Work on the recently acquired building will begin by October to complete the project in time to welcome students for the 2013 fall semester. SLU announced in January it would move the school downtown by this August. But in March, officials said that timetable was too ambitious and put off the move by a year.

SLU will not divulge the cost of the renovation, but the building was free. The university will name the building, at 100 North Tucker Boulevard, the Joe and Loretta Scott Law Center, in honor of the St. Louis couple who donated the 11-story structure.

Some existing features, mainly a ground-floor auditorium and three levels of parking, will be incorporated into the law school, said Michael Schnaare, a principal at the Lawrence Group, the project’s designer.

But the building will get a strikingly remodeled exterior. A vertical ribbon of glass will replace some buff brick on the Tucker side to reveal new interior stairways and allow more natural light in the building. Floor-to-ceiling glass will be installed on the fifth and sixth floors on the building’s Chestnut Street side. Those floors will house the law library and give students a view the Civil Courts building across the street. A vertical swath of decorative metal panels also will be installed on the Chestnut side.

The most dramatic change will be the addition of a two-level rooftop floor. The addition will house the school’s mock courtroom and event spaces, including an outdoor area that will provide a panoramic view of downtown.

“The thought process is to change the appearance of the building and make it easy to find on the downtown skyline,” Schnaare said.

Blue lighting will illuminate new rooftop, and some of the ground floor also will also get a band of nighttime blue. Employing “SLU blue” was Lawrence Group’s idea but Schaare said designers were confident SLU’s president, the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, would approve.

“Lighting is very important to him,” said Schnaare, adding that 15 years of designing projects for SLU officials provided Lawrence Group a clear view “of what they like and what they are looking for.”

He said the nearly vacant building, completed in 1964, was intended as a 16-story structure although construction ceased at 11 floors. As a result, adding a 12th floor now will be a breeze, Schnaare said.

“The roof up there was actually designed as a floor,” he added.

Classrooms and offices for faculty and staff will occupy floors seven, eight and nine. The building’s design as a taller structure will allow removal of some interior columns to accommodate larger classrooms on floors 10 and 11, Schnaare said.

For years, SLU had sought an on-campus law school expansion. The $35 million growth plan gained the support in 2009 of the Anheuser-Busch Foundation, which contributed $3 million to the effort. At the time, officials hoped to begin the new project within two years.

Then along came Scott, owner of Creve Coeur-based Scott Properties, which owns, leases or manages 2 million square feet of office, medical, retail and warehouse space. He also owns Crown Valley Winery in Ste. Genevieve County, where he maintains a tiger sanctuary. Scott bought the Tucker property, once owned by AT&T, in 1999.

SLU spokesman Clayton Berry said the Scotts “reached out to the university with this unexpected donation because they appreciated all that SLU had done for the St. Louis community over the years.

“Prior to being given this generous gift, we were exploring a variety of options for moving forward on new and refurbished space at the current location,” Berry said.

Efforts to reach Joe Scott for comment were unsuccessful. Berry said SLU will determine new uses for the existing law school buildings by the time the school moves off campus next year.

SLU said relocating the school will put law students close to courthouses and most of the area’s big law firms. Downtown boosters have cheered SLU’s decision to move more than 1,000 law school students, faculty and staff to Tucker Boulevard.

The relocated school will be near Lawrence Group’s Park Pacific apartments, which opened last year in the renovated 1920s headquarters of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Schnaare called SLU’s decision “a pleasant surprise,” adding that “anytime you have a thousand people coming downtown, that’s great for downtown.”

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“Right now there is a serious risk that (investors) will not lend us money or they will do so at an astronomical rate,” Mariano Rajoy told Spanish lawmakers.

Investors are getting increasingly concerned about the survival of the single currency and whether the Spanish government can push through its deficit-reduction plan at a time of recession and mass unemployment. Interest rates, or yields on 10-year Spanish bonds traded on the secondary market hit 6.32 percent in afternoon trading _ taking them closer to the unmanageable levels that prompted bailouts for Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

At one stage Wednesday, the difference between the interest rates demanded by investors for Spanish and German 10-year bonds shot past the 500 basis point level to hit its highest point since the euro was introduced in 1999.

“The spread has risen a great deal, which means it’s very difficult to finance oneself and to do so at a reasonable price,” Rajoy told Parliament.

Speaking to journalists, Rajoy also said the austerity measures Spain was taking were the correct ones but felt the European Union could do more.

“The euro needs to be strengthened. I don’t want Greece to leave the euro,” he said. “I think that would be a big mistake, very bad news, and I believe public debt sustainability must be guaranteed and all of us must fulfill our commitments,”

Rajoy’s reforms covering the labor and financial sector have so far failed to calm investor nerves or improve Spain’s stricken economy, which is languishing under the weight of a 24 quick cash.4 percent unemployment rate. The economy is predicted to contract by 1.7 percent this year.

Two of the country’s main problems are overspending by regional governments and banks burdened with billions of euros in bad loans following a real estate crash that started in 2008.

A major concern is that bank failures might swamp public finances and that the government will be unable to carry through its austerity measures and reforms.

The measures are aimed chiefly at slashing the government’s deficit from 8.5 percent of economic output to below the maximum level set by the European Union of 3 percent by 2013. For this year, the goal is 5.3 percent.

Emilio Ontiveros, head of Madrid-based consultancy AFI, said the 500-point spread was a key psychological barrier, reflecting uncertainty not just about Spanish public finances but about the Spanish economy in general, he said.

“Now, more than ever, it is necessary for the European Central Bank _ the only entity with enough firepower to stabilize debt markets _ to intervene consistently by buying bonds, not just Spanish ones but probably also Italian ones, and from then on give clear signals that maintaining the eurozone is a priority because otherwise Europe could fall apart,” Ontiveros told Cadena SER radio.

Spain has its next bond auction Thursday when it sells bill maturing in 2015 and 2016.

____

Daniel Woolls contributed to this report.

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The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 130 points to 12,690 a half-hour after the opening bell. That’s a loss of 1 percent.

Oil dropped below $95 per barrel, and the euro sank against the dollar. Treasury prices jumped as traders shifted money into the safest bonds. The yield on the 10-year note fell to 1.77 percent, the lowest level this year.

Political parties in Athens resumed power-sharing talks Monday as negotiations to create a government drag into a second week. The uncertainty has raised concerns that Greece could miss a debt payment and drop out of the euro currency. The worry is that if Greece leaves the currency union, bond traders may turn on other troubled countries in Europe and demand steeper borrowing rates on the government bond market.

In other trading, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 13 points to 1,340. The Nasdaq composite fell 24 points to 2,909.

Major markets in Europe plunged Monday. France’s CAC-40 lost 2 business card.9 percent, and Germany’s DAX dropped 2.3 percent. Benchmark indexes also dropped 3 percent in Italy and Spain.

JPMorgan Chase fell nearly 3 percent in early trading, following news that its chief investment officer, Ina Drew, would step down. The bank said last week that it lost $2 billion in a trade on corporate debt. Other banks followed JPMorgan lower. Morgan Stanley fell 3.6 percent and Goldman Sachs fell 1.8 percent.

Yahoo gained more than 3 percent after the company replaced its CEO, Scott Thompson. Yahoo reportedly pushed Thompson out for padding his resume.

Electronics retailer Best Buy Co. rose 1.8 percent after the company’s founder, Richard Schulze, said he would step down as chairman. An investigation found that he knew the CEO was having a relationship with a female employee and did not alert the audit committee.

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In the past two years, the company has notably boosted its outreach efforts, running rural charity programs, posting billboards throughout farm country and even running contests for “Farm Mom of the Year.”

Now the company is supporting something that’s a marriage of sorts — an effort related to both education and outreach.

Monsanto and the University of Illinois recently announced that the company will give $250,000 toward an endowed chair in agricultural communications. The person who fills the post will run a recently formalized degree program between the university’s College of Media and College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. The goal, both the university and the company say, is to help graduates better convey the challenges and technologies of modern farming — which, the agriculture business believes, aren’t reaching the American public.

“We need to communicate the importance of the science of modern agriculture,” said Kimberly Meenen, director of development for the agriculture college. “We’re trying to help bridge the gap.”

The university’s new position comes as the agriculture industry is going on the offensive, waging a public relations campaign to win the hearts of American consumers who are increasingly distrustful of large-scale agriculture and concerned about the lack of transparency in the food system.

In 2010, American Agri-Women launched a campaign to put a more feminine face on American agriculture and to connect with the women who are doing most of the country’s grocery shopping. At about the same time, the Chesterfield-based U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance formed with the specific goal of conveying more positive messages about American agriculture. Even state departments of agriculture, including those in Illinois and Missouri, have gotten into the mix, saying they need to do a better job of communicating with the non-farming public.

Earlier this year, the University of Illinois convened its first-ever agricultural communications symposium, where executives from agribusiness companies, including Monsanto, gave presentations stressing the need for better message-making.

Robb Fraley, Monsanto’s chief, suggested that one way of winning the sympathies of American consumers would be to go to Apple stores and tell people buying iPhones that they can afford them only because the efficiency of American farmers keeps food cheap bad credit unsecured personal loans.

“They kept saying they’re losing the battle with the public,” said Ken Cook, who spoke at the conference and is director of the Environmental Working Group, a group critical of American agribusiness. “I think a lot of this is aimed at policy process that they feel like they don’t have much public support for.”

Monsanto is one of dozens of organizations that are funding the chair, including rivals DuPont and Dow. The company has a history of contributing to the university and recruiting from among its graduates.

Tami Craig Schilling, vice president of technology communications for Monsanto, graduated with a degree in agricultural communications from the university, and worked within the company to secure the funding. She said she believes it represents the first time the company has funded an effort of its kind, and that it does not represent a new shift toward funding media education programs.

“We’re saying we’ve got to answer the question and the call to bring this information [about agriculture] in a way that consumers want to hear it, and meet them where they’re at,” she said. “Let’s not overwhelm them with information.”

Craig Schilling said the company hopes the position will, ultimately, help graduates understand not just how to get message out, but to engage in conversations with the public, especially harnessing social media.

“We’ve figured out you can push messages …” Craig Schilling said. “It’s figuring out how to do that two-way communications in a world of so many mediums.”

Don Kojich, a spokesman for the University of Illinois Foundation, said the agreement between Monsanto and the university was confidential, but did say the company would have no influence on who is hired and what is taught.

Still, some critics of the company, say they worry about its influence in a media-related position.

“If you’re concerned about presenting a view from a corporate standpoint, the demise of journalism is great news,” Cook said. “My fear is that this is another way for Monsanto and big companies to begin to influence, quote, ag communications. I didn’t speak to any student while I was at that conference who was interested in becoming a journalist.”

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As a result, they’re becoming hesitant to spend. Cisco said its customers are buying cheaper products, requiring more managers to sign off on purchases and holding off on upgrades.

Shares of Cisco (, Fortune 500) plunged 9% on Thursday after the company said it expects sales to grow just 2% to 5% this quarter, short of Wall Street’s forecasts.

The stock whacking came in the wake of what was a pretty decent previous quarter. For the three-month stretch that ended in April, Cisco’s sales rose 7%compared to last year, and its profit increased 20%.

Chambers admitted that the company’s guidance is conservative and acknowledged that not much has changed in the macroeconomic environment over the past several months.

But there have been worrying signs, he said. Europe has gotten worse, sparking fears about the global economy and prompting some customers to slow their spending. Capital budgets, particularly for service providers like broadband and wireless carriers, were "very tight" last quarter, Chambers noted.

In other words, uncertainty is the name of the game, even if businesses aren’t yet seeing evidence of a global recession.

"When I talk to our customers, they do not see that occurring in their environment, and they … have said there plans are to spend more in the second half of the year," Chambers said. "However, in the very next sentence they said, ‘We are waiting to see what happens in Europe and what happens with government policy.’"

Spending in the public sector, including governments and schools, is expected to be flat going forward, but Chambers sees private businesses scaling back because of weaker consumer confidence.

"We sure don’t like the trend in the enterprise IT spending," Chambers said. "People are in this uncertain environment, and when they’re uncertain, unfortunately, you don’t spend."

Other bellwether tech giants, including Hewlett-Packard (, Fortune 500) IBM (, Fortune 500), Intel (, Fortune 500) and Microsoft (, Fortune 500), haven’t been nearly as cautious in their outlooks. So is this an economic problem or a Cisco problem?

Chambers insisted that the company’s global operations give it a broad and early view of what’s coming.

"One of the primary reasons Cisco sees these trends so much earlier than our peers in the market is we’re pretty pervasive," Chambers said. "We’re in every industry, every country, everything except the consumer in large volumes. And so we can see a hiccup in state and local spending in the U.S. perhaps two to four quarters before other people, our peers, get it on their radar screen."

It wasn’t all bad news. Cisco’s emerging market sales grew at a robust 12% clip year-over-year, and Russia and Japan stood out as two particularly strong countries.

Chambers also pointed out that Cisco is faring better than its competition. Juniper Networks’ () sales fell by 6% in the previous quarter, and Alcatel-Lucent’s () revenue was down 12%. China’s Huawei was up 3%, but Cisco’s CEO noted that the company is in many emerging markets and should be growing sales even faster.

Still, analysts on Cisco’s conference call criticized the company for being too sensitive to economic trends.

Chambers agreed and said that Cisco is looking to move into "macro-resistant" businesses that aren’t as subject to ups and downs, such as entertainment and in-home video. That’s why the company splurged on TV software company NDS, offering $5 billion for it in March.

Chambers said he remains upbeat about Cisco’s prospects despite the challenges.

"Our results and guidance reflect the strength of our business in a cautious environment," he said. "We continue to see market trends early, and we believe we have the ability to lead quickly, both technologically as well as operationally." 

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Details emerging about the latest unraveled plot revealed that a Saudi double agent fooled the terror group, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, passing himself off as an eager would-be suicide bomber. Instead, he secretly turned over the group’s most up-to-date underwear bomb to Saudi Arabia, which gave it to the CIA. Before he was whisked to safety, the spy provided intelligence that helped the CIA kill al-Qaida’s senior operations leader, Fahd al-Quso, who died in a drone strike last weekend.

The role of Saudi Arabia disrupting the plot follows warnings in 2010 from the oil-rich kingdom about a plot to blow up cargo planes inside the U.S., either on runways or over American cities. That plot involved a frantic chase across five countries of two packages containing bombs powerful enough to down an airplane. Twice, a bomb was aboard a passenger plane. Once, authorities were just minutes too late to stop a cargo jet with a bomb from departing for its next destination. Ultimately, no one died and the packages never exploded.

It hasn’t always been this way.

Saudi Arabia, the one-time home of Osama bin Laden, failed to spot and stop the 15 Saudi-born hijackers of the 19 who carried out the September 2001 terror attacks. Questions remain whether two Saudi citizens who had at least indirect links with two of the hijackers were reporting to Saudi government officials. U.S. law enforcement officials accused the Saudi government of failing to help adequately in investigations of the al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000 and Hezbollah’s bombing of the Khobar Towers housing complex, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen in 1996.

But a series of devastating al-Qaida strikes against Saudi targets in 2003 and more recently, fears al-Qaida could try to trigger Arab Spring-style revolts in the kingdom, has energized the Saudi government in its war against al-Qaida’s spinoff in Yemen, which is composed mostly of ex-Saudi militants. Saudi Arabia and the U.S. _ with help from Yemen’s government _ have joined forces to penetrate the terror group at the highest levels. Drone strikes have killed U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki last summer and al-Quso, his successor, more recently.

Al-Quso personally briefed the Saudi double agent, giving him open-ended instructions to pick a U.S.-bound plane on a day of his choosing. Al-Quso was hit in part due to information gleaned from the double-agent, according to two former officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to preserve their ability to discuss details of current intelligence matters with current officials.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said Wednesday that the FBI is examining the new al-Qaida bomb and urged Congress to renew wide-ranging surveillance authority to thwart similar terrorism plots.

The FBI is attempting to replicate bomb, trying to determine how destructive the bomb would have been and how easy it would be for AQAP to build another. The device is al-Qaida’s 2.0 version of the underwear bomb that very nearly brought down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day in 2009. This one was also nonmetallic, but is less bulky than the previous version, now shaped to fit nearly invisibly inside underwear to escape detection by security pat downs, two officials said fast payday loan.

Its trigger mechanism was also improved, replacing the flawed trigger design that failed to ignite the explosives in the previous attack.

The bomb bears the hallmarks of al-Qaida’s master bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri , or one of his protégés, multiple officials say. U.S. officials had hoped the bomber was killed in the strike last year on al-Awlaki, but evidence emerged he was still around ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Navy SEAL raid that killed bin Laden.

“So Asiri is likely still out there, and he can still build these,” or teach others to build them, said House Intelligence Committee member Adam Schiff, D-Calif. “So it’s not as though we can rest any easier.”

Al-Asiri’s role also makes this particular mission personal for Saudi Arabia.

Saudi-born al-Asiri also turned his own brother into a suicide bomber in 2009, targeting Saudi Arabia’s top counterterrorism official, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. The brother exploded a cavity bomb, killing himself, and injuring the prince.

Nayef’s forces are thought to have played a key role in sending the double agent that nabbed al-Asiri’s latest handiwork.

A tip from Saudi intelligence services led authorities in Dubai and Britain to uncover the al-Asiri-made the U.S.-bound parcel bombs sent from Yemen in 2010. Yemeni authorities have said they believe the tip came from an AQAP operative, Jabir al-Fayfi. Held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before going through a Saudi militant rehab program, al-Fayfi may have been working as a double agent planted by Riyadh, Yemeni officials said.

White House counterterorrism chief John Brennan publicly thanked the Saudis for their role in stopping the cargo plane plot. Brennan’s personal ties have helped forge a closer Saudi relationship. A fluent Arabic speaker, he was once the CIA’s chief of station in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services were also galvanized into their current more aggressive action after suicide bombers killed some 35 people at housing compounds for Westerners in Riyadh, in 2003, according to Philip Mudd, a former senior FBI and CIA official.

“The Saudis got serious and came up with a list of targets, and took them all down,” Mudd said. “It got too hot for al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia. They got squeezed out.”

Saudi militants fled southward, to the relative safety of Yemen. Exiled from their homeland, and some now disillusioned with al-Qaida, they are a ripe target to be turned by Saudi intelligence, Mudd said.

The U.S. intelligence relationship with the Saudis waxes and wanes, said former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Heokstra, R-Mich.

Before the Arab Spring left the Saudi royal family fearing for its rule, “the relationship was fraught with distrust, a lack of cooperation and coordination,” Hoekstra said.

Now, neither nation can afford to have al-Qaida in the neighborhood, he said.

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Associated Press writers Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan, in Washington, Ahmed Al-Haj in Sanaa, Yemen, and Adam Schreck in Dubai contributed to this report.

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In France, socialist Francois Hollande defeated president Nicolas Sarkozy, raising questions about the future of austerity throughout Europe.

"A change in leadership brings uncertainty because you don’t know exactly what you’re getting into," said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research.

"It won’t be a be-all end-all sell signal, but new leadership in France could cause investor jitters that reverberate throughout global financial markets," said Detrick.

Hollande campaigned on the need to focus more on economic growth to reduce public debt, as opposed to austerity, which has been the main policy prescription for the three year-old European debt crisis.

While it remains to be seen to what extent Hollande will push his growth agenda, his countering approach causes concerns about how he might work with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the key proponent of austerity.

Even so, many economists and market strategists say Hollande is likely to pursue policies that maintain fiscal discipline and will also make efforts to keep good relations with Germany.

While there could be some "initial friction with Merkel," Hollande will eventually form his own bond with the German leader, said Antonio Barroso, an analyst at political research firm Eurasia Group.

"Hollande is very pragmatic." said Barroso. "He knows that Germany is his most important partner. They will have to agree on a solution for the crisis."

What’s more, there is not that much difference between many of the candidates’ policies. Hollande and Sarkozy had both pledged to balance the nation’s budget, although they differed on taxes, with Hollande pleding tax hikes on the rich.

"At the end of day, there’s not a huge departure from the status quo," said Barroso.

Meanwhile, in Greece, voters appeared to be delivering steep losses to the government’s governing coalition, raising questions about how the troubled country’s austerity program will be implemented.

After nearing four-year highs at the start of the week, U.S. stocks ended with a thud on Friday, as the S&P 500 logged its biggest weekly decline of the year.

World’s largest economies

Later in the week, the weekly unemployment claims report will be likely be the most heavily scrutinized, said Detrick.

Weekly initial jobless claims dropped sharply last week — a good sign — but investors were disappointed by the the April jobs report on Friday that showed a sharp slowdown in hiring.

"Lately, it’s been one step forward, two steps back, so investors are just looking for good news on the jobs front," said Detrick.

The University of Michigan’s preliminary reading on consumer sentiment in May could also attract some attention.

Though a bulk of U.S. companies have reported quarterly earnings, a few major companies are on deck to open their books, including media giants News Corp. (, Fortune 500) and Walt Disney (, Fortune 500), as well as retailers like Macy’s (, Fortune 500), Nordstrom (, Fortune 500) and Kohl’s (, Fortune 500).

Dow component Cisco (, Fortune 500) is also on tap.

Historically, May is the start of a weak period for the U.S. stock market, and the ’sell in May, and go away’ phenomenon has reared its head for the past two years.

But Detrick doesn’t expect the same type of weakness this year.

"I don’t anticipate seeing the sizeable pullbacks that we saw during the last couple of years, but this is a time frame where the stock market rarely has explosive moves higher," he said.

Rather, Detrick expects the stock market to get through the economic and corporate news lull by largely moving sideways. Already, he notes, stocks are back at the levels they were about eight weeks ago.

And given that the market soared during the first three months of the year, "that’s not necessarily a bad thing," he said.  

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Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to defend the rights of the Syrian people, saying they were close to achieving success. He was greeted by joyous Syrians at the largest refugee camp near the border.

Erdogan has urged Syrian President Bashar Assad to quit and has encouraged the Syrian opposition to unify and present a credible political alternative. His visit to the border region comes before a parliamentary election in neighboring Syria, where the government’s heavy-handed reaction to civilian protests more than a year ago is threatening to spawn a full-scale militarized conflict.

“Bashar is losing blood day by day,” Erdogan said in an address to thousands of joyous Syrians at the camp near the town of Kilis. “Sooner or later, those who have oppressed our Syrian brothers will be accounted for before their nation. Your victory is close.”

Many refugees used their mobile phones to film or took pictures of Erdogan, who addressed the crowd from the top of a bus as snipers stood on rooftops. The camp, housing more than 9,500 refugees, came under cross border fire by Syrian forces last month in an incident that left two refugees dead.

It is the most organized and well-equipped camp: refugees stay in white temporary housing units instead of tents as in nine other camps along the border. It looks like a small town with wide streets, soup kitchens, a health clinic and even a makeshift barber shop. A mosque with a minaret is located just outside the camp.

Erdogan assured the refugees that they are Turkey’s guests until they decide to return home in safety, as the refugees burst into applause no fax payday loans. Erdogan thanked them with a few words in Arabic.

Turkey hosts around 23,000 Syrian refugees who have fled Assad’s crackdown, which is estimated to have left more than 9,000 people dead.

Before visiting the camp on Sunday, Erdogan said: “Until the will of the Syrian people comes to power, we will continue to defend our brothers rights there and welcome our brothers who come here with open arms. Inshallah (with God’s will) these gloomy days will be overcome.”

The Syrian regime has portrayed Monday’s vote as a sign of its willingness to carry out reforms, but Syrian opposition leaders and activists are skeptical. A U.N.-brokered truce last month has failed to halt the violence in Syria.

Monday’s election comes more than three weeks after an April 12 cease-fire aimed at paving the way for political talks between Assad and those trying to bring him down.

The truce, brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan, has failed to take hold, though U.N. observers say it’s helped bring down the level of violence. Regime forces continue to attack opposition strongholds and carry out arrests, while refusing to withdraw troops and tanks from streets, as required by the Annan plan. Rebel fighters continue to target soldiers in shootings and bombings.

Turkey, NATO’s biggest Muslim member, does not want to be seen as a bystander to atrocities on its doorstep, but it is also careful not to be dragged into the conflict. Turkey has been relentlessly calling for international consensus on Syria, which simply does not exist.

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The U.S. generated just 115,000 jobs last month, well below expectations and the fewest since October. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent, but for the wrong reason — workers abandoned the labor force.

From December through February, employers added 252,000 jobs a month on average. But the figure dipped in March and dropped further in April, raising doubts about an economic recovery that can’t seem to reach escape velocity.

The report Friday by the Labor Department indicated “an economy that is losing momentum — especially on the jobs front,” said Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets.

Some of the slower job growth may be because an unusually warm winter allowed construction firms and other companies to add workers ahead of schedule in January and February, in effect stealing jobs from the spring.

The weaker job growth in March and April “looks like some weather payback,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. The balmy weather probably exaggerated job growth in the winter and makes it look small now, Ashworth said. He expects job creation to settle into a lackluster range between 175,000 and 200,000.

The economy may not be growing fast enough to produce anything stronger. Economists surveyed by The Associated Press expect the economy to grow 2.5 percent this year. That is consistent with monthly job growth of only about 135,000, according to calculations by Brad DeLong, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley No teletrack payday loans.

That is barely enough to keep up with population growth and not nearly enough to recover the jobs lost in the Great Recession quickly. At this year’s pace, it will take until May 2014 to restore employment to its 2008 peak of 138 million.

The U.S. has only recovered 3.8 million, or 43 percent, of the 8.8 million jobs lost between the peak, in February 2008, and January 2010.

April’s hiring slump was broad. Only two of 10 large categories tracked by the government, retailers and professional and business services, hired more workers in April than they did in March.

Friday’s report noted that the average hourly wage went up one penny in April. Over the past year, average pay has increased 1.8 percent, almost a full percentage point shy of the inflation rate, which means the average American isn’t keeping up with price increases.

Even April’s bright spot, the lower unemployment rate, fades on closer inspection. The government only counts people as unemployed if they’re looking for work. And 340,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force in April, which is why the unemployment rate fell slightly. The dropouts mean just 63.6 percent of working-age Americans were working or looking for work, the lowest since 1981.

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