The U.S. "should also grant prompt access by the International Committee of the Red Cross to any person detained in connection with an armed conflict," it said.

The committee also urged the U.S. to conduct prompt investigations into all allegations of suspicious deaths and torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by its agents in detention facilities in Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Iraq and other overseas locations.

The committee, which supervises implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, reviewed periodic reports of the U.S. on how it is implementing provisions of the covenant on July 17-18.

It issued conclusions on Friday on the U.S. review.

The committee called on the US to give the International Red Cross prompt access to those held in such jails.

The UN report also covered the domestic human rights situation in the US.

It urged the government to ensure the rights of poor people and blacks are respected in relief efforts.

Both groups were "disadvantaged" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the UN committee noted.

Treaty's scope

The UN panel said the US should increase its efforts "to ensure the rights of poor people and in particular African-Americans are fully taken into consideration in the reconstruction plans with regard to access to housing, education and health care".

There should also be a moratorium on the death penalty, which appears to be imposed disproportionately on minority groups and poor people, the report concluded.

The committee's findings came after it held a two-day hearing in Geneva last week into US compliance with the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The US government was expected to respond to the findings later on Friday, the Associated Press news agency reported.

However, in its hearing before the panel, the American delegation said that issues relating to terrorism were largely beyond the treaty's scope.

But the committee on Friday said the US should review that approach and interpret the treaty in good faith.

Closure calls

The committee said it was concerned by "credible and uncontested" information that the US had detained people "secretly and in secret places for months and years".

The US "should only detain persons in places in which they can enjoy the full protection of the law," the report said.

The US authorities should also allow members of the International Committee of the Red Cross to those it is holding in such facilities.

The committee's call comes two months after a separate UN body, the UN Committee against Torture, urged Washington to close its detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Earlier this month, the Bush administration announced that all detainees held by the US military, including those at Guantanamo, were to be treated in line with the minimum standards of the Geneva Conventions.

The shift in policy came after the US Supreme Court ruled that the conventions applied to detainees.

The Seattle area is no stranger to horrific crimes - serial killers Gary Ridgway and Ted Bundy, for example, and the unsolved assassination of federal prosecutor Tom Wales in 2001.

But Seattle's murder rate is low for a city of nearly 600,000. There were 24 killings in 2004 and 25 last year. Boston, of comparable size, had 61 in 2004 and 73 last year.

Seattle police spokesman Rich Pruitt noted that none of the three mass killings this month took place within city limits, though all were near. Still, Seattle itself has had 17 killings already this year - more than a third of them from one attack in March, when a man shot and killed six people at a rave after-party in the worst mass killing the city had seen in decades.

The string of recent crimes in the surrounding area began July 11, when hikers found Seattle librarian Mary Cooper, 56, and her daughter, Susanna Stodden, 27, shot to death about three miles up a popular Mount Pilchuck trail 50 miles northeast of the city. No arrests have been made, and detectives have revealed little about their investigation.

Then, on July 17, fire investigators in the eastern suburb of Kirkland found the family of National Guard Sgt. Leonid Milkin dead in a burned-out home. Investigators determined gasoline had been used to start the fire.

Witness accounts led them to a next-door neighbor, who was charged Monday with four counts of aggravated first-degree murder. Charging papers said the neighbor, Conner Michael Schierman, 24, admitted that he woke up in the victims' home covered in blood following an alcoholic blackout and didn't remember what had happened.

Last Thursday, just south of the city limits, five young people were asked to leave a bowling alley and casino because two were underage. As they left, they argued with people who had been smoking outside a nearby home, police said. They pulled their car into the driveway to continue the argument, and two men at the home - Dimitri Sidorchuk, 23, and William Shane Belk - fired dozens of shots into the vehicle, court documents said. Of the five unarmed people in the car, two were killed and three injured.

One of Sidorchuk's stray bullets struck Belk, who also died. Sheriff's deputies said they later found a marijuana-growing operation at the home. Sidorchuk was charged Tuesday with two counts of second-degree murder, one of first-degree manslaughter and three counts of first-degree assault.

"These crimes are just gruesome," said Doug Canfield of Mountaineers Books in Seattle, who helped arrange a $6,000 reward for information in the trail killings. "We're just hoping this crime will be solved so people can head out to the trails again with a feeling of safety."

This year alone, the Marshals Service has had 822 reports of inappropriate communications and threats, a pace that would top 1,000 for the year.

A threat typically includes a direct reference to harm, a weapon, or a violent act. Inappropriate communications range from rambling letters to accusations of bias to envelopes that contain feces.

Marshals say a portion of the increase can be attributed to a heightened focus by judges and their staffs since the February 2005 incident in which unemployed electrician Bart Ross broke into the home of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow and shot to death her husband and mother.

One judge targeted by an inmate who had appeared before her received, but had not opened, a dozen letters from the inmate over more than six months, said Michael Prout, chief inspector of the Marshal Service's protective security division until last August.

Spurred by the Lefkow killings, the judge sent the unopened letters to the Marshals last year.

"The inmate had fixated on this judge and claimed her as his bride and described bizarre sex acts he was going to perform on her when he came to take her away," said Prout, now the chief deputy marshal in Chicago. "He was going to take her away very shortly because he was getting out of jail."

The inmate's release date was three to four months away when the letters came to the attention of marshals, Prout said. He would not identify the judge or the city in which she serves.

But Marshals say there was a steady upward trend of angry, inappropriate comments long before the shootings.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg revealed in February that she and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor were threatened a year ago by someone who called on the Internet for the immediate "patriotic" killing of the justices.

The rise in civil lawsuits, especially those filed by people who do not have lawyers, and a change in criminal cases in federal courts helps explain the rise, Marshals say.

Donald Donovan, chief deputy marshal in Baltimore, said people who file and lose multiple lawsuits account for the largest percentage of threats. "They don't agree with the outcome of cases. They are repeat filers. Many of them are a bit unstable," Donovan said.

Dealing with inappropriate comments sometimes means "assisting someone with getting back on their medication," said Donald Horton, chief inspector in the protective security division.

Federal courts now handle many more violent crime prosecutions, the sorts of cases that were the province of state and local courts as recently as 10 years ago.

"There is rarely a trial now that does not have defendants eligible for the death penalty," Donovan said.

Marshals say that even before the Chicago killings, they responded to every inappropriate communication, reasoning that they would be able to resolve a situation more quickly the earlier they interceded.

But in the aftermath of the Lefkow deaths, judges criticized the Marshals under former director Benigno Reyna as insufficiently responsive to their security. A Justice Department Inspector General's report in 2004 also pointed out shortcomings in Marshals' assessments of threats. Reyna resigned last year.

John Clark, a career marshal named by President Bush to head the Marshals Service, has expanded the number of marshals trained to investigate threats and expects to open a 24-hour assessment and analysis center later this year.

In Chicago, Prout said he is in regular contact with state and local counterparts to identify people who may be moving between courts at all levels, their frustration with the legal system rising.

The most notable change that grew out of last year's killings was the decision by Congress to set aside $12 million to install security systems in judges' homes.

About 1,700 judges have asked for the home alarms. Fewer than a third of those, about 500, have received them, Horton said.

U.S. employers are planning to increase base salaries by 3.7 percent this year, just a bit higher than the average 3.6 percent rise they granted in 2005, according to a survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

If the projections play out, workers' wages could fall behind creeping inflation. The Labor Department's overall
Consumer Price Index picked up in the second quarter, pushed higher by record energy prices, and is on pace for a 4.7 percent rise for 2006, a little more than a percentage point higher than 2005's 3.4 percent.

For 2007, pay raises are expected to stay at 3.7 percent.

Of the 950 employers surveyed by Mercer, representing nearly 12 million workers, about 85 percent said they plan to offer short-term incentives in 2006. A quarter said they increased the number of employees eligible for cash awards, and a quarter said they're giving bigger awards. Only about 5 percent decreased the number of employees eligible and the amount of cash given.

"Once I give you a salary increase, it sticks. But with incentives, you have to re-earn it every year. Companies are very reticent about fixed costs these days," said Steven Gross, a senior consultant at Mercer and employee compensation specialist.

Mercer's data fell mostly in line with the projections released last month by the Conference Board. The nonprofit research group said pay raises would rise by 3.5 percent this year and next, while inflation would grow by 3.1 percentage points this year and 3.3 percentage points in 2007.

Charles Peck, compensation specialist at the Conference Board, said in an interview Thursday inflation last outpaced salary increases in the early 1980s, which saw double-digit inflation.

The modest pay increases have been the trend for the past several years - hovering between 3.3 and 3.8 percent since 2002, according to Mercer's data. Mercer's survey was conducted between April 1 and May 1.

Companies are wary about raising pay because of rising costs, Gross said. Several companies' recent quarterly earnings reports have cited high costs, especially for energy, as hurting performance.

"Companies are still struggling with the ability to raise prices. To raise salaries, they have to be more productive or pass the cost onto the consumer," Gross said.

Companies have met price pressures almost exclusively by squeezing base salaries, said Jared Bernstein, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a labor union-funded think tank.

"Employers know that a bonus is for now, whereas a base pay change is forever," Bernstein said.

Another increasingly popular way employers deal with labor costs is by differentiating pay increases, Gross said. They gave high performers on average a 5 percent pay increase, twice the average raise for low performers.

Rising benefit costs have also crimped employers' ability to commit to big pay raises.

"Benefits are a very important ingredient. Healthcare, also retirement benefits - they're very expensive. Companies are limiting salary increases to offset some of the increases in these benefits," Peck said

Health benefit costs rose 6.1 percent in 2005 to more than $7,000 per employee, Mercer said in a survey released in November, and they are projected to rise 6.7 percent this year.

Salary increases in the coming years will rely mostly on the economy's performance - whether hiring will heat up, which will lead employers to raise base pay to stay competitive, and whether growth can keep up with inflation, Gross said.

The industries planning the biggest pay raises are energy companies, which will be granting 4.8 percent raises on average, and the legal, consulting and accounting sectors, which are planning a 4.5 percent average raise, Mercer's survey said.

Analysts also zeroed in on the inventory of unsold new homes which leapt to a record high last month.

The government said the inventory of unsold new homes on the market rose 0.7 percent in June to a record 566,000, representing a 6.1-month supply of brand new homes at the June sales pace.

Most of the unsold new homes are located in the south of the country, the report showed.

Apart from a slight one month drop in the inventory in May, the stock of unsold new homes on the market has risen steady over the last 12 months.

"Many individuals, who signed a (purchase) contract in what they had believed was a booming housing market, may now be backing out of those contracts," said Phillip Neuhart, an analyst at Wachovia Securities.

"Thus, the new home market is likely weaker than new home sales reflects. We expect both existing and new home sales to continue their slide throughout this year and the next," Neuhart said.

Some analysts are calling for a bursting of what they see as a property bubble and the report could exert fresh pressure on the Federal Reserve to pause its cycle of rate hikes.

The home sales market has been one of the key pillars propping up the world's largest economy, and while inflation is rising, the Fed will not want to jack up interest rates too much and risk a property market crash.



New homes sales across the United States have now fallen 11.1 percent compared to June 2005, and as the federal funds interest rate has risen to 5.25 percent.

"This was a weak report," observed Patrick Newport, an economist at Global Insight.

"Our view remains that sales will continue to slow over the course of this year and into next, because higher interest rates and rising home prices have reduced demand by raising the price of housing," he said.

Aside from rising interest rates, American homeowners have also been buffetted by rising energy prices as the economy shows signs of cooling.

The government also issued a sharp downward revision for its May figures, to show new home sales of 1.166 million rather than 1.234 million initially estimated.

The median price of a new US home meanwhile dropped 1.6 percent in June to 231,300 dollars from the prior month.

On Wednesday, a separate report from the National Association of Realtors showed existing home sales fell 1.3 percent.

On Wall Street, though, stocks rallied on the hope that slowing growth would convince the Federal Reserve to take a break from raising interest rates. The Dow Jones industrials were up 84 points and the Nasdaq gained 25 points in morning trading.

The second-quarter's performance - which reflected the bite of high energy prices and rising interest rates on people and businesses as well as a cooling in the once red-hot housing market - was weaker than the 3 percent pace analysts were forecasting.

The 2.5 percent pace was the slowest since a 1.8 percent growth rate in final quarter of 2005, when the economy was suffering fallout from the devastating Gulf Coast hurricanes.

Even though the economy cooled in the second quarter, inflation heated up.

An inflation gauge closely watched by the Federal Reserve showed that core prices - excluding food and energy - jumped at a 2.9 percent annual rate in the second quarter - far outside the Fed's comfort zone. That was up from a 2.1 percent growth rate in the first quarter and marked the highest inflation reading since the third quarter of 1994, when core inflation rose at a 3.2 percent pace.

The inflation reading was taken before the latest run-up in energy prices. Oil prices hit a record closing high of $77.03 a barrel on July 14. Gasoline prices also have marched higher, topping $3 a gallon in many areas.

In a separate report from the Labor Department, employers' costs to hire and retain workers picked up in the second quarter, a development that also could raise some inflation concerns.

Compensation costs - including wages and benefits - rose by 0.9 percent in the April-to-June period, up from a 0.6 percent increase in the first quarter. Economists were calling for a 0.8 percent rise.

Although Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he is concerned about rising inflation, he told Congress last week that the Fed believes moderating economic activity will eventually lessen inflation pressures.

That assessment raised hopes on Wall Street that the Fed might take a breather in its two-year-old rate-raising campaign at its next meeting, on Aug. 8. Some economists, however, continue to predict that rates will be bumped up again at the August meeting to ward off inflation; after that, they think the Fed may move to the sidelines.

The report comes as President Bush is getting low marks from the public for his handling of the economy, according to a recent AP-Ipsos poll.

With energy prices and borrowing costs rising, consumers turned cautious in the second quarter. They boosted their spending at just a 2.5 percent pace, down from a 4.8 percent growth rate in the first quarter. Much of the weakness was in consumers' appetite for big-ticket goods, such as cars and appliances.

Businesses also tightened the belt.

Spending on home building was cut by 6.3 percent in the second quarter, the deepest dip in nearly six years - since the third quarter of 2000. Rising mortgage rates are clipping demand.

Businesses sliced spending on equipment and software at a 1 percent pace, the first cut in just over three years.

Government spending also was more subdued, growing at a pace of just 0.6 percent in the second quarter, compared with a 4.9 percent growth rate in the first quarter. The federal government cut spending in the second quarter, while state and local governments boosted spending.

As the economy has moderated, so has job creation.

For the April-to-June quarter, employers added an average of 108,000 jobs a month, the government reported earlier this month. That's down from the average of 176,000 a month for the January-to-March period.

Along with the latest
GDP report, the government issued annual revisions that showed economic growth was slightly less than previously estimated for 2003, 2004 and 2005. The main reason for the downgrade: business investment in computer equipment and software wasn't as strong as previously thought.

As a result, the economy last year grew by 3.2 percent, rather than 3.5 percent. In 2004, economic activity expanded by 3.9 percent, instead of 4.2 percent. And in 2003, the economy's growth was 2.5 percent, versus 2.7 percent.

The revisions also showed that core inflation rose by 2.1 percent for all of 2005, a tad higher than the 2 percent reading previously estimated. Core inflation for 2004 was unchanged at 2 percent but was pushed up a notch to 1.4 percent for 2003.