The US economy pumped out a solid 223,000 net new jobs in April, rebounding modestly from a dismal March, the Labor Department reported today.
	The jobless rate fell to a seven-year low of 5.4 per cent, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous month.
	The gains were roughly in line with expectations after March's sharp fall in job creation. Analysts said the economy still shows muscle following the first-quarter stall.
	But, pointing to weak details behind the headline numbers, they also said another strong month or two is needed to prove the winter slowdown was "transitory", as the Federal Reserve said at the end of April.
	The report was "much better than in March, but still not by enough to fully offset March's weakness," said Jim O'Sullivan of High Frequency Economics.
	Details in the report showed only slight signs of tightening in the labor market, which is key to both confidence in the economy's strength and the Fed's plan to begin hiking interest rates this year.
	The ...

US gains 223,000 jobs in April, jobless rate at 7-year low

PTI Automatic

Defending champion and current leader Lewis Hamilton regained his almost customary place at the top of the timesheets on Friday afternoon when he outpaced Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in the second free practice session ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.
	Driving with his usual elan and precision in a gusty wind at the Circuit de Catlunya, the two-time world champion clocked a best lap of one minute and 26.852 seconds to finish almost half a second clear of nearest rival four-time champion German Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari.
	Rosberg, given a reprimand during the morning for infringing the pit-lane entry lines as he worked his way to the fastest lap in that session, wound up seven-tenths of a second back in third place.
	The reprimand was his first since last year's Bahrain Grand Prix.
	Finn Kimi Raikkonen, who complained of boredom during a radio conversation in the closing stages, was fourth quickest in the second Ferrari, endorsing a growing impression that the Italian .

Hamilton back on top in Barcelona

Bangladesh faced a long haul to save the second and final Test against Pakistan in Dhaka after they were set an improbable victory target of 550 on the third day today.
     The hosts were 63 for one at stumps with Tamim Iqbal (32) and Mominul Haque (15) together at the crease after Imrul Kayes was bowled by Yasir Shah for 16 on a wearing pitch at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium.
     Bangladesh will still need to bat out six sessions over the last two days to avoid losing the short series after the first Test ended in a draw in Khulna last week.
     Bangladesh's highest fourth innings score to win a Test is 217 against the West Indies in 2009.
     The Tigers were bowled out for 203 in their first innings before lunch in reply to Pakistan's 557-8 declared, but the tourists did not enforce the follow-on despite a a mammoth lead of 354 runs.
     Batting a second time, Pakistan declared their second innings at 195-6 with skipper Misbah-ul Haq leading the way with a 72-ball 82 that included .

Pakistan tighten grip on decisive Bangladesh Test

China's Xi Jinping flew into Moscow today as some two dozen world leaders headed to Russia for a grandiose World War II victory parade that has been snubbed by the West.
	Russia will roll out its military might at the Red Square parade to mark 70 years since victory over Nazi Germany from 10:00 am tomorrow (local time) with 16,000 troops and a display of hardware including the latest generation Armata tanks.
	Xi sat down with Russian President Vladimir Putin today for talks that were expected to yield some 40 joint agreements, according to the Kremlin, with reports saying they could range from possible energy cooperation to cyber security.
	"We are very happy to see our Chinese friends at a time when the whole Russian people are celebrating victory," Putin said at the start of the meeting, state-run agency RIA Novosti reported.
	South African President Jacob Zuma and Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic were also among the leaders arriving today ahead of the parade, while Indian ...

Putin meets China's Xi, head to Moscow for WWII parade

Swiss farm chemicals powerhouse Syngenta said today it had rejected a takeover bid by US seed giant Monsanto, saying its offer was too low.
	In a statement, Syngenta confirmed April reports that Monsanto had made an offer for a merger that would have formed a world market leader in both seeds and crop chemicals.
	"The Board of Syngenta confirms that it has received an unsolicited proposal from Monsanto to acquire the company at a price of 449 Swiss francs (USD 486) per Syngenta share with approximately 45 per cent in cash," said the statement.
	"The offer fundamentally undervalues Syngenta's prospects and underestimates the significant execution risks, including regulatory and public scrutiny at multiple levels in many countries," it said.
	Syngenta shares soared after the news on the Swiss stock exchange, rising to 381.90 Swiss francs at 9:28 am (0728 GMT) -- a 14.7 per cent rise over Thursday's close.
	The US firm had timed the offer with a slackening in Syngenta's performance but ..

Swiss Syngenta rejects takeover bid by US Monsanto

US President Barack Obama marked today the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany by calling the victorious Allied troops a generation that saved the world.
	Obama moved up his traditional weekend radio address to coincide with the anniversary. It will be celebrated in Washington with vintage US warplanes that flew in the war roaring over downtown for 45 minutes.
	In his address, Obama said Allied commander General Dwight D Eisenhower's low-key announcement of Germany's surrender belied the momentous military victory that had been achieved and the awful scope of the human suffering endured.
	"For over five years, brutal fighting laid waste to an entire continent. Mothers, fathers, children were murdered in concentration camps. By the time the guns fell silent in Europe, some 40 million people on the continent had lost their lives," Obama said.
	Obama said Americans must pay tribute to all the patriots, as he put it -- soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, coast guard, merchant ..

Obama marks VE day by saying Allies 'saved the world'

A gunman opened fire today outside a school in northeast Nigeria's city of Potiskum, seriously wounding 12 students in an area repeatedly targeted by Boko Haram, a police officer and witnesses said.
	"We have evacuated 12 people with serious gunshot wounds to hospital from the scene of the shooting attack," said the officer, who requested anonymity.
	Many students at the College of Administrative and Business Studies (CABS) in Potiskum, Yobe state, said the attacker with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up when he ran out of ammunition, but the blast caused no other casualties.
	Following a wave of attacks in the city, including on schools and colleges, students at CABS must pass through security screening before entering the campus.
	The gunman fired on a crowd waiting at the gate to be screened shortly past 8:00 am (0700 GMT), witnesses said.
	"We had just started a class when we heard gunshots coming from the direction of the gates and we instantly realised we were ...

Gunman opens fire outside Nigerian school injuring 12

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been forced to delay the swearing in of his new government to satisfy members of his Likud party seeking cabinet posts, media reported today.
	After six weeks of intensive negotiations, Netanyahu yesterday signed a deal with the far-right Jewish Home party to forge a new coalition government which he had hoped to submit to parliament on Monday.
	With a slim majority of 61 of the Knesset's 120 seats and facing frustration from Likud members, Netanyahu is now expected to push back the swearing-in ceremony to Wednesday, media said.
	The prime minister will reportedly seek to scrap a law limiting the number of cabinet ministers to 18 in order to satisfy everyone.
	Newspapers said today that Netanyahu was concerned that Likud parliamentarians upset at not having secured a portfolio in the new government could gang up and vote against the cabinet at the Knesset.
	Druze Likud lawmaker Ayoub Kara has set the tone saying "there will be surprises" ..

Netanyahu to delay swearing in of government: media

Hundreds of people fled their homes on the slopes of a rumbling Philippine volcano today as authorities warned of rain-driven mudflows from an approaching typhoon that could bury them alive.
	Around 500 residents of farming villages around Bulusan volcano, many of them children and elderly women, boarded army trucks clutching sleeping mats and bags of clothes as Typhoon Noul bore down on the area.
	"I have no choice but to evacuate. I may not be strong enough to outrun the mud flows," 66-year-old housewife Dolores Guela told AFP.
	Officials said she and her meningitis-stricken nine-year-old granddaughter would be among about 1,000 people taken to temporary shelters to wait out the wrath of Noul, which was forecast to bring heavy rains in the region from late Friday.
	The typhoon was gusting at up to 185 kph and experts warned debris from two recent ash explosions could rumble down the slopes of the 1,559-metre volcano.
	State vulcanologists subsequently raised Alert level 1 -- the ...

Hundreds flee rumbling Philippines volcano, typhoon

China's exports fell unexpectedly in April as imports posted their sixth straight monthly decrease, official data showed today, with analysts calling for more stimulus to bolster the world's second-largest economy.
	The country's exports dropped 6.4 per cent year-on-year in April to USD 176.3 billion, the customs authority said -- well below the median forecast of a 0.9 per cent rise in a Bloomberg News poll of economists.
	The fall was accompanied by a 16.2 per cent drop in imports to USD 142.2 billion, the sixth monthly decline in a row, suggesting sustained weakness in domestic demand.
	The export and import figures for April showed a trade surplus of USD 34.1 billion, Customs said, compared with USD 18.5 billion a year ago.
	Analysts said the disappointing figures reflected persistent frailty in the Chinese economy and provided more evidence that further policy loosening is needed.
	"The trade data indicate that current growth momentum remains soft, calling for more monetary ...

China April exports down 6.4 per cent in new sign of weakness

A Japanese zoo that caused a furore by naming a baby monkey after Britain's Princess Charlotte has been told to stick to its guns by the local mayor after two days of fraught debate.
	Mt Takasaki Wild Monkey Park in Oita was flooded with complaints after announcing on Wednesday that the public had voted for a newborn macaque to be called Charlotte, just days after Britain's royal family named its newest member.
	With the story making headlines around the world yesterday, the zoo offered an apology for any offence caused to the daughter of Prince William and his wife Kate.
	More than 500 people got in touch with the monkey park over two days to voice an opinion on the name, with early correspondents urging them to drop it.
	"Initially opinions were mostly complaints saying it is disrespectful to the British people, then voices supporting the name began to increase, with some saying it was okay because the baby monkey is cute," an official in Oita, southwestern Japan, said.
	As the ...

Japan mayor vows no name change for Charlotte the monkey

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's top business advisor today claimed climate change was a ruse encouraged by the United Nations to create a new authoritarian world order under its control.
	Maurice Newman, chairman of the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council, said the real agenda was "concentrated political authority. Global warming is the hook".
	In a column for The Australian newspaper to coincide with a visit by UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, he added that the world had been "subjected to extravagance from climate catastrophists for close to 50 years".
	"It's a well-kept secret, but 95 per cent of the climate models we are told prove the link between human CO2 emissions and catastrophic global warming have been found, after nearly two decades of temperature stasis, to be in error," he said, without providing evidence.
	Newman, a former chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, is a known climate change sceptic but he went further by accusing the UN of .

Australia PM advisor says climate change a UN-led ruse

Vietnam has carried out significant land reclamation at two sites in disputed South China Sea waters, recent satellite pictures show, but analysts say the scale of the work is dwarfed by that of China.
	The images, taken late last month by DigitalGlobe and shown on the website of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), show land expansions at Sand Cay and West London Reef, both part of the Spratly Islands.
	"Between August 2011 and February 2015 significant upgrades were made to (Sand Cay)," CSIS said, noting the island's land mass had expanded from 41,690 to 62,970 square meters.
	Vietnam also appears to have added "defensive structures," including trenches and gun emplacements, it said.
	At West Reef -- which is part of the London Reefs group of western Spratly Islands -- some 65,000 meters of land have been reclaimed with new structures, including a harbour, being added, it said.
	The work appears to have begun in August 2012, CSIS said, long ...

Vietnam reclaiming land in South China Sea: report

Fierce battles between Syrian regime forces and the Islamic State jihadist group in eastern Syria have left 34 fighters dead in 24 hours, a monitor said today.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 pro-government forces and 15 IS extremists had been killed since clashes began late Wednesday in the city of Deir Ezzor and around its nearby military airport.
	The head of aerial defence at the airport -- one of the few areas left in regime hands in Deir Ezzor province -- was killed in the fighting, the Observatory said.
	Four government soldiers were beheaded by IS Thursday as the jihadists seized a key checkpoint in the city near the air base.
	"An IS suicide bomber detonated himself by the checkpoint, which IS then seized," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
	"Seizing the checkpoint gets them closer to the military airport."
	Abdel Rahman said fighting continued into Friday morning with both sides shelling positions on the outskirts of Deir Ezzor city.
	Local ...

34 dead in IS assault on east Syria city: monitor

Toyota said today its annual profit accelerated 19 per cent to a record USD 18.1 billion as the world's biggest automaker capitalised on a weak yen and strong demand in North America, despite being sideswiped by a series of recalls.
	The maker of the Corolla and Prius hybrid beat its earlier forecasts with the 2.17 trillion yen net profit (USD 18.1 billion) in the fiscal year to March, as revenues rose six percent to 27.23 trillion yen.
	The Japanese giant predicted that, despite weakness in Asia and industry concerns about growth in major market China, it would book an even bigger 2.25 trillion yen net profit for the current business year.
	Toyota's operating profit rose 20 per cent - largely owing to cost cuts and a sharp decline in the yen, which inflates the value of exporters' repatriated profits - even as sales edged lower to 8.97 million units.
	Including its Hino and Daihatsu brands, Toyota moved a slightly higher 10.16 million units for the year.
	President Akio Toyoda put ...

Toyota says annual profit drove to record USD 18.1 bn

Saudi-led warplanes struck key targets of Yemeni Huthi rebels in their northern stronghold of Saada, state media said Friday after Riyadh vowed "harsh" punishment for deadly cross-border bombardments.
	The raids yesterday targeted two control centres, a communication complex and a landmine factory, the kingdom's SPA official news agency said.
	The Saudi-led coalition, which has waged six weeks of air strikes in support of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, also destroyed other rebel positions in Saada province, which borders Saudi Arabia, SPA said.
	Saudi Arabia warned Thursday that the Iran-backed Shiite Huthis had crossed a "red line" in shelling populated border areas in the kingdom.
	"The equation is different, the confrontation is different, and they will pay a harsh and expensive price," said coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri.
	Saada would be among the targets in the coalition's sights, he said, speaking just hours after the kingdom proposed a ...

Saudi-led warplanes bomb Yemen rebel stronghold

The Ebola virus has been detected for the first time in an eye of a patient months after it vanished from his blood, researchers said.
	Ian Crozier, an American doctor, was diagnosed with Ebola in September 2014 while working in Sierra Leone with the World Health Organization.
	He was sent back to the United States to Emory University Hospital's special Ebola unit in Atlanta, Georgia.
	Crozier left the hospital in October when Ebola was no longer detected in his blood, the New England Journal of Medicine reported yesterday.
	But two months later he developed an inflammation and very high blood pressure in his left eye. It caused swelling and serious vision problems.
	He returned to the same hospital where he had been treated, and an ophthalmologist, Dr. Steven Yeh, removed some of the fluid and tested it for Ebola. It did in fact contain the virus, but it was not present in his tears or the tissue around his eye.
	Doctors believed he did not pose a risk of infecting other people, but .

Ebola found in man's eye months after it left blood: report

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said Egypt had "rescued" 27 Ethiopians who were abducted in war-torn Libya, as state television showed him greeting the group at Cairo airport.
	It was not immediately clear how the Ethiopians were rescued, or the details of their abduction, but Sisi's office said the group flown in on an Egyptian plane was "liberated by Egyptian and Libyan security services".
	"All efforts were made to bring the Ethiopians to Egypt safely... Egyptian services participated in this effort to protect, rescue and secure our Ethiopian brothers," Sisi told reporters at Cairo airport yesterday.
	In a separate statement, the army quoted Sisi as saying that the Ethiopians had been kidnapped in Libya.
	Sisi "hailed... Egyptian efforts to rescue the Ethiopian brothers who were kidnapped in Libya," during a seminar attended by army and police officers, the military said.
	The army did not provide details on the circumstances of their abduction.
	Ethiopia hailed efforts of ...

Egypt's Sisi says Ethiopians 'rescued' from Libya

Confectionery-maker Cadbury said today it has created a new taste sensation by combining its well-loved milk chocolate with an unusual flavour -- Australia's famous, sharply-savoury spread Vegemite.
	Cadbury Australia said the new product was "surprisingly delicious" and one of four new flavour combinations to hit the shelves in coming weeks -- along with pretzel and peanut, salted caramel, and golden toffee.
	The company said it believed the new flavour which combines chocolate and smooth flowing caramel with Vegemite, a paste based on yeast extract, would give Australians "something new and unexpected".
	"We're sure it will stimulate Australians' flavour curiosity so we encourage everyone to give the block a try while they can," it said in a statement on the products, which will be only be available for a limited time.
	Confirmation of rumours about the Vegemite chocolate sparked a mixed response on Twitter, with some excitedly asking "Why has it taken so long?".
	"If this trend ...

Vegemite with chocolate? It's no smear campaign

A New York cab driver has been sentenced to life in prison for ordering a double murder in Pakistan after his daughter fled a loveless, arranged marriage.
	Mohammad Choudhry, 62, will spend the rest of his life behind bars for conspiring in two deaths carried out nearly 13,000 kilometres away from his Brooklyn home in 2013, US prosecutors said.
	Choudhry was convicted by an American jury of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, making threats and immigration fraud following a nine-day trial last summer.
	US prosecutors say Choudhry's American daughter, Amina Ajmal, was sent to Pakistan and held against her will for more than three years on her father's orders and forced into an arranged marriage.
	When she escaped and fled home to the United States -- with help from the State Department -- with the man she loved, Shujat Abbas, her father was furious.
	Choudhry and his relatives in Pakistan subjected the Abbas family -- who lived in Gujrat, Punjab province -- to repeated ...

New York cab driver jailed over Pakistan murders

An unmanned supply ship burned up on re-entry over the Pacific Ocean today, a week after the spacecraft suffered a communications failure, the Russian space agency said.
	"The Progress M-27M spacecraft ceased to exist at 05:04 Moscow time (0204 GMT) on 8 May 2015. It entered the atmosphere... Over the central part of the Pacific Ocean," Roscosmos said in a statement.
	Almost all similarly-sized spacecraft disintegrate in the atmosphere or land in the oceans, which cover most of the Earth's surface.
	The spacecraft, a Soviet design generally known for its reliability, blasted off for the International Space Station on April 28 carrying oxygen, water, spare parts and other supplies for the orbiting space laboratory, which has a crew of six international astronauts.
	A few hours after the launch, mission control lost contact with it.
	A special commission is looking into the incident, the deputy head of Roscosmos has said.
	Sources in the space industry told Russian news agencies that ...

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