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Syrian military deny targeting camps, U.N condemns ‘murderous attacks’

People walk though burned tents at a camp for internally displaced people near

BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) – The Syrian military denied it had conducted air strikes on camps near the Turkish border on Thursday which killed at least 28 people, but the U.N. human rights chief said initial reports suggested a government plane was responsible.

The death toll from attack on the camp for internally displaced people near the town of Sarmada included women and children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, and could rise further because many people were seriously wounded.

“There is no truth to reports … about the Syrian air force targeting a camp for the displaced in the Idlib countryside”, the Syrian military said in a statement on Friday carried by state media.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said the attacks were almost certainly a deliberate war crime.

“Given these tent settlements have been in these locations for several weeks, and can be clearly viewed from the air, it is extremely unlikely that these murderous attacks were an accident,” Zeid said in a statement.

“My staff, along with other organizations, will leave no stone unturned in their efforts to research and record evidence of what appears to be a particularly despicable and calculated crime against an extremely vulnerable group of people,” he said.

“Initial reports suggest the attacks were carried out by Syrian Government aircraft, but this remains to be verified.”

Footage shared on social media showed rescue workers putting out fires which still burned among charred tent frames, pitched in a muddy field. White smoke billowed from smoldering ashes, and a burned and bloodied torso could be seen.

Sarmada lies about 30 km (20 miles) west of Aleppo, where a cessation of hostilities brokered by Russia and the United States had brought a measure of relief on Thursday.

Zeid said most of the people in the camps had been forced to flee their homes in Aleppo in February because of sustained aerial attacks there.

He said he was also alarmed about the situation in Syria’s Hama central prison, where detainees had taken control of a section of the prison and were holding some guards hostage.

“Heavily armed security forces are surrounding the prison and we fear that a possibly lethal assault is imminent. Hundreds of lives are at stake, and I call on the authorities to resort to mediation, or other alternatives to force,” Zeid said.

He urged governments on the U.N. Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court so that there is “a clear path to punishment for those who commit crimes like these”.

(Reporting by John Davison in Beirut and Tom Miles in Geneva; Editing by Gareth Jones and Dominic Evans)

U.S. employment gains hit seven-month low, labor force shrinks

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy added the fewest number of jobs in seven months in April and Americans dropped out of the labor force in droves, signs of weakness that cast doubts on whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates before the end of the year.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 160,000 jobs last month as construction employment barely rose and the retail sector shed jobs, the Labor Department said on Friday. That was the smallest gain since September and below the first-quarter average job growth of 200,000.

Adding to the report’s weak tone, employers added 19,000 fewer jobs in February and March than previously reported. While the unemployment rate held at 5.0 percent that was because people dropped out of the labor force.

“For those who had thought a June rate hike was in play, this was a nail in the coffin. This raises questions about a September rate hike. I would like to think the economy is in a better place at the end of the year,” said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors in New York.

The stepdown in job gains could temper expectations of a strong rebound in economic activity in the second quarter after growth nearly stalled in the first three months of the year.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls rising 202,000 last month and the jobless rate unchanged at 5 percent.

The dollar dropped to session lows against the euro and the yen after the report. Prices for U.S. government debt rose, while U.S. stock index futures fell marginally.

Average hourly earnings were the only bright spot in the employment report, rising eight cents or 0.3 percent last month.

That took the year-on-year increase to 2.5 percent from 2.3 percent in March, still below the 3.0 percent advance that economists say is needed for inflation to rise to the Fed’s 2.0 percent target.

RATE HIKE PROBABILITIES DIMINISHING

The U.S. central bank last month offered a fairly upbeat assessment of the labor market, saying that conditions had “improved further.” The Fed raised its benchmark overnight interest rate in December for the first time in nearly a decade. Fed officials have forecast two more rate hikes for this year.

Market-based measures of Fed policy expectations have virtually priced out an interest rate increase at the Fed’s June 14-15 meeting, according to CME Group’s FedWatch. They see a less than 40 percent probability of rate hikes in September and November, with a 48 percent chance at the December meeting.

The labor force participation rate, or the share of working-age Americans who are employed or at least looking for a job, fell 0.2 percentage point to 62.8 percent. It had increased 0.6 percentage point since dipping to 62.4 percent in September.

The labor force fell by 362,000 as people dropped out in April. The employment-to-population ratio fell to 59.7 percent from a seven-year high of 59.9 percent.

A broad measure of unemployment that includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment slipped one-tenth of a percentage point to 9.7 percent last month. The vast private services sector dominated employment gains in April, adding 174,000 jobs. Retail payrolls fell 3,100 after hefty gains in the first quarter, despite sluggish sales.

While information employment was unchanged last month, a Labor Department official said there was no sign that a strike by about 40,000 Verizon workers had impacted the data.

Manufacturing added 4,000 jobs last month after shedding 29,000 in March, the biggest loss for the sector since December 2009.

There were further job losses in mining as the energy sector adjusts to weak profits from a recent prolonged plunge in oil prices. Mining payrolls fell 8,000 last month. Mining employment has decreased by 191,000 jobs since peaking in September 2014, with 75 percent of the losses in support activities.

Gains in construction employment slowed sharply, with the sector adding 1,000 jobs in April, after home building showed some signs of fatigue last month.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Additional reporting by Richard Leong in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

U.S., Russia agree to extend truce to Aleppo

Residents walk near damaged buildings in the rebel held area of Old Aleppo

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States said on Wednesday it had agreed with Russia to extend a cessation of hostilities agreement to include Aleppo where intense day-long violence between Syrian rebels and government forces killed dozens of people.

The State Department said the truce went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Damascus time on Wednesday, but acknowledged the fighting had not stopped.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he was not surprised that fighting continued in some areas, adding both sides were working to communicate with commanders in the field.

Kerry, meeting with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini at the State Department, said it was vital that both sides abide by the agreement. He called on Russia to use its influence over President Bashar al-Assad to stop the violence.

There was no immediate response from Moscow to the announcement of an agreement, but the Syrian army said it would implement a “regime of calm” in Aleppo for 48 hours as of Thursday.

The surge in bloodshed in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the civil war and biggest strategic prize, wrecked the first major “cessation of hostilities” agreement of the war, sponsored by Washington and Moscow, which had held since February.

In battles on Wednesday between rebels and government forces in western Aleppo, opposition forces said they were forced to retreat by heavy aerial bombing.

Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, addressing a U.N. Security Council meeting on the situation in Aleppo, said an agreement would have been announced on Tuesday but opposition attacks in Aleppo had prevented it from happening.

“The deterioration in certain areas of Syria, including Aleppo, is a serious source of concern. The government forces are fighting off a large-scale offensive by the jihadists (in Aleppo),” he told the council.

STRENGTHENED MONITORING

Kerry said the United States was coordinating closely with Russia to finalize strengthened monitoring of the extension of the cessation of hostilities to Aleppo.

He said he expected a meeting of the International Syrian Support Group, a grouping of foreign ministers of European and Middle Eastern government chaired by Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, to meet within the next two weeks.

In Berlin, the German and French foreign ministers said achieving a ceasefire in Aleppo was critical to renewing peace talks.

“I believe everyone knows and can conclude that there could be no return to the political talks in Geneva if a ceasefire in and around Aleppo is not observed,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters.

In Geneva, a senior U.N. humanitarian official said the Syrian government was refusing U.N. demands to deliver aid to hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped by the fighting, including many in devastated Aleppo.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens had been killed on both sides in what it described as the most intense battle in the Aleppo region in a year. Government forces were reinforced by allies from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, it said.

A rebel fighter said about 40 government soldiers had been killed, while rebel losses stood at 10 dead. A military source denied there had been heavy casualties in army ranks, but said dozens of civilians and many rebels had been killed.

Rebel sources said insurgents at one point captured a strategic location known as Family House, but later lost it after the government side sent in reinforcements.

A pro-government military strategist said the offensive failed to breach key army defense and supply lines in Aleppo.

During the Security Council meeting, U.N. political chief Jeffrey Feltman said a consolidated truce and greater humanitarian aid access were needed to ensure the next round of Syria peace talks – set for this month – were credible. Without progress, he said there was a “real risk of a failed political process.”

“The current levels of violence in Aleppo, in particular, negatively impact the ability of the Syrian parties to engage in negotiations,” Feltman said.

U.N. aid chief Stephen O’Brien told the 15-member council that life for the people in Aleppo was horrendous and they were “living under daily threat and terror.”

(Additional reporting by David Alexander in Washington, Tom Perry and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Beirut, Paul Carrel and Joseph Nasr in Berlin and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Israeli, Palestinian violence flares along Gaza border

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly government cabinet meeting in Jerusalem

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Violence erupted along the Israel-Gaza border on Wednesday as Israeli forces and Palestinian militants exchanged fire and Israeli war jets bombed targets in the enclave, ruled by the Islamist Hamas group.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the rare flare-up along the frontier, which has been largely quiet since a 2014 war.

The outbreak of violence coincided with work by the Israeli military to uncover tunnels being built by Gaza militants that Israel fears could be used to infiltrate its territory. The Palestinians fired mortar bombs at Israeli forces operating near the border fence, prompting fire from Israeli tanks and warplanes that bombed open areas in the northern and southern sectors of the Gaza Strip. “Our efforts to destroy the Hamas terror tunnel network, a grave violation of Israel’s sovereignty, will not cease or be deterred,” military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said.The Hamas armed wing, Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades, said the raid was a violation of the 2014 ceasefire and demanded that Israel pull out its forces “immediately”.”The enemy must not make pretexts and must leave Gaza immediately, they should deal with their fears and concerns outside the separation line,” the group said in a statement.

A senior Hamas official in exile, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said calm along the Gaza-Israel border was being restored following intervention with the two sides on the part of Egypt, which brokered the truce that stopped the 2014 war.

“Contacts were made with Egyptian brothers, who sponsored the last ceasefire agreement. Their response was quick, serious, which helped restore things to where they were before,” Abu Marzouk in a post on his official Facebook page.

On Tuesday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inspected a large tunnel discovered in April on the Israeli side of the border. Israel said it had been dug by Hamas.

Israeli security sources say half a dozen classified anti-tunnel technologies have long been under development, though held up by funding problems that were partly alleviated by a U.S. research grant of $40 million this year.

Hamas leaders, while stressing they do not seek an imminent war, see tunnels as a strategic weapon in any armed confrontation with Israel and have vowed not to stop building them.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed during the 2014 Gaza conflict. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed by rockets and attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

U.S. Oil industry bankruptcy wave nears size of telecom bust

Dead sunflowers stand in a field near dormant oil drilling rigs which have been stacked in Dickinson, North Dakota

By Ernest Scheyder and Terry Wade

HOUSTON (Reuters) – The rout in crude prices is snowballing into one of the biggest avalanches in the history of corporate America, with 59 oil and gas companies now bankrupt after this week’s filings for creditor protection by Midstates Petroleum and Ultra Petroleum.

The number of U.S. energy bankruptcies is closing in on the staggering 68 filings seen during the depths of the telecom bust of 2002 and 2003, according to Reuters data, the law firm Haynes & Boone and bankruptcydata.com.

Charles Gibbs, a restructuring partner at Akin Gump in Texas, said the U.S. oil industry is not even halfway through its wave of bankruptcies.

“I think we’ll see more filings in the second quarter than in the first quarter,” he said. Fifteen oil and gas companies filed for bankruptcy in the first quarter.

Some oil producers appear to be holding on, hoping the price of crude stabilizes at a higher level. In February, oil slumped as low as $27 a barrel from peaks above $100 a barrel nearly two years ago. U.S. crude has recovered somewhat, and on Tuesday was trading a little below $44 a barrel. [O/R]

Until recently, banks had been willing to offer leeway to borrowers in the shale sector, but lately some lenders have tightened their purse strings.

A widely predicted wave of mergers in the shale space has yet to materialize as oil price volatility makes valuations difficult, and buyers balk at taking on debt loads until target companies exit bankruptcy.

The telecom and energy boom-and-bust cycles have notable parallels. Pioneering technology brought an influx of investment to each industry, a plethora of new, small companies issued high levels of debt, and a subsequent supply glut sapped pricing just as demand fell sharply.

Neither this crash nor the telecom crack-up in the early 2000s rival the housing and financial bust in 2007-2009 in terms of magnitude and economic impact. But losses for energy investors in the stock and bond markets in the last two years are significant. It remains unclear how long it will take to get through the worst of the declines, and who will be left standing when it is over.

A 60 percent slide in oil prices since mid-2014 erased as much as $1.02 trillion from the valuations of U.S. energy companies, according to the Dow Jones U.S. Oil and Gas Index <.DJUSEN>, which tracks about 80 stocks. This has already surpassed the $882.5 billion peak-to-trough loss in market capitalization from the Dow Jones U.S. Telecommunications Sector Index in the early 2000s.

In the debt market, there are also signs that lots of money could be lost this time around, especially in high-yield bonds.

During its boom, U.S. oil and gas companies issued twice as much in bonds as telecom companies did in the latter part of the 1990s through the early 2000s.

Between 1998 and 2002, about $177.1 billion in new bonds were sold in the U.S. telecommunications sector; less than 10 percent were junk bonds. U.S. oil and gas companies sold about $350.7 billion in debt between 2010 and 2014, the peak years of the oil-and-gas boom, with junk bonds making up more than 50 percent of all issuance, according to Thomson Reuters data.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder and Terry Wade; Editing by David Gaffen and David Gregorio)

Syria calls local truces; U.N. condemns monstrous disregard for lives

People inspect the damage at a site hit by airstrikes, in the rebel-held area of Aleppo's Bustan al-Qasr

By Lisa Barrington and Jack Stubbs

MOSCOW/BEIRUT – (Reuters) – Syria declared brief local truces near Damascus and in one province on Friday but made no mention of halting combat on the main battlefield in Aleppo, after a surge in fighting the United Nations said showed “monstrous disregard” for civilian lives.

The new “regime of calm”, to begin from 1:00 a.m. on Saturday, would last just one day in the capital’s eastern Ghouta suburb and three days in the northern countryside of the coastal province of Latakia, the army said in a statement.

Both districts have seen intensified fighting in recent days. The statement made no mention however of the city of Aleppo, scene of the worst violence, which is divided between rebel-held and government areas. An air strike on an Aleppo hospital killed at least 27 people this week.

Russian news agencies quoted an opposition figure saying the new truce would also apply to Aleppo, but there was no separate confirmation of this.

The Syrian military statement gave no details of the meaning of the term “regime of calm”, but Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted the officer in charge of a Russian ceasefire monitoring center as saying it meant all military action would cease.

Damascus described the truces as an attempt to salvage a wider “cessation of hostilities” agreement. That ceasefire has been in place since February to allow peace talks to take place but has all but completely collapsed in recent days along with the Geneva negotiations.

The U.N. human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, said violence was “soaring back to the levels we saw prior to the cessation of hostilities”.

“There are deeply disturbing reports of military build-ups indicating preparations for a lethal escalation,” Zeid said. The reports revealed a “monstrous disregard for civilian lives by all parties to the conflict”, he added.

The United Nations has called on Moscow and Washington to help restore the ceasefire to prevent the collapse of peace talks, which broke up this week in Geneva with virtually no progress after the opposition walked out.

“I DREAD THE HORROR”

“The cessation of hostilities and the Geneva talks were the only game in town, and if they are abandoned now, I dread to think how much more horror we will see in Syria,” Zeid said.

Air strikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo and shelling of government-held areas of the city resumed on Friday after a brief dawn lull.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said air strikes and government shelling had killed at least 131 civilians including 21 children in rebel areas in the past week, while rebel shelling of government areas had killed 71 civilians including 13 children.

At least six people died and more were injured and trapped under fallen buildings in air strikes on Friday on rebel-held areas, the Observatory said.

Bebars Mishal, a civil defense chief working in rebel-held areas of Aleppo, told Reuters there were a number of air attacks in the morning, many of them around mosques in rebel-held areas. Mishal said one hit a clinic in Aleppo’s Al-Marja district.

Syrian state television said people had been killed and wounded and a building set on fire during shelling of government-held quarters in Aleppo, which included a hit on a mosque as people were leaving Friday prayers.

The war in Syria has killed more than 250,000 people, with the U.N. envoy giving a toll as high as 400,000.

(Writing by Peter Graff, reporting by Omar Fahmy, editing by Peter Millership)

Americans filing for unemployment benefits bouncing back

ob applicants await their turn at the Lockheed Martin booth at "Hiring Our Heroes" military job fair in

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits bounced back from a 42-1/2-year low last week, but the underlying trend remained consistent with tightening labor market conditions.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 257,000 for the week ended April 23, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Claims for the prior week were revised to show 1,000 more applications than previously reported.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 260,000 in the latest week. Jobless claims have now been below 300,000, a threshold associated with healthy labor market conditions, for 60 weeks, the longest stretch since 1973.

A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors influencing last week’s claims data and no states hadbeen estimated.

The four-week moving average of claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, fell 4,750 to 256,000 last week, the lowest since December 1973.

The number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid decreased 5,000 to 2.13 million in the week ended April 16, the lowest since November 2000.

The four-week average of the so-called continuing claims declined 10,500 to 2.16 million, the lowest reading since November 2000. The continuing claims data covered the survey week for April’s unemployment rate.

The four-week average of continuing claims fell 47,750 between the March and April survey periods, suggesting an improvement in the unemployment rate. The jobless rate was at 5.0 percent in March.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Russia wants more details on U.S. special forces in Syria

A Syria Democratic Forces fighter walks under contrails made by U.S. alliance air forces on the outskirts of al-Shadadi town, Hasaka

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia wants to know more details about U.S. plans to bolster its special forces in Syria, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama announced on Monday the biggest expansion of U.S. ground troops in Syria since its civil war began.

The deployment of up to 250 Special Forces soldiers increases U.S. forces in Syria roughly sixfold and is aimed at helping militia fighters who have clawed back territory from Islamic State militants in a string of victories.

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Denis Pinchuk)

In an added story…

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia holds enough forces at its Hmeymim air base in Syria to safeguard the ceasefire and assist Syrian government forces in fighting rebels from Islamic State and the Nusra Front, General Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian Defence Ministry official, Interfax news agency quoted him as saying on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov)

House Speaker Ryan: All options open on Zika funding

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday said a range of options to provide funds to fight Zika, adding that lawmakers take the threat seriously but have not yet decided the best way to allocate resources to prevent and combat the deadly virus.

“We’re looking at all different options,” adding that the White House has begun providing congressional staff with answers to questions over President Barack Obama’s funding request. “The administration has a bit of a track record of over-requesting what they need.”

(Reporting by Susan Heavey)

Wall St. flat as earnings fail to excite investors

By Abhiram Nandakumar

(Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes were flat on Friday after poor quarterly reports from technology bellwethers Microsoft and Alphabet outweighed gains from steadying oil prices.

Microsoft was the biggest drag on all three major indexes.

Crude rose about 1 percent on signs of strong gasoline consumption in the United States. [O/R]

With recent economic data indicating a sluggish pace of economic growth globally and crude prices hovering near five-month highs, earnings have become a swing factor for stocks.

The S&P 500 has staged a sharp recovery from a steep selloff earlier this year and is inching toward its all-time high, helped by a recent rebound in oil, a cautious Federal Reserve and companies beating tempered expectations.

The index is up half a percent for the week, having posted gains on the first three days.

“We’re back to the every other day theory, bouncing around a little, but I don’t see too strong a sentiment either way,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.

“It’s still a very cautious environment,” Brown said, adding that the negative tone from the quarterly reports were expected.

At 9:42 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 11.91 points, or 0.07 percent, at 17,994.43, the S&P 500 was down 1.52 points, or 0.07 percent, at 2,089.96 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 35.84 points, or 0.72 percent, at 4,910.05.

Eight of the 10 major S&P sectors were higher, but the index was under pressure by a 1.4 percent decline in the technology sector

Alphabet and Microsoft were down 3.7 and 6.5 percent respectively after both missed profit and revenue estimates.

S&P 500 companies are seen posting a 7.2 percent fall in first-quarter profit, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, and shares of companies failing to beat the already lowered expectations are getting hammered.

McDonald’s rose 0.7 percent to $126.63 after the company’s profit beat estimates.

General Electric was off 1.1 percent at $30.63 after it reported lower organic revenue.

Caterpillar shares were down 0.6 percent at $78.16 after its results.

Starbucks slipped 3 percent after missing sales expectations, while Visa was down 2.3 percent after it cut full-year revenue forecast.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,885 to 761. On the Nasdaq, 1,460 issues rose and 740 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed six new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 19 new highs and six lows.

(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Don Sebastian)

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