Boat carrying 40 school children capsizes in western India

A boat carrying 40 school children capsized in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Dahanu in western Indian state of Maharashtra on Saturday, officials said.

4 children dead after school bus, train crash in France

Four children were killed and 19 are reported injured after a school bus collided with train Thursday in southern France.

China’s smoggiest city closes schools amid public anger

China’s smoggiest city closed schools Dec. 21 as much of the country suffered its sixth day under an oppressive haze, sparking public anger about the slow response to the threat to children’s health.

Closure of schools in Tehran extended due to alarming air pollution

Kindergartens and schools will remain closed for a second consecutive day on Tuesday due to heavy air pollution, Press TV reported on Monday.

Emergency meeting called over New Delhi 'gas chamber' smog

India's environmental officials planned an emergency meeting as a thick blanket of smog continued to cover New Delhi on Saturday, one day after nearly 2,000 public schools were closed from unprecedented air pollution levels.

Tehran to close schools, kindergartens due to air pollution

Tehran's educational office announced Saturday that schools and kindergartens in the Iranian capital will be closed Sunday and Monday due to the alarming high air pollution in the city, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Beijing issues 2nd smog 'red alert' this winter

Beijing on Friday issued its second air pollution 'red alert,' the highest emergency response level, in this winter, as a new round of heavy smog is forecast to choke northern China.

Snowstorms cause chaos in N. China

Snowstorms swept across a vast area of north China yesterday, disrupting traffic, grounding flights and slowing down bullet trains in Beijing, Tianjin and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Using the “ladders of heaven” to get to school

By CCTV reporter Wu Haojun
- 
We’ve probably all complained about the unbearable commute to work or school. Especially if you live in a mega-city like Beijing, with notorious traffic jams and crowded subways. If that’s the case, the following story may just cause you to be more thankful for what you have. In a remote village in central China’s Hunan province, children have to walk long distances every day just to get to school.
Despite how it looks, this isn’t a boot camp session for children, rather it’s a daily routine they take to get home from school.
The two ten-meter long hand-crafted wooden ladders, dubbed "the ladders of heaven" endearingly by local villagers, are the only way in or out of their homes neatly perched amidst the mountains in Zhangjiawan village in Hunan province.