| Baghdad's first female mayor set to take the reins Posted: 21 Feb 2015 06:39 AM PST  A woman has been named as mayor of Baghdad for the first time, a government spokesman said Saturday, amid widespread corruption and rampant violence. Zekra Alwach, a civil engineer and director general of the ministry of higher education, becomes the first female to be given such a post in the whole country, where international rights groups have condemned women's rights abuses. As mayor -- the most important administrative position in the capital -- Alwach will deal directly with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and holds has the prerogatives of a cabinet minister. "Abadi sacked the (former) mayor Naim Aboub and named Dr Zekra Alwach to replace him," government spokesman Rafed Juburi said.
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| Weather-battered schools turn to virtual days for students Posted: 21 Feb 2015 05:06 AM PST  By Steve Bittenbender LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of U.S. students stayed home this week due to snow and freezing temperatures, but some kids were not able to spend the day sledding or watching TV. School districts from Oklahoma to Kentucky to Massachusetts kept students busy in virtual classrooms by assigning work online that was monitored by their teachers. Younger students or those without computers were not left out. Many of those students received paper materials on the day before bad weather was forecast. The school districts are trying virtual classes because of the concern that too many bad-weather days mean losing instruction time, lengthening school days or extending the school year deep into the summer, school officials said. "Having these online learning days helps to avoid those gaps," said Dee Dee Nauert, who teaches fifth and sixth graders at Notre Dame Academy in Louisville.
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