US stocks retreat slightly

US stocks Thursday edged lower after recent record-setting gains, despite a favourable report on jobless claims.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.99 (0.01 per cent) to 15,103.13.

The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.70 (0.04 per cent) to 1,631.99, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.92 (0.03 per cent) to 3,412.35.

The losses came after the Dow and S&P set fresh record highs amid low interest rates and somewhat better US economic data.

The Department of Labor reported Thursday that new claims of US unemployment insurance benefits fell to 323,000, well below the 336,000 consensus estimate.

Major indices "are poised to take a breather from their recent rally despite this morning's positive update on the labour market," said Wells Fargo in a market note.

09.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Portuguese unemployment hits record 17.7%

PORTUGAL'S unemployment rate rose sharply in the first quarter of 2013 to a record high 17.7 per cent from 16.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, data from the national statistics institute INE shows.

For the whole of 2013 the government has forecast a rate of 18.2 per cent and 18.5 per cent for next year as the effects of recession and austerity measures take hold.

The record high comes as a new government spending package, announced by the centre-right government last week, foresees the slashing of 30,000 public sector jobs out of a total 700,000.

Civil servants are also to work 40 hours per week, compared with 35 at present and are to be eligible for full retirement at the age of 66, one year later than now.

The new terms are aimed at ensuring continued aid payments from a package worth 78 billion euros ($A101.71 billion) granted by the European Union and International Monetary Fund in May 2011.

According to the INE data, 4.4 million people currently hold jobs in Portugal out of a total population of about 10.5 million.

In 2012, the economy contracted by 3.2 per cent and is forecast to shrink another 2.3 per cent in 2013.

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Kenya asks UN to drop ICC charges

KENYA has written to the UN Security Council seeking to scrap the international crimes against humanity trials for President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Vice President William Ruto, according to a letter seen on Thursday.

Kenyatta, 51, voted into power in March elections, is to go on trial in July at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for crimes against humanity relating to post-election violence in 2007-08.

Ruto, 46, faces three counts of crimes against humanity for his role in deadly violence.

"What this delegation is asking for is not deferral," Kenya's ambassador to the UN, Macharia Kamau, wrote in a letter to the council seen by AFP.

"What this delegation is asking for is for the immediate termination of the case at The Hague."

The letter, dated May 2 and stamped confidential, is the first such official request for the cases to be dropped.

However, while the security council can ask for a case to be deferred for a year, it does not have the authority to order the ICC drop a case completely.

Kenya, however, appealed to "friendly nations to use their good offices and prevail upon the International Criminal Court to reconsider the continued process".

Some 1,100 people died in bloodshed after the 2007 elections over allegations of vote rigging, shattering Kenya's image as a beacon of regional stability.

What began as political riots quickly turned into ethnic killings and reprisal attacks, plunging Kenya into its worst wave of violence since independence in 1963.

The letter warned that continuing with the trials would risk destabilising Kenya.

"Kenyans... spoke with a loud, clear, concise voice when they overwhelmingly elected Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto as president and deputy president," it said.

"It is obvious that their absence from the country may undermine the prevailing peace and any resultant insecurity may spill over to the neighbouring countries."

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Technology changes how we chat to mum

TECHNOLOGY is changing the way Australians communicate with their mums, with more using social media and video calls to stay in touch, new research suggests.

But no matter what method is used, it seems one thing will never change - we still call mum for help and advice.

In the run-up to Mother's Day, Telstra released data showing that half of all Australians chat to their mums once a week and 20 per cent do so every day.

But the evidence suggests more are using apps like Skype.

"These days more mums are happy to be called on their mobile for the weekly catch up and increasingly they are enjoying video calls too," Telstra's Inese Kingsmill said.

"In fact, 10 per cent of the mums we surveyed like receiving video calls from their kids and grandkids.

"Phoning home will take on a new meaning as technology advances."

Many of the calls - no matter what the medium - are made out of desperation rather than kindness.

That's particularly true among younger people, with 13 per cent of those aged between 18-25 only telephoning mum when they want something, according to Telstra's research.

Mums aged between 40-44 are the least responsive to these sorts of calls, with seven per cent saying they'd ignore them.

"I'm sure many mums can relate to the urgent phone call from their kids wanting to know how to remove red wine stains from the carpet or how to get lumps out of the gravy," Ms Kingsmill added.

Facebook said 27 per cent of Australians aged between 13-18 were connected to their mums via the social networking site.

That's higher than in many other countries, including France (15.5 per cent) and Brazil (13.5 per cent).

Fifteen per cent of Australians have friended their mum on Facebook, listing the relationship in the "family" section on their profiles.

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Remote students less likely to reach uni

HIGH school students from remote and disadvantaged Queensland schools are less likely to be accepted into university.

Year 12 completion rates are almost universal across the state, with close to 100 per cent of students at most state and Christian schools offered a place in higher education.

The results are positive at schools in Brisbane and larger regional cities.

But a closer look at the Queensland Studies Authority data shows pockets of disadvantage in remote areas, and at schools catering to students from indigenous and troubled backgrounds.

Griffith University Dean of Learning and Teaching, Professor Glenn Finger, says the results show the need for the Queensland government to sign up to the federal government's Gonski education reforms, which allocate more funding to disadvantaged and public schools.

"Those negotiations between the federal government and the state government are probably highly politicised, but underneath it the Gonski reform does provide a roadmap for addressing the resourcing needs of different schools that's evident in this data," he told AAP.

"The funding formula for resourcing needs improvement so that the resources actually go to those areas of need."

In central Queensland, Blackall State School had a 100 per cent year 12 completion rate but only 67 per cent of students were successful in securing a place at university or other tertiary study.

The result was even more dire at the small Aboriginal and Islander Independent Community School in Brisbane, where only 60 per cent finished year 12 and no one was accepted for further study.

The Arethusa College at Deception Bay, north of Brisbane, which caters for a small number of disengaged students had even worse results, with only one third completing year 12 and no one going on to higher education.

While most religious schools produced good academic outcomes, the Australian International Islamic College helped just 30 per cent of students finish year 12, while only 56 per cent of tertiary study applicants were successful.

Brisbane Christian College in Salisbury produced another surprise, with just 68 per cent completing year 12.

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US kidnap suspect called himself predator

FOUND inside the house where Ariel Castro allegedly held three women captive for a decade was a note from 2004 in which he called himself "a sexual predator" in need of help, local media reported.

Castro, 52, was arraigned on Thursday for the rape and kidnapping of Amanda Berry, 27, Gina DeJesus, 23 and Michelle Knight, 32, who all emerged on Monday from the unassuming Cleveland house owned by the former school bus driver.

Local television station WOIO investigative reporter Scott Taylor, on his Twitter feed, said the note was among dozens of pieces of evidence that police recovered when they combed the two-story premises after the women's escape.

"I am a sexual predator. I need help," Taylor quoted the note as saying.

In an apparent reference to captives, the note goes on: "They are here against their will because they made a mistake of getting in a car with a total stranger."

"I don't know why I kept looking for another," the note adds. "I already have 2 in my possession."

Taylor said Castro also wrote about wanting to kill himself and giving "all the money I saved to my victims."

Knight was 20 when she was last seen in August 2002. Berry disappeared on the eve of her 17th birthday in April 2003, while DeJesus vanished in April 2004 at the age of 14.

Cleveland's deputy police chief Ed Tomba appeared to confirm the existence of the note when he was asked at a press conference Wednesday by another local TV news channel if "a suicide note" had been found.

"That is another part of evidence that we recovered that I cannot comment on," Tomba said. "There were over 200 items taken from the home on Seymour Avenue. All of those items will be processed."

09.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Slain Boston bomber suspect finally buried

SLAIN Boston Marathon bomber suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev has finally been buried, ending a growing row over what to do with his body, police in the Massachusetts town of Worcester say.

"As a result of our public appeal for help, a courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to properly bury the deceased," the police department said on its website on Thursday.

"His body is no longer in the City of Worcester and is now entombed," the statement said.

Tsarnaev, 26, died in a gun battle with police three days after the April 15 bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260 at the marathon finish line.

He was killed by bullets and blunt trauma, according to the medical report, and was apparently hit by the car driven by his younger brother Dzhokhar.

Since then, the body of the once promising amateur boxer had been in limbo at a funeral home.

Cemeteries refused to accept him and municipal officials in the Boston area declined to intervene, while protesters besieging the funeral home demanded Tsarnaev's corpse be sent back to his home province of Dagestan in Russia's troubled Caucasus region.

However, an uncle living in the United States said Tsarnaev should be laid to rest in what had become his true home in Boston, leading to an increasingly ugly impasse.

Worcester police did not identify the person who apparently solved the standoff and held off from giving the location of the grave.

"The chief thanks the community that provided the burial site. There is no further information at this time," the department said.

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