Education Report

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

A new report says the number of foreign students in the United States reached a record high in two thousand eight.

More than six hundred seventy thousand international students attended an American college or university last year. That was eight percent higher than the year before, the largest percentage increase since nineteen eighty.?

The "Open Doors" report is published by the Institute of International Education, with support from the State Department.

It says the number of international students last year was almost fifteen percent higher than the last record setting year, two thousand two. In all, seven of the ten top countries sent more students last year, just as the economic downturn was worsening.

For the eighth year, India remained the leader in sending students to the United States. More than one hundred thousand students from India attended American schools last year. That was nine percent more than the year before.

China again sent the second largest number, more than ninety-eight thousand, and an increase of twenty-one percent. The biggest increases were in Chinese undergraduate students.

South Korea was the third. The number of South Korean students increased nine percent to seventy-five thousand.

Canada was the only non-Asian country in the top five. It rose two percent to fourth place. Almost thirty thousand Canadian students enrolled for the school year that began last autumn.

Japan fell to fifth place. The number of Japanese students in the United States decreased for the fourth year, to just over twenty-nine thousand.?

Taiwan also sent fewer students, and the number from Mexico was nearly unchanged.

The University of Southern California in Los Angeles once again had the highest number of foreign students. The "Open Doors" report says nearly seven thousand five hundred attended U.S.C. last year.

New York University and Columbia University, both in New York City, were second and third. The other schools in the top five were the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Business and management was again the most popular area of study for international students. The next most popular subjects are engineering, math and computer science.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by June Simms. You can find our Foreign Student Series with advice on studying in the United States at www.putblub.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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Health Report

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Smoking is the world's leading preventable cause of death. In the United States, smoking rates are down from the past, but cigarettes?still cause about one-fifth of all deaths.

Nonsmokers are also affected. Thousands in the United States die each year from heart disease and lung cancer from breathing other people's tobacco smoke. Secondhand?smoke also causes breathing infections in young children. It can even cause sudden death in babies.

In recent years there has been a strong push for local and state governments to ban public smoking. The American Lung Association?says half of the fifty states have passed smoke-free laws. Some measures are weaker than others. But many are comprehensive bans -- they include restaurants and bars as well as other workplaces.

Wisconsin and North Carolina both approved smoking bans on the same day this month. Wisconsin passed a comprehensive ban that will take effect in July of next year.

North Carolina passed a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars; it takes effect in January. The new law may not go as far as some would like, but the action is historic. North Carolina is America's top tobacco producing state.

Other proposals are being debated across the country.

Opponents argue that smoking bans cause job losses in restaurants and bars. As a compromise, some bans exclude these establishments. But new research rejects this argument.

Elizabeth Klein, an assistant professor at the College of Public Health at Ohio State University, was the lead author. She says the study was the first to compare the economic effects of different kinds of smoking bans. She says the study looked at restaurants and bars because research suggests that people who drink alcohol?are also more likely to smoke.

The study examined employment records for eight cities in Minnesota for a three-year period through two thousand six. These cities have differing policies on public smoking. The study also included two cities with no such restrictions.

Professor Klein says the employment differences were so small that they could not be considered significant. Communities with the strongest policies had nine fewer employees per ten thousand community members than those with partial bans or none at all.

The study appears in the June issue of Prevention Science.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by June Simms. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts are at www.putclub.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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Development Report

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Last week, the United Nations held a World Summit on Food Security. But the three-day meeting in Rome produced only limited measures to fight rising hunger. The U.N. World Food Program says more than a billion people -- one in six worldwide -- do not get enough food to be healthy.

The troubled world economy is not the only cause of recent increases. The poorest countries continue to face high food prices, which have fallen elsewhere. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says more than thirty nations continue to need emergency food assistance.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the food crisis has forced millions of families into poverty and hunger. He said six million children die of hunger every year. And he warned that food security is closely connected to the issue of climate change.

BAN KI-MOON: "At a time when the global population is growing, our global climate is changing. By twenty fifty we will need to grow seventy percent more food. Yet weather is becoming more extreme and unpredictable.?

The delegates in Rome promised to continue efforts to reduce by half the number of hungry people by two thousand fifteen. But critics pointed out that world leaders made a similar promise more than ten years ago.

Several countries promised to increase aid for agriculture, to help developing nations become more independent.

Still, critics deplored a lack of greater action. Leaders from more than sixty countries were in Rome. But Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was the only leader from a major industrial nation in the Group of Eight. An official from Kenya, Adam Barre Duale, said it showed a lack of unity in the fight against hunger.

ADAM BARRE DUALE: "We need both the developed world and the developing countries to come together and to give and support a global initiative in the war against hunger."

The Food and Agriculture Organization says more than forty billion dollars a year needs to be invested in agriculture to defeat world hunger. The growing problem has affected developing countries, but also industrialized nations.?

The government estimates that forty-nine million people in the United States were "food insecure" last year. That means their households, at some time during the year, had difficulty providing enough food for all members because of a lack of resources. Almost fifteen percent of all households were in that situation. And the Agriculture Department says the numbers may be even higher this year.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms. I'm Steve Ember.

Agricultural Report

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Today we discuss the greenhouse effect.

Farmers and gardeners have long used greenhouses to extend the growing season in cold weather. Now, hoop houses are gaining popularity. Hoop houses are sometimes called a temporary greenhouse or passive solar greenhouse.

A hoop house is basically a metal frame covered with plastic or other all-weather material. A common design looks like a high tunnel. Unlike a greenhouse, which uses a heating system, a hoop house is heated by the warmth of the sun.

Now, the United States Department of Agriculture has announced a program to help farmers who want to build hoop houses.

The department, through its Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, has been supporting a project in Michigan. That state has a short growing season.

As part of the research project, nine farmers were given materials and trained how to build and use a hoop house. The results showed that well-managed hoop houses can grow high-quality crops.

However, crops are not the only things that grow well. The research found that weeds grow faster in a hoop house. Weeding, seeding and watering requires at least as much work as crops grown in the open air. The researchers also advise growers to add compost material to the soil in hoop houses to build nutrients.

Eliot Coleman is an organic farmer and a writer in Maine who has helped popularize the idea of four-season farming. His ideas about hoop houses sounded good to John Biernbaum in the Horticulture Department at Michigan State University.

Professor Biernbaum tried hoop houses on the Student Organic Farm at Michigan State and had success. Project director David Conner says it was a "test drive" for the research on private farms. The agricultural economist points to the demand for locally grown crops. "People are hungry for good, fresh vegetables," he says.

Hoop houses for winter growing can even be found at the White House, where Michelle Obama has a vegetable garden. The houses are small because of limited space on the South Lawn.

A hoop house specialist at Michigan State University, Adam Montri, has videos on YouTube explaining how to build one. You can go to voaspecialenglish.com and find a link to his videos and also a link to our videos on YouTube.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Bob Doughty.?

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Health Report

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

H1N1 flu continues to spread. Currently the virus is most active in the northern half of the world. But experts say it has become the leading influenza virus in all countries.

No one really knows how many people have gotten sick. H1N1, often called swine flu, was first reported in Mexico in April. Countries are no longer required to test and report individual cases. But close to half a million confirmed cases were reported to the World Health Organization as of November first.

The W.H.O. offices for the Americas and the Western Pacific reported two out of three of those cases. The agency says more than six thousand people worldwide have died from H1N1.

W.H.O. special adviser Keiji Fukuda said last week that the virus has continued to act in some ways like seasonal flu. Most people recover without any need for interventions like antiviral drugs.

But in other ways H1N1 is different. It remained at unusually high levels in several countries during their summer months. And, unlike seasonal flu, younger people have suffered many of the serious cases and deaths from H1N1.

In the United States, cases of suspected influenza are at higher numbers than usual this early in the flu season. Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say hospital treatment for likely H1N1 is most common among children up to four years old.

Health officials around the world are concerned about vaccine production. Wealthy countries have promised to donate ten percent of their H1N1 vaccine to poor countries. But there is a worldwide shortage.

The traditional way to make flu vaccine is to grow the virus in chicken eggs. Anthony Fauci at the National Institutes of Health says the shortage is an issue of biology. He says the companies that make vaccines cannot really do much when they have a virus that does not grow well.

In Saudi Arabia, officials are preparing for the Hajj, which starts this year during the last week of November. The event normally brings about three million Muslims from one hundred sixty countries to the holy city of Mecca.

Disease experts worry that H1N1 could spread easily in the crowds. The Saudis have a campaign to vaccinate health workers. They are also urging countries to vaccinate pilgrims making the trip. And they are advising against travel by children, pregnant women and other groups at highest risk.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, go to www.putclub.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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Health Report

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Human genes are normally organized along forty-six chromosomes in our cells, twenty-three from each parent.

But some people are born with an extra copy of the twenty-first chromosome. This third copy is a result of a mistake in cell division. The name for this condition is Down syndrome.

A British doctor named John Langdon Down first described it in the eighteen sixties. An estimated three hundred fifty thousand people in the United States have Down syndrome.

Many babies with Down syndrome have low muscle tone, so they need extra support when they are held. Their heads are smaller than average and they can have unusually shaped ears. Also, their eyes often angle upward.

People with Down syndrome often have other conditions. These include problems with their heart and with their breathing and hearing. A lot of these conditions, though, are treatable.

About one in every one hundred people with Down syndrome will develop leukemia, a cancer of the blood. But the National Down Syndrome Society says many of these cases are curable as well.

As a result, people with Down syndrome are living longer. In the early nineteen eighties they lived an average of just twenty-five years. Today the life expectancy for someone with Down syndrome is sixty years.

But with that longer life, people with Down syndrome may have an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease at an early age. An estimated twenty-five percent of those thirty-five and older show signs of the brain-wasting disease. It slowly destroys memory, thinking and reasoning skills. Alzheimer's is usually not found in the general population until people are over the age of sixty-five.

Down syndrome is the most common genetic cause of mental retardation. Most people with Down syndrome are mildly to moderately retarded. Many, however, are able to attend regular classes with other students. And later, as adults, many are able to hold jobs and lead independent lives.

There are tests that can be done to look for Down syndrome during pregnancy.

The risk of having a baby with Down syndrome increases with the mother's age. The rate is one in every one thousand two hundred births at age twenty-five. At thirty-five it rises to one in three hundred fifty births. And at forty-five the rate is one in thirty.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, go to www.putclub.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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Economic Report

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

In recent years, a shining city grew in the desert of Dubai on -- and even off -- the Gulf coast. An island shaped like a palm tree was built for hotels, homes and entertainment.

In October of last year the same developer announced plans for the world's tallest building yet. But the economic downturn soon forced the Nakheel company to suspend those plans.

Dubai is in the United Arab Emirates, a thirty-eight year old federation of seven territories ruled by emirs. But, unlike its neighbor Abu Dhabi, oil has not fueled Dubai's growth. Oil is only six percent of its economy. Instead, the property and service industries have led its expansion.

Now Dubai finds itself in financial pain. And its reaction has some investors worried.

Last week, Dubai's largest investment company called for a six-month delay in paying some of its debts. Dubai World Group is seeking to renegotiate terms on twenty-six billion dollars in debt. All of it is linked to Nakheel, which is part of Dubai World.

The government owns Dubai World and will take control of its restructuring. But Dubai's finance chief said the government does not guarantee its debt.

Dubai World owes creditors a total of sixty billion dollars. The company is not an investment vehicle for the government like a sovereign wealth fund. It is a holding company for businesses in land development, port operations, energy and financial services. The group has used borrowed money for economic development.

Ghiyath Nakshbendi of American University in Washington notes that the problems are linked to a worldwide collapse in real estate prices.

GHIYATH NAKSHBENDI: "Emerging markets are as victim to the world meltdown as any other economy and there are no exceptions."

He expects the debt restructuring to be successful. He says Dubai and its leaders have too much to lose to let creditors -- like banks in Britain -- suffer losses.

Still, last week's announcement was a surprise. Now Dubai World is faced with selling properties at heavy losses to raise money. Some experts question how willing Abu Dhabi will be to rescue Dubai. Their relationship is sometimes tense.

Ghiyath Nakshbendi says Dubai World will have to change its ways.

GHIYATH NAKSHBENDI: "I think Dubai went a little bit too fast and they borrowed too much money in a very short period of time."?

Of course, Dubai was not alone in gathering debt during the easy credit years. There are worries that the crisis could be the first of more to come in other parts of the world.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

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