Washington  - The number of US households in some stage of foreclosure rose nearly 30 per cent in February from a year earlier despite government efforts aimed at keeping people in their homes, according to data released Thursday.

Foreclosures rose 6 per cent from January with 290,631 properties - one in every 440 homes - having received notice from their banks or being in some stage of the foreclosure process in February, industry tracker RealtyTrac said in a monthly report.

Prague  - Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker Thursday called on the European Union to back bloc's members that face a threat of being put on an international black list of tax havens.

"I can't imagine for a single second that the European Union would agree to placing Belgium, Austria and Luxembourg on a list of countries against which it is necessary to adopt sanctions," he said through an interpreter during his Prague visit.

Tallinn  - Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said Thursday that the Baltic state could adopt the euro as its national currency by the middle of next year.

"It is possible that Estonia will request an extraordinary assessment from the European Commission and European Central Bank (ECB) this year," Ansip told a news conference in the Estonian capital, Tallinn.

"The purpose of requesting the assessment is so we could join the eurozone from July 1, 2010," he said.

Jakarta - More than 230,000 Indonesians lost their jobs between October and March as the world's fourth-most-populous nation was battered by the global economic downturn, media reports said Thursday.

Most of the lay-offs were recorded in the textile, garment, automotive, shoe-making, and paper industries, according to Sofyan Wanandi, chairman of the Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo).

Thousands of job losses were also recorded at palm oil plantations and in construction projects.

Wellington - New Zealand's central bank slashed its benchmark interest rate Thursday by half a per cent to 3 per cent, its sixth cut since July.

The so-called official cash rate (OCR) was already at its lowest mark since it was introduced in 1999 and Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard signalled that he would cut it again.

New York  - Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates regained the top spot on Forbes' annual list of the world's richest people released on Wednesday as investment guru Warren Buffett and Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim each lost 25 billion dollars.

Gates lost just 18 billion in the financial apocalypse that hit world markets last year and is now worth 40 billion dollars compared to Buffet's 37 billion dollars and Slim's 35 billion dollars.