Washington D.C.
George W. Bush has nominated a former athletic director and dean of Texas Southern University as education secretary. Rod Paige has been superintendent of the Houston Independent School District since 1994. He graduated from Jackson State University and took a doctorate in physical education before joining Texas Southern, a black university, as a coach.
Pristina
Faculties of journalism, political science and business at the revamped multi-ethnic University of Pristina in Kosovo are to be established with the help of a Pounds 150,000 donation from the British government. English language courses will be set up to help academic staff forge closer links with other universities.
Montreal
A former employee of the Universite de Montreal will be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to fraud following the loss of more than C$1 million (£445,837) on a business school construction contract he had overseen. Adrien Lacombe changed his plea to guilty and admitted receiving C$603,000 in bribes.
Prague
A Czech publisher has been fined £35,000 and given a three-year suspended sentence for publishing an unannotated edition of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf . Czech law allows for the publication of the book only with notes making it clear the publisher does not support Nazism. The judgment said Michal Zitko, who has appealed, was promoting Nazism through the publication of the book.
Quito
Students at the Universidad Central del Ecuador say government reforms to the Ecuadorian higher education system have added five subjects to their courses and drastically reduced the number of medical graduates.
Beijing
China expects to reach its goal of 15 per cent of those aged between 18 and 22 enrolled in higher education ahead of the 2010 target date, according to vice-minister of education Wei Yu.
Madrid
Opposition politicians have challenged Spanish education minister Pilar del Castillo to produce evidence for her allegation in an article in an economics magazine. She wrote that "half of grants are obtained by families who do not declare their real level of income".