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News Bytes

Chinese lessons booming at US high schools
Americans, who usually seem to have an aversion to foreign languages, have apparently changed their minds. They make their kids learn one, but not Spanish or French, but Mandarin. Chinese lessons are in high demand at American high schools - they don't even have enough teachers anymore. More and more parents in the US make their kids take Chinese lessons to have them well prepared for communication with the economic giant in Asia. "Parents and people in the school business are beginning to see China as one big opportunity," says Michael Levine, vice president of the Asia Society located in New York. "The Chinese language is extremely hot at the moment." Many schools all over the country can hardly meet the high demand for lessons in Mandarin, the traditional Chinese. It is the most widely spoken language in the world. Still, Levine says "The question is: where on Earth, literally, are we going to find the high-quality teachers that we need to fulfill the demand?" According to the Asia Society already between 300 and 400 schools offer Chinese lessons to 25,000 to 50,000 students, and many more are waiting to receive the funds for it.

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Florida has most shark attacks worldwide
23 attacks in one year - nowhere else in the world do more people get attacked by sharks than in Florida. Mostly, the victims are surfers or swimmers.
Over the course of one year, there have been four fatalities worldwide. However, the sharks do not carry the main responsibility for the high number. Most cases of sharks attacking people occur, according to the International Shark Attack file, in a single US state: in 2006, no less than 23 attacks have been recorded in Florida - out of a total 62 worldwide. And those are only the cases in which the victims didn't provoke the attacks. Shark attacks have also been recorded in other US states. Apart from the US, seven other countries reported attacks in 2006, four of them fatal.

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DaimlerChrysler closes US plant
The automobile manufacturer DaimlerChrysler cuts 13,000 jobs at its troubled US subsidiary of Chrysler. One Chrysler plant will be closed down. After a meeting of the supervisory board, DaimlerChrysler chairman Dieter Zetsche explained that other strategic options would be looked into in order to support and expedite the reorganization program, and no option would be excluded at this point. Starting 2008, the third largest car manufacturer, which suffered losses of approximately one billion Euros in 2006, is supposed to be in the black again. The costs for reorganization will be close to €1 billion.

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First female president of Harvard University
This is a complete novelty in the 371-year history of US Ivy League school Harvard University. Drew Gilpin Faust is the first female president of the university, which is the oldest one in the US. On Sunday, the 59-year old historian was named as the successor of former US Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers. She will take office on July 1. Her predecessor Summers had to resign after being criticized for making some extremely sexist statements. With the appointment of Faust, four of America's Ivy League universities are now being run by women. Harvard University has a staff of approx. 25,000 and a budget of roughly three billion Dollars.