US current account deficit widens as oil imports rise
The US current account deficit rose 6.3% to $119.3bn (£74bn) in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department has said.
Strong exports of cars, computers and machinery were offset by imports, particularly of more expensive oil.
The deficit for the quarter represented 3.2% of US gross domestic product, up from 3% in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Separately, the number of new homes built in April rose 3.5%, but house building remained subdued.
Earthquake impact
The current account deficit measures the flow of goods, services and investments in and out of the US.
For the January-March period, the deficit in goods widened by $23.2bn to $182.5bn, with much of that jump due to rising oil imports.
The surplus in services increased by $1.2bn to $41.7bn in the first quarter.
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The high premium is expected to continue to sway potential buyers to existing homes”
End Quote Christos Shiamptanis TD Economics
The current account balance in the current April-to-June quarter is likely to be affected by the 11 March earthquake in Japan, which caused a fall in shipments of vehicles and parts from Japan.
Housing market flat
Meanwhile, there was little sign of a sustained pickup in the US housing market.
Construction of new homes rose to an annual rate of 560,000 in April, well below the level analysts say is necessary to sustain the market.
New homes in the US tend to cost more than existing housing stock.
"The high premium is expected to continue to sway potential buyers to existing homes and away from new ones," said Christos Shiamptanis an economist at TD Economics.
Job market
There was some better news for the US economy.
Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, the second drop in three weeks, the US Labor Department said.
The number of people applying for unemployment benefits fell 16,000 to 414,000.
However, applications have been above 400,000 for 10 straight weeks, evidence that the job market is weak compared to earlier this year.
Applications had fallen in February to 375,000. But applications jumped in April to 478,000 - an eight-month high - and they have declined slowly since then.
Blackberry firm misses its lowered forecasts
Research in Motion (RIM), which makes Blackberry phones, has missed even its lowered profit forecasts and lowered its predictions for the full year.
RIM made a net profit of $695m (£430m) in the three months to 28 May, down from $769m in the same period last year.
It warned in April that its profits would be low because of lower shipments of its Blackberry phones.
RIM has announced a cost-cutting programme, which will include job cuts.
"Fiscal 2012 has gotten off to a challenging start," said Jim Balsillie, joint chief executive of RIM.
"The slowdown we saw in the first quarter is continuing into Q2, and delays in new product introductions into the very late part of August is leading to a lower than expected outlook in the second quarter."
The company's shares fell sharply in after-hours trading and had to be suspended briefly.
"The guidance was just awful. The devices are receiving less shelf space and less support from carriers," said Peter Misek at Jefferies and Co in New York.
"People are not waiting. They're going to other platforms."
U.S. Vows to Find Al-Qaida’s Zawahri and Kill Him
The United States is vowing to capture and kill new al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri, just as it did his predecessor, Osama bin Laden.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, made the pledge Thursday, saying the Egyptian surgeon turned terrorist leader should expect the same treatment as bin Laden. U.S. c
ommandos killed him in a raid on his Pakistani hideout in early May.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates noted that al-Qaida remains committed to carrying out terrorist attacks against the U.S. and other Western interests, as well as Israel. But he said Zawahri lacked the “peculiar charisma” that bin Laden possessed. Gates said bin Laden was “much more operationally engaged” than Zawahri.
An unnamed senior U.S. official said Zawahri has not had any combat experience and lacks “strong leadership or organizational skills.”
Earlier Thursday, al-Qaida announced that Zawahri would take over the global terror network.
Zawahri turns 60 on Sunday and had been bin Laden's long-time deputy. Terrorism experts often consider him to be al-Qaida's main strategist. He is believed to be operating from somewhere in the mountainous region near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Zawahri comes from an upper middle class family of doctors and scholars, but became involved in radical Islam as a teenager. While earning a medical degree, he helped form the Egyptian Islamic Jihad militant group.
After bin Laden was killed, Zawahri lauded the mastermind of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. Zawahri said that bin Laden “went to his God as a martyr.”
Zawahri also criticized Arab states al-Qaida considers to be godless and too closely allied with the U.S. He pledged allegiance to the leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Omar, and described him as the “Emir of Believers.”
Mexico Arrest Alleged Drug Cartel Boss
Mexican federal police have arrested the man accused of leading the enforcement unit of the Juarez drug cartel.
They say Marco Guzman, nicknamed “El Brad Pitt”, was taken into custody on Wednesday in Chihuahua state.
Police say he was involved in a 2010 car bomb attack that killed a police official and two of his bodyguards. They say he also took part in a killing that was recorded and posted on the Internet.
Authorities had offered a reward for information leading to Guzman's arrest.
Zawahri: From a Life of Comfort to Hunted Terrorist
Ayman al-Zawahri, the new leader of the al-Qaida terror network, was born into a life of comfort in Egypt but shaped by life experiences into a feared radical Islamic terrorist.
He is a surgeon by training but an ideological firebrand by choice. Now he is replacing Osama bin Laden, who was killed last month by U.S. commandos in a raid on his Pakistani hideout.
Zawahri was bin Laden's deputy, supporting al-Qaida with his organizational and tactical skills, the first to espouse the use of suicide bombings and independent terror cells. His jihad, or holy war mission, was simple and straightforward — inflict “as many casualties as possible” on the Americans and their allies, especially Israel.
Now he is believed to be living somewhere in the mountainous region near the Afghan-Pakistani border, with the U.S. offering a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture. In regular videotapes, he has condemned the U.S., saying that al-Qaida's fight will not be ended until the Western powers leave “the lands of the Muslims.”
He was born in Cairo to a wealthy family of doctors and scholars and became involved with radical Islam as a teenager. Like many educated young Egyptians, he was outraged at the treatment of Islamists in the 1960s as Egypt moved toward a Soviet-style state under socialist Gamel Abdel Nasser. Thousands of people suspected of subversion were thrown in jail.
While earning a medical degree, he helped to form the Egyptian Islamic Jihad militant group.
Zawahri traveled to Pakistan for the first time in 1980, working with the Red Crescent Society in the city of Peshawar to provide medical treatment to Afghans wounded in fighting with Soviet troops occupying neighboring Afghanistan. He also made his first trips into Afghanistan that year.
Later, he was one of hundreds tried for links to the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He was acquitted of that, but served a three-year term for illegal arms possession. After his release in 1984, Zawahri returned to Peshawar to support the Afghan insurgency against the Soviets and formed a bond with bin Laden, serving as his personal doctor.
In 1998, Zawahri formed an alliance with bin Laden, becoming his deputy. The United States accuses the Egyptian of helping to organize the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania later that year.
Zawahri also is suspected of playing a major role in the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, for which al-Qaida claimed responsibility from its base in Afghanistan. He went into hiding with bin Laden when U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan weeks later, ousting the country's Taliban militant rulers, who had sheltered the terror network.
Zawahri's hatred of the U.S. also became personal: A U.S. air strike killed the Egyptian's wife and at least two of his children in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province in December 2001.
Zawahri proceeded to rebuild al-Qaida in the lawless tribal regions of the Afghan-Pakistani border and became the new face of the terror network, releasing videos and audiotapes taunting the United States as bin Laden faded from view.
In some videos, the bearded Zawahri could be seen jabbing his finger and staring from behind heavy-rimmed glasses. The Central Intelligence Agency came close to killing or capturing him several times in the Pakistani tribal region.
But he remains at large and turns 60 on Sunday.
Roadside Bomb Kills 4 in Southern Afghanistan
Afghan officials said Thursday a roadside bomb killed four civilians and wounded three others in southern Kandahar province.
Provincial officials said a tractor drove over the bomb in the Maruf district late Wednesday.
Elsewhere in southern Afghanistan Thursday, NATO said two of its service members were killed. No details were given.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said last week that May was the deadliest month for Afghan civilians since it began keeping track in 2007.
The U.N. said 368 civilians were killed last month, with the majority of casualties caused by the Taliban and other militants.
Elsewhere in southern Afghanistan Thursday, NATO says an insurgent attack killed one of its service members. No details were given.
NATO Pounds Tripoli, Rebels Reject Election Offer
NATO fighter jets bombed targets near Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's Tripoli compound Thursday after his son said Mr. Gadhafi was willing to hold elections and step aside if he lost.
That offer was rejected by rebels and the United States.
Seif al-Islam Gadhafi told an Italian newspaper Thursday the vote could take place within three months and transparency could be guaranteed by international observers.
An opposition spokesman told al-Jazeera television the time for elections had passed “because our forces are at the outskirts of Tripoli.” A U.S. State Department official also dismissed the idea.
Earlier Thursday, Russian envoy Mikhail Margelov told reporters in Tripoli that Libyan officials had assured him direct contacts between the government and rebels based in the eastern stronghold Benghazi were underway.
But Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi insisted Mr. Gadhafi will not bow to international pressure to push him aside.
A series of thunderous booms rocked the capital city late Thursday. Earlier NATO airstrikes had hit targets near Mr. Gadhafi's Bab-al-Aziziya compound.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Mr. Gadhafi's security forces of using rape and violence against women as tools of war.
She said the United States is “deeply troubled” by reports that governments across the Middle East and North Africa are using sexual violence to punish protesters. Clinton said such acts violate “basic human dignity” and urged “immediate, transparent investigations” into the allegations.
International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said last week the ICC had evidence the Libyan authorities bought “Viagra-type” medicines and gave them to troops as part of an official rape policy.
Meanwhile, Italy said it will host a meeting of up to 300 Libyan tribal leaders to help promote reconciliation.
Spain is ejecting Libyan ambassador Ageli Abdussalam Ali Breni and three embassy staffers from the country. The Spanish government announced the decision on Thursday, saying Mr. Gadhafi's regime has lost its legitimacy.
US Allows Return of Embassy Personnel To Ivory Coast
The U.S. State Department is easing its travel warning for Ivory Coast and allowing nonessential U.S. diplomats along with most of their family to return to the West African nation.
The State Department said Thursday that security conditions have improved following the country's post-election crisis. However, it said that Americans should continue to exercise caution in Ivory Coast, and that the situation there could change quickly and without advanced warning.
The department ordered the departure of all nonessential embassy personnel and their family from Ivory Coast in December, following disputed elections.
The country was plunged into a crisis when then-president Laurent Gbagbo refused to acknowledge defeat in November elections to Alassane Ouattara.
That dispute sparked unrest that killed more than 3,000 people and displaced up to 1 million. Pro-Ouattara forces captured Mr. Gbagbo in Abidjan in April and Mr. Ouattara assumed the presidency.
US Open: Rory McIlroy delivers Congressional lesson
Rory McIlroy fired a stunning six-under 65 to lead the US Open by three shots after the first round at Congressional.
McIlroy, 22, bounced back from his Augusta aberration to head Masters winner Charl Schwartzel and 2009 USPGA champion YE Yang.
Sergio Garcia and Open champion Louis Oosthuizen were two under, while Graeme McDowell began his defence with a 70.
The world's top three players Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer carded 74, 74, 75.
Also at two under were American Ryan Palmer, Korea's Kyung-tae Kim, Australian Scott Hend and Brazil's Alexandre Rocha.
Phil Mickelson, a five-time US Open runner-up, was regularly in trouble and had to use all his powers of recovery on his 41st birthday to card 74.
But it was McIlroy's Maryland masterclass that dominated a sultry day near the US capital.
The Northern Irishman is still trying to shake off the tag as the man who blew the Masters after squandering a four-shot lead going into the final day with a closing 80. He also led the 2010 Open after a first-round 63 before amassing an 80.
Showing the sort of control that suggests his game is in the shape required to emulate countryman McDowell and land a maiden major title, McIlroy picked up shots on the 12th, 17th and 18th to reach the turn in a three-under-par 32.
Further birdies at the first and fourth took him into a two-shot lead at five under and he missed another very makeable birdie chance on the fourth, his 14th.
Another laser-guided iron from about 250 yards to 15ft set up an eagle chance on the sixth, and though he missed he settled for a tap-in birdie.
McIlroy missed his birdie putt from 30ft on the short seventh but parred his way home to lay down the gauntlet with the only bogey-free round of the day.
"I took the experience from Augusta, and I learned a lot from it," said McIlroy.
"I just need to keep it going. I played really good out there, didn't make any mistakes, which in a US Open is huge."
South African Schwartzel, who birdied the last four holes to win the Masters, went on another surge and picked up four shots in his last seven holes at Congressional.
Yang, who became the first Asian man to win a major when he beat Tiger Woods in the 2009 USPGA, birdied all four par threes in his 68.
"I've been playing more conservatively, less bonehead plays," said the 39-year-old Yang.
Spain's Garcia, who is still fighting his way back from a prolonged slump, bogeyed the last to join South African Oosthuizen.
"It was a nice start but there's still a long way to go. We haven't done anything yet," said Garcia.
Donald, 33, began brightly with birdies at the first two holes after starting from the short 10th in company with Westwood and USPGA champion Kaymer
But he leaked four bogeys in five holes and then double-bogeyed the 18th to turn in 39 before coming home in one under.
"We all struggled a bit and we couldn't get much momentum going," said Donald, who has won twice this season and finished in the top 10 in 15 of his last 16 tournaments.
"Three-over is not great but I know if I shoot something in the red I'll make good headway."
Westwood, who like Donald is seeking his first major title, made six bogeys and two birdies in his 75.
"I didn't swing it very well and you just don't get away with it at a US Open," said the Englishman.
"If we had played like the top three in the world it would have been more enjoyable for the people to watch, but none of us played well and we all just about got what we deserved."
McDowell began with a bogey at the first but redeemed himself immediately at the short second and picked up another shot on the sixth before parring his way home.
"It's a dream start and I'm very happy with it," said the Northern Irishman, who has admitted to feeling the burden of being the defending US Open champion over the past few months.
"I felt great. It felt like a regular major championship. It didn't feel like I was defending anything.
"I set myself some challenges this morning to go out and try to think well, try to go through my processes correctly, through my routines, and just be patient and enjoy the round. And I really accomplished those things."
England's Robert Rock did not have time for a practice round after he was delayed in the UK trying to get a US visa but went round in 70 for one under.
Three-time major champion Padraig Harrington of Ireland carded a level-par 71, while American world number six Matt Kuchar and Ireland's Shane Lowry took 72.
Ernie Els, who triumphed the last time the US Open was played at Congressional in 1997, carded 73 alongside England's Paul Casey and Scotland's Martin Laird and Stephen Gallacher.
Dustin Johnson, who blew a three-shot lead in the final round of last year's US Open, ended with a 75 playing alongside Mickelson and McIlroy.
Frenchman Gregory Havret, who finished runner-up last year, amassed a six-over 77 in his first start since the death of his father.
Daniela Hantuchova beats Venus Williams at Eastbourne
Daniela Hantuchova dug deep to secure a first win over Venus Williams in 11 attempts and reach the semi-finals of the Aegon International at Eastbourne.
Slovakian Hantuchova, runner-up at last week's Aegon Classic in Birmingham, got off to a flying start with a double break in a one-sided first set.
American Williams began to show flashes of her best form as the wind played havoc in the second set.
But Hantuchova hit back with impressive calm to come through 6-2 5-7 6-2.
"I felt I came out and played well early in the match," said Hantuchova, ranked 29 in the world.
"But then the wind picked up and it got difficult for both of us. It was then about who had the mentality and I came through.
"This is my most favourite time of the year - the grass season - and I'm feeling really good. My form is good."
Hantuchova had to win the hard way, dropping a 4-2 lead in the second set to allow Williams to level at one set all, then being broken at 2-1 up in the third before striding away to secure the victory.
The Slovakian will now face Czech fifth seed Petra Kvitova in the last four after she recovered from a set down to beat Agnieszka Radwanska.
The Pole raced out of the blocks and looked to be cruising until Kvitova hit back and then edged through a third-set tie-breaker to win their quarter-final 1-6 6-2 7-6 (7-2).
In the other half of the draw, Australian Samantha Stosur fought back from a set down to dispatch Russian top seed Vera Zvonareva in a titanic two-hour-48-minute match.
The turning point appeared to be game 11 in the second set, when Stosur held her serve following 11 deuces, the seventh seed going on to seal a 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 win.
"It was a very tough match," she said. "The conditions were tough and I thought we both played pretty well considering."
Stosur goes on to face Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in the semi-finals after her Belarusian opponent Victoria Azarenka was forced to retire at 2-6 0-2 down.
"Marion's a very tough player," said Stosur of her last-four opponent. "She's been playing very well lately and grass is probably her best surface. But I'll give it my best shot."
In the men's quarter-finals Italian Andreas Seppi was the first player to reach the last four after a 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 win over Belgian Olivier Rochus, who had already been on court earlier in the day to finish his second-round match against Carlos Berlocq.
Igor Kunitsyn of Russia will be Seppi's opponent in the final four after he easily ousted Frenchman Julien Benneteau 6-3 6-2.
Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic, like Rochus, had to see off Mikhail Kukushkin before beating Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-3 7-6 (7-2) to move within one match of the final.
He will face Kei Nishikori, another player whose second-round match crossed over to Thursday. The Japanese player beat qualifier Rainer Schuettler before surprising Radek Stepanek, who had beaten first seed Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in the previous round, with a 6-2 6-3 victory.