BEIJING (NNA) – A Waldorf teacher training college has been established at a Beijing university. The University of Modern Administration, one of the first free universities in post-revolutionary China, together with the Chenzhigu (Spring Valley) Centre for Waldorf Education in Beijing officially unveiled the establishment of the college at a ceremony in March.

The opening speech was given by Prof. Yang Dongping from the Beijing Institute of Technology who is head of the “Education in the 21st…

LONDON (NNA) – An organisation which campaigns to stop the erosion of the rights and freedoms of children has expressed its concern that the best interests of children are not currently adequately catered for in early years education policymaking in England.

Across the political spectrum there was now consensus that early years provision was important for children's development and for helping parents – especially mums – into work, the Save Chilhood Movement says. But the question of “what is…

MAHWAH, New Jersey (NNA) – An evolving international group of fourteen artists is coming together again to work on a new play based upon the characters and events of Rudolf Steiner’s first four Mystery Dramas.

The group consists of members of Portal Productions who produced Rudolf Steiner’s four Mystery Dramas in the English language and toured throughout the northern hemisphere during the 1980s and 1990s, as well as artists who worked on the Dvorak New World Symphony Eurythmy tour through…

GRAZ/GIESSEN (NNA) – A study at the Medical University of Graz on the connection between diet and health has caused a stir because its outcome suggests that a vegetarian diet does not necessarily correlate with better health. Instead, subjects eating a carnivorous diet rich in fruit and vegetables fared better than vegetarians.

The study involved 1,320 people in Austria. The aim of the research was to detect differences in the health of adults in Austria according to different types of diet,…

ZURICH (NNA) – When Switzerland voted by a very narrow margin in a referendum in February to restrict immigration, three Swiss citizens felt moved to do something about it. So they set up the online platform “www.ohnedich.ch” (Without you) on which anyone can post a picture of themselves with a foreigner to signal their opposition to the results of the vote.

In the February referendum which provoked keen international interest, 50.3 percent of Swiss voters favoured restricting immigration into…

Is it feasible to found a Waldorf school in crisis-riven Athens? Yes, it should be attempted, according to the Athens Waldorf initiative group, which in fact sees its work as a small contribution to resolving the crisis. NNA correspondent Cornelie Unger-Leistner visited the Waldorf project group in the Greek capital.

ATHENS (NNA) – It’s a Wednesday evening. In an office in inner-city Athens, Michael Tsigotsides, spokesman for the Athens Waldorf initiative, displays a map of Europe bristling…

Individualisation in modern life is an unignorable trend, and older people, who make up an increasing proportion of western societies, certainly make an important and lively contribution. Gudrun Burkhard, well-known researcher in the field of biography studies, discusses these perspectives with NNA.

By NNA correspondent Cornelie Unger-Leistner

FLORIANOPOLIS (NNA) – Gudrun Burkhard is a physician born in Brazil but with German roots, whose father emigrated to Brazil from Berlin after the First…

~  NNA series: The upheavals of the First World War  ~

2014 sees the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, often referred to as “The Great War”. It is already clear that the general public have a keen interest in everything relating to the war, its causes and dramatic consequences. Accordingly, NNA is publishing a series of reports on this theme. A best-selling book by Australian historian Professor Christopher Clark - “The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914” – is…

BERLIN (NNA) – Demonstrators in Berlin formed a human chain around the the German Chancellor’s Office on 30 November in protest at the planned energy policy of the new German coalition government. Organisers say some 16,000 people joined the protest against proposals which would see Germany dramatically slow down its commitment to renewable energy. Protesters also flew kites in front of the parliament building on which people from all over Germany had written their energy policy demands. …

After the storm, the flood. Since typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines and other parts of the south-east Asia last  month, followed by severe flooding, emergency aid has been pouring into the country. The latest official figures released by the Philippines government are hard to comprehend: more than 5,982 dead with the count still rising, 27,022 injured and 1,779 people still missing. Almost 600,000 houses partly or wholly destroyed. According to the UN children’s organisation UNICEF, between…