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Russian Education Minister Andrei Fursenko said Monday that Russian higher education can boost its reputation by teaching in English.

“English … is most commonly understood by students from around the world, and scientific literature is published in this language,” Fursenko was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

He also noted such a move could help improve the low world ratings of the country’s universities as Russia’s No.1 Moscow State University has been ranked 74th in the Academic Ranking of World Universities.

Currently, many Russian professors read lectures abroad in English while Russia’s leading institutions often invite teachers from foreign countries.

Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Exchange (SGX) on Tuesday launched the NTU-SGX Center for Financial Education that will offer courses relevant to the fast-developing markets of the region.

Speaking at the collaboration agreement signing ceremony, NTU President Su Guaning said that center aims to bring the practice of finance in Singapore and the region to a new level of excellence and sophistication by facilitating industry-relevant training and thought leadership for capital market professionals.

He noted that the establishment of the center rides on the wave of the positive economic outlook for Singapore with the government ’s growth forecast for 2010 upgraded to a blistering 13 to 15 percent.

He added that the center integrates the strengths of SGX, an outstanding exchange in the Asia-Pacific, with NTU’s Nanyang Business School, which is ranked among the top 30 in the world.

Nine Indian major trade unions Tuesday called for a 24-hour long nationwide bandh (strike) to protest against price rise and other issues such as disinvestment of public sector, retrenchment and entry of foreign capital in the retail market.

Bengal and Kerala, two states considered the stronghold of Communist Party of India — Marxist and leftwing unions it supports, are the worst hit due to the strike.

The impact of the strike was also seen in Manipur and Assam in northeast India, and Maharashtra in western India. But in most other parts of India, there was not much effect.

In West Bengal, more than a 100 flights to and from Kolkata were canceled by major carriers.

Jet Airways, along with its low cost carrier Jetlite, canceled 70 flights in all, Kingfisher canceled 29 and Spicejet and Indigo canceled 20 flights each. State-run Air India also rescheduled several flights.

There were very few taxis and cars on the roads. Most school and colleges were closed and offices saw thin attendance.

There was huge police presence in some parts of the city where Communist Party of India — Marxist and Trinamool Congress (TC) party workers came out in protest, shouting slogans.

In Kerala of south India, there was a near shutdown with normal life completely disrupted. Educational institutions and offices remained completely closed.

The 24-hour long nationwide bandh called by nine major trade unions also hit Assam, where all public transport was off the roads.

In Maharashtra, over 100,000 auto rickshaws and thousands of taxis across Mumbai went on strike in protest against the price rise of essential commodities.

A few city-based taxi and auto rickshaw unions decided to lend support to the nationwide strike.

Normal life was affected in Orissa in eastern India as well due to disruption of transport services and closure of financial institutions in the wake of the nationwide strike called by central trade unions.

Banking services were also affected at several places as the federations of bank employees joined the strike.

The Railways, however, was kept out of the purview of the strike as Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee opposed the strike.

The Left Front led by the Communist Party was supporting the strike called by the trade unions but urged people to keep it peaceful.

India has been experiencing double digit inflation for months.

Recognizing the early warning signs of dementia could make a key difference to the person’s quality of life, so the Singapore Health Promotion Board (HPB) has launched a campaign to raise public awareness of this disease, local TV broadcaster Channel NewsAsia reported Tuesday.

Early detection also allows the person’s family to plan care management for the person, the HPB said.

Through the campaign, HPB hopes to educate caregivers to recognize the warning signs of dementia, such as memory loss that affects day-to-day functions, difficulty of doing familiar tasks and confusion about time and place.

To improve the quality of life for those suffering from dementia, HPB is developing a tool kit that would help caregivers engage them at home.

It is expected to contain items like card games and songs that the caregiver could sing with the person with dementia, which will be available by the end of the year.

Called by major unions, French people across the country walked off jobs on Tuesday protesting the ongoing pension reform pushed forward by President Nicolas Sarkozy, which has heavily hit national traffic since Monday night.

The big national day of strike started Monday by secondary school teachers, which meanwhile protesting job cutting.

One teachers’ union Snuipp said 62 percent of teachers would go on strike on Tuesday, but Education Ministry announced a percentage of near 30 percent in the morning.

According to a statement by French national railway company SNCF, workers’ strike would last from 20:00 Monday night to 8:00 Wednesday morning, affecting trains linking French regions and neighboring countries except for England, because Eurostar traffic remained normal.

Though minimun service in transport for passengers is guaranteed, the state-owned company promised unconditional refund for commuters affected by the strike. Paris public traffic, air traffic are also partially canceled.

Air France announced 90 percent of flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle would not be interrupted but around 50 percent from Orly would risk cancellation.

Besides, as air traffic controllers are planned to join the 24-hour strike, the French Civil Aviation Authority also limited flights, affecting many airliners to France.

French government is pushing to raise the minimun retirement age from 60 to 62 in 2018 and prolong the full pension retirement age to 65. Despite of long propaganda for the reform, most workers didn’t buy the plan.

Union organisers expected to mobilize at least 2 millions of people to demonstrate across France as the reform bill is due to present to congress for debate this night.

“The only chance today … to change the reform… is to be numerous in the street on Tuesday,” Francois Chereque, leader of one major union CFDT, said to France 24.

Many public servants, postmen, workers with energy supplier EDF and hospital servicemen will also take part in the walk-out.

A weekend poll showed that over 50 percent of French people support the pension reform, but another poll by Ifop for Ouest France illustrated that 70 percent of the public support the strike.

President of Seychelles James Michel on Monday met with chen Zhili, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, with both sides pledging to enhance bilateral ties.

Seychelles President Michel said the development of the ties between the two countries has scored great achievements and the successful visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Seychelles in 2007 has pushed the bilateral ties to a new high.

The president thanked China for its support in the past years for the socioeconomic development of Seychelles and expressed the willingness to boost cooperation with China in all sectors.

President Michel said his country will continue to stick to the one-China policy and strengthen the cooperation and coordination with China both in the international and regional affairs.

For her part, Chen Zhili said China and Seychelles have enjoyed deep and traditional friendship and the two sides have exchanged frequent high-level visits, with political mutual trust deepened, cooperation in the sectors of economy, trade, culture, education, tourism expanded in the past years.

Chen said the two sides have also enjoyed close cooperation in the international and regional affairs.

She said 2011 will mark the 35th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between China and Seychelles and China is willing to join hands with Seychelles so as to bring the friendly cooperation between the two sides to a new level.

Also on Monday, Chen Zhili met with Speaker of Seychelles’ National Assembly Patrick Herminie during which she said China’s NPC and Seychelles’ National Assembly have enjoyed frequent exchanges and close cooperation which has played a positive role in promoting the understanding and friendship between the two peoples and enhancing the mutual cooperation in all fields of the two countries.

Chen said China’s NPC attaches great importance in developing friendly ties with Seychelles’ National Assembly and is willing to strengthen the exchange and coordination between the two legislatures in a bid to further development the ties between the two countries.

Herminie believes that the exchanges between the two legislatures will surely add new live to the ties between the two countries.

Schools in Mozambique’s Maputo and the neighbouring city of Matola are reopening on Monday, following a three-day closure caused by the riots in the country earlier this month.

A statement from the ministry of education distributed to all schools on Monday said the rioters had shown disrespect for the country’s laws, for the rights of citizens, and of children in particular.

It called on pupils to dedicate themselves to their studies, preventing schools from becoming a source of agitation.

It urged teachers to behave in an impartial and disciplined way, and to continue, through acts and words, to educate children, youths and adults in standards of loyalty, respect, responsibility and love for the country.

In central Maputo, traffic was flowing normally on Monday, and shops and banks opened at usual time. By mid-morning no disturbances had been reported.

According to local media reports, the government has ordered troops to support the police in their patrols of the city, particularly at the key points in last week’s unrest.

These include public transport terminals and city markets.

The soldiers have also helped in the clean-up operations, removing the remains of the barricades thrown up by the rioters.

Riots broke out over price hikes in the Southern African country last Wednesday, with at least six people killed and more than 100 injured.

According to a decision made in early August, the Mozambican government began last Wednesday to lift the prices of bread by 30 percent. The price hikes for water and power came to more than 10 percent.

Meanwhile, the riots have on Monday reached the western province of Tete, after Manica and Maputo last week.

A resident living in Tete told Xinhua that the bridge linking the main city and other areas was temporarily closed and a local market was vandalized. She added that the police contingent was strong enough to control the situation.

There are reports of shots fired by the police to disperse protestors, but it was not clear if they were rubber bullets or not. No victims have been reported yet.

The Country Director of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Monday urged all stakeholders in Afghanistan to take serious action toward improving access to quality, relevant literacy programm in the war-torn country.

“Improving Afghanistan’s literacy rate is a key development goal for the country, which has only 26 percent literacy among over 15-year-olds, and only 12 percent among girls and women over 15 years,” Shigeru Aoyagi told a joint press conference with United Nations Settlements Program (UN Habitat) and Rural Development advisor Sanjay Adhikary here.

He added that the Afghan government’s objective is to reduce illiteracy by 50 percent by 2015.

He also said that UNESCO and UN Habitat programs gave practical support to achieving this goal.

“Everyone in Afghanistan has a role to play and help reduce illiteracy. UNESCO and UN Habitat strongly urge all government ministries, NGOs (Non Governmental Organization), civil society groups and local communities as well as international community to celebrate International Literacy Day’s message of the power of women’s literacy and to continue their commitment towards eradicating illiteracy in the country,” UN Habitat advisor Adhikary said in the same press conference.

He said insecurity, motivation of the learners and quality of the teachers are the main challenges for the process of eradication of illiteracy in the country.

The fundamentalist Taliban regime banned girls’ schools and confined women to houses in Afghanistan during their six-year reign which was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Ugandan researchers have found dozens cases of HIV re-infection among the country’s fishing communities, a possibility unresolved and explored for long in the academic circle worldwide, local media reported on Monday.

A study of HIV-positive people in fishing communities on the shores of Lake Victoria in central Uganda has found that more than a quarter have “recombinant” viruses that might threaten both treatment and prevention efforts, according to the New Vision daily.

Citing the IRIN, a UN news agency focusing on humanitarian stories, the paper said some of the recombinant strains may have been the result of “superinfection” which occurs when an HIV- positive person is re-infected with another strain of HIV.

Of the numerous sub-types of HIV circulating worldwide, A and D are the most common in Uganda and were found in most of the 117 men and women surveyed from five fishing communities in the two districts of Masaka and Wakiso.

Meanwhile, the study also found that 29 percent had “recombinant” forms of HIV called A/D and D/A – evidence that re- infection has occurred, which can increase the likelihood of drug resistance to antiretroviral (ARV) therapy if a resistant virus is transmitted and could also speed up disease progression.

Now researchers in Uganda are looking for interventions aimed at educating HIV-positive members of the fishing communities around Lake Victoria about safe sex.

“We are starting to see transmission of viruses that are resistant to some drugs and need to inform even those already infected not to engage in risky behavior to avoid superinfection,” said Pontiano Kaleebu, director of the Basic Sciences Program at the Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute (MRC- UVRI) Research Unit on AIDS, which is conducting the three-year study.

The spread of recombinant forms of HIV could have implications for vaccines and microbicides developed to guard against only certain sub-types.

“We want to work with these communities and learn more in order to see how we can intervene, but also prepare for future research in vaccines and microbicides,” said Kaleebu.

The researchers also planned to conduct further studies to look into the extra high HIV prevalence of 28 percent in these communities, four times the national average.

Uganda has succeeded in reducing the HIV prevalence from 30 percent in the 1980s, to the current national average of 6.4 percent by implementing the ABC strategy which emphasizes abstinence, faithfulness and condom use.

However, there are concerns the country is losing the HIV fight with evidence of stagnation in prevalence and rising new infections especially in married couples, which prompted the country’s to adjust its strategies and launch fresh campaigns against AIDS.

The embattled Afghan government, in desperate efforts to ensure lasting peace in the country as part of new initiative, formed a High Council for Peace over the weekend to encourage Taliban insurgents to give up militancy.

Nevertheless, the militants, in a sharp reaction, fired rocket into the capital city Saturday night, although they have yet to release a statement and clarify their stance vis–vis the newly established peace council.

Established in the Presidential Palace on Saturday at a meeting with President Hamid Karzai on the chair, the members are several former Jihadi leaders including two ex-presidents — Burhanudin Rabbani and Sibghatullah Mujadadi, and seven women, a segment the Taliban had denied its right to education and equity with men during their rule collapsed in late 2001.

The Taliban insurgents, according to observers, would pay no weight to the newly established peace council as the militants had described Rabbani’s erstwhile government and his supporters as ” evil and corrupt elements” and had fought against them.

Since the Taliban outfit had fought against Rabbani, Mujadadi, other Jihadi leaders and confined women to their houses as part of its ideology, it would never compromise to its principle, observers believe.

The new peace entity, High Council for Peace, has been formed in line with the recommendation of the National Consultative Peace Jirga or assembly held in last June under a giant tent in Kabul.