History Readings

American adults lag well behind their counterparts in most other developed countries in the mathematical and technical skills needed for a modern workplace, according to a study released Tuesday.

even middle-aged Americans — who, on paper, are among the best-educated people of their generation anywhere in the world — are barely better than middle of the pack in skills.

The study is the first based on new tests developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a coalition of mostly developed nations, and administered in 2011 and 2012 to thousands of people, ages 16 to 65, by 23 countries. Previous international skills studies have generally looked only at literacy, and in fewer countries.

The Madoff case is particularly thorny. Any action would link the bank to the most notorious financial criminal in more than a generation. Mr. Madoff orchestrated a Ponzi scheme lasting decades that wiped out an estimated $17 billion in cash for his investors. Paper losses reached more than $64 billion.

Mr. Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence in a federal prison in North Carolina after pleading guilty in March 2009. In a 2011 interview from prison, Mr. Madoff told The New York Times that the banks he did business with “had to know.”

Mr. Madoff’s ties to JPMorgan trace to 1986, when it became his primary banker. Over the course of that relationship, Mr. Picard claims, JPMorgan “made at least half a billion dollars in fees and profits” from the relationship.

A suspected Libyan militant leader seized earlier this month in a US raid in Tripoli has appeared for a second time in a federal court in New York.

Mr Liby is accused of having links with al-Qaeda and of involvement with the bombings of two US embassies in 1998.

At his previous hearing, Mr Liby was represented by court-appointed public defenders, having said he could not afford an attorney of his own.

India and China have signed an agreement on border defence co-operation after a stand-off between their armies in disputed territory earlier this year

The agreement was signed during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Beijing.

The two countries disagree over the demarcation of several Himalayan border areas and fought a brief war in 1962. Tensions still flare up from time to time.

Large parts of Syria have been hit by a power cut following an explosion near the airport in the capital, Damascus.

Residents say the entire capital has been plunged into darkness and officials said the power cuts had been nationwide.

"A terrorist attack on a gas pipeline that feeds a power station in the south has led to a power outage in the provinces, and work to repair it is in progress," Syria's state news agency Sana quoted Electricity Minister Imad Khamis as saying.

US intelligence chief James Clapper has denied reports that US spies recorded data from 70 million phone calls in France in a single 30-day period.

The director of national intelligence said the report in Le Monde newspaper contained "misleading information".

Both reports were based on leaks from fugitive ex-US intelligence worker Edward Snowden.

Russia has dropped piracy charges against 30 Greenpeace activists, replacing them with hooliganism charges, according to officials.

The new charge has a maximum penalty of seven years rather than 15. Greenpeace says it is still "wildly disproportionate".

Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise vessel was seized by Russian forces as activists tried to scale an offshore oil platform.

She calls for a scheme offering vitamins to young children in low-income families to be made universal.

Only 25% of children with clinical mental health disorders receive specialist help within three years.

She said obesity stood out as one of the big issues, but the report also demonstrated the interplay between health, social environment, emotional environment and education.

President Barack Obama's Democratic allies have begun voicing frustration with widespread problems with aspects of his signature healthcare law

House Democrats have complained that technical issues with an insurance enrolment website had overshadowed the law's current and future benefits.

The health law, known formally as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and informally as Obamacare, was passed in 2010 and is Mr Obama's foremost domestic policy initiative.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called US President Barack Obama after receiving information that the US may have spied on her mobile phone.

"views such practices... as completely unacceptable".

The White House said President Obama had told Chancellor Merkel the US was not snooping on her communications.

So far, he’s gone virtually unchallenged. He has said the 2008 financial crisis “was the first time ever that markets were broken and could not fix themselves” (ever hear of the Depression?), and that he “could have caught a number of different crises” during his tenure at the Fed (which begs the question of why he didn’t). Journalists have asked such penetrating questions as, "You were knighted. Does that come with a title or anything?" Even the tough-minded Binyamin Applebaum called Greenspan "one of the nation’s most astute economic observers." Overall, the media has presented Greenspan's book as part of a soul-searching quest for why he missed the greatest economic collapse in decades—a frame that is needlessly obsequious and suggests he was a bystander to the disaster, not a central actor.

“The US system of health care is indefensible from an economic as well as a business standpoint.” And, she adds, “If Americans had the same system as Canada or Germany the savings would total 1.079 trillion per year.”

To the north lay the mighty Hittite empire; to the south, Egypt was thriving under the reign of the great Pharaoh Ramses II. Cyprus was a copper emporium. Greece basked in the opulence of its elite Mycenaean culture, and Ugarit was a bustling port city on the Syrian coast. In the land of Canaan, city states like Hazor and Megiddo flourished under Egyptian hegemony. Vibrant trade along the coast of the eastern Mediterranean connected it all.

Experts have long pondered the cause of the crisis that led to the Late Bronze Age collapse of civilization, and now believe that by studying grains of fossilized pollen they have uncovered the cause.

Theories have included patterns of warfare, plagues and earthquakes.

Saudi Arabia has wanted the United States to do more to train and arm rebel fighters. And the Saudi leadership was hoping that President Obama would order a cruise missile attack on the Syrian military in response to what Western and Arab powers said was the Syrian government’s Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus.

We know that the Saudis were obviously disappointed that the strike did not take place,” said Mr. Kerry, referring to the cruise missile attack

Saudi Arabia has also been worried that the Obama administration may be too eager to seek a compromise with Iran over its nuclear program and was unhappy that Washington did not take a stronger stance against the Muslim Brotherhood when President Mohamed Morsi governed Egypt.

The United States and 10 Arab and European nations expressed support on Tuesday for the convening of a peace conference next month in Geneva to begin negotiations on a political settlement to end the bloody civil war in Syria.

John Kerry acknowledged that the moderate Syrian opposition had not yet decided whether it would attend.

It reiterated that a transitional government should be established as part of a political settlement

Human rights groups have expressed concern over an apparent request by the Bahraini government for large quantities of tear gas

Campaigners have accused the Bahraini authorities of using tear gas as a weapon against opposition protesters.

Tear gas is a generic term for a group of at least 15 toxic chemical agents that disable people by exposing their lungs, skin and eyes to irritants. CS gas is the most commonly used by for crowd control.

The US economy added 148,000 jobs in September, official figures show, lower than analysts had predicted.

7.2%, down from 7.3% in August, the US Department of Labor

Economists had predicted 180,000 job gains for September, and the lower-than-expected figure could raise fears the US economy is losing momentum.

A so-called university sold an MBA degree for thousands of pounds with no academic work required, a BBC Newsnight investigation has revealed.

The American University of London (AUOL) awarded a fictitious person created by the programme a Master's in Business in exchange for a £4,500 fee.

"not a bogus university" and defended the robustness of the qualifications it offers.

Germany's parliament has reconvened for the first time since September's election which saw a surge of support for Chancellor Angela Merkel.

She is trying to forge a deal between her Christian Democrat bloc and the centre-left Social Democrats.

Women make up 36% of the new MPs, where one-third of members are new to the Bundestag.