Muara Teweh!

The Fayette County Area Vocational-Technical School Operating Committee Monday agreed to hire Michael Oppman as the school’s business manager.

Oppman will begin his duties at the school effective immediately. He replaces Greg Hensh, who was hired in February as business manager with the Laurel Highlands School District.

He was selected from a total of 20 candidates at the conclusion of a three-step interview process, according to Dr. Edward Jeffreys, director of the school. His annual salary was set at $55,000 with a benefits package worth approximately $15,000, according to school officials. The committee approved the appointment by a unanimous 9-0 vote. Three committee members were absent. » Read more after the jump →

Minister of Science and Technology Hoang Van Phong, head of the Vietnamese delegation to the conference, spoke highly of bilateral cooperative ties since the two countries signed an agreement on scientific and technological cooperation in August 2006.

The cooperation, he said, has helped Vietnam benefit from Japan’s scientific and technological advances as well as helped Japanese businesses make profits while investing in the Vietnamese market.

Also at the meeting, the Japanese Vice Minister of Culture, Education, Sports, Science and Technology, Toshiaki Endo, expressed his admiration for Vietnam’s economic and scientific achievements in recent years.

Vice Minister Endo said Japan has been interested in programmes concerning energy » Read more after the jump →

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.-(Business Wire) - ADTRAN, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADTN), is saddened to announce the death of founder and Chairman of the Board, Mark C. Smith. Smith passed away due to complications from pneumonia. In addition to serving as chairman of the board, and as one of ADTRAN’s co-founders, Smith served as CEO from the Company’s inception in January 1986 until his retirement as CEO in September 2005.

“Mark will be remembered for his role in establishing this company. His leadership and entrepreneurial vision helped grow ADTRAN into the successful company that it is today. Mark had a rich history with the Company that spanned over two decades. We are thankful that he drove each one of us to new levels of personal and professional integrity. We are grateful for the legacy that he leaves behind,” according » Read more after the jump →

MOGADISHU — Heavy fighting resumed on Friday in the Somali capital of Mogadishu as thousands of civilians fleeing the city streamed the streets.

“We are escaping with our children to wherever we can get security,” Mogadishu resident Yusuf Diriye told Xinhua, adding that all his neighbors in Wardigley district of Mogadishu have fled the city.

The fighting on Thursday, the fiercest since the Somali transitional government retook Mogadishu last December, claimed the lives of nearly 30 people and wounded more than 100 others, most of them civilians.

The latest violence came only a week after a ceasefire signed between Hawiye clan elders and Ethiopian troops led to a relative calm in the restive Somali capital. » Read more after the jump →

The United Nations Security Council said Iran should release 15 U.K. sailors seized in the Persian Gulf and called for an “early'’ settlement to the dispute.

Council members want “an early resolution to this problem, including the release of the 15 U.K. personnel'’ and have grave concerns over the incident, Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa, which holds the body’s rotating presidency, said in a statement issued yesterday in New York.

Iran should allow U.K. consular access to the naval personnel who were detained a week ago. Iran and the U.K. dispute whether they were detained while operating in Iranian or Iraqi territorial waters.

The incident heightened international » Read more after the jump →

The Humanists of Florida Association is pleased to announce its first annual journal. This year’s topic is the state of science education in Florida. In publishing the Florida Humanist Journal, HFA sets out to create high quality, thought-provoking periodicals on important issues affecting the state of Florida from a definitively Humanist perspective.

Because the members of HFA believe science is a conduit for improving our quality of life and that scientific literacy leads to rational thought and respect for free inquiry and enlightened behavior, this first journal paints a very clear picture of the state of science education in Florida. More importantly, it provides constructive ideas on how science education can be improved.

Gin Kohl Lieberman, the editor of the journal, former secondary education science teacher and designer of the educational program for the Carl Sagan Academy in Tampa, considered this project a personal odyssey: “There were so many things to address » Read more after the jump →

The objection to sex education in India is not a morality argument. It’s just that what we teach in most schools is totally out of date.

The current course is more biology of sex rather than the chemistry of it. India needs a new 21st century course for today’s MMS generation.

A teacher chats candidly with students of Class X in an elite Mumbai School. This setting is comfortable enough for a 15-year-old to ask anything, from abortion, menstruation, and pre-marital sex to even Viagra.

“Is there a law that if two people have sex and the girl gets pregnant, they have to marry,” the teacher asks them. » Read more after the jump →