US adds 115,000 jobs in April, fewer than expected

The US economy created 115,000 jobs during April, down on the previous month and fewer than analysts had expected, official figures have shown.

However, the unemployment rate fell slightly to 8.1% from 8.2% in March, the Labor Department said.
Employment has been rising for the past eight months, but the jobless rate has been stuck above 8% since early 2009.
The weak report pushed US and European shares lower, with the Dow Jones index falling 168 points to 13,038.
Both the Nasdaq and the Standard & Poor's 500 had their worst week of the year, while markets in London, Paris and Frankfurt closed almost 2% lower.
Meanwhile, the oil price continued to fall, with US light crude dipping below $100 a barrel on concerns about the strength of the world's largest economy.
President Barack Obama said he would urge Congress next week to implement "common sense ideas" to accelerate job growth.
Speaking after the data was released, he said: "We've got to do more if we're going to recover all the jobs lost in the recession."

Last Updated at 14:02 GMT

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Andrea Saul, a spokesperson for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said: "President Obama has broken countless promises during his time in office - but none more important than his promise to help create jobs and get our economy moving again".

'Bad sentiment'

US Secretary of Labor: Older and younger people are not in the workforce

The stubbornly high unemployment rate is seen as a drag on economic growth in the US.
Jobs were created in the business services, retail and healthcare sectors in April, but were lost in transport.
The Labor Department said the number of long-term unemployed was "little changed at 5.1 million".
The unemployment rate hit a three-year low, but part of the reason for the fall was a drop in the number of people looking for work, which reduced the size of the workforce.
"The drop in the unemployment rate was actually an unhealthy drop - you had less people looking for work, which shows a bad sentiment," said Ron Florence at Wells Fargo Private Bank.
'Sluggish growth' The US saw two consecutive months of robust jobs growth in January and February, with increases of well over 200,000 jobs in both months.
But the past two months have seen a sharp fall in job creation, with 154,000 jobs added in March, a figure revised up from 120,000.
Analysts had expected a rise in April.
"We're still growing just gradually," said Nigel Gault at IHS Global Insight in Massachusetts.
"Hiring is coming back into line with what you would expect with sluggish growth."
Last week, official figures showed that US economic growth slowed to an annualised rate of 2.2% in the first three months of the year, down from 3% in the final quarter of last year.
The Commerce Department said a cut-back in business investment was the key reason for the slowdown in growth.
The Federal Reserve expects economic growth of between 2.4% and 2.9% in 2012, with an unemployment rate of between 7.8% and 8%.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other '9/11 plotters' back in court

 

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has claimed responsibility for planning the 9/11 attacks 

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks in 2001 are appearing before a US military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay to be formally charged.

An earlier attempt to try the four in a civilian US court was halted in 2009.
New rules for Guantanamo trials have been since introduced, including a ban on evidence obtained under torture.
However, defence lawyers still say the system lacks legitimacy, because of restricted access to their clients.
US President Barack Obama tried to shut Guantanamo at the beginning of his term. But his efforts to hold Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's trial in New York foundered in the face of political and public opposition.
A small number of victims' relatives are attending Saturday's hearing at the military complex.
'Proud' of attacks Self-proclaimed 9/11 "mastermind" Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the four others - Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi - are accused of planning and executing the terror attacks of 11 September 2001, which saw hijacked planes strike New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania and left a total of 2,976 people dead.

Edward Bracken: 'I'm going to see the people that killed my sister face-to-face'

At Saturday's arraignment, they face charges including terrorism, hijacking, conspiracy, murder and destruction of property.
They are expected to be asked to enter a plea for the first time.
The charges can carry the death penalty.
Ahead of the hearing, Jim Harrington, the civilian lawyer for Ramzi Binalshibh, told Associated Press that although his client had previously said he was "proud" of his role in the attacks he had "no intention of pleading guilty".
"I don't think anyone is going to plead guilty," he added.
The decision to hold a military rather than a civilian trial remains controversial and follows a lengthy legal wrangle over where the five men would face justice.
Another of the defendants' lawyers, James Connell, predicted the trial would take years to complete.
Torture claim Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is of Pakistani origin but was born in Kuwait, was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and transferred to the Guantanamo base in Cuba in 2006.

Who are the suspects?

• Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the most high profile of the suspects, has allegedly admitted to masterminding the 9/11 attacks and others. Captured in 2003, he has been at Guantanamo Bay since 2006
• Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni who allegedly helped locate flights schools for the hijackers
• Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali allegedly helped nine of the hijackers enter the US
• Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, of Saudi Arabia, is said to have helped set up some of the hijackers with money, clothes and credit cards
• Waleed bin Attash, a Yemeni, is said to have been a bodyguard to Osama Bin Laden and trained some 9/11 hijackers

During an earlier, controversial attempt to try him before a military tribunal in 2008, he said he intended to plead guilty and would welcome martyrdom.

In 2009 the Obama administration tried to move their trial into US civilian courts, but reversed its decision in 2011 after widespread opposition.
The five were eventually charged in June 2011 with offences similar to those they were accused of by the Bush administration.
The Pentagon has previously said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted he was responsible "from A to Z" for the 9/11 attacks.
US prosecutors allege that he was involved with a host of other terrorist activities.
These include the 2002 nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl and a failed 2001 attempt to blow up an airliner using a shoe bomb.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has alleged that he was repeatedly tortured during his detention in Cuba.
CIA documents confirm that he was subjected to simulated drowning, known as waterboarding, 183 times.