Watching the World

In the first year and a half of a crackdown on human trafficking, “Chinese police freed 10,621 women and 5,896 children who had been abducted.” Some 15,673 suspects were detained.​—CHINA DAILY, CHINA.

“More than 1,000 teachers have been sacked [fired] in Kenya for sexually abusing schoolgirls in the past two years. . . . A nationwide confidential helpline . . . showed that the problem was more widespread than previously thought.”​—DAILY NATION, KENYA.

According to one study, people who have used tanning beds have a 75 percent greater risk of developing melanoma than those who have never used them. Those who have used tanning devices for more than 50 hours are 2.5 to 3.0 times more likely to develop melanoma.​—CANCER EPIDEMIOLOGY, BIOMARKERS & PREVENTION, U.S.A.

“Only 8% [of Canadian brides-to-be] think that abstaining from sex before marriage is a good idea,” and “74% of couples already live together before getting married.”​—WEDDINGBELLS, CANADA.

Dangers of Polluted Water

According to a United Nations report, “more people now die from contaminated and polluted water than from all forms of violence including wars.” The UN reports that two million tons of waste​—agricultural and industrial, as well as sewage and so on—​are discharged every day into rivers and seas, spreading illness and damaging ecosystems. Moreover, every 20 seconds, a child under the age of five dies from water-related disease. Says Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme: “If the world is to thrive, . . . we need to get collectively smarter and more intelligent about how we manage waste.”

Singing to Recuperate Speech

A number of patients who have lost the power of speech after a stroke have been helped to regain it by singing. Neurologists encourage stroke patients to sing what they want to say, putting their thoughts to rhythms and melodies. The treatment, called melodic intonation therapy, has produced dramatic results. After 15 weeks of therapy, “patients gradually learn to turn the sung words into speech,” explains The Wall Street Journal.

“Explosion of Classroom Cheating”

In a survey of 20,000 first-year university students in Canada, 73 percent “admitted to committing one or more serious acts of academic dishonesty on written work while in high school,” says the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL). One university reported that cases of cheating and plagiarism increased by 81 percent between the years 2003 and 2006. “Over the past decade,” says Dr. Paul Cappon, president of CCL, “internet and high-tech devices have enabled a virtual explosion of classroom cheating.”