"Geographic illiteracy impacts our economic well-being, our relationships with other nations and the environment, and isolates us from the world," National Geographic president John Fahey said in announcing a program to help remedy the problem. It's hoping to enlist businesses, nonprofit groups and educators in a bid to improve geographic literacy.

Planned is a five-year, multimedia campaign called My Wonderful World that will target children 8 to 17. The goal is to motivate parents and educators to expand geographic offerings in school, at home and in their communities.

They will have their task cut out for them, judging by the results of the survey of 510 people interviewed in December and January.

Among the findings:

- One-third of respondents couldn't pinpoint Louisiana on a map and 48 percent were unable to locate Mississippi.

- Fewer than three in 10 think it important to know the locations of countries in the news and just 14 percent believe speaking another language is a necessary skill.

- Two-thirds didn't know that the earthquake that killed 70,000 people in October 2005 occurred in Pakistan.

- Six in 10 could not find Iraq on a map of the Middle East.

- While the outsourcing of jobs to India has been a major U.S. business story, 47 percent could not find the Indian subcontinent on a map of Asia.

- While Israeli-Palestinian strife has been in the news for the entire lives of the respondents, 75 percent were unable to locate Israel on a map of the Middle East.

- Nearly three-quarters incorrectly named English as the most widely spoken native language.

- Six in 10 did not know the border between North and
South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world. Thirty percent thought the most heavily fortified border was between the United States and Mexico.

Joining in the effort to improve geographic knowledge will be the 4-H, American Federation of Teachers, Asia Society, Association of American Geographers, National Basketball Association, National Council of La Raza, National PTA,
Smithsonian Institution and others.

"Geography exposes children and adults to diverse cultures, different ideas and the exchange of knowledge from around the world," said Anna Marie Weselak, president of the National PTA. "This campaign will help make sure our children get their geography - so they can become familiar with other cultures during their school years and move comfortably and confidently in a global economy as adults."

The study results confirm Fahey's concern: 21 percent said it was "not too important" to know where countries in the news are located.

Half of respondents said it was "absolutely necessary" to know how to read a map, but a large percentage lacked basic practical map-reading skills.

For example, most young people were able to locate a port city on a fictitious map, but one-third would have gone in the wrong direction in the event of an evacuation.

In general, natural disasters appear to have a limited impact on young Americans' view of the world, the study found.

Only 35 percent identified Pakistan as the country hit by a catastrophic earthquake last October, killing over 70,000 people; 29 percent thought it happened in Sri Lanka.

Most respondents could find Louisiana and Mississippi, but still more than one-third failed to find those two states that were the subject of daily news coverage after the onslaught of hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year.

There were some positive signs: young people who go online for news and who use two or more different news sources show a greater knowledge of geography, the study found.

"I like science and doing the experiments ... but I don't know if that's what I want to be," says the seventh-grader, who attends Ramblewood Middle School in Coral Springs.

Do children barely out of elementary school have the knowledge and experience to declare a career path? Brianna's feelings on the subject are shared by some adults, who also worry that a career curriculum would come at the expense of other activities such as music, art, and sports.

But supporters of the proposal say it gives kids a taste of the real world and encourages them to widen, not narrow, their sense of career options. Supporters also say the program demonstrates the state's commitment to middle-schoolers. And since it is believed to be the first statewide program of its kind for sixth- to eighth-graders in the United States, it could be one way of bringing educational distinction to Florida.

"No one is being made to choose a major in sixth grade, just to do some real-time learning in the real world," says Theresa Willingham, president of Learning Is for Everyone, an education-resource organization in Tampa that supports family choice in learning. "Middle-schoolers are, for the most part, too young to really commit to what they want to do for a living, if only because there's yet so much to be discovered between middle school and the college years. But life moves a lot faster now, and careers can be more academically demanding."

The career proposal comes during a challenging time for Florida schools. Of US states, Florida has the 12th-lowest spending per pupil, at $7,588 annually, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Only two states, Nevada and Georgia, fare worse than its 59 percent high school graduation rate.

As part of an effort to improve the system, Governor Bush (R) appointed a high school reform task force. It recommended that middle-schoolers take a minimum nine-week course in career education before stepping up to high school. Each student would also have to develop an academic and career plan for the next five years.

"We're looking to ... better prepare students for the future and for postsecondary education," Bush said earlier this year in a lecture at Stanford University in California. "The goal is for students to graduate knowing what they want to do with their lives."

Responding to such ideas, House lawmakers in Tallahassee have approved a bill that would, among other measures, require middle-schoolers to take a full year of career studies. And the Florida Senate is now mulling legislation that would require students to complete a half year of career study by seventh grade.

"What's unique is that the state is trying to create a system with a lot more rigor in its middle schools. It's about trying to give parents good schools for their kids," says Jeanne Allen, founder and president of the Center for Education Reform, an organization in Washington advocating accountability and higher standards. "We underestimate the ability of teenagers and our high school students to know what they like, what they're good at, and what they excel at."

Other states, including Mississippi, Oklahoma, and the Carolinas, offer less formal career "exploration" programs. But Florida is believed to be the first to propose specific classroom time for middle-schoolers.

From one teacher's vantage point, Florida would be better off without such an experiment. "I've taught in middle schools for 21 years, and few to none of my students have ever come to me to talk about a particular career. At that age, they just want to learn and absorb," says Richard Cantlupe, who teaches at Westglades Middle School in Parkland.

Mr. Cantlupe notes that he worked at another middle school in Broward County that introduced careers as an elective. "It failed miserably," he says. "The kids hated it."

For others, the foremost concern is that a compulsory career curriculum will shove out other beneficial classes. "Giving children exposure to those areas in middle school is a very good idea, but where it derails is in its emphasis," says Shelley Vana (D) of Palm Beach, a member of the House Education Appropriations Committee.

"This is not going to allow students to also have exposure to arts, music, and physical education, which, at a time of growing concerns over our children's health, is not a good thing," she says.

For many parents, though, the issue comes down to one simple fact: Their kids are still young. For Kevin Cunningham, father of Brianna, middle school is too early for career decisions. And it's not just Brianna he's thinking about: Daughter Meaghan will be in sixth grade next fall.

"It's good if it gives them exposure to occupations and a greater range of career options," says Mr. Cunningham. "But my daughters both think this is too early to be deciding anything."

The UN children's rights agency says poor nutrition contributes to about 5.6 million child deaths per year, more than half the total deaths.

Bangladesh, India and Pakistan account for half of all the world's underweight children.

Ann Veneman, the executive director of UNICEF, said the figures in the report don't give the complete picture of the number of children facing malnutrition.

"For every visibly undernourished child, there are several more battling a hidden nutritional crisis," she said.

Problem grows in Iraq, Yemen, parts of Africa

The average number of underweight children has fallen by only five per cent in the last 15 years, the report says.

In some countries - including Iraq, Yemen and parts of Africa - the number is actually increasing due to conflict, food shortages and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, the report says.

China was the only country to significantly reduce the number of underweight children in the last 15 years, cutting the proportion from 19 per cent to eight per cent.

World failing to meet goals to eliminate hunger

The report warns that unless the world takes action, the UN's World Millennium Development Goals for eradicating extreme poverty and hunger will not be reached.

The goals, set in 1990, were aimed at significantly improving the lives of the world's poor by 2015.

One of them focused on cutting in half the rate of poor nutrition among children younger than age five.

"These findings are consistent with an emerging body of evidence that local traffic around homes and schools may be causing an increase in asthma," says lead author Rob McConnell, M.D., professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. "This is a potentially important public health problem because many children live near major roads."

More than 5,000 children ages 5 to 7 were involved in the study which was an expansion of the Children's Health Study, currently underway in 13 southern California communities. The researchers determined how far each participating child lived from a major road - a freeway, large highway or a feeder road to a highway.

"These results suggest that living in residential areas with high traffic-related pollution significantly increases the risk of childhood asthma," says David A. Schwartz, M.D., director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the primary agency that funded the study. "Children with no parental history of asthma who had long-term exposure or early-life exposure to these pollutants were among the most susceptible."

Children who lived at the same residence since age 2 had slightly higher rates of asthma than those who had moved to the residence later. "That is what you would expect if the asthma was being caused by traffic," McConnell says. Risk for wheeze also decreased the further away a home was from a major road, dropping to background rates at roughly 150 meters (not quite two blocks).

Study sites included the cities of Alpine, Anaheim, Glendora, Lake Arrowhead, Lake Elsinore, Long Beach, Mira Loma, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Dimas, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and Upland. McConnell noted that air pollution regulations typically focus on regional air pollutants rather than localized exposures within communities, such as living near a busy road, that may also be a problem. "We've taken some tentative steps to address that, for example with a law that a new school can't be built within 500 feet of a freeway. But we have to also consider whether building parks, play areas, or homes right next to a major road is a wise land use decision in terms of health."

McConnell and his colleagues plan to follow up with a subgroup of the children to measure pollutants in their homes and also to look at characteristics that may make children more susceptible (or that may be protective), such as genetic characteristics.

This study was supported by the NIEHS, California Air Resources Board, the Southern California Particle Center and Supersite, the Environmental Protection Agency, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, and the Hastings Foundation.

Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and the American Beverage Association have all signed onto the deal, Carson said, adding that the companies serve "the vast majority of schools." The American Beverage Association represents the majority of school vending bottlers.

The deal follows a wave of regulation by school districts and state legislatures to cut back on student consumption of soda amid reports of rising childhood obesity rates. Soda has been a particular target of those fighting obesity because of its caloric content and popularity among children.

"It's a bold and sweeping step that industry and childhood obesity advocates have decided to take together," Carson said.

A man who answered the phone at Cadbury Schweppes' London headquarters said no one was available for comment. Calls seeking comment from the other distributors were not immediately returned early Wednesday.

Nearly 35 million students nationwide will be affected by the deal, The Alliance for a Healthier Generation said in a news release. The group, a collaboration between Clinton's foundation and the American Heart Association, helped broker the deal.

"This is really the beginning of a major effort to modify childhood obesity at the level of the school systems," said Robert H. Eckel, president of the American Heart Association.

Under the agreement, high schools will still be able to purchase drinks such as diet and unsweetened teas, diet sodas, sports drinks, flavored water, seltzer and low-calorie sports drinks from distributors.

School sales of those kinds of drinks have been on the rise in recent years, while regular soda purchases by students have been falling, according to an ABA report released in December. But regular soda is still the most popular drink among students, accounting for 45 percent of beverages sold in schools in 2005, the report said.

The agreement applies to beverages sold for use on school grounds during the regular and extended school day, Carson said. Sales during after-school activities such as clubs, yearbook, band and choir practice will be affected by the new regulations. But sales at events such as school plays, band concerts and sporting events, where adults make up a significant portion of the audience, won't be affected, he said.

How quickly the changes take hold will depend in part on individual school districts' willingness to alter existing contracts, the alliance said. The companies will work to implement the changes at 75 percent of the nation's public schools by the 2008-2009 school year, and at all public schools a year later.

Many school districts around the country have already begun to replace soda and candy in vending machines with healthier items, and dozens of states have considered legislation on school nutrition this year.

The agreement follows an August decision by the American Beverage Association to adopt a policy limiting soft drinks in high schools to no more than 50 percent of the selections in vending machines. That recommendation was not binding.