■ UNITED KINGDOM
Mandarin for high schools
Teenagers in England will be able to study for a new national qualification in Mandarin, reflecting the growing importance of China as a global power, an exam board announced on Thursday. Students aged 15 and 16 can study the subject for their GCSE exams from next year, the Assessments and Qualifications Alliance said. The board said it was making the announcement to coincide with the start of Lunar New Year. The qualification will be available from September next year. Another, smaller exam board in England already offers a Mandarin GCSE.
■ EGYPT
Pileup kills 29 people
At least 29 people, including children, were killed and 16 injured in a traffic pileup blamed on early morning fog southeast of Cairo on Thursday, police and Egypt's official MENA news agency said. Three minibuses and six trucks crashed into each other because of poor visibility on the road to the Cairo suburb of Helwan, police said. Ambulances rushed to the scene where the death toll had been expected to rise because some of the injured were reported to be in critical condition. Each year, about 6,000 people die and 30,000 are injured in road accidents in Egypt.
■ ISRAEL
A drug for high pilots?
A drug used to treat impotence could help Israeli fighter pilots operate at high altitude, the Israeli military's magazine reported in its latest issue. It said a retired general plans to present to the air force the results of a study he conducted on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, where he found that tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis tablets, improved breathing in thin atmosphere. "The study's findings justify the continuation of tests with drugs of this type in low oxygen environments," an unnamed air force officer told Bamahaneh, the military's weekly magazine. An army spokeswoman said that there were no plans to use any such drug and a statement said the phenomenon of chronic oxygen starvation experienced by mountaineers and the immediate oxygen starvation that pilots suffer at high altitude are different.
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