The News in 2 Minutes

From The Associated Press

Restive Tibetan areas flooded with troops

ZHONGDIAN, China—China blanketed restive Tibetan areas Thursday with a huge buildup of troops, turning small towns across a wide swath of western China into armed encampments.

Beijing acknowledged that last week’s anti-government protests had spread far beyond Tibet’s borders and that police opened fire on protesters. It warned foreign tourists and journalists to stay away from a huge expanse of territory across four provinces.

In an overture of peace, the Dalai Lama offered to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other leaders, reiterating that he was not asking for Tibetan independence.

Led by Buddhist monks, protests had begun peacefully in Lhasa early last week but erupted into rioting on March 14, drawing a harsh response from Chinese authorities.

The crackdown drew worldwide attention to China’s human rights record, threatening to overshadow Beijing’s attempts to project an image of unity and prosperity in the lead-up to the Aug. 8-24 Olympics.

U. S. agreement reached with Abu Dhabi, Singapore

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Bush administration said Thursday it had reached agreement with Abu Dhabi and Singapore that they will not use their huge government investment funds to further their political goals.

The funds have raised concerns about the potential threats that large amounts of foreign investment could pose to the U.S. economy and other industrial countries.

A set of policy principles was released after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson met with officials from Abu Dhabi, home to the world’s largest government investment fund, and Singapore, which also controls a sizable investment fund.

Paulson said in a statementthe principles that had been agreed to would further efforts to develop a set of best practices to govern how the funds operate.

The International Monetary Fund and the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are working to develop a voluntary set of best practices to address issues that have been raised.

Fed to auction $75 billion next week

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Federal Reserve, seeking to ease a painful credit crisis, will be making $75 billion of much-in-demand Treasury securities available to big investments firms next week.

Investment houses will get an opportunity to bid on a slice of the securities at a Federal Reserve auction next Thursday. The new lending program was announced by the Fed last week. It will allow investment firms to borrow up to $200 billion in super-safe Treasury securities by using some of their more risky investments as collateral. The first of the weekly auctions will be next Thursday.

Unemployment rate down as job seekers quit

PHOENIX—Arizona’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4 percent in February, but the rosy numbers are somewhat misleading and state officials said there are continuing signs that the economic slowdown is deepening.

The three-tenths of a percent decline from January is partly due to discouraged job seekers dropping out of the work force, state officials said. Meanwhile, seasonal upticks in government and hospitality sectors fell below expectations.

The Department of Commerce report released Thursday says Arizona gained a less-than-expected 25,300 nonfarm jobs. That’s well below the seasonally expected 10-year average February job gain of 33,900.

The state’s employment now stands at 2.7 million, a decline of 11,700 from January.

The monthly report said 1,900 construction jobs were lost, the highest number for February since state officials began using the current classification system in approximately 1990. The largest single month’s loss of construction was 8,700 in January 2007.

Arizona’s construction industry has shed about 40,000 jobs in the past two year, with employment down to 203,900 last month.

“This is a housing-led downturn,” said Dennis Doby, senior director of the Commerce Department’s Research Administration.