Free Republic

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Job openings in the U.S. dropped in September for a second month, signaling a sustained labor market rebound will take time to develop, a government report showed. Openings decreased by 163,000 to 2.93 million, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The number of people hired rose from the prior month and separations declined. The unemployment rate was 9.6 percent for a third month in October even as payrolls increased 151,000, Labor Department figures showed last week. Growth in the world’s largest economy may need to quicken before enough jobs are created to make up for...

UNITED NATIONS - Armed conflicts have declined by 40 percent since the end of the Cold War primarily because the United Nations was finally able to launch peacekeeping and conflict-prevention operations around the world, according to a new study. The first Human Security Report paints a surprising picture of war and peace in the 21st century: a dramatic decline in battlefield deaths, plummeting instances of genocide, and a drop in human rights abuses. The only form of political violence that appears to be getting worse is international terrorism, a serious threat but one that has killed fewer than 1,000 people...