29/01/2014 Newsround

It's Wednesday morning, you're live with CBBC. I'm Leah with today's top

stories from Newsround. England's women win the Ashes Down Under. And

Viking warriors take over a town in Scotland... Sort of.

First, a big education report out this morning says a quarter of young

people in poorer countries can't read a single sentence. That's

millions of children who can't read or write. The United Nations is now

calling on the world's governments to give these kids the chance to go

to school. Nel's been looking into it. This girl is 12 and lives in

Lahore in Pakistan. She has been studying at this school for the past

three years, but doesn't know how much longer she'll be here.

TRANSLATION: My father doesn't want me to learn. He thinks it's not a

good thing for girls to study. I have to fight him every day to come

to school. That's because in Pakistan, girls are treated very

differently to boys, and poor children are treated very

differently to rich ones. In the latest report on education around

the world, the United Nations found that in the Pakistani area of Sindh,

only one in every five girls can do basic maths sums. For boys it is

over half. TRANSLATION: Dad doesn't have enough

money to send us to school. He thinks we should be working. My mum

saves to pay our school fees. School buildings are old and there's not a

lot of money for repairs. The teachers can sometimes be badly

trained. It all might seem a world away from kids in the UK and their

experiences are going to school. I've come to a girls school in

Manchester. I'm here to study a gold dust map to meet a girl who studies

in the UK. She understands how different school life can be in the

two countries. The education here is much better. Just the opportunities

you can have and the facilities. Here, there's a swimming pool and

the library and I can do different clubs. It's very free and I've got a

lot of opportunities and choices. I can kind of do whatever I like. How

different do you think your education would be if you are living

in Pakistan? I think you'd have to travel a long way to school,

probably on foot, because he wouldn't be able to afford a car.

Then when you get to school the education is not very good. Then

when you come home there probably wouldn't be any electricity.

Although life is very different, both girls have the same dreams for

the future. I really want to have the education to get a good job and

support my family. My dream has always been to be a doctor. Father

doesn't think I can do it but I want a job, that's all. In America,

President Barack Obama went on telly last night for a big speech to set

out his priorities for the next 12 months. In his Union Address, he

told millions of Americans that inequality in the country had

deepened. He wants to give opportunity to more families and

tackle pay differences at work between men and women. The president

is looking to improve his ratings with voters, which have been at

their lowest since he got the top job five years ago. Staying with

America, more arctic weather has caused chaos in the Midwest, with

schools closing, airlines cancelling flights and emergency crews working

to dig out major roadways. Many motorists trying to travel spun off

the road or slid into snow banks. In Ohio, high winds created "snow

rollers", which are coils of snow whipped up by the 40mph gusts. In

the normally warm Southern states, a state of emergency has been declared

as they prepare for a severe winter storm too. To warmer places and just

an hour or so ago, England retained the Women's Ashes in Australia. They

needed to win the first Twenty20 match to win the series. England won

by nine wickets, with captain Charlotte Edwards hitting the

winning runs to finish a brilliant innings of 92 not out. The men play

their first Twenty20 in Hobart after 8am this morning. A big night in the

Premier League saw Liverpool smash their local rivals Everton 4-0 in

the Merseyside derby. Reds captain Steven Gerrard scored after 20

minutes and Daniel Sturridge followed up with two more before

half-time. Man United also won last night, but Arsenal were held to a

draw. Last up, just enough time to show you some amazing pictures of

people dressed as Vikings! It was the Up Helly Aa festival in

Scotland's Shetland Islands. Every year local people carry torches

through the town of Lerwick to celebrate the islands' Viking

heritage, before throwing their torches onto a pretend Viking ship

to make a big fire. Head to the website to check out more pictures.

That's all from me, Newsround's back in about half an hour with loads

more. See you then.