USA
Most of the nation's governors met over the weekend in Washington at the first National Education Summit aimed exclusively at high school reform. Speakers took paraticular aim at a record of underperformance. Summit leaders are urging every state to raise the requirements for a high school diploma, improve information- sharing between high schools and colleges, and align graduation standards with the expectations of colleges and prospective employers.
The parents of Terri Schiavo are expected to ask an appeals court this week to block a decision, made Friday by a judge in Florida, that her feeding tube can be removed in three weeks. Bob and Mary Schindler, who've been in a long legal battle with their son-in-law, do not believe their daughter, who collapsed 15 years ago, is in a persistent vegetative state, as court-appointed doctors have ruled. Michael Schiavo, the husband, says he is carrying out his wife's right-to-die choice.
Police in Wichita, Kan., arrested a churchgoing Cub Scout leader they identified as the suspected serial killer in at least 10 cases dating back 31 years. They did not reveal why they think Dennis Rader is the man who called himself "BTK (for "Bind, Torture, Kill)" and who taunted police with letters about his crimes. Rader, a municipal employee in nearby Park City, is married and the father of two grown children. The letter-writing resumed last year after a gap of 25 years.
If teenagers and their parents seem divided over some lifestyle issues, religion is not necessarily one of them, The Los Angeles Times reported, citing the National Study of Youth and Religion. The survey, which is the basis of a soon-to-be-released Oxford University Press book, indicates that 75 percent of teens say their beliefs are somewhat - or very - similar to those of their parents.
Bank of America Corp. issued an apology for losing computer data tapes that contain personal information on 1.2 million federal employees, including some members of the US Senate and thousands of Defense Department staffers. The bank, which is based in Charlotte, N.C., discovered the loss in December but held off in publicizing it until investigators gave their permission.
