JOHANNESBURG – The son of Equatorial Guinea’s dictator of 30 years commissioned plans to build a superyacht costing $380 million, nearly three times what the country spends on health and education each year, a corruption watchdog said Monday. The statement from Global Witness said that German company Kusch Yachts has been asked to build the yacht, housing a cinema, restaurant, bar and swimming pool, though construction has not yet started. Global Witness has been urging Washington to institute sanctions against Teodorin Obiang, whose extravagant lifestyle currently includes a $35 million-dollar mansion in Malibu, California, a $33 million jet and a fleet of luxury cars, while earning a salary of $6,799 a month as agriculture minister. The government press office in Equatorial Guinea confirmed that the president’s son had ordered the yacht design, but said he “then dismissed the idea of buying it.” It said that if the order had gone ahead, he would have bought it with income from private business activities and not “with funds derived from sources of illegal financing or corruption.” President Teodoro Obiang, who reportedly is grooming his son to succeed him as president, took power in a bloody 1979 coup. Forbes has estimated his wealth at around $600 million. Teodorin Obiang justified his wealth in a sworn affidavit to a South African court questioning his ownership of luxury mansions and expensive cars in Cape Town in 2006. He stated that public officials in his country are allowed to partner with foreign companies bidding for government contracts and said this means “a Cabinet minister ends up with a sizable part of the contract price in his bank account.” The tiny West African nation may be oil rich, but U.N. statistics show that 20 percent of children in Equatorial Guinea die before reaching the age of 5, and the average citizen is unlikely to live beyond 50. The State Department report on human rights also has condemned killings by security forces and the torture of prisoners. Meanwhile, writer Juan Tomas Avila Laurel is in the 17th day of a hunger strike demanding justice for the people of Equatorial Guinea, inspired by the popular revolutions that have ousted longtime leaders of Egypt and Tunisia and now threaten Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi. Avila Laurel, 44, left Malabo for Barcelona, Spain, amid fears for his safety the day he began his hunger strike Feb. 11. He joins one-third of the population living in voluntary or enforced exile, according to the U.S. State Department. The government has reacted to the author’s hunger strike by denouncing “the web of gossip, lies and miserable maneuvers” surrounding reports about Equatorial Guinea. “Nonetheless, we hope this person’s example also serves to silence many mouths who continuously speak of lack of freedom and respect for human rights in Equatorial Guinea since, as is more than evident, this person has acted at all times with absolute freedom,” it said in a statement on its website. ___ Online: Global Witness: http://www.globalwitness.org Equatorial Guinea’s government website: http://www.guineaecuatorialpress.com Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook

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LOS ANGELES – Next month’s opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will be auspicious for a reason other than its both storied and infamous history as the former Ambassador Hotel, where the Democratic presidential contender was assassinated in 1968. With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation’s most expensive public school ever. The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la creme of “Taj Mahal” schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities. “There’s no more of the old, windowless cinderblock schools of the ’70s where kids felt, ‘Oh, back to jail,’” said Joe Agron, editor-in-chief of American School & University, a school construction journal. “Districts want a showpiece for the community, a really impressive environment for learning.” Not everyone is similarly enthusiastic. “New buildings are nice, but when they’re run by the same people who’ve given us a 50 percent dropout rate, they’re a big waste of taxpayer money,” said Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution who sits on the California Board of Education. “Parents aren’t fooled.” At RFK, the features include fine art murals and a marble memorial depicting the complex’s namesake, a manicured public park, a state-of-the-art swimming pool and preservation of pieces of the original hotel. Partly by circumstance and partly by design, the Los Angeles Unified School District has emerged as the mogul of Taj Mahals. The RFK complex follows on the heels of two other LA schools among the nation’s costliest — the $377 million Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, which opened in 2008, and the $232 million Visual and Performing Arts High School that debuted in 2009. The pricey schools have come during a sensitive period for the nation’s second-largest school system: Nearly 3,000 teachers have been laid off over the past two years, the academic year and programs have been slashed. The district also faces a $640 million shortfall and some schools persistently rank among the nation’s lowest performing. Los Angeles is not alone, however, in building big. Some of the most expensive schools are found in low-performing districts — New York City has a $235 million campus; New Brunswick, N.J., opened a $185 million high school in January. Nationwide, dozens of schools have surpassed $100 million with amenities including atriums, orchestra-pit auditoriums, food courts, even bamboo nooks. The extravagance has led some to wonder where the line should be drawn and whether more money should be spent on teachers. “Architects and builders love this stuff, but there’s a little bit of a lack of discipline here,” said Mary Filardo, executive director of 21st Century School Fund in Washington, D.C., which promotes urban school construction. Some experts say it’s not all flourish and that children learn better in more pleasant surroundings. Many schools incorporate large windows to let in natural light and install energy-saving equipment, spending more upfront for reduced bills later. Cafeterias are getting fancier, seeking to retain students who venture off campus. Wireless Internet and other high-tech installations have become standard. Some pricey projects have had political fallout. After a firestorm over the $197.5 million Newton North High School in Massachusetts, Mayor David Cohen chose not to seek re-election and state Treasurer Timothy Cahill reined in school construction spending. Now to get state funds for a new school, districts must choose among three designs costing $49 million to $64 million. “We had to bring some sense to this process,” Cahill said. In Los Angeles, officials say the new schools were planned long before the economic pinch and are funded by $20 billion in voter-approved bonds that do not affect the educational budget. Still, even LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines derided some of the extravagance, noting that donations should have been sought to fund the RFK project’s talking benches commemorating the site’s history. Connie Rice, member of the district’s School Bond Oversight Committee, noted the megaschools are only three of 131 that the district is building to alleviate overcrowding. RFK “is an amazing facility,” she said. “Is it a lot of money? Yes. We didn’t like it, but they got it done.” Construction costs at LA Unified are the second-highest in the nation — something the district blames on skyrocketing material and land prices, rigorous seismic codes and unionized labor. James Sohn, the district’s chief facilities executive, said the megaschools were built when global raw material shortages caused costs to skyrocket to an average of $600 per square foot in 2006 and 2007 — triple the price from 2002. Costs have since eased to $350 per square foot. On top of that, each project had its own cost drivers. After buildings were demolished at the site of the 2,400-student Roybal school, contaminated soil, a methane gas field and an earthquake fault were discovered. A gas mitigation system cost $17 million. Over 20 years, the project grew to encompass a dance studio with cushioned maple floors, a modern kitchen with a restaurant-quality pizza oven, a 10-acre park and teacher planning rooms between classrooms. The 1,700-student arts school was designed as a landmark, with a stainless steel, postmodernistic tower encircled by a rollercoaster-like swirl, while the RFK site involved 15 years of litigation with historic preservationists and Donald Trump, who wanted to build the world’s tallest building there. The wrangling cost $9 million. Methane mitigation cost $33 million and the district paid another $15 million preserving historic features, including a wall of the famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub and turning the Paul Williams-designed coffee shop into a faculty lounge. Sohn said LA Unified has reached the end of its Taj Mahal building spree. “These are definitely the exceptions,” he said. “We don’t anticipate schools costing hundreds of millions of dollars in the future.” Follow Yahoo! 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GREENWICH, Conn. – Karen Cohn and Nancy Baker share a tragic experience few mothers could fathom: They watched their children die after they were entrapped by powerful suction in a swimming pool and hot tub. Cohn, of Greenwich, Conn., and Baker, who lives in Maine, have united in their grief and joined forces to fight for tougher pool safety laws and to resist what they say are efforts to weaken them. “It’s not something we’ll ever get over, but we’re hoping to make a difference so other families don’t have to suffer the same fate,” Karen Cohn said in her first interview since her 6-year-old son, Zachary, drowned three years ago. “The laws are trying to be rolled back by the pool industry and we really want to make sure that we’re there to protect the children.” A spokeswoman denied that pool industry officials are trying to weaken the laws, saying they advocated the best approach for preventing such tragedies. An annual average of 385 pool- or spa-related fatalities involving children under the age of 15 were reported to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission from 2005 to 2007. An average of 4,200 children are treated annually in emergency rooms for injuries ranging from minor cuts to near drownings. Zachary Cohn was swimming in his family’s pool with his brother and sister on July 28, 2007, when his arm got trapped in an intake valve on the wall in the pool’s deep end. Water entering an intake valve is pumped through the filtering system under suction before being pumped back into the pool. Zachary was a strong swimmer, but he was no match for the powerful suction of the drain. The case led to the arrest of Shoreline Pools President David Lionetti, who has pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter. Prosecutors allege Lionetti recklessly caused Zachary’s death because his company failed to install a required safety device that would have prevented the boy’s arm from getting stuck in the drain. Lionetti’s attorney, Richard Meehan Jr., says his client was unaware of a 2004 state law that required the device and that most in the pool industry, as well as building inspectors, were not aware of the code change. Meehan says he plans to argue Zachary’s death could have been prevented if a drain cover was in place. “This is just a horrible tragedy,” Meehan said. “All the people at Shoreline Pools, particularly David Lionetti, are heartbroken over the loss of this little boy.” Baker’s 7-year-old daughter, Virginia Graeme Baker, drowned in June 2002 after being trapped by the suction in a hot tub in McLean, Va. A 2007 federal law named for Baker’s daughter required anti-entrapment devices in public pools. The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted 3-2 in March to interpret the law as not requiring a backup anti-entrapment device on certain pools that have an anti-entrapment drain cover. Critics said such covers are not enough protection to prevent entrapments if they are improperly installed or inadvertently removed. The Cohns said the Association of Pool and Spa Professionals advocated that interpretation of the law. The commission’s vote angered Cohn, Baker and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who sponsored the law. The three vowed to fight it. “I think it was absolutely irresponsible and it incorrectly interpreted the federal law,” Schultz said. But Kirstin Pires, director of communications for the pool association, said the drains offer the best form of protection against all types of entrapments. “There’s no upside for people being injured in pools for our industry,” Pires said. “We feel that the science shows that this is the best way to do it.” Scott Wolfson, director of public affairs for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said the agency is committed to working with the families on education campaigns and other efforts to ensure pool safety. “We certainly understand their position,” Wolfson said. “We want this law to save lives. We care deeply about what happened to the families.” Schultz said Baker and Cohn can play a key role in pool safety changes by speaking from the heart about what happened to their children. “They’ve been heroic,” Schultz said. “The courage that these two women have shown, their desire and passion to never let what happened to their children happen to any other child, their selflessness, it’s truly amazing.” Cohn and her husband, Brian, formed The ZAC Foundation in their son’s memory to advocate for pool safety. “There’s not a real voice representing the families out there,” Brian Cohn said. The Cohns are working to create a model law that would require multiple drains to reduce the suction power in pools and a safety vacuum release system that prevents suction entrapment by detecting sudden suction pressure obstruction and shutting down the filtration system. They hope to raise awareness about pool safety just as earlier efforts led to seat belt and bicycle helmet requirements. “What we want to do is create the same sort of generational shift around pools,” Karen Cohn said. Baker said she met Cohn a few years ago and agreed to consult with her foundation. “It’s remarkable how quickly she felt a desire and a commitment to try to do something,” Baker said. Drownings and injuries from pool drain suctions are a long-running concern. Former presidential candidate John Edwards won a verdict of $25 million in North Carolina — at the time, the largest personal injury award in state history — in the case of Valerie Lakey, a 5-year-old Raleigh girl whose intestines were sucked from her body when she was caught in the suction of a pool drain in 1993. The child survived. Since 1985, there have been more than 150 reported cases of swimming pool drain entrapments, leading to at least 48 deaths and many serious injuries, including disembowelment, of children and adults, according to a lawsuit the Cohns filed against Greenwich, Shoreline Pools and others. “We realized that there are so many parents and caregivers who just don’t know the hidden dangers of their swimming pools,” Karen Cohn said. Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook

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