The Kansas State Board of Education vote on science standards is drawing world attention.

A search engine count Wednesday showed hundreds of newspaper stories about the board action.

A Toronto newspaper headline on the Web said "Kansas devolves.'' A paper in South Africa said Kansas has given Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution a shove and forces the classroom to be shared with "Bible-inspired creationist theories.''

The board approved standards that encourage criticism of evolution by presenting arguments consistent with those made by proponents of intelligent design. The concept holds that life is too complicated to have been created by chance.