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The Conference Board said its measure of the total number of unduplicated online jobs rose to nearly 3.93 million in February from about 3.36 million in January.

However the figure in February this year was only 2.7 percent above the 3.82 million jobs posted a year earlier, posting the smallest year-on-year increase since the series began in May 2005, said the Conference Board.

“The softening in advertised vacancies is widespread,” said Gad Levanon, economist at the Conference Board.

“For the past three months, 75 percent of states had an average annual growth rate slower than the previous year. These data, along with the drop in the Consumer Confidence Index from 112 in July 2007 to 75 in February 2008, suggest that the slow pace of labor demand observed during the last half of 2007 may even slow further in the upcoming months.”

Adjusting for the size of the state civilian labor force, Alaska was the state that led in offerings with 4.70 online job ads per 100 people, followed by Nevada with 4.41 and Massachusetts with 4.24.

In a separate measure of job sector health, The ADP National Employment Report, due on Wednesday, is expected to show the U.S. private sector added 20,000 new jobs in February, sharply down from 130,000 in January, according to a Reuters survey.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos)

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“A strong dollar is in our nation’s interest,” he told Bloomberg Television. “The long-term (U.S. economic) fundamentals are very solid and they’re going to be reflected in our currency.”

The dollar was little changed against a basket of currencies in late-morning trading, after hitting a new all-time low earlier in the day.

(Editing by Theodore d’Afflisio)

Jaime Salazar, 14, and his friend Marco Castro, 16, were suspended from South Albany High School after they refused to put away the crucifixes.

Salazar said that Principal Chris Equinoa saw his necklace and told him to put it away. “I was like, why?” Salazar said. “He says it’s related to gangs.”

Salazar said he argued and was sent to the office, but went home instead. He later received a note saying he had been suspended for five days for “defiance and gang-related behavior.”

Castro, a junior, was suspended for three days after refusing to take off a string of rosary beads, with a crucifix and a tiny picture of the Virgin Mary.

Equinoa said he could not comment on an individual student’s case. But he said that as principal, he can ask a student to remove or cover items that could indicate gang ties — even a religious symbol. Any such directive would not be made without other information, he said.

Albany police say fellow officers in Salem and Hillsboro have been contending with crucifixes and rosaries as gang markers for the past several years.

Principals have the discretion to do what Equinoa did, said Jim Haggart, executive assistant to the superintendent.

“We’re not trying to squash any religious symbols and we’re not trying to get into religion, but we are trying to get into student safety, and that’s what we’re really concerned about,” Haggart said.

From Cape Town to California, Florida and the Bahamas, adventurous divers can slip into the ocean with an experienced guide and get face-to-face with some of the world’s most ancient and fierce predators.

But some say the search for a thrill has gone to far: baiting the water with bloody fish parts, diving without cages or protective gear and getting up close to some of the most aggressive species. An Austrian tourist on this kind of dive was fatally bitten by a shark this week in the Bahamas.
Bans on feeding sharks in Florida and U.S. waters have pushed some shark diving companies to the Bahamas, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the Florida coast, where 49-year-old Austrian lawyer Markus Groh’s tour took him Sunday. He was bitten on the leg and died a day later.

Critics liken the practice to feeding bears or any other wild predator, and say the more contact sharks have with people, the more likely they are to attack.

But others say such attacks are rare and that the dives, popular among international tourists as well as adventurous Americans, actually help educate people about sharks and conservation.

“People just misunderstand these creatures,” said Sonja Fordham, director of the Ocean Conservancy’s shark conservation program, who advocates some shark dives.

Groh’s death was the first reported fatality from a shark attack during feeding, said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File.

‘Trained circus animals’
Burgess fiercely opposes feeding wild sharks under any circumstances, claiming it turns them into “trained circus animals.”

“Ecotourism for animals is a great concept, but it is most successful in situations where people watch their natural behaviors from afar and not intrude,” Burgess said.

Fears about diver safety and altering shark behavior led Florida to ban feeding sharks in 2001. It is also banned in Hawaii and in U.S. federal waters, which generally begin just beyond a state’s three-mile territory and extend about 200 miles (321 kilometers) out.

Many operators in the Caribbean take divers to reefs in shallow water where less aggressive sharks feed, such as black tips. Some also use cages or metal suits to protect divers.

The problem, Burgess said, is that some tour operators take risks to lure clients by offering a chance to get closer to the bigger, more unpredictable sharks such as bulls, lemons and tigers — species responsible for most attacks worldwide.

Groh’s tour with Scuba Adventures of Riviera Beach, Florida, was just such a trip with no cages, chum in the water, and diving in the deep, open ocean.

The dive company has been criticized by the Bahamas Diving Association, which sent a letter last year urging it to stop conducting “open-water, non-cage shark diving experiences with known species of potentially dangerous sharks.”

“It reached the point where it wasn’t a matter of if but when an incident was going to occur,” said Neal Watson, the association president.

Scuba Adventures’ operators have declined comment about the attack or their business.

The Ocean Conservancy has a more moderate position on feeding in general, noting that sharks face a far greater threat from fishing worldwide. Getting people up close to sharks in the wild can help dispel myths that they are “monsters,” Fordham said.

“Shark feeding in the grand scheme of conservation is not a big threat,” she said, adding that it still should be done with limited interaction and should not involve the aggressive species.

“When something like this attack happens, we step backward in terms of the public image of sharks,” Fordham said.

‘Thrilled to death’
Keith Rogers, owner of Dive Abaco in the Bahamas, has been leading shark diving expeditions for more than a decade.

While his clients are not caged and do not wear protective gear, he operates tours only in about 50 feet (15 meters) of water along the reefs where bigger, more aggressive sharks are rare.

Rogers cited benefits, including that his clients leave “no longer considering sharks as predators of man.”

“And it’s definitely exciting,” he said. “When the divers come up, they’re thrilled to death.”

In newly filed court documents, Moussaoui argues that court-imposed secrecy undermined his ability to present an adequate defense. His new lawyers say Moussaoui’s guilty plea should be thrown out and a new trial should be convened for the man who once claimed to have been a part of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist plot.

Moussaoui was not allowed to see the classified evidence against him and was shut out from closed-door hearings in which that evidence was laid out. His lawyers could advise him, but they could not discuss everything — only the evidence preapproved by prosecutors or the judge.

Defense lawyers say they were barred from even discussing with Moussaoui evidence that could help prove his innocence. They say Moussaoui faced an unconstitutional choice: plead guilty or go to trial without knowing the evidence.

“Moussaoui appeals because his plea was unknowing, uncounselled and invalid,” attorneys Justin Antonipillai and Barbara Hartung wrote.

The court documents, filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., raise a fundamental question about whether terrorism suspects like Moussaoui should be given access to all the evidence against them — access that is guaranteed in criminal cases.

That question is certain to be raised again as the Bush administration plans to try several suspects before military tribunals at the Guantanamo Bay naval base. Judges in those cases will have broad authority to limit what evidence detainees can see.

“It’s totally a farce if the defendant can’t see the evidence against him,” said David Remes, an attorney representing several Guantanamo Bay detainees. “How can he rebut evidence he doesn’t know? How can he tell his lawyer how to rebut it or where to look for the rebuttal evidence? How can he discredit his accuser if he doesn’t know who his accuser is?”

In a typical court case, defense attorneys pore over the government’s evidence and, with the defendant’s input, look for holes in the case. They gather evidence in their favor and try to undercut the government’s witnesses.

In terrorism cases, however, that evidence is often some of the nation’s most sensitive intelligence secrets. It could reveal the identity of spies and their sources. It could reveal how the U.S. gathers intelligence and it might reveal ways for terrorist groups to avoid being noticed.

Glenn Sulmasy, a national security fellow at Harvard University, said Moussaoui’s latest appeal shows “exactly why civilian courts are not the place to try international terrorists.”

Sulmasy said military commissions are better equipped to balance national security and individual liberties. But he said a permanent national security court would be even better.

Since being sentenced to life in prison, Moussaoui has said he lied when testifying that he was to hijack a fifth jetliner on Sept. 11. He has returned to claiming — as he had for four years before the trial testimony — that he had nothing to do with the suicide hijackings that took nearly 3,000 lives that day.

Thousands of people, including friends and families of those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, gathered near the hulking gray ship, trimmed in red, white and blue banners.

The bow stem, which contains 7.5 tons of steel from the site, bore a shield with two gray bars to symbolize the twin towers and a banner over that declaring “Never Forget,” a slogan among New Yorkers.

“May God bless this ship and all who sail on her,” ship sponsor Dotty England said before smashing a bottle of champagne against it, producing a loud thump to go with the spurting liquid and flying streamers.

Painful memories and pride
Story after story of lives lost in, and touched by, the attacks peppered the ceremony, held under the blazing sun and broadcast on large screens. It all brought back painful memories for New York Police Lt. Matt Murphy. But the reason for his being here, though, was a source of pride, he said.

“I tell you, it’s a fantastic day. Sometimes you think you’re over something,” he said, his eyes welling up as he looked off toward the ship, “and then you realize you’re not completely.”

Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England told the crowd that ship names provide a legacy, and that for their crews they serve as a source of strength and inspiration.

When the attacks occurred, the ship was planned but had no name. Then-New York Gov. George Pataki asked the Navy to commemorate the disaster by reviving the name New York. That required an exception to Navy policy of assigning state names only to nuclear submarines.

The steel from the towers is now part of the ship that splices through the water, leading the way.

“It resurrects the ashes, so to speak, to do great things for our nation,” said Bill Glenn, a spokesman for Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, the ship builder.

Katrina struck during construction
Along with the steel from one of the worst terrorist attacks in the U.S., it also survived one of the nation’s worst natural disasters: Hurricane Katrina.

The ship motivated many of the Avondale shipyard workers to return to the job, even though many lost their homes in the 2005 storm.

The billion-dollar, 25,000-ton vessel is 684 feet long, 105 feet wide. It is the fifth in a new class of warship, designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It can carry a crew of about 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

USS New York’s prospective commanding officer is Cmdr. F. Curtis Jones, a native New Yorker. It is to be commissioned, essentially added to the fleet, next year. It could be used as part of peaceful missions or as part of war, said Adm. Gary Roughead, the Navy’s chief of operations.

That it could be used in war did not bother Lee Ielpi, president of the September 11th Families’ Association, whose son, Jonathan, a firefighter, died in the attacks. The ship won’t be used for war “unless you bother us,” he said in an interview.

“We’re sending a message that we’re standing strong,” he said, adding: “This ship, as it cuts through the water, is going to send a ripple. That ripple will say, ‘We cherish our freedom.’”

Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., said Sept. 11 was a turning point in the nation, and will never be forgotten because remnants of the disaster are part of the ship.

“If the USS New York has to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, PCO Jones and his crew … have my full support,” he said to a standing ovation.

But experts say the findings are still preliminary and it’s too soon to rush out and enroll in a stress-management course in hopes of combating the disease.

The human papillomavirus (HPV) has long been known as the primary cause of cervical cancer, but the virus alone doesn’t seem to be enough to induce the disease. Most sexually active women will contract HPV at some point in their lives, but 90 percent will clear the virus from their body before it causes any damage, suggesting other factors are at play in the unfortunate minority who eventually develop cervical cancer.

The new study, published Friday in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine, found that feeling stressed out may be one such factor by impairing the body’s ability to fight off the virus.

“Women who reported higher levels of perceived stress — regardless of what was actually happening in their life — showed an impaired immune response to HPV,” said Carolyn Fang, a psychologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia and lead author of the study.

Too early for alarm
However, it’s too early to sound the alarm, Fang added. More research is needed to confirm the finding and show that reducing stress improves the body’s ability to fight off HPV.

“I don’t want women to think that just because they’re feeling stressed they will get cervical cancer,” Fang said.

Previous research has indicated that women with higher levels of stress were more likely to develop cervical cancer, so Fang’s team decided to look at whether stress somehow impaired the body’s immune response to HPV.

The study involved 74 women who had abnormal Pap smears that revealed precancerous cells and another 28 women who had normal Pap results. (Half of the women with abnormal Pap results were infected with HPV strains known to cause cancer, including the culprit known as HPV-16, compared with about 18 percent of the women with normal Pap tests.)

Going against the recommendation of its advisory panel, the Food and Drug Administration judged the effectiveness of Avastin based on measurements of tumor growth, not patient survival.

The ruling prompted a mixed reaction from both doctors and advocates for breast-cancer patients.
Some bemoaned the lowering of medical standards, but others applauded the federal government’s endorsement of a drug that is already prescribed “off-label” to an estimated 9,500 patients and for whom insurance coverage is limited.

Avastin, which is already approved in the U.S. for treating lung and colon cancer, was Genentech’s best-selling product last year with revenue of $2.3 billion. Through a partnership with Genentech, Swiss drug maker Roche markets the drug in Europe, where it had previously been approved as a breast-cancer treatment.

Many analysts expected the agency to wait until Genentech submitted more patient data and then make a decision later this year.

FDA approval for drugs targeted at cancer patients who have never been treated before is usually contingent upon data showing a drug extended, or improved the quality of, patients’ lives. Avastin showed neither in a study submitted by Genentech, though the drug did slow tumor growth.

Some cancer experts see FDA’s Avastin decision as opening the door for more cancer drugs to be approved for tumor-shrinking capabilities — though it could be years before another takes advantage of the access.

“It probably gives companies a wider area to operate in … to get a drug approved,” said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society. “But I can’t think of another drug out there right now that would immediately benefit from this lower threshold.”

In December, a panel of outside FDA advisers voted 5 to 4 against Genentech’s application, indicating the drug’s benefits did not outweigh toxic side effects. Nevertheless, U.S. doctors continued prescribing it “off-label,” or without a federal endorsement.

Some insurers are reluctant to pay for Avastin’s use among breast-cancer patients, which can cost $100,000 for a year’s supply.

Dr. Joseph Sparano of Montefiore Medical Center in New York said he prescribes Avastin because it has shown better results at slowing breast cancer growth than any other drug on the market.

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The Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization said the approval gives patients an important new option.

“The benefits we’re looking at here matter because they give patients hope,” said Margaret C. Kirk, the group’s chief executive. “Without disease progression they may survive to see a discovery that can help them.”

But the president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition said the decision marked a lowering of standards for FDA. She argued that the drug’s effectiveness should not have outweighed safety risks, pointing to six deaths attributed to the drug in the study submitted to FDA.

“All they had was progression-free survival in one trial, no increase in quality of life and patient deaths in the Avastin group,” said Fran Visco. “We’re very confused why FDA made this decision.”

First approved in the U.S. to treat colon cancer in 2004, Avastin was the first drug to fight cancer by blocking nutrients from reaching tumors. Such “targeted therapies” were thought to hold promise for eliminating chemotherapy, but that promise remains unmet.