THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2012
PAGE 3
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Associated Press
ASIA
Police stop violent protest with force
DHAKA, Bangladesh Police fired guns and used batons on crowds of stone-throwing opposition activists in several Bangladesh towns Sunday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 100, a news report and doctors at two hospitals said.
The opposition party said 1,200 of its activists were arrested, but the figure could not immediately be confirmed.
The main Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its key Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami are demanding an independent caretaker government oversee elections. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina scrapped the 15-year-old system last year, saying it contradicted the constitution.
The opposition, led by Hassina's archrival former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, says elections will be rigged if held under the current government and without a caretaker system in place.
Two men died from bullet wounds at a government hospital in the eastern town of Chandpur, physician Mahundunqui told The Associated Press by phone.
They were shot by police who fired at a procession of protesters trying to march forward by breaking a police barricade, the United News of Bangladesh agency said.
Separately, a youth died and four people with bullet wounds were being treated at a government hospital in Laxipur, another eastern town, said doctor Mohammed Nizam Uddin.
AFRICA
U.S. hostage kidnapped by gunmen
LAGOS, Nigeria A U.S. citizen kidnapped by gunmen in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta has been freed after a week in captivity, the U.S. Embassy said.
U. S. Embassy spokeswoman Deb
MacLean told The Associated Press on Friday that the man had been released after being kidnapped in Warri in Delta state on
Ock
Jan. 20. Maclean declined to offer any other details, citing privacy rules. Delta state police spokesman Charles Muka said he had not been informed about the man's release.
The freed hostage was identified
as William Gregory Ock, 50, of Bowdon, Georgia, by his sister, Dee Dee Patterson.
"The only thing we know is that he is safe and he is in a secure location." Patterson said by telephone.
It was not immediately clear whether a ransom had been paid to secure his release, though many companies working in the region carry kidnap insurance and simply pay a negotiated price to see their employees freed. Kidnappers had made contact with authorities previously and demanded a $333,000 ransom.
The attack Jan. 20 occurred outside a bank branch in Warri, one of the main cities in nation's Niger Delta. The gunmen attacked Ock as he came outside, shooting his police escort to death before abducting him, Muka said.
SOUTH AMERICA
Fire at rehabilitation center kills 26
LIMA, Peru — A fire swept through a two-story private rehabilitation center for addicts in a poor part of Peru's capital Saturday, killing 26 people and critically injuring six.
The "Christ is Love" center for drug and alcohol addicts was unlicensed and overcrowded and its residents were apparently kept inside "like prisoners," Health Minister Alberto Tejada told The Associated Press.
Six men rescued from the building were hospitalized in critical condition, said Peru's fire chief, Antonio Zavala.
The local police chief, Clever Zegarra, said the cause of the 9 a.m. fire was under investigation.
"There has been talk of the burning of an object, of a mattress, but also of a fight that resulted in a fire. All of this is speculation," he told the AP. "I've been here at the scene from morning to evening but for the moment the exact cause of the fire is not known."
One resident of the center on a narrow dead-end street in Lima's teeming San Juan de Lurigancho district said he was eating breakfast on the second floor of the center when he saw flames coming from the first floor, where the blaze apparently began.
Gianfranco Huerta told local RPP news radio station that he leaped from a window to safety.
"The doors were locked, there was no way to get out," he told the station.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A police officer stands next to a group of bodies outside the "Christ is Love" center for drug and alcohol addicts in Lima, Peru, Saturday. A fire swept through the private rehabilitation center for Saturday, killing at least 26 people and injuring 10 as firefighters punched holes through walls to rescue residents trapped inside.
EDUCATION
Summit addresses technology reforms for classroom use
ELISE REUTER
ereuter@kansan.com
Faculty and students met last Friday to discuss improving technology use in University classrooms. The meeting, called "Harnessing Information and Multiplying Knowledge," was the fourth summit in the "Bold Aspirations" program.
The "Bold Aspirations" program focuses on improving four themes at the University: transportation and energy, information technology, health and wellbeing, and building and sustaining communities. It plans to use the ideas from summit meetings
to create a strategic plan for each.
Sum m i t attendees specifically proposed using technology to make the classroom learning environment more hands-on with critical thinking.
The summit also suggested setting up a high-performance computing facility for University researchers, increasing bandwidth and incorporating more social media strategies to enhance classroom experience. "I feel like technology is being woven into everything," Anrenee Reasor, a freshman from Thayer, Kan., said. "My econ teacher uses a Twitter hashtag to answer questions outside of class."
Blackboard as a classroom tool, but summit attendees encouraged further technological expansion. The program strives to find ways to use technology already at students' fingertips to change the traditional classroom format.
LEONARD "KRIS" KRISHTALKA Summit planning committee co-chair
"I think most students are hungry for an interactive analysis of information, not just regurgitating the information," Leonard "Kris" Krishtalka, co-chair of the summit planning committee said. "We want classes to discuss why a subject matters, or how to think about it, instead of just delivering straight information."
Students already use
Besides participating in summits, "Bold Aspirations" has conducted research to improve ideas to better the University's technology use.
The program has created outlines for collaborations between different departments and hiring additional faculty that can carry out the program's missions.
"The plan over the next few years is for KU to hire 62 new faculty concentrating on the ideas in these four summits," Krishtalka said.
Edited by Christine Curtin
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