UNESCO: Attendance not the only challenge to educating world’s poor
While school registrations have increased in poor countries around the world since the United Nations adopted “Education for All” goals in 1999, many children are not getting an education, according to a report from UNESCO. Unqualified teachers, lack of school supplies, absent educators and latent ethnic discrimination are among the many challenges that remain.
Most Darfur deaths related to disease
After a 2004 peak in violent deaths, nearly 80% of deaths in Darfur were because of diseases such as diarrhea, Belgian researchers reported in The Lancet journal.
U.S. airlifts 53 orphans from Haiti, expedites adoptions
The U.S. has airlifted 53 orphans from Haiti to Pittsburgh, the first of 900 children that had been matched and were in the midst of a three-year adoption process by U.S. couples. Visa requirements have been waived for the children, a first for the U.S. government.
New approach to malaria vaccine?
Scientists are working on a new type of malaria vaccine aimed at preventing mosquitoes from transmitting the disease instead of current efforts to protect individual people. While pesticide-treated bed nets and other initiatives have cut malaria rates in the developing world, scientists worry about the rising number of pesticide- and treatment-resistant cases.
Simple test could cut cervical cancer deaths worldwide
Wider use of a $2 test could help slash cervical cancer deaths across the developing world, British researchers say. Cervical cancer accounts for the deaths of about 300,000 women annually, with as many as 85% of them occurring in developing countries
