Nation briefs 10/8/04

Lava dome continues to rise at Mount St. Helens

MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. -- Part of the lava dome in Mount St. Helens' crater has risen 50 to 100 feet since Tuesday while earthquake activity remained low, signs that magma is moving upward without much resistance, scientists said Thursday. With the latest rising, an area of the crater floor just south of the nearly 1,000-foot lava dome has risen about 250 feet since the mountain began stirring two weeks ago, Lowenstern said.

U.S. defends denial of visas to Cuban scholars

WASHINGTON -- The government on Thursday defended its decision to keep 67 Cuban scholars from attending a conference in Las Vegas. The Cubans are government officials whose aim was to "spout the party line," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "It's the State Department's view that Cuban officials should not travel freely within the United States" and one way to bring pressure on the Cuban government is to deny them the ability to travel in the United States, Boucher said.

Terror alert heightened at U.S. schools

WASHINGTON -- The Education Department has alerted school leaders nationwide to watch for people spying on their buildings as a possible sign of a higher terrorist threat. The warning is based on an analysis by the FBI and the Homeland Security Department of the school siege that killed nearly 340 people, many of them students, in Russia last month.

Jobless claims fell sharply last week

WASHINGTON -- The number of new applications filed last week for unemployment benefits fell sharply, offering a hopeful sign that the recovery in the job market may be gaining some steam. The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of new people signing up for unemployment insurance benefits dropped by a seasonally adjusted 37,000 to 335,000, the lowest level since the beginning of September.

Mortgage rates up this week, statistics show

WASHINGTON -- Mortgage rates around the country went up this week, with 30-year mortgages climbing to the highest level since early September. Freddie Mac, in its weekly survey released Thursday, reported that rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages rose to 5.82 percent for the week ending Oct. 7. That was up sharply from 5.72 percent last week.

Consumers tighten borrowing in August

WASHINGTON -- Consumers cut back on their borrowing in August by the largest amount since the end of 1990 as confidence in the economy fell and energy prices surged. The Federal Reserve reported Thursday that consumer credit dropped by a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.4 percent in August, or by $2.4 billion, from the previous month. That was the largest dollar decline since December 1990.

-- From wire reports