World watch

Washington
More American students are applying for aid to cover the cost of tuition, room and board. Some 55 per cent of undergraduates and 60 per cent of graduates asked for cash in 1999-2000, a rise of 5 and 10 per cent respectively over 1995-96. These basic costs rose by 9 per cent above inflation in the same period, according to the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study of institutional and government aid packages, published last week.

Beijing
Two US-based scholars of Chinese ancestry, Gao Zhan and Qin Guangguang, have been released on medical grounds by China 36 hours after being convicted of spying for Taiwan and sentenced to ten years in prison. The release came two days before the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, visited China.
 
Montevideo
The Uruguayan higher education authorities are studying measures to counter an increasing brain drain of young graduates to more developed countries whose foreign policies, they claim, are systematically designed to encourage graduates from abroad.

Rehovot
The head of the finance division of Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science has resigned after admitting that he had embezzled ILS21 million (£3.5 million).

Pretoria
Three of South Africa's historically black universities have overdraft facilities totalling R193 million (£16.4 million), minister of education Kader Asmal confirmed. They are the University of Transkei (R78 million), the University of Fort Hare (R65 million) and the University of the Western Cape (R50 million).

Rio de Janeiro
More than 80,000 staff at 25 of Brazil's federal universities have agreed to an indefinite strike in support of demands for salary and pension parity with the private sector.

Copenhagen
Copenhagen city council has shelved a plan to reserve 25 per cent of all halls of residence for students with social problems. Hostel leaders, students and the Danish minister of education opposed the proposal because a large number of students, including some 5,000 of the 12,000 students in Greater Copenhagen, are on waiting lists for such accommodation.