Ethnic insurgencies discuss national ceasefire in Myanmar

AP Soldiers of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) on guard in Laiza, a border town of China and Myanmar, in Kachin State, Myanmar, on Monday. Representatives of 16 ethnic insurgencies gathered on Tuesday in northern Myanmar for talks on concluding a nation-wide ceasefire with the Central Government. Representatives of 16 ethnic insurgencies gathered on Tuesday in northern Myanmar for talks on concluding a nation-wide ceasefire with the Central Government.

“We are here to demonstrate our desire to end the civil war,” said Mutu Saepho, chairman of Karen National Union, a rebel group that has waged an insurgency in eastern Myanmar since 1949.

“But we need solid guarantee from Government on the political process,” he said in Laiza, a town in the Kachin State 890 km north of Yangon.

Since coming to power in March 2011, President Thein Sein’s Government has signed bilateral ceasefire agreements with nearly all of the insurgencies and announced plans for a nation-wide accord in early 2014.

The myriad ethnic minority groups have been fighting for semi-autonomy in their traditional territories such as the Karen, Kachin and Mon States for decades.

The rebel groups will seek political solutions to their struggles such as guarantees of rights to control their own natural resources and partial self-rule.

“We need to know exactly what the Government plans to do after we sign the so-called nation-wide ceasefire,” said Major Sai La, spokesman for the Shan State Army.

Representatives of the United Wa State Army, the largest rebel group, will also attend the Laiza meeting, which is due to continue until Friday.

“This is the very first time for such a meeting in Myanmar,” said Lamai Gun Ja, of the Peace Talk Creation Group that plays an intermediary role between the Kachin Independence Organisation and the Government.

“I think it’s very important for our country’s future.” Ending military assaults on ethnic minorities was a key demand among Western democracies when they lifted economic sanctions on Myanmar.

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10 National Universities Where Most Students Live On Campus

The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College and The Short List: Grad School to find data that matters to you in your college or grad school search.

The challenge of getting into school, paying for it and earning good grades is hard enough for some students. But today, some face an added obstacle: finding on-campus housing.

The country is facing a shortage of on-campus student housing at public and private schools, according to a 2012 report by the National Multi Housing Council that analyzed data between 2000 and 2010. The last decade saw a 38.7 percent increase in student enrollment, fueled partly by the size of Generation Y and economic uncertainty, the group found.

As enrollment surged, most states have seen a smaller percentage of students living in dorms. Areas with the highest campus housing shortages include Arizona, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota and West Virginia.

Despite the shortage, some universities are still housing most of their students on campus.

[Learn how to get along with your roommate.]

Harvard University tops the list of National Universities with the highest percentage of undergraduate students living on campus in fall 2011, according to data reported to U.S. News in an annual survey. The Ivy League school has 98 percent of its undergraduates living on campus.

Harvard also has the number one spot in the U.S. News Best National Universities rankings, tying with Princeton, which is also on the housing list. Six other schools on the housing list fall within the top 10 of the U.S. News Best National Universities rankings: California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University and Dartmouth College. The lowest-ranked school on the list was St. Mary's University of Minnesota, which placed 174.

Of the 247 ranked National Universities that provided data to U.S. News about campus housing, an average of 38 percent of the undergraduate population lives on campus.

Schools that were designated by U.S. News as Unranked were not considered for this report. U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for Unranked programs, because the program did not meet certain criteria that U.S. News requires to be numerically ranked.

[Explore how theme dorms promote diversity.]

The table below highlights 10 National Universities with the highest percentage of undergraduates living in campus housing in fall 2011.

Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find the percentages of students living on campus, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.

U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2012 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News's data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools. The on-campus data above are correct as of June 18, 2013.

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The Learning Network Blog: 6 Q's About the News | National Security Agency Maintains Vast Database of Americans' Phone Records

Read the article to answer basic news questions.

7:25 a.m. | Updated

In the article “U.S. Confirms That It Gathers Online Data Overseas,” Charlie Savage, Edward Wyatt and Peter Baker write about the disclosure that the federal government appears to have been secretly obtaining data from the largest Internet companies for nearly six years.

WHO has been compiling a huge database of calling logs of Americans’ domestic communications, as well as information on foreigners overseas from the nation’s largest Internet companies, for at least six years?

WHY has this agency been compiling these records?
WHY have some responded to news of the programs with alarm?

WHEN did this government surveillance program begin?

WHAT is the Prism program?
WHAT information do these programs seem to collect, warehouse and analyze?

WHERE was this news first reported?

HOW, according to James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, can the Prism information not be used?
HOW did the Obama administration and some members of Congress defend the program?
HOW do you feel about this news?
HOW does this raise new questions about the tradeoffs between security and civil liberties?

Related: Our Resources for Teaching the Constitution and a 2001 lesson plan, “For the Sake of Security.”

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The Learning Network Blog: 6 Q's About the News | Spike in Graffiti in National Parks

Joshua Lott for The New York Times Graffiti on a cactus last week in Saguaro National Park in Arizona. Many of the giant cactuses are 150 years old. Go to related article »Read the article to answer basic news questions.

In the article “As Vandals Deface U.S. Parks, Some Point to Online Show-Offs,” Felicity Barringer writes about the recent spike in graffiti in national parks.

WHO is Steve Bolyard?

WHERE is Saguaro National Park?

WHAT did Mr. Bolyard find on saguaros there?
WHAT are some other national parks that are dealing with more vandalism?

WHY do officials think social media is playing a role in the increase in vandalism in United States parks?

HOW was one offender, Trenton Ganey, caught by the authorities?
HOW did park officials catch the vandals who chopped up cactuses when Saguaro was hit again last month?

WHEN have you visited a national park?

Related: Our Student Opinion question “How Much Time Do You Spend in Nature?” and our 6 Q’s “At National Parks, Tech + Tourists = Trouble“

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