the annual scrimmage for coveted seats in India’s engineering and medical colleges gets underway, what many students dread is the sadistic ritual of ragging - or hazing - that they expect to undergo at the hands of their seniors.

EDUCATION-AFRICA: The Other Crisis

The World Economic Forum on Africa has just concluded in Cape Town. If government leaders and captains of industry called for an eight trillion dollar bailout for the continent’s beleaguered education system - like the one found for the world’s biggest bankers - it went unreported.

HAITI: Student Protests Rock State University

The National University of Haiti (UEH) has been gripped by crisis for the last two months, operating under the constant threat of student strikes staged to demand reinstatement of cancelled courses and an increase in the minimum wage.

DEVELOPMENT: UNESCO Race Wide Open

The contest for a new UNESCO director-general is now wide open with the addition of last-minute nominees for the post, following the controversy around leading contender Farouk Hosny.

LATIN AMERICA: “Sexuality Is an Essential Part of Humanity”

In an effort to promote the free enjoyment of human sexuality, separate from reproduction, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) launched the world's first declaration of sexual rights in the Argentine capital on Wednesday.

Q&A: “Indigenous Women Are Growing in Numbers and Influence”

The Canadian province of British Columbia is home to more than 200 native communities, or First Nations, ranging from about 20 people to over 3,000. As their size and level of remoteness varies, so does their economic development.

INDIA-AUSTRALIA: ‘Curry Bashing’ in Oz Sours Bilateral Ties

A series of bloody attacks on Indian students in Australia, that many are convinced have racial undertones, threaten to undermine efforts to build relations between the two Asia Pacific countries.

ECONOMY-US: One in Five Children Sinking Into Poverty

U.S. children’s quality of life is expected to decline through 2010 due to the impacts of the financial crisis, said a new report by the Foundation for Child Development (FDC), released on Wednesday.

EDUCATION-URUGUAY: Teaching Kids Forced to Grow Up Early

Tough and aggressive, 13-year-old José is a leader among his peers, and his classmates steer clear of him when he’s in a bad mood. When IPS visited his school in the Uruguayan capital, he wasn’t in his sixth-grade classroom with the rest of the students, but alone on the patio, which his head hanging down.

MALAWI: Separating the ‘‘Ultra-Poor’’ from the Poor – Why?

A group of civil society organisations in Malawi is pushing for changes to the country’s controversial social cash transfer scheme which has caused tension in communities as it attempts to separate the poor from the ‘‘very poor’’ in a country where some 65 percent of people live on less than a dollar a day.

MADAGASCAR: Education Hampered by Lack of Clean Water

Because most schools in Madagascar have no access to running water, lack of hygiene and sanitation have become a major problem for children on the Southern African island. Many pupils fall sick regularly, are unable to attend classes and hence don’t perform well at school.