Putin: Boston bombing shows West's mistake

MOSCOW (AP) — The Boston bombings should spur stronger security cooperation between Moscow and Washington, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, adding that they also show that the West was wrong in supporting militants in Chechnya.

Putin said that "this tragedy should push us closer in fending off common threats, including terrorism, which is one of the biggest and most dangerous of them."

The two brothers accused of the Boston bombings are ethnic Chechens who had lived in the U.S. for more than a decade.

Putin warned against trying to find the roots for the Boston tragedy in the suffering endured by the Chechen people, particularly in mass deportations of Chechens to Siberia and Central Asia on Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's orders. "The cause isn't in their ethnicity or religion, it's in their extremist sentiments," he said.

Speaking in an annual call-in show on state television, Putin criticized the West for refusing to declare Chechen militants terrorists and for offering them political and financial assistance in the past.

"I always felt indignation when our Western partners and Western media were referring to terrorists who conducted brutal and bloody crimes on the territory of Russia as rebels," Putin said.

The U.S. has urged the Kremlin to seek a political settlement in Chechnya and criticized rights abuses by Russian troops during the two separatist wars since 1994, which spawned an Islamic insurgency that has engulfed the entire region.

It also provided humanitarian aid to the region during the high points of fighting there in the 1990s and the early 2000s.

Russian officials have repeatedly claimed that rebels in Chechnya have close links with al-Qaida. They say dozens of fighters from Arab countries trickled into the region during the fighting there, while some Chechen militants have gone to fight in Afghanistan.

Putin said the West should have cooperated more actively with Russia in combatting terror.

"We always have said that we shouldn't limit ourselves to declarations about terrorism being a common threat and engage in closer cooperation," he said. "Now these two criminals have proven the correctness of our thesis."

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Survey shows UK financial sector employment rebounds

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's financial services sector took on new staff in the first quarter with more gains expected, a business survey said, signalling that a prolonged period of job losses may be ending.

The survey from the CBI employer's lobby and consultancy PwC said sentiment in banking improved for a second straight quarter and employment grew by 2,000 in the three months to March.

The same number of new jobs is expected in this quarter.

"The banks' return to confidence continues, although the improvement is less marked than in the previous quarter," said Steve Davies, a partner at PwC.

"Business is expected to improve across retail, commercial and financial segments and headcount has begun to grow again," Davies added.

Banks had been laying off thousands of staff as they try to boost profitability hit by tougher bank capital requirements, fines for misconduct and lower trading volumes.

Despite signs that headcount is edging higher, banks are hesitating over investment because of uncertainty over returns, the survey said.

"Regulation and compliance are still likely to be significant drags on business throughout this year," said Matthew Fell, CBI director for competitive markets.

(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

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Obama Honors Kings, Galaxy; Shows Off Soccer Skills

President Obama today honored the Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings and the Major League Soccer champion LA Galaxy at the White House, saying the teams share more than their hometown, "they also share a pretty good comeback story."

Back at the White House for a second year in a row, Obama joked that the Galaxy was "starting to get a little comfortable around here because they just keep on coming back."

But when the Galaxy visited the White House last year, their chances of repeating as champions didn't look very good, Obama explained. "The injury bug plagued the team. It seemed like it might be a rebuilding year. But right after that visit, they turned things around," he said.

"And you can call it a coincidence, but I just want to point out that right after they visited with me the Galaxy built the best record in the league," he added, to laughter from the packed crowd in the East Room.

The Kings' story, Obama noted, was markedly different. Before last year, L.A. had never won the Stanley Cup. "But something happened during the playoffs - timing is everything," Obama said. "These guys just kept winning game after game after game. And eventually, the rest of the league started to take notice."

After lauding both teams, the president posed for pictures. Galaxy star attacker and former captain Landon Donovan presented the president with a team ball, which Obama promptly bounced off his head.

"I hope you guys caught that," Obama said to the press. "That doesn't happen very often."

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