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...Gist: Narrowing the persistent gap in achievement between white and minority students is one of the toughest challenges in education. In its first major report during the Obama Administration, the Department of Education offers one of the most comprehensive looks yet at the achievement gap between white and black pupils, based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The NAEP (pronounced nape) is a federal standardized test - known as "the nation's report card" - administered to fourth- and eighth-grade public-school students in reading and math. The state-by-state results show clear evidence of a continued problem: black...
...July 13 Iran's Oil Ministry announced that it had China's agreement to invest about $40 billion in refining Iranian gasoline. The deal would include financing the major new Hormoz refinery in southern Iran, which will be able to produce about 300,000 bbl. of gasoline and kerosene a day once the four-year construction project is completed. China would also overhaul Iran's aging Abadan refinery in the south so that its production could increase by 29%, according to Iranian oil officials, who provided no deadline for that project. (See pictures of the plainclothes terror of the Basij...
...moment, Iran's gasoline imports are not affected by U.S. sanctions or the international, U.N.-agreed sanctions. But the willingness of other countries to sell gasoline to Iran has faltered as political pressure mounts over Iran's nuclear program. India, a major supplier, recently suspended exports of gas for a brief while, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency. "If you really want to use effective sanctions, then you want to cut off gas imports," says Erica Downs, China energy fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "If the Chinese do invest $40 billion and dramatically increase Iran...
...Major Western oil companies operating in Iran, including Total, Royal Dutch Shell and the Italian company ENI, have held off from signing new deals with Iranian oil officials for several months, perhaps waiting to see if President Obama's moves to open talks with Tehran will succeed in breaking the political impasse. The Chinese deal last month to develop the South Pars gas field came only after Total opted not to sign, fearing political fallout. Such fears have rarely fazed Beijing - and are unlikely...
...Sharks are currently owned by an unlikely consortium that includes a Shanghai media group, a domestic airport operator and a state sports institute. According to China's official news agency, Xinhua, Yao is in the process of buying out shares from some major investors. No estimate has been released, however, of just how much Yao will spend on his former team, for which he started training as a young teenager. (See 100 Olympic athletes from the Beijing Games...