Seasonal jobs ease Spain unemployment in April

MADRID (AP) — Spain's Labor Ministry says the number of people registered as unemployed fell by 46,050 in April with more people finding jobs in the run-up to the summer tourist season.

The ministry said Monday the total number registered as jobless stands at 4.99 million.

Spain has been in recession for the best part of the past four years as the economy battles to recover from the collapse of its once-booming real estate sector.

The ministry said April registered 1.1 million new job contracts, 19 percent up on March and 11 percent up on April 2012.

The country's unemployment rate was a record 27.2 percent in the first quarter.

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Egypt's Morsi calls parliament elections in April

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi has issued a presidential decree calling for staggered parliamentary elections, starting April 27 and ending in June.

The decree, announced late Thursday, says the vote will take place in four stages and the new parliament will convene on July 6.

Since the ouster of longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising in 2011, Egyptians have gone through a series of referendums, presidential and parliamentary elections. The first elected parliament was disbanded by a court order last June.

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the country's dominant political group.

The call for the balloting comes as Egypt is in deep turmoil, bitterly divided between the fundamentalist Brotherhood and their backers on one side, and secular liberal political parties and youth groups on the other.

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