Green Package for ecology teachers
The OSCE projects coordinator in Ukraine presented the first component of the instructional complex “Green Package” — the Ukrainian version of a teachers’ handbook for teaching Ecology Education. The presentation took place within the framework of cooperation between OSCE and Ukraine’s Ministry of Education aimed at providing ecology education in the secondary schools in Ukraine, reports Ukrinform. It is planned that the handbook, designed in cooperation with Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science, will be used by secondary school teachers starting with the next academic year. The Green Package includes 22 topics in forming ecological culture, ecological thinking and consciousness, and promoting the principles of sustainable development. Since the Green Package was created in 2001, its conception has been implemented in 14 countries of the OSCE region, including Belarus, Bulgaria, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, and Hungary.
Cyclone kills over 100 in India and Bangladesh
A violet tropical cyclone has killed over 100 people in the frontier areas of India and Bangladesh. The natural calamity affected the north east of the Indian states West Bengal and Bihar as well as state Rangpur in Bangladesh. According to local police, the wind was up to 160 kilometers an hour. An estimated 50,000 buildings were destroyed, with thousands of people presumably remaining under the debris. The cyclone was preceded by heavy rains. The frontier areas of West Bengal were the worst hit, as the storm disrupted power supply and telecommunications and damaged railways and motorways. The authorities have sent medicines and food to the affected areas. Rescuers are building temporary shelters for the local residents who remained homeless. The cyclone came amid unseasonably high temperatures across much of northern India, where the mercury is already above 40 degrees Celsius in many areas, which has boosted the number of heat-related deaths. According to the authorities, 47 local residents have died of overheating since the beginning of this month in the state of Orissa alone.
Muslim theologians ban financing terrorism
Saudi Arabia’s Senior Ulema (Shariah theologians) Council has given the final definition of terrorism, criminalized terrorist actions, and banned financing terrorism as an unacceptable religious practice. According to the Saudi media, the Senior Ulema Council, which held a three-day extraordinary closed-door meeting in Riyadh, has brought in “an unprecedented and historic verdict about terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and announced a ban on financing it.” The highest Saudi theologians included a definition of terrorism which was confined to descriptions, saying that these include “targeting public resources, spreading corruption, hijacking planes, and bombing buildings.” The theologians emphasized that financing terrorism “has nothing to do with charitable work which, according to Shariah Law principles, should target the poor and the building of hospitals and schools.” Incidentally, it was recently reported that the London-based influential Muslim preacher Tahir ul-Qadri intends to issue a worldwide fatwa against terrorism and suicide bombers, which will deprive Al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations of an ideological foundation.
