US teens lag in global education rankings as Asian countries rise to the top

Students in the United States made scant headway on recent global achievement exams and slipped deeper in the international rankings amid fast-growing competition abroad, according to test results released Tuesday.
American teens scored below the international average in math and roughly average in science and reading, compared against dozens of other countries that participated in the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which was administered last fall.
Students in Shanghai — China's largest city with upwards of 20 million people — ranked best in the world, according to the test results. Students in East Asian countries and provinces came out on top, nabbing seven of the top 10 places across all three subjects.
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan characterized the flat scores as a "picture of educational stagnation."
"We must invest in early education, raise academic standards, make college affordable, and do more to recruit and retain top-notch educators," Duncan said.
Roughly half a million students in 65 nations and educational systems representing 80 percent of the global economy took part in the 2012 edition of PISA, which is coordinated by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD.
The numbers are even more sobering when compared among only the 34 OECD countries. The United States ranked 26th in math — trailing nations such as the Slovak Republic, Portugal and Russia.
The exam, which has been administered every three years to 15-year-olds, is designed to gauge how students use the material they have learned inside and outside the classroom to solve problems.
U.S. scores on the PISA have stayed relatively flat since testing began in 2000. And meanwhile, students in countries like Ireland and Poland have demonstrated marked improvement — even surpassing U.S. students, according to the results.
"It's hard to get excited about standing still while others around you are improving, so I don't want to be too positive," Jack Buckley, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, told the Associated Press.
Duncan said the results were at "odds with our aspiration to have the best-educated, most competitive work force in the world."
The scores are likely to reopen a long-simmering political debate about the state of education in America as economically ascendant nations like China eclipse U.S. students' performance.
American students historically have ranked low on international assessments, owing to a range of social and economic factors — from skyrocketing rates of child poverty to sheer population diversity. Nearly 6,1000 American students participated in this round of testing.
"Socio-economic background has a significant impact on student performance in the United States, with some 15% of the variation in student performance explained by this, similar to the OECD average," according to a PISA summary of U.S. performance. "Although this impact has weakened over time, disadvantaged students show less engagement, drive, motivation and self-beliefs."
Shanghai students also dominated the PISA exam in 2009, according to the AP.
Tom Loveless, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the wire service that the educational system in that city is not equitable — and the students tested are progeny of the elite because they are the only ones permitted to attend municipal schools due to restrictions that, among other things, prohibit many migrant children.
"The Shanghai scores frankly to me are difficult to interpret," Loveless told the wire service. "They are almost meaningless."
Buckley told the AP that U.S. officials have not encountered any evidence of a "biased sample" of students administered the exam in Shanghai. He said if the whole country was included, it is unclear what the results would show.
The test is premised on a 1,000-point scale. Here's a sampling of the leading findings:
— In math, the U.S. average score was 481. Average scores ranged from 368 in Peru to 613 in Shanghai. The global average was 494.
— In science, the U.S. average score was 497. Average scores ranged from 373 in Peru to 580 in Shanghai. The global average was 501.
— In reading, the U.S. average score was 498. Average scores ranged from 384 in Peru to 570 in Shanghai. The global average was 496.
Students from all states were tested. For the first time, three states — Massachusetts, Connecticut and Florida — elected to boost participation in PISA to get more state-specific data.
Average scores from Massachusetts rose above the international average in all three subject areas. Connecticut students scored on average near the global average in math and higher than the global average in science and reading. Florida students on average scored below the global average in math and science and near the global average in reading, according to the AP.

North Korea powerbroker 'dismissed'

A powerful uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been removed from his post, South Korean media reports say.

Citing South Korea's intelligence agency, they say Chang Song-thaek, 67, lost his position as vice-chairman of the North's top military body.
Two close aides were also executed for corruption, according to the reports.
If confirmed, Mr Chang's removal would be the biggest upheaval in North Korea's leadership since Mr Kim succeeded his father, analysts say.

Kim Jong-un took over after Kim Jong-il died in 2011.

The latest reports emerged from an intelligence briefing given to South Korean lawmakers.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) made the assessment based on information provided by multiple sources, the South's Yonhap news agency said.
It also quoted the intelligence service as saying two of Mr Chang's closest associates had been executed in public in late November.
'Power behind Kim'
The BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul says the reports are difficult to verify, and South Korea's spy agency has been proven wrong before.
But if true, the development would mark a significant shift, she adds.
Mr Chang is married to Kim Jong-il's sister.
He has often been pictured beside his son Kim Jong-un and was seen by some observers as the power behind him.
Mr Chang climbed through the ranks of the secretive leadership of North Korea's Korean Workers' Party (KWP) in the 1970s.
In 1992, he was elected to the party's Central Committee. But, despite his senior status, he has been targeted by purges in the past.

In 2004, despite his place in the Kim family, he disappeared from public view.

One report at the time, citing South Korean intelligence, said Mr Chang had been placed under house arrest.
Others suggested he had been sent for "re-education". However, two years later he appeared to have been reinstated.
He was regarded as an economic reformer and a major influence on Kim Jong-un.
He held key positions in both the KWP and the National Defence Commission.
Apart from chronic economic problem, North Korea is involved in a protracted stand-off with its neighbours and Western powers over its nuclear weapons programme.
Tensions between the two Koreas rose after the North's third nuclear test in February.
Angered by expanded UN sanctions and annual US-South Korea military drills, Pyongyang threatened attacks on Japanese, South Korean and US military targets in the region.

No-confidence vote in Ukraine fails

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s opposition failed Tuesday to force out the government with a no-confidence vote in parliament, leaving the country’s high political tensions unresolved. The opposition called for the vote in protest both of President Viktor Yanukovych’s shelving of a long-anticipated agreement to deepen political and economic ties with the European Union and the violent tactics used by police to disperse demonstrators protesting that decision
The dispute has brought crowds as big as 300,000 to the streets of Kiev, the largest outpouring of public anger since the 2004 Orange Revolution.
The no-confidence measure got the support of 186 members of the Verkhovna Rada, 40 shy of the majority needed. Even if it had passed, Yanukovych would have remained president, but the prime minister and cabinet would have been ejected.
Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, attending the parliament session with his cabinet, apologized for the violence by riot police against protesters, but otherwise defended the government’s course and denounced protesters who have blocked access to government offices.
Such actions “are not the path to European integration but to dictatorship,” he said, hitting the desk with his fist as opponents jeered.
Azarov, like Yanukovych, has said Ukraine wants further integration with the EU but cannot now bear the burden of the trade losses with Russia it would presumably suffer. Ukraine is also deeply dependent on natural gas from Russia, which previously has sharply raised prices for its neighbor.
Russia opposes closer Ukraine-EU relations, hoping to draw Ukraine into a trading bloc of several former Soviet republics.
Yanukovych on Tuesday left the country for a trip to China, where he is expected to sign an array of economic cooperation agreements.
After the no-confidence motion failed, several thousand demonstrators remained outside the parliament building, but there was no immediate unrest.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

N.Korea showcases detained U.S. pensioner as war criminal

(Reuters) - North Korea accused a detained U.S. veteran on Saturday of killing civilians during the Korean War 60 years ago and showed a video of the 85-year-old making a full confession and apology as if the battles are still raging.
The North's KCNA news agency said Merrill E. Newman, a former special forces officer, was a mastermind of clandestine operations and had confessed to being "guilty of a long list of indelible crimes against DPRK government and Korean people."
In the patchy video, Newman appears composed and is shown reading aloud from a handwritten statement dated Nov 9, 2013 in a wood-panelled meeting room. At the end, he bows and places a finger print on the document.
"I realise that I cannot be forgiven for my offensives (offenses) but I beg for pardon on my knees by apologising for my offensives (offenses) sincerely toward the DPRK government and the Korean people and I want not punish me (I wish not to be punished)," Newman, who has a heart rhythm disorder, was quoted as saying by KCNA.
DPRK is short for the North's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. One of the world's most isolated states, it nourishes memories of the 1950-53 war with South Korea and the United States to keep its impoverished people distracted and the family of founder Kim Il Sung in power. His grandson, Kim Jong Un, is North Korea's current ruler.
It remains technically in a state of war with the South and with the United States because the 1950-53 conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.
Newman, a pensioner from Palo Alto, California, was pulled off an Air Koryo flight in North Korea minutes before it was due to depart for Beijing on October 26.
His wife, Lee Newman, told CNN earlier this week that her husband went to North Korea to "put some closure" on his time during the U.S. military. It was "an important part of his life," she said.
Newman worked as an "adviser" to a partisan regiment during the Korean War as "part of the Intelligence Bureau of the Command of the U.S. Forces in the Far East," KCNA said in a separate report.
"He is a criminal as he masterminded espionage and subversive activities against the DPRK and in this course he was involved in killings of service personnel of the Korean People's Army and innocent civilians," KCNA said.
Newman, in his statement carried by KCNA, said he trained scores of men in guerrilla warfare against the North, including how to sabotage communications and transport lines and disrupt munitions supply.
"In the process of following tasks given by me, I believe they would kill more innocent people," Newman said in the statement.
Public documents in South Korea and the United States show U.S. officers worked as "advisers" to groups of anti-communist partisans during the Korean War. The conflict pitted the Communist North, backed by China and the Soviet Union, against the republican South, backed by the United States.
These officers trained Korean anti-communist guerilla units to launch attacks behind enemy lines.
Newman belonged to the 8240th Unit, nicknamed the 'White Tigers', said guerrillas who were trained by him.
"We co-operated and helped with each other and fought," Kim Hyeon who lives south of Seoul said in an interview with Reuters. Hyeon remained in touch with Newman after the war and visited him with his family in 2004.
"In the past we couldn't even speak up (about our activities,)" said Kim, who served as a staff officer of the Kuwol Regiment of partisans, referring to the clandestine operations it conducted under Newman's supervision.
SEEKING CLOSURE
KCNA gave no indication of what might happen to Newman.
His family has appealed to the North Korean government for his release saying they believed "some dreadful misunderstanding" was behind the detention.
"If Newman was with the partisans that may explain his detention," Bruce Cumings, an expert on the Korean War at the University of Chicago, told Reuters.
"The North Koreans would treat someone like that with much more disdain than a regular line soldier or officer in the American forces."
A U.S. State Department spokesman said there was no immediate comment on the news. The State Department had previously refused to provide any details of the arrest other than confirming the detention of a U.S. citizen.
After serving in the war, Newman worked as a manufacturing and business executive before retiring in 1984, according to a biography of him in a February 2012 newsletter from Channing House, his retirement home.
North Korea is also holding another American, Christian missionary Kenneth Bae of Korean decent, arrested last year and sentenced in May to 15 years of hard labour on charges of committing hostile acts against the state.
Newman's family has not commented on the latest developments. Phone calls and email queries to his son, Jeff Newman, a real estate executive in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, were not answered.
KCNA said Newman had asked his guide to help look for any surviving soldiers he would have fought against or their families.
"Shamelessly I had a plan to meet any surviving soldiers and pray for the souls of the dead soldiers in Kuwol Mt. during the Korean war," he said.

Lawyer: Ajax killed suspect in homeless slayings

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A former Marine who was awaiting trial in the deaths of six people, including four homeless men, died after ingesting Ajax in his jail cell, his lawyer said Friday.
Itzcoatl Ocampo, 25, apparently accumulated the cleaning product over time while in custody, said his attorney, Michael Molfetta, who was briefed on the death. The incident raises serious questions about how well Orange County jail deputies were supervising Ocampo, who had mental health issues, Molfetta said.
Ocampo was found shaking and vomiting in his single-man cell Wednesday and taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead Thursday afternoon, said Orange County sheriff's Lt. Jeff Hallock.
No cause of death was immediately given, and officials said an autopsy will be performed in the coming days. The Orange County district attorney's office will investigate the death and autopsy results by an independent pathologist are expected by the middle of next week, Hallock said.
"If you spend three minutes with Ocampo, you are acutely aware of the fact that he has some mental issues. They were severe and they were obvious and they definitely were not contrived," Molfetta said. "With that being said, this was a guy who should have garnered the highest level of scrutiny … and it wasn't done."
Hallock declined to comment on inmate supervision or the attorney's account except to say jail deputies are required, in general, to walk by each inmate's cell a minimum of once an hour.
"We always want to prove the case in court and have justice for the victims' families," said Susan Kang Schroeder, the district attorney's chief of staff.
Marie Middaugh, mother of victim Lloyd "Jimmy" Middaugh, said in a phone interview Friday that she was relieved to hear the news of Ocampo's death.
"A trial wouldn't have brought our loved ones back," she said. "I'm sorry things happened the way it did for his family because I know they're grieving, too, but I'm just glad that really it's all over."
Someone at a number listed for Ocampo's father hung up repeatedly when a reporter called Friday.
Prosecutors alleged that Ocampo, a native of Mexico, stabbed four homeless men in what they called a serial thrill-kill rampage in late 2011 and early 2012. Ocampo targeted his homeless victims because they were vulnerable and because he felt they were a blight on the community, authorities said.
He was charged in January 2012 with four counts of murder, with special allegations of multiple murders, lying in wait and use of a deadly weapon. Three victims were stabbed more than 40 times each with a single-edged blade at least 7 inches long. In one instance, prosecutors, said, Ocampo selected as his next victim a homeless man who was featured in a Los Angeles Times story about the killings.
Ocampo, who was discharged from the Marines in 2010, also was facing murder charges in the deaths of a school friend's mother and brother in October 2011.
At the time, his family said Ocampo was a troubled man after he returned from Iraq in 2008 and he went to visit the grave of a friend who died in combat in Afghanistan twice a week. He also began drinking heavily and he suffered from headaches and hand tremors, they said.
His parents separated in 2010 and his father became homeless after losing his job. During the killing rampage, Ocampo visited his father on the streets and warned him about the dangers of being homeless, even showing him a picture of one of the dead men.
In March 2012, Ocampo temporarily was placed on suicide watch after he began banging his head on a metal toilet in the jail. He told his attorney he was trying to stop voices as well as headaches and twitches that were bothering him, according to The Orange County Register.

Men tried to decapitate British soldier

Two men charged with the gruesome murder of a British soldier attempted to hack off his head in broad daylight on a London street, a court heard as their trial opened.
Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are accused of murdering 25-year-old Lee Rigby as he walked to his barracks in Woolwich, south London, in May.
The two defendants, both Britons of Nigerian descent who have asked to be identified by Muslim names in court, deny murder.
As the trial opened at London's Old Bailey court, prosecutor Richard Whittam said the pair had run Rigby over with a car, knocking him unconscious, before attacking him with knives and a meat cleaver in a 'cowardly and callous murder'.
Rigby's relatives watched from the courtroom as Whittam told the jury of eight women and four men that Adebowale had stabbed and cut the soldier while Adebolajo tried to cut his head off.
They had dragged his body into the middle of the road, Whittam said, because 'they wanted members of the public to see the consequence of what can only be described as their barbarous acts'.
'They both attacked the motionless body of Lee Rigby,' Whittam told the jury.
'He was repeatedly stabbed and it appears it was Michael Adebolajo, the first defendant, who made a serious and almost successful attempt to decapitate Lee Rigby with multiple blows to his neck made with the meat cleaver.
'At the same time as Michael Adebolajo used the meat cleaver, Michael Adebowale was using a knife to stab and cut at Lee Rigby's body.'
One witness, Whittam said, compared Adebolajo's actions to 'a butcher attacking a joint of meat'.
Rigby's widow Rebecca walked out of the court in tears during the harrowing evidence.
There were gasps from the courtroom as the jury was shown CCTV footage of a car veering onto the pavement and ramming into the soldier.
When the police arrived, Adebolajo ran at a police car waving the meat cleaver and was shot by officers, the prosecutor said.
Adebowale charged at police with a gun, and was also shot.
Adebolajo and Adebowale are further accused of attempting to murder a police officer and conspiracy to murder a police officer. They both deny these charges.
The horrifying murder took place in the middle of the day as a group of schoolchildren were returning from a local library, Whittam told the jury. Members of the public turned them back to avoid the 'awful' scene.
The prosecutor said passers-by had shown 'bravery and decency' in the aftermath of the attack, with one woman confronting Adebolajo despite the fact that he was still holding the meat cleaver and his hands were covered in blood.
Another woman 'went to the lifeless body of Lee Rigby and stroked him to provide some comfort and humanity', he added.
Adebolajo has asked to be referred to as Mujaahid Abu Hamza in court, while Adebowale wants to be called Ismail Ibn Abdullah.
Both defendants have admitted possession of a firearm with intent to cause violence.
Rigby, the father of a young son, had joined the British army in 2006 and had served in Afghanistan.

South China sea row escalates after US B52 bombers defy new Chinese defence zone

Two US B52 bombers are at the centre of an escalating row over disputed islands in the South China Sea. The unarmed jets flew over the territory in defiance of a new air defence zone imposed by China.
Beijing warned it would take “defensive emergency measures” if aircraft failed to identify themselves properly in the airspace which is about two-thirds the size of Britain.
Caroline Kennedy, the new American Ambassador to Japan and the daughter of the late President Kennedy, gave her reaction in her first public address.
“Unilateral actions like those taken by China with the announcement of an East China Sea-Air defence identification zone undermine security and constitute an attempt to change the status quo in the East China Sea. This only serves to increase tension in the region,” she said.
US ally Japan’s main airlines also defied the Chinese when they passed through the zone over the disputed islands.
Some experts believe Beijing’s move was aimed at chipping away at Tokyo’s claim to administrative control over the tiny uninhabited islands.
Analysts say China’s action may have backfired by driving the US closer to Japan and helping to bolster support for Tokyo’s agenda to strengthen its military.