North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may not be able to achieve his economic development goals given the divergent ideas over denuclearization exhibited by Washington and Pyongyang after the Hanoi summit, said experts. After the Hanoi summit broke down last month over discussions of Washington’s demand on denuclearization and Pyongyang’s demand on sanctions relief, Kim made a first public statement emphasizing economic development, a goal he set for this year during his New Year’s Day speech. If the sanctions are not lifted, North Korea and its citizens will likely to face tougher economic conditions this year. North Korea’s main state media outlet, Korea Central News Agency (KCNA), reported on Saturday that Kim stressed last week “the need to concentrate all efforts of information and motivation on accelerating socialist economic construction.” KCNA added that Kim emphasized the [North] Korean people should “further display their might in the spirit of self-reliance.” Ahead of the report, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton told Fox Business Network last week the U.S. is looking to increase sanctions if Pyongyang is not willing to denuclearize. “They’re not going to get relief from the crushing economic sanctions that have been imposed on them,” Bolton said. “We’ll look at ramping those sanctions up in fact.” A State Department official said on Thursday that the U.S. is not looking to provide exemptions to South Korea to resume joint economic projects with North Korea, which Seoul has been pushing for since the first inter-Korean summit in April. Missile sites Based …
UN: Methamphetamine Output Booming in Southeast Asia
Production of methamphetamine is skyrocketing in Southeast Asia, with prices dropping and usage expanding, the U.N.’s anti-drug agency said Monday. Even as seizures of the drug known as speed, ice and “ya ba” in its various forms reached a record high last year, street prices have dropped, indicating increased availability, said a report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The agency said methamphetamine has become the main drug of concern in 12 out of 13 East and Southeast Asian countries, up from five a decade ago. The only exception was Vietnam, where heroin is considered the major problem. In Thailand alone, 515 million methamphetamine tablets were seized in 2018, 17 times the total amount of the drug seized a decade ago in all 13 countries combined, the U.N. agency said. Much of the supply comes from neighboring Myanmar. “Data on seizures, prices, use and treatment all point to continuing expansion of the methamphetamine market in East and Southeast Asia,” said Tun Nay Soe, the agency’s inter-regional program coordinator. The report warns that organized crime groups in the region have stepped up their involvement in making and trafficking methamphetamine and other drugs in the Golden Triangle, the region where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet that has historically been a major source of opium and heroin. It said the drug market in East and South-East Asia had shifted from such opiates to methamphetamine since the latter part of the 2000s. …
UN Probing North Korea Sanctions Violations in 20 Countries
U.N. experts say they are investigating possible violations of United Nations sanctions on North Korea in about 20 countries, from alleged clandestine nuclear procurement in China to arms brokering in Syria and military cooperation with Iran, Libya and Sudan. The expert panel’s 66-page report to the Security Council, obtained Monday by The Associated Press, also detailed the appearance in North Korea of a Rolls-Royce Phantom, Mercedes-Benz limousines and Lexus LX 570 all-wheel drive luxury vehicles in violation of a ban on luxury goods. And it noted a trend in North Korea’s evasion of financial sanctions “of using cyberattacks to illegally force the transfer of funds from financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges.” The report’s executive summary, which was obtained in early February, said North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs “remain intact” and its leaders are dispersing missile assembly and testing facilities to prevent “decapitation” strikes. The full report said “the Yongbyon nuclear complex remained active,” noting that satellite imagery through November showed excavation of water channels and construction of a new building near the reactors’ water discharge facilities. Satellite imagery also “indicates possible operation of the radiochemical laboratory and associated steam plant,” it said. The panel said it continues monitoring uranium concentration plants and mining sites in the country. It also has “surveyed, confirmed and reported ballistic missile activity sites and found evidence of a consistent trend” by North Korea “to disperse its assembly, storage and testing locations,” the report said. In addition to using …
Study: US Minorities Consume Less But Suffer More From Pollution
U.S. air pollution is disproportionately caused by white consumers, while African-Americans and Hispanics are burdened most by the emissions, a peer-reviewed study showed on Monday. On average, African-Americans are exposed to about 56 percent more fine particulate matter pollution than is caused by their consumption of goods and services, said the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Hispanics, on average, bear a burden of 63 percent excess exposure, it said. Whites, on the other hand, experience a “pollution advantage,” meaning they are exposed to 17 percent less pollution than is caused by their consumption. “What surprised me the most was the magnitude of the discrepancy,” said Jason Hill, a biosytems engineering professor at the University of Minnesota and co-author of the study. “It’s surprisingly large.” The study was the first to quantify what it called “pollution inequity” and to track it over time. Particulate matter pollution has a wide variety of sources including coal-fired power plants, agriculture, road dust and industry. Blacks and Hispanics bear a higher proportion of the pollution because of where most of them live, compared with where most white people live, said the study, which tapped census data. The problem occurs across the country, not just in industrial areas alongside major cities like Houston and New York, it said. The study was paid for in part by a five-year grant that included money from federal agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency and was launched when Barack Obama was president. The grant …
Governments Seek UN Scrutiny of Technologies to Cool the Climate
As climate change accelerates, the United Nations Environment Assembly will this week consider whether to start assessing, and setting rules on, technologies that could pull carbon out of the atmosphere or block some of the sun’s warmth to cool the Earth. Delegates at the week-long meeting in Nairobi will debate a proposal from Switzerland, backed by 10 other countries, to begin examining geoengineering technologies, which backers say could help fend off the worst impacts of runaway climate change. If adopted, the proposal could lead to the highest-level examination yet of the controversial technologies, which have gained prominence as efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions fall short. “We need to have an understanding on the implications of using such technologies, and how they would be governed in the future,” Siim Kiisler, Estonia’s environment minister and president of the Nairobi meeting, told journalists on Monday. “Just ignoring the issue does not help. We have to talk about it,” he said. Franz Xaver Perrez, Switzerland’s environmental ambassador and head of its delegation in Nairobi, said his nation had concerns that sun-dimming technology, in particular, could have “a tremendous negative impact.” Nonetheless, “we should not be guided by concerns, but have a better understanding of the situation first”, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, noting that “we might need multilateral control of these technologies.” Opponents say the technologies present huge potential risks to people and nature, and could undermine efforts to cut emissions, not least because many are backed by fossil-fuel interests. “These technologies …
Popular Boeing Jet Under Scrutiny After Crash
The United States told international carriers on Monday that the Boeing 737 Max 8 is airworthy as regulators scrutinize two fatal crashes of the new model of aircraft since October, but said it will mandate forthcoming “design changes” from Boeing by April. An Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off Sunday, killing all 157 aboard and raising questions about the safety of the new variant of the industry workhorse, one of which also crashed in Indonesia in October, killing 189 people. In a notice, the Federal Aviation Administration said it planned to require design changes by Boeing no later than April. Boeing is working to complete “flight control system enhancements, which provide reduced reliance on procedures associated with required pilot memory items,” the FAA said. The FAA also said Boeing “plans to update training requirements and flight crew manuals to go with the design change” to an automated protection system called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System or MCAS. The changes also include MCAS activation and angle of attack signal enhancements. The FAA said in the notice made public that external reports are drawing similarities between the crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia. “However, this investigation has just begun and to date we have not been provided data to draw any conclusions or take any actions,” according to the Continued Airworthiness Notification to the International Community for Boeing 737 Max 8 operators. U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao told reporters that regulators would not hesitate to act if …
Venezuela’s Blackout Halts Oil Exports from Primary Port
Venezuela’s state-run oil firm PDVSA has been unable to resume crude exports from its primary port since last week’s massive power outage, essentially crippling the OPEC nation’s principal industry, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. Power remained patchy in most of the country after a blackout on Thursday that the government of President Nicolas Maduro claimed was a U.S.-backed act of “sabotage” on the country’s principal hydroelectric dam. His critics insist it is the result of more than a decade of corruption and mismanagement. Authorities have given few explanations about why the blackout occurred and how long it might take to resolve, spurring fears it could be indefinite. PDVSA has launched a contingency plan to restore power to the Jose port, according to one source. The state of Anzoategui, where the port is located, has had only intermittent electricity since Friday, the source added. The port has its own generator, but depends on the grid for 65 percent of its power, a PDVSA source said. The generator is not currently working and efforts are underway to restart it in order to maintain a minimum level of operation. “It has been totally halted since the blackout. It has affected all of Jose’s oil installations,” another source said, adding that a restart would be costly and require power lines to be replaced. PDVSA did not immediately reply to a request for comment. No oil export tankers have left Jose since March 7, according to Refinitiv Eikon data. There were a …
Eurozone Delays Greece Debt Relief Over Reforms
Eurozone ministers on Monday held back granting Greece debt relief because the government failed to implement reforms promised during the massive bailout that ended last year, officials said. Greece exited its third and final international bailout in August, a turning point in its progress out of the catastrophe that engulfed the country during the financial crisis. The Greek government has still failed to complete housing insolvency rules that have raised fears in Greece for families threatened with foreclosure on their homes. European officials, however, played down the delay, not wanting to rekindle memories of the eurozone debt crisis that nearly destroyed Europe’s single currency. “It’s too early to decide formally on the disbursement today,” said EU Economics Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici ahead of a Eurogroup meeting of eurozone finance ministers. “The signal given to the markets is decisive, the message of today’s Eurogroup will be and must be positive,” he added. The debt relief measures are mainly profits made by the European Central Bank (ECB) and other EU central banks on Greek government bonds during the bailout period. Greece could receive just short of one billion euros from its eurozone partners in the debt relief scheme. The delay comes days after Greece issued a 10-year bond, the country’s first since its 2010 debt crisis. The bond was hailed as a major milestone marking Greece’s return to normalcy after almost a decade of being avoided by the markets. The country hopes to raise a total of around nine billion euros in …
Гривня зміцнилася ще на 8 копійок стосовно долара – НБУ
Гривня зміцнилася ще на вісім копійок стосовно долара, повідомив Національний банк України. На 12 березня офіційний курс встановлений на рівні 26 гривень 31 копійки за долар. Євро здешевшав на 18 копійок – до 25 гривень 58 копійок. Національний банк України 7 березня відзначив, що «курс гривні під впливом ринкових факторів зміцнюється упродовж останніх тижнів». Серед причин зміцнення валюти регулятор назвав експортну виручку, збут валюти бізнесом та населенням і слабке зростання імпорту товарів. Зараз гривня щодо долара перебуває на рівні липня 2018 року. Свого пікового значення 28 гривень 49 копійок впродовж останнього року долар сягнув 5 вересня 2018 року. …
Deadly Plague Breaks Out on Uganda-Congo Border, WHO Says
A deadly form of plague has broken out on Uganda’s border with Democratic Republic of Congo and several people are thought to have died of the disease, the World Health Organization said on Monday. The agency praised Ugandan health workers for vigilance and prompt action in spotting a suspected outbreak of pneumonic plague, which the WHO says is usually fatal unless detected early and treated with antibiotics. Uganda’s Health Ministry reported two probable cases of the illness in Zombo district on March 5 after a 35-year-old woman died and her 23-year-old cousin reported similar symptoms, the WHO said in a report. Further investigation revealed the dead woman had lived in Atungulei village in Congo’s Ituri province, and her 4-year-old child had died days beforehand. Finding her sick at her child’s burial, her relatives took her to Uganda for treatment. The cousin’s symptoms raised suspicions of plague and a preliminary rapid diagnostic test was positive for the disease. Results on additional specimens sent to Uganda’s Plague Laboratory in Arua were pending. The patient was steadily improving, the WHO report said. Some 55 people, including 11 health workers and people who took part in the dead woman’s funeral, had been identified as high risk contacts and were being followed up. Three other people reportedly died of similar symptoms in Congo, the WHO said, and Congolese authorities were investigating. Plague is endemic in Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and Peru, according to the WHO. Congolese health authorities are already fighting a major outbreak …
Study: Farmers Need Lower Emissions to Mitigate Rainfall Changes
A radical decrease in greenhouse gas emissions is needed if farmers are to have time to prepare for major changes in rainfall that could decimate crops, researchers said in a report released on Monday. Already wet areas will see more rain and dry areas will get drier at a pace determined by emissions levels, researchers said in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” These changes will happen regardless of action taken on climate change, but by curbing emissions, countries can buy time to adapt to new rainfall levels. For this study, researchers looked at wheat, soybeans, rice and maize, crops that make up about 40 percent of the global caloric intake, under different emission scenarios. “I think it’s worrying,” lead author Maisa Rojas, professor of climatology at the University of Chile told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Even in the low-emission scenarios you see the time of emergence now or very soon.” “Time of emergence” is the year a region’s normal fluctuations in rainfall shift dramatically. Most of the crops consumed around the world are produced by rain fed-agriculture, according to the International Water Management Institute, a nonprofit science research organization. About 60 percent of farmed land in South Asia and 95 percent in sub-Saharan Africa is rain dependent. If the world meets the goals set out in the 2016 Paris Agreement to keep the global temperature rise to under 2 degrees Celsius, these regions will have 20 to 30 years to prepare and adapt farming practices. If …
НБУ посилив гривню до долара на 9 копійок
Національний банк України встановив на 11 березня курс 26 гривень 39 копійок за долар. Це на дев’ять копійок менше, ніж встановлений на 7 березня курс. Національний банк України 7 березня відзначив, що «курс гривні під впливом ринкових факторів зміцнюється упродовж останніх тижнів», і назвав причини такої тенденції. Читайте також: НБУ назвав 4 причини зміцнення гривні Зараз гривня щодо долара перебуває на рівні липня 2018 року. Свого пікового значення 28 гривень 39 копійок впродовж останнього року долар сягнув 30 листопада 2018 року. …
White House: Trump Wants $8.6 Billion for Border Wall in 2020 Budget
President Donald Trump plans to seek another $8.6 billion for a border wall in his new budget to be released Monday, White House officials say. This new request would be on top of the nearly $7 billion Trump has ordered to be used to build a wall under his state of emergency declaration. The budget also calls for a big boost for the Pentagon and a 5 percent cut in nonmilitary programs. Trump’s third budget proposal during his presidency, for the year starting in October, is expected to draw wide opposition from Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans, setting off months of debate just weeks after a record 35-day government shutdown over government spending in the current year was ended. “It will be a tough budget,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox Television Sunday. “We’re going to do our own (spending) caps this year and I think it’s long overdue. … Some of these recent budget deals have not been favorable towards spending. So, I think it’s exactly the right prescription.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement Sunday they hoped the president had “learned his lesson” from the shutdown, caused partly by Congress’ refusal in December to pay $5 billion toward Trump’s border wall. Trump “hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall,” the joint statement said. “Congress refused to fund his wall …
Ocean Mission Looking for Fossils and Clues to Oceans Health
The Seychelles Islands are located in the Indian ocean hundreds of miles off the coasts of Somalia and Kenya. It’s a great place to do scientific research because the isolated set of islands is relatively pristine. That’s why researchers are studying corals in the region, monitoring plastics, and looking for an ancient fish that might live in the deep waters off these islands. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
Organization in Iraq’s Kurdish Region Helps College Graduates Start Businesses
One of the biggest concerns for university graduates in Iraq is finding a job. Young graduates often seek the government’s help to find employment, but in the city of Sulaymaniyah in Iraq’s Kurdish region there’s another alternative. An organization called 5-1 Labs helps train and fund young graduates who want to start a small business. VOA’s Rebaz Majeed attended the organization’s first seminar and filed this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. …
White House: Trump Wants 5% Cut in 2020 Domestic Spending
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow says that President Donald Trump will call for a 5 percent “across the board” cut in domestic government spending in 2020 when he proposes his new budget on Monday. “It will be a tough budget,” Kudlow told the Fox News Sunday show. “We’re going to do our own caps this year and I think it’s long overdue.” Kudlow said that “some of these recent budget deals have not been favorable towards spending. So, I think it’s exactly the right prescription.” Trump’s third budget proposal during his presidency, for the year starting in October, is expected to draw wide opposition from Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans, setting off months of debate just weeks after a record 35-day government shutdown over government spending in the current year was ended. The recent dispute centered on Trump’s demand for more than $5 billion for construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to thwart illegal immigration. When Congress rejected Trump’s request, he declared a national emergency to bypass congressional authorization to tap money allocated for other projects to build the wall. Congress is now considering whether to revoke the emergency declaration and 16 states have sued to overturn it. U.S. news outlets reported Trump will seek at least another $8.6 billion in new wall funding in the 2020 budget. The reports said the budget cuts will not affect popular programs providing health care funding and pensions for older Americans, but will pare other funding for domestic programs while …
Persons with Albinism Hit Wall When Seeking Justice
The Independent Expert on the Enjoyment of Human Rights by Persons with Albinism reports people with this condition have great difficulty getting justice or recompense for physical attacks and other harmful practices against them and their families. The expert’s latest report has been under debate at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Last year has been a particularly difficult one for persons with albinism in southern Africa. UN expert, Ikponwosa Ero says she has received numerous reports of abhorrent attacks against them. From past experience, she says it is likely the number of reported cases does not reflect the true magnitude of the problem. Over the past decade, she says there have been more than 700 cases of attacks in 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. She notes these are reported cases. Most, she says, are never brought to light. Worldwide, Ero says persons with Albinism suffer from discrimination, stigma and social exclusion. She says they are subject to physical attacks and harmful practices related to certain beliefs in magic and witchcraft. However, when they seek redress, she says persons with albinism too frequently are denied access to justice. “Overall, in terms of these criminal cases, inordinate delays are common in prosecuting cases of serious charges such as murder and mutilation. Cases with relatively lesser charges such as threats and possession of exhumed body parts from gravesites are — depending on the country in question — either prosecuted relatively quickly or are not taken seriously at all.” Ero says there …
Parliament Facing Brexit Decisions, More Drama, Deadline
After months of Brexit deadlock, this is it: decision time. At least for now. With Britain scheduled to leave the European Union in less than three weeks, U.K. lawmakers are poised to choose the country’s immediate direction from among three starkly different choices: deal, no deal or delay. A look at what might happen: Deal deja vu The House of Commons has a second vote scheduled Tuesday on a deal laying out the terms of Britain’s orderly departure from the EU. Prime Minister Theresa May and EU officials agreed to the agreement in December, but U.K. lawmakers voted 432-202 in January to reject it. To get it approved by March 29, the day set for Brexit, May needs to persuade 116 of them to change their minds — a tough task. Opposition to the deal in Parliament centers on a section that is designed to ensure there are no customs checks or border posts between EU member Ireland and the U.K.’s Northern Ireland. Pro-Brexit lawmakers dislike that the border “backstop” keeps the U.K. entwined with EU trade rules. May has been seeking changes to reassure them the situation would be temporary, but the EU refuses to reopen the withdrawal agreement. Around 100 hard-core Brexit supporters in May’s Conservative Party look set to oppose the deal unless the backstop is altered. To offset them, May has courted the opposition Labour Party with promises of money for urban regeneration. Oliver Patel, a research associate at the European …
Eavesdropping on Rare Birds
In a technology that’s been heralded as a breakthrough in conservation, remote recording devices are ‘eavesdropping’ on one of the rarest birds in New Zealand to monitor how they are adjusting after being released into a protected reserve. Faith Lapidus reports. …
Attackers in Congo Hit Newly Reopened Ebola Treatment Center
Armed assailants on Saturday attacked an Ebola treatment center in the Democratic Republic of the Congo less than a week after it reopened following a previous attack. The attack in Butembo came in the early-morning hours and left one police officer dead and several workers injured. Butembo Mayor Sylvain Kanyamanda told reporters that security forces had defended the center and wounded one of the attackers. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visited the center several hours later and encouraged health care workers to continue fighting the deadly Ebola virus. “It breaks my heart to think of the health workers injured and police officer who died in today’s attack, as we continue to mourn those who died in previous attacks while defending the right to health,” Ghebreyesus told reporters. “We have no choice except to continue serving the people here, who are among the most vulnerable in the world.” After the previous attack on the Butembo center, Doctors Without Borders suspended its operations in the city. Precautions stir doubts Anti-Ebola efforts already have faced adversity from residents suspicious of the extensive precautions taken by the health care workers to stop the spread of the highly contagious disease. Because Ebola virus can be transmitted through a victim’s bodily fluids even after death, even burial of the victims requires stringent safety protocols. Thursday, Doctors Without Borders President Joanne Liu said the containment efforts used to control the latest outbreak of Ebola, which started in August last year, faced a “climate of deepening community mistrust” that …
Summit Calls for Radical Change to Protect the Oceans
The Sixth Annual World Ocean Summit was this week in Abu Dhabi. The event brought together a diverse group of political leaders, activists and academics trying to keep our oceans solvent in the face of climate change. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
Powell: Fed Sticks With ‘Wait-and-See’ Approach on Rate Hikes
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Friday that the healthy U.S. economy and low inflation are allowing the central bank to take a “patient, wait-and-see approach” on interest rates. Speaking at Stanford University, Powell said the Fed is well along in its effort to normalize Fed operations by scaling back the extraordinary efforts it employed to support the economy’s recovery from the Great Recession. The Fed is trimming its sizable holdings of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities. Officials are discussing a plan for wrapping up the efforts to reduce the central bank’s balance sheet later this year, Powell said, adding that the plan’s details should be announced soon. The Fed’s moves to reduce its balance sheet, which hit a peak of $4.5 trillion, are being watched closely by investors. Slimming its balance sheet The Fed started in October 2017 reducing the balance sheet by allowing some bonds to run off as they matured. The balance sheet is now around $4 trillion but some investors have worried that the Fed could end up driving long-term interest rates higher and harming the economy by going too far in reducing its holdings. Some analysts have projected the Fed’s balance sheet will end up being around $3.5 trillion, which would be significantly higher than the less than $1 trillion it held before the financial crisis hit in 2008. Powell said the size of the holdings will “prove ample” to meet the Fed’s needs of supplying reserves to the banking system and he said “we …
HPV Strikes Men as Well as Women
The HPV virus is so common that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says nearly all sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives, unless they are protected by vaccination. The HPV virus can lead to cancer in both men and women. That’s why those who have gotten cancer caused by HPV are trying to get the word out to parents to get their children vaccinated. “Anytime you can fish is a good time,” Ward said. Fishing is Scott Ward’s way of relaxing. He didn’t have any risk factors that he knew of for cancer so he ignored the lump on his neck until he couldn’t ignore it anymore. Dr. Donald Doll, an oncologist at the University of Missouri Cancer Center, treated Ward for his cancer. “We’re seeing more and more younger and healthier patients,” Doll said. “They’re not smokers or drinkers. It’s HPV-related.” Smoking and drinking can cause oral cancers. But Ward’s cancer was caused by HPV, the human papilloma virus. “Normally, you think HPV, you think of women — cervical cancer,” Doll said. WATCH: Men Can Get HPV, Cancers It Causes, Too HPV does cause cervical cancer, but Doll says it’s a misconception that only women have to be concerned with cancers caused by this virus. “The big ones are cervical cancer and the oropharyngeal cancer,” Doll said. Oropharyngeal (auro-fah-RINGE-ee-ul) cancers affect the head and neck, including tonsils. Ward’s cancer started in a tonsil. HPV can also lead to anal cancer in both …
US Adds Just 20K Jobs; Unemployment Dips
Hiring tumbled in February, with U.S. employers adding just 20,000 jobs, the smallest monthly gain in nearly a year and a half. The slowdown in hiring, though, might have been depressed by harsh winter weather and the partial shutdown of the government. Last month’s weak gain came after employers had added a blockbuster 311,000 jobs in January, the most in nearly a year. Over the past three months, job growth has averaged a solid 186,000, enough to lower the unemployment rate over time. And despite the tepid pace of hiring in February, the government’s monthly jobs report Friday included some positive signs: Average hourly pay last month rose 3.4 percent from a year earlier _ the sharpest year-over-year increase in a decade. The unemployment rate also fell to 3.8 percent, near the lowest level in five decades, from 4 percent in January. Unseasonably cold weather, which affects such industries as construction and restaurants, afflicted some areas of the country in February. And the 35-day government shutdown that ended in late January likely affected the calculation of job growth. Still, the hiring pullback comes amid signs that growth is slowing because of a weaker global economy, a trade war between the United States and China and signs of caution among consumers. Those factors have led many economists to forecast weaker growth in the first three months of this year. Sluggish hiring and job cuts in February were widespread across industries. Construction cut 31,000 jobs, the most in …