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The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose modestly last week while revisions for prior weeks showed the labor market was much stronger than previously thought. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 265,000 for the week ended March 19, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's claims were revised to show 6,000 fewer applications received than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 268,000 in the latest week. The government also revised data going back to 2011, which showed claims trending lower than previously reported. Claims for...

President Obama on Tuesday praised senators for advancing emergency legislation to extend unemployment insurance benefits and urged lawmakers to approve the measure and send it to him quickly. Speaking at an event in the East Room of the White House just moments after the 60-37 vote in the Senate, Mr. Obama said that the legislation would restore benefits to millions of people who are struggling to find work in an economy that is still recovering from a deep recession. “If this doesn’t get fixed, it will hurt about 14 million Americans over the course of this year,” Mr. Obama said....

(Reuters) - At least three Kosovo Serbs and a NATO soldier were wounded in a gunfight on Friday, as peacekeepers tried to dismantle Serb barricades blocking traffic, a Reuters witness said. NATO troops in the Kosovo Force (KFOR) fired tear gas and small arms and some protesters fired back with handguns. The troops, in armored personnel carriers, were confronted by hundreds of Serbs who pelted them with stones near roadblocks in the villages of Rudare and Dudin Krs outside the town of Zvecan in a Serb-dominated northern area of Kosovo. The roadblocks are among the last on major roads yet...

Iran, EU to meet to discuss incentives By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 28, 2006 Iran's top nuclear negotiator and the European Union's foreign policy chief plan to meet on July 5 to discuss a package of incentives from key global powers to try to persuade Iran to roll back its uranium enrichment program, a U.N. official said. The EU's Javier Solana said last Wednesday he had a good phone conversation with Iran's Ali Larijani and would probably meet him this week. That meeting is now expected to take place next Wednesday and will probably be somewhere...

U.S. visas still contentious, but officials keep mum about dialog details EU Interior Affairs Commissioner Antonio Vittorino once again appealed to the USA yesterday to waive entrance visas for the citizens of the new EU member countries. While both Richard Boucher, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, and Pietro Petrucci, a spokesperson for the EU, refused to reveal any details of the talks, Rzeczpospolita has claimed the Americans are willing to take into account the fact that Poland and the other Central Europe entrants, have all joined up to the Schengen agreement concerning the waiving of the passport controls...

Berlusconi, surrounded by socialists, needs some help to equalize the opinion polls. http://users.pandora.be/wouter247/