NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance fell last week, the government said Thursday. There were 469,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Feb. 27, the lowest level since Jan. 9 and down 29,000 from a revised 498,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report. A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected new claims to drop to 470,000. The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 470,750, down 3,500 from the previous week's revised average of 474,250. "It's a big drop, and we're moving in the right direction, but we're still not really at the level where I would hope we would be," said Tim Quinlan, economic analyst at Wells Fargo. "It seems like the gradual improvement we saw at the end of last year is leveling off at this point." Continuing claims: The government said 4,500,000 people filed continuing claims in the week ended Feb. 20, the most recent data available. That's down 134,000 from the preceding week's revised 4,634,000 claims. The 4-week moving average for ongoing claims fell by 29,250 to 4,575,750 from the previous week's revised 4,605,000. But the drop may just mean that more filers are dropping off those rolls into extended benefits. Continuing claims reflect people filing each week after their initial claim until the end of their standard benefits, which usually last 26 weeks. The figures do not include those people who have moved to state or federal extensions, or people whose benefits have expired. More than 200,000 people would have stopped receiving checks from the government this week after lawmakers let the Feb. 28 deadline to apply for extended benefits lapse. But after days of fighting, the Senate finally agreed Tuesday to push back the deadline until April 5, and President Obama signed the bill shortly after. The extension came a day after Democratic senators unveiled a $150 billion bill that would push back the deadline to file for unemployment insurance until the end of the year and extend a number of expiring corporate and personal tax credits. State-by-state: Unemployment claims in 12 states fell more than 1,000 for the week ended Feb. 20, the most recent data available. Claims in California dropped the most, by 12,000 due to a shorter workweek and fewer layoffs in the service industry. A total of 7 states said the claims rose by more than 1,000. Claims in New Jersey jumped the most, by 4,879, which the state attributed to weather-related office closures and a backlog of claims due to a statewide furlough day during the prior week. Outlook: Quinlan said that while the decline in claims last week is an improvement, the numbers have been inconsistent week to week, partly due to the weather. "The numbers for the last several weeks have been really polluted by all the craziness we've been experiencing with the weather," he said. "We've had all these blizzards and it's really wreaking havoc on the data." That's because, he said, so many people end up going to the claims office at the same time after the bad weather clears up, skewing the number of claims filed. Weather factors aside, Quinlan said he doesn't think last week's jobless claims number is enough of an improvement. "At the end of December we were averaging about 450,000 claims, so if we got down below that for March I would feel like that was an improvement," he said. "But the current levels aren't supportive of payroll growth, and they really need to be below 400,000 to see steady growth in payrolls." In the coming months, Quinlan said he expects growth in the manufacturing sector and U.S. Census Bureau hiring to contribute to modest improvement in the employment landscape. "The pace of decline that we saw in the second half of the year is leveling off, but I think we should start to see some gradual improvement and begin working our way back down to 400,000 in the next couple of months," he said. Unemployment claims drop
Prosecutors said the four men had a 'profound hatred of US citizens' Four Islamists have been convicted by a court in Germany of plotting to attack US facilities in the country. The men, two of whom were German-born converts to Islam, were given prison sentences of between five and 12 years. The judge said they had dreamed of "mounting a second September 11 2001" by killing US civilians and soldiers by bombing targets like Ramstein Air Base. They were accused of operating as a German cell of the radical al-Qaeda-linked group, the Islamic Jihad Union. According to the US state department, the Islamic Jihad Union was responsible for co-ordinated bombings outside the US and Israeli embassies in July 2004 in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. 'Mistake' The two German converts to Islam - Fritz Gelowicz, 30, and 24-year-old Daniel Schneider - were sentenced to 12 years in jail. Adem Yilmaz, 31, a Turkish citizen, was given 11 years, while Atilla Selek, a 25-year-old German of Turkish origin, was sentenced to five years. During the 10-month trial, all four admitted to belonging to a terrorist organisation, plotting murder and preparing explosive devices. Schneider also admitted to attempted murder for grabbing a handgun from a police officer while attempting to evade capture and firing a shot. No-one was wounded in the incident. He, Gelowicz and Selek renounced extremism and described their actions as a "mistake". Announcing the verdict, Judge Ottmar Breidling said the men had dreamed of "mounting a second 11 September 2001". "If the accused had managed to do what they planned, it would have led to a monstrous bloodbath, primarily among US army personnel and also civilians," he added. The judge added that there were now "many impressionable young men and men who have already been led astray, ready to kill for notions of jihad". "Violent Islamism has penetrated our society and turned young men against it." 'Profound hatred' Known as the "Sauerland group", after the area of western Germany where three of them were arrested in 2007, the men had trained at camps in Pakistan and procured some 700kg (1,500lbs) of chemicals to produce 410kg (900lbs) of explosives, prosecutors said. Such a quantity would have been 100 times the amount used in the 2005 London bombings, which killed more than 50 people. They had allegedly planned to use vehicles loaded with the explosives to kill or injure large numbers of people at locations visited by Americans, the US military base in Ramstein and Frankfurt airport. But the security services uncovered the plot in December 2006 and conducted one of the biggest surveillance operations in post-war German history. The men's movements were monitored around the clock for nine months, until it became clear that they were planning to move their huge stores of hydrogen peroxide and an attack was imminent. Gelowicz, Schneider and Yilmaz were arrested at a rented cottage in Sauerland on 4 September 2007, while Selek was detained in Turkey in November 2007 and later extradited to Germany. At the time, they were described as "very dangerous terrorists" with a "profound hatred of US citizens", acting on the orders of an "international network". The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Berlin says the participation of Gelowicz and Schneider in the plot has shocked Germans and raised concern that militant groups abroad are actively seeking out and signing up Muslim converts to attack the West. Germany, which has soldiers in Afghanistan as part of Nato but did not send troops to Iraq, has been largely spared militant attacks. But nine years ago, it emerged that an al-Qaeda cell had used the city of Hamburg as a base for planning the 11 September attacks.German Islamists convicted over bomb plot
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has reached out to the consumers in question to gather more information about the complaints, which were not immediately verifiable. "NHTSA has already started contacting consumers about these complaints to get to the bottom of the problem and to make sure Toyota is doing everything possible to make its vehicles safe," David Strickland, NHTSA's administrator, said in a prepared statement. "If Toyota owners are still experiencing sudden acceleration incidents after taking their cars to the dealership, we want to know about it," he added. Cindy Knight, a Toyota spokeswoman, said the company is aware of the post-repair complaints and has asked NHTSA to help Toyota contact the customers in question. "We are confident that our Toyota vehicles are safe, and we're doing everything we can to ensure our customers are satisfied with the repairs we've been making," Knight said. "We have rigorously tested those solutions the Toyota engineers have developed and we're very aggressively investigating any complaints." Toyota has recalled more than 8 million vehicles worldwide for problems related to sudden acceleration, which have been blamed for several accidents resulting in injuries and death. The automaker has repeatedly apologized for the lapses in quality control, and Toyota technicians are working extended hours to repair the recalled vehicles. In testimony before the U.S. Senate Tuesday, Toyota executives said the automaker has already serviced about 1 million of the recalled vehicles. The sudden acceleration issue has been in the spotlight since it was disclosed last month that an accident involving a Toyota vehicle killed four people in San Diego last August. That accident sparked the recall of millions of Toyota vehicles for problems with floor mats that could cause accelerator pedals to become trapped. Toyota has subsequently recalled millions more cars for "sticky" accelerator pedals. Since 2000, NHTSA has identified a total of 43 complaints of fatal incidents that allegedly involved sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles. While those complaints have not yet been confirmed, the reported incidents led to 52 fatalities and 38 injuries, NHTSA said. Toyota has come under increasing pressure from Washington, with executives going before Congress in three separate hearings over the last two weeks. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, said he is "deeply concerned" about the possibility that repaired Toyota vehicles may still be prone to sudden acceleration. "If these reports prove to be true, it is completely unacceptable that America's families are once again being put at risk," Braley said in a statement. In a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the congressman said the complaints highlight the need for a "thorough and credible investigations" into Toyota's safety record. He also questioned the effectiveness of recalls in ensuring the safety of the American public.Toyota fix in question amid complaints
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Federal safety regulators said Wednesday they have received 10 complaints from drivers alleging sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles that have already been repaired under the automaker's recent recall.
Egypt's highest court has ordered the retrial of a tycoon and an ex-policeman who were sentenced to death for killing a popular Lebanese singer. The tycoon, Hisham Talaat Moustafa, was found guilty last year of paying Mohsen el-Sukkary $2m (£1.3m) to kill Suzanne Tamim in Dubai in July 2008. The court overturned their murder convictions on procedural grounds. The case has received much attention, as it involves a member of an elite often seen as being above the law. Thursday's ruling prompted cheers and clapping from the billionaire tycoon's relatives in the Cairo courtroom. Huge embarrassment Mr Moustafa, 50, was a hugely powerful business tycoon, a high-profile member of the ruling party and a friend of the son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. He had a relationship with Ms Tamim, who had found fame as the winner of an Arabic television talent show. Prosecutors at the murder trial last May said that when Ms Tamim spurned Mr Moustafa's offer of marriage, he plotted to kill her. Mr Sukkari, a security guard at a hotel owned by Mr Moustafa, was said to have travelled to Dubai, where he stabbed Ms Tamim to death at her flat. Appeal lawyers claimed the Dubai police investigation into the murder was flawed. The BBC's Christian Fraser in Cairo says the ongoing case is a huge embarrassment to the ruling party. He adds that the latest court ruling will no doubt raise suspicions that it was Mr Moustafa's position in society that has kept him from the gallows.Suzanne Tamim murder convictions overturned by court
4 convicted over foiled German terror plot
Aftershocks ripple through Taiwan
The region includes Taiwan's Maolin National Scenic Area and is still recovering from a direct hit by Typhoon Morakot that killed hundreds in August. The typhoon dumped more than two feet of rain, causing serious mudslides in the south, including one that buried the village of Shiao Lin under 50 feet of mud.
Shuo Hong, an orthopedic surgeon in Taipei, about 155 miles away from the epicenter, felt the earthquake during a meeting at a hospital. "We were debating whether or not to run for shelter, but the hospital is safe," he said "It is built to resist a 7.0-magnitude earthquake.
"It was shaking for about 20 to 30 seconds, shaking more than what we expected," Hong said.
Were you there? Did you feel it?
The Taiwan Ministry of Interior and the National Fire Agency said electricity was cut off in parts of Kaohsiung county, Jia Yi city and Jia Yi county. Taiwan's official news agency reported that a fire broke out in Jia Yi city.
Residents in southern Taiwan reported cracks in some buildings and major bridges. Train service was also disrupted in some areas, Taiwanese media reported.
Two small hotels near the epicenter that were contacted by CNN reported no damage, though the buildings shook for a few seconds during the quake.
Albert Yu, communications manager of the humanitarian organization World Vision, told CNN he was about half-way through a 90-minute trip via high-speed train from Taipei to Tainan when the quake struck. Passengers did not feel the quake, he said, but operators stopped the train and announced what had happened before inspecting the tracks for stability.
During the delay, Yu said people were calm, "opening laptops ... and chatting with people around them."
Yu said World Vision "has already been on high alert responding to the quakes in Haiti and Chile, so we're closely monitoring reports in the earthquake in southern Taiwan."
Residents in Taipei, the capital, also felt the shaking.
Earthquakes are far from uncommon on the nearly 14,000-square-mile island -- about the size of the U.S. states of Maryland and Delaware combined -- which sits across the juncture of the Eurasian and Philippine tectonic plates.
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the same general region in December. The island took a double hit on December 26, 2006, when earthquakes of 7.1 and 6.9 magnitude hit eight minutes apart.
The largest recorded quake to strike Taiwan was an 8.0-magnitude quake in 1920, but the worst earthquake disaster stemmed from a 7.1-magnitude quake in 1935 that killed more than 3,200 people -- followed by a 6.5-magnitude quake that killed more than 2,700 people three months later.
More recently, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake killed more than 2,400 people in 1999.
The incident occurred when the main gate of the temple in Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh state came down as worshippers rushed for their share of meals and kitchen vessels, according to police. The temple, also a religious retreat belonging to a local holy man, was holding a memorial service in honor of a dead woman, state police official Brij Lal told CNN. At least 60 others were injured in the frenzy, according to Singh. Authorities are investigating the incident. Thursday's crush in Uttar Pradesh revived memories of a 2004 stampede in the same state that killed more than 20 women jostling to grab free saris offered at the birthday celebration of a local politician. In India, religious events of different faiths are usually marked with ritual feasts. Large congregations often pack venues, which sometimes have limited infrastructure to hold massive crowds.More than 60 killed in India temple stampede
Other officials gave conflicting numbers for the death toll, saying 61 people had been killed. Among the dead were 37 children, said I.P. Singh, a deputy police superintendent of Pratapgarh. The rest were women, he added.New Delhi, India (CNN) -- As many as 63 people -- most of them children -- were killed Thursday when a stampede broke out at a temple offering free utensils and food in northern India, authorities said.
