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Fourth grade students Lily Rappaport, left, and Isabel Weiss study Mandarin in math class at Woodstoock Elementary School, in Portland, Ore. After five years in the program, students are relatively fluent. (Photo by Rick Bowmer / AP)

Is English or Mandarin the global language of the future?

English has been dominant for a century, but is it the language of the future? If Mandarin Chinese is to challenge English, then it first has to conquer its own backyard in Southeast Asia.

BBC

Bilingual education: Learning in Mandarin

New York Times

The myth of the eight-hour sleep

We often worry about people who lie awake in the middle of the night — but it could be good for you. Scientists are considering the advantages of sleeping in four-hour chunks.

BBC

Are speculators behind rising gas prices in the US?

U.S. demand for oil and refined products is down sharply from last year, such that the U.S. is actually unable to consume all that it makes. So what is behind the latest surge in gas prices?

McClatchy Newspapers

As gas prices rise, White House goes on offensive, defensive

PBS NewsHour

Argentina crash kills 49

At least 49 people were killed and more than 600 people were injured when a train plowed into a platform at a crowded station in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

CNN

Argentine train crashes into station

Msnbc.com

Supreme Court justices to hear affirmative-action case

The Supreme Court set an election-season review of racial preference in college admissions, agreeing to consider new limits on the contentious issue of affirmative-action programs.

Philadelphia Inquirer

NATION

US Treasury and banks nationwide look for TARP exit strategy

The U.S. Treasury has begun communicating with community banks around the country as it plans an exit from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

McClatchy Newspapers

Cattle ranchers find themselves alone on the range

Tim Koopman is the first of four generations of cattlemen to take a second job. While both of his adult children own small beef operations, they too earn their livings from careers other than ranching.

San Francisco Chronicle

This winter expected to be among top ten warmest for several US cities

The warm temperatures seen in December and January have continued right into February. Where exactly will this winter rank among the warmest on record when all is said and done?

The Weather Channel

POLITICS

Obama pushes Congress on initiatives for middle class

President Obama praised Congress’ decision to extend the payroll tax cut, while also pushing legislators to enact the rest of what the administration characterizes as its economic support plan for the middle class.

CNN

Why we feel debate fatigue

Getting to know the presidential candidates is all well and good, but are we really just using interrogation tactics and repeating the same questions?

NPR

Some Republicans are whispering about a plan B

In a campaign not ready to go public, some senior Republicans are considering a scenario that would lead to another candidate entering the primary race.

(CNN)

Political Ticker

Gingrich backer willing to give $100M

CBS News

BUSINESS

Finding the office of the future

A vision of the future workplace is one of flexibility, where technology keeps us constantly connected to the office. Soon, the office may be wherever you are.

BBC

Dow pierces 13,000

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed above 13,000 for the first time in almost four years, though it failed to hang onto the gains through the day’s end.

Wall Street Journal

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Heinrich Hertz celebrated

Google’s animated doodle celebrates the 155th birthday of Heinrich Hertz, the German physicist whose experiments with electromagnetic waves led to the wireless telegraph and the radio.

The Guardian

Genetics research solves modern mystery of blue-tinged family

Benjamin “Benjy” Stacy so frightened maternity doctors with the color of his skin, “as Blue as Lake Louise,” that he was rushed just hours after his birth in 1975 to Univ. of Kentucky Medical Center.

ABC News

HEALTH

Hepatitis C is now killing more Americans than HIV

A different infectious disease is quietly killing more people than HIV: Hepatitis C. The majority of those estimated to have it in the U.S. are baby boomer adults, and most do not know that they have it.

Scientific American

Special section:

What is hepatitis C?

BBC

Cancer-drug shortages targeted by stopgap US approvals

Cancer-drug shortages that have plagued U.S. hospitals are being targeted by Food and Drug Administration decisions, giving generic-drug makers clearance to provide stopgap replacements.

Bloomberg

RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY

Southern Baptists will not adopt fresh name as they face decline

The nation’s largest Protestant denomination will not be changing its name. After months of speculation, a task force recommended that the Southern Baptist Convention retain its historic name.

The Tennessean

In 200-year tradition, most Christian missionaries are American

At a church on the New England coast 200 years ago, five young men became ordained as Congregational missionaries and set off on cargo ships to India as the first organized American missionaries.

Reuters

Court says Quebec parents cannot pull students out of religion class

Canada’s highest court has ruled that children in Quebec schools cannot opt out of a course on ethics and world religions.

Religion News Service

Columns And Op-Ed

The opinions in the items below are not necessarily those of DailySource or our editors. Read more.

Column (Felix Salmon):

The improbable Greece bailout plan

Reuters

Column (Robert B. Reich):

The myth about getting manufacturing jobs back

Baltimore Sun

Column (Shaun Donovan):

A new era in homeownership across the US

Philadelphia Inquirer

Blog (Amy Davidson):

The Quran and the NYPD

The New Yorker

Column (David Nelms):

How to close America’s financial literacy gap

Reuters

Editorial:

As Catholic church shrinks, its role in education can still expand

Detroit Free Press

Blog (Ron Elving):

Santorum’s problem with women could be his glass ceiling

(NPR)

It's All Politics

Blog (Michael Kieschnick):

A father’s perspective on the contraception war

Huffington Post

Site edited by: Todd Ehresmann, Brian Kendall, Maria Laverghetta, Sam Dieter, Ishwarya Krishnamurthi, Mary Ann Boateng, Brooke Coggiano, Lynne Adams, Tina Ulmer, Jessica Duncan, Charlene Morisseau, Mark Rittenmeyer, Tanya Flowers, Paul Wertheim and Kristen Podgurski.

GOOD NEWS

Father-son team develop drug to fight brain diseases

The relationship is a rare one in science: a father and son working together on a new drug that, if it works, could be among the first to treat terrible brain diseases such as Alzheimer‘s and Huntington’s.

San Francisco Chronicle

Renowned coaching team builds haven for American gymnasts

Not long after Romanian expatriates Bela and Martha Karolyi began building their gymnastics empire in Houston, Bela bought land on the northwestern outskirts of the Sam Houston National Forest.

USA TODAY

Turning the opinions of Arab Spring youths into data — and creating change

Silatech and Gallup have teamed to collect detailed data on the views of Arab youths toward jobs and success — all to help policymakers make better decisions.

Christian Science Monitor

WORLD

Global meeting on Syria faces pressure