John Carter, the Confederate soldier transported to distant Mars, must save his adopted world from an adversary who is every bit his equal on the Red Planet: Captain Joshua Clark, formerly of the Army of the Potomac and now the strategist for a species of star-hopping conquerors. While Carter and his staunch ally, the Thark chieftain Tars Tarkas, lead a legion of united Green Men and Red Men against the alien assailants, Dejah Thoris - the princess of Barsoom - is held captive by the bloodthirsty Clark in the fallen city of Helium. The "Invaders of Mars" storyline is cosmic-scale action and adventure, courtesy of Ron Marz, the groundbreaking writer of Green Lantern!

The treatise De mundo offers a cosmology in the Peripatetic tradition which subordinates what happens in the cosmos to the might of an omnipotent god. Thus the work is paradigmatic for the philosophical and religious concepts of the early imperial age, which offer points of contact with nascent Christianity.

The Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (DDD) is the single major reference work on the gods, angels, demons, spirits, and semidivine heroes whose names occur in the biblical books. Book jacket.

Neo-Assyrian and Greek Divination in War is about practices which enabled humans contact the divine. These relations, especially in difficult times of military conflict, could be crucial in deciding the fate of individuals, cities, dynasties or even empires.

Internationally, there is growing awareness that the target of Education for All by 2015 will not be met unless more strident efforts are made to improve access for marginalized, hard-to-reach children (most often girls). For almost four decades gender equality in education has been one of the key global concerns and as a result various organizations at national and international levels along with governments have initiated programs focusing on achieving gender equality, women’s empowerment and improving girls’ access to education. By focusing on access alone (i.e. gender parity) we may not understand how education can be used to achieve empowerment and influence cultural practices that are gender insensitive. In this volume we attempt to call into question the content of gender equality as simple parity and in doing so we reflect upon the following questions: • Do the global (macro) discourses on gender equality in education lead to a focus on numbers only or to more profound sustainable changes at the national (meso) level and the school (micro) level? • To what extent have national policies been adjusted to reflect the global discourses on gender equality? • Are schools/classrooms (micro) expected to adjust to these global discourses and if so in what ways has this happened? • What are the challenges of providing access to good quality education for girls in both countries? • Is there a dichotomy between the schools/classrooms on the one hand and the community on the other in terms of gender equality/equity? • To what extent is gender equality/equity imposed upon schools and communities and does it take into account the cultural practices in traditional communities? Key words: Gender equality, education, Global vs. local concerns 3 selling points: • The volume highlights that although research has shown how global educational policies homogenize national educational policies and are therefore playing what can be termed a neo-colonial role in identifying pivotal themes and topics in education across the world such as gender equality, literacy and quality education in local contexts, they are often steeped in a Western logic which is not always culturally relevant or conducive. Making global recommendations for education across cultures and places is thus not always unproblematic. • The volume highlights that a push for girls’ schooling must navigate wisely in sensitive terrain where complex contextual aspects must be understood and taken into account. Girls’ attendance and retention in school are important first steps in the struggle for epistemic access, but must be followed by serious deliberations about what kind of school and what kind of knowledge in the schools is appropriate, and about equality and equity. • The volume attempts to understand how the global gender goals in education affect both local policies and local practice and in doing so it attempts to question the simple focus on access only.