By Lorna Nickson-Brown

BIRMINGHAM, UK – Teenagers in Birmingham, England, are looking at their science lessons and their own pets in a new light after new research carried out by Imperial College London has found serious inherited health problems in pedigree dogs after decades of inbreeding.

The study, published in May in the scientific journal Genetics, found that breeding dogs for physical traits, such as the Dalmatian’s black spots or the bulldog’s massive head, favors appearance over health. The result could be any of a long list of genetic conditions, including arthritis, epilepsy and thyroid abnormalities.

By Sultan Mehmood

GILGIT, Pakistan – Young people in Pakistan can't vote for the next president of the United States. But like others around the world, they are watching the last days of the campaign closely. And young Pakistanis, particularly in Gilgit, the capital city of Pakistan's northern territories, have more reason than most inhabitants of this planet to care which candidate wins on Nov. 4.

While U.S Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, has said he would seek talks with Pakistan’s new government, Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, has pledged to pursue Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters across the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan’s northern tribal areas.

By Mark Robert Benson Baldo

MAKATI, Philippines – Students from a high school in the Philippines have helped launch a sanitation program meant to help them stay healthy and in school.

A pilot school for new sanitation initiatives, the Makati Science High School received sanitation kits for all of its students and a refilling center. The program was funded by a group of organizations led by CityNet, a network of Asia-Pacific municipalities that manages human settlement. The group also included the Philippines division of Unilever, the soap manufacturer.

By Thuy Nguyen

HO CHI MINH CTY, Vietnam – This past summer, teenagers in Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam, flocked to join the Red Flamboyant Campaign (RFC), a volunteer organization of high schoolers whose goal is to work for the good of the community.

“I think all students in Ho Chi Minh City have heard of it,” said Kim Anh, an 18-year-old graduate of Tran Phu High School. The RFC is directed by the Youth Union Central, a popular Vietnamese youth organization, and was named after a kind of flower representative of education in Vietnam. With 12,000 teachers and students joining in one month, the RFC is indeed expanding rapidly, as Anh suggests.