Today's News

Woo Suk Hwang, the South Korean scientist whose research team claimed to have cloned a human embryo and created stem cells from it, admitted in a South Korean court on Tuesday that he had personally fabricated some data in a paper on the experiment but said that he had been tricked by junior scientists into thinking the bulk of the research findings were sound.

Spain's cabinet last week approved legislation that would give universities greater autonomy in faculty hiring but that critics warn could lead to a resurgence of academic inbreeding, long a problem in Spanish higher education.

Articles

Foreign students in at least one Russian city find themselves targets of increased xenophobic and racist violence.
Seven foreign students have been killed at higher-education institutions in the former industrial center of Voronezh over the past decade. (Photograph from AP/Wide World)

World Notes

'UNHEALTHY FOR RESEARCH': Spain's universities are plagued by "scarce competition" and low "geographic mobility" in recruiting professors, says a report.

TURNED AWAY: A professor from Greece, after being questioned about his political views by federal officials at a New York airport, was denied entry to the United States for an academic conference.

TITHING PROFESSORS: The University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, is requiring faculty members to hand over 10 percent of the income they earn from independent consulting and other outside work.

SAY YOU'RE SORRY: A Harvard professor wants a public apology from a Chinese economics journal and two authors he says plagiarized an article he had written.

DEATH THREATS: A campaign to eliminate the intellectual class in Iraq puts academics in danger, human-rights groups say.

THINNING THE RANKS: A wave of mandatory retirements at the University of Tehran raises fears of a political purge.

WHY NOW? A recent spate of death threats against university professors and students in Colombia leaves university officials guessing.

COOPERATION IN EAST AFRICA: Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda are working together to develop stricter oversight of their higher-education systems.