HEALTH-THAILAND: Avian Flu Campaigns Reach Schools

Grade 7 student Sakulrathna Muadkum says she knows what avian influenza is. "I saw posters of it and I will simply not eat chicken that died of the flu," the pupil at Watnuannoradit School, here in Thai capital, said nonchalantly.

BRAZIL: Women Turning Backs on Information Technology Studies

Women are increasingly abandoning information technology courses in Brazil, in line with a global tendency, warns the Brazilian Computer Society (SBC) and women professors in the field.

EDUCATION-ZIMBABWE: ”It Is All Zero Here. We Have Nothing”

Chippy Ncube, aged 6, jubilantly hurried home as soon as she received her school report. She could not hide her excitement at being the top student in her grade one class when schools closed for the holidays recently in Zimbabwe.

DEVELOPMENT: War-Torn Nations in Dire Need of Schools

Children in so-called conflict affected fragile states (CAFS) represent a disproportionate number of the world's out-of-school population largely because these countries are under-funded by international aid donors when compared to other low-income countries, says a report released Thursday.

ARGENTINA: Teachers in the Line of Fire

A violent police crackdown on a teachers' protest in the southwestern Argentine province of Neuquén left one teacher in coma and prompted unions to call a nationwide teachers' strike for Monday Mar. 9.

BRAZIL: Youth Still in Trouble, Despite Plethora of Social Programmes

The Brazilian government has a total of 45 different programmes targeting young people, according to the National Secretariat of Youth. Nevertheless, young people face high unemployment and are sucked into a spiral of violence in which they are both victims and actors.

EDUCATION-SOUTH AFRICA: ”Schooling That Hampers Development”

For 16 years, Themba was proud to be a teacher in South Africa but a wave of violence at her school has proven so nerve-wracking that she may leave the profession.

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Madrasas Resistant to Govt Pressure

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's plans to crack down on Karachi's religious schools and the violent sectarian and jihadi groups many of them support has been an outright failure, says a report released Wednesday by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG).

RIGHTS: Objects of “Charity and Pity” No More

A new treaty designed to promote and protect the rights of the world's 650 million persons with disabilities opens for signature at the United Nations on Friday.

EDUCATION-THAILAND: Full Marks for Ethnic Tolerance Class

School holidays, which begins here in March and ends in May, have taken on a different ring this year for over 150 teenagers from Thailand's southern provinces, where an increasingly bloody insurgency is raging.

DEVELOPMENT-MOZAMBIQUE: What To Do When a Cyclone Hits

Sandra Alberto (picture) was heavily pregnant when Cyclone Favio struck Mozambique earlier this month on 2 March, ripping the zinc roof off the house she and her two children had taken refuge in.

ROMANIA: Young Turn Away from Politics

Students in Romania have gone back to having student-like problems.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: MDGs Depend on Power Relations Changing

‘‘The people of Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta are poor not because they do not have resources but because they do not have political power. Those who wield power in Nigeria are building skyscrapers in Lagos and Abuja while there is nothing in the Niger Delta. It is the same at the global level.''

ARGENTINA: Digital Library for the Blind

Armed with a computer and their passion for literature, a group of blind people in Argentina have created the first digital library for Spanish-speaking people who are visually impaired. It already has some 20,000 volumes and over 3,000 subscribers in 40 countries.

BRAZIL-US: Social Activist Declined Invitation to Meet Bush

Rodrigo Baggio, founder of one of the best social inclusion projects in Brazil, which has spread to eight other countries, turned down an invitation to meet President George W. Bush during his recent visit to Sao Paulo.

LABOUR-THAILAND/BURMA: Education May Limit Abuse of Migrant Children

Troubled by the exploitation of migrant child on the Thai-Burma border, a labour rights group is seeking an unusual pact with the Thai government. The Migrant Action Programme (MAP) wants support to help educate the victims.

CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE: Success Stories Amongst Growing Numbers of Street Kids

Sixteen-year-old Bamanandoki Pitchou hasn't finished his apprenticeship in hairdressing yet, but he already has a small business. A former street child who lives in Kinsoundi - a suburb in the south of the Congolese capital, Brazzaville - Pitchou trains in the morning, and attends to clients in the afternoon.

CANADA: Peace Scholars See Shrinking Space for Dissent

Can Canadians have a fair debate on their military mission in southern Afghanistan when so many of the sources quoted in the domestic press are bankrolled by the Department of National Defence (DND)?

EDUCATION-US: Ivory Tower Still Blindingly White

A premier U.S. research institute has agreed to address possible racial discrimination in hiring, following a 12-day hunger fast by one of its African American scientists.

DEVELOPMENT-ZIMBABWE: A Herculean Effort Is Needed

‘‘You cannot talk of halving poverty when our country is going in the opposite direction. We are totally lost,’’ says Maxwell Tambarare, a teacher in Chiredzi, a region to the south east of Zimbabwe.

HEALTH-CHILE: Teen Pregnancy Bucks Global Downward Trend

She is only 24 and has already had three children. The first was born when she was 14, the second when she was 20, and the third, who she gave in adoption, was born just a few weeks ago. Her story is a reflection of teen pregnancy and early motherhood, which are on the rise in Chile.