Urban schools improving faster

Urban schools improving faster

washington

Public school students in the nation’s largest cities are improving their performance in reading and math faster than their counterparts in suburban and rural schools, according to federal data released Wednesday. The biggest gains by far were in the nation’s capital.

The results from the 21 urban school districts measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress — known as the “Nation’s Report Card” — show that though students in poor, urban districts still fall short of national averages, the gap has narrowed over the past decade.

‘Great Train Robber’ Biggs dies at 84

LONDON

Ronnie Biggs was a petty criminal who set out to transform his life with the daring heist of a mail train packed with money.

The plan worked in ways he could never have imagined.

Biggs was part of a gang of at least 12 men that robbed a Glasgow-to-London Royal Mail train in the early hours of Aug. 8, 1963, switching its signals and tricking the driver into stopping in the darkness. The robbery netted 125 sacks of banknotes worth 2.6 million pounds — $7.3 million at the time, or more than $50 million today — and became known as “the heist of the century.”

Biggs, who has died at age 84, was soon caught and jailed, but his escape from a London prison and decades on the run turned him into a media sensation and something of a notorious British folk hero.

Hearst’s husband dies

san francisco

Bernard L. Shaw, who was Patty Hearst Shaw’s husband and Hearst Corp.’s vice president for corporate security, has died at age 68.

Shaw’s death Tuesday in Garrison, N.Y., was confirmed Wednesday in a statement by Hearst President and CEO Steven R. Swartz.

Patty Hearst made headlines in the 1970s for her kidnapping by a left-wing group and her later imprisonment for bank robbery.

New trial set for Egypt’s ousted chief

CAIRO

Egyptian prosecutors on Wednesday announced a new trial of ousted President Mohammed Morsi and the top leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood, accusing them of conspiring with Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and militant groups to carry out a wave of terrorism to destabilize the country.

The charges, which carry a potential death penalty, are the most sweeping and heaviest accusations yet in a series of trials against the Brotherhood. The new trial of Morsi, the three top Brotherhood leaders and 32 other defendants appeared aimed at decisively crippling the top echelons of the group that dominated Egypt’s political scene during Morsi’s one-year presidency.

Russia OKs amnesty bill; questions remain

MOSCOW

Russia’s parliament on Wednesday passed an amnesty bill that will likely apply to the 30-member crew of a Greenpeace ship detained after an Arctic protest, but it wasn’t immediately clear if and when the activists would be allowed to leave the country.

The amnesty, which also would likely free the two jailed members of the Pussy Riot punk band, has been largely viewed as the Kremlin’s attempt to soothe criticism of Russia’s human- rights records ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February. But opposition lawmakers argued it doesn’t go nearly far enough and the complicated legislation appeared to leave questions open.

Associated Press