Source: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/politics
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Source: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/politics
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Source: http://www.hailstate.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=16800&ATCLID=208929460
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By Gina Potthoff, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @ginapotthoff | Published on 08.02.2013 7:07 p.m.
[Click here for a Noozhawk photo gallery from the parade.]
Thousands crowded State Street and the Santa Barbara Harbor area Friday afternoon to take in the Historical Parade, a longstanding cornerstone of the Old Spanish Days Fiesta.
Some planned their lunch breaks around catching the 89th annual event?s noontime processional of horses, floats, colorful outfits and lively music honoring Santa Barbara?s historical traditions.
The parade, also popularly called El Desfile Hist?rico, was touted by organizers as one of the largest equestrian parades in the United States.
Some parade-goers had arrived hours early to place their chairs and blankets, while others had reserved and cordoned-off seats to see the action.
Sunshine finally peaked from behind morning clouds as hundreds of colorfully dressed riders on horseback lit up the streets, leading gallant steeds along streets typically well traversed with cars, bicycles and shoppers.
One absent rider, Santa Barbara City Councilman Frank Hotchkiss, was thrown from his horse before the parade, and was transported to Cottage Hospital for treatment of his injuries.?
The parade started at the west end of Cabrillo Boulevard and marched east along the beach before turning up State Street, where El Presidente Josiah Jenkins turned on the charm for revelers from atop his horse.
At Jenkins? heels were his parents, Si and Karen, whose images inspired and adorned this year?s Fiesta poster in a similar parade-marching pose.
Riders entertain crowds gathered on curbs, restaurant patios and even in upstairs windows or on rooftops to take in Friday's Historical Parade in Santa Barbara. (Gina Potthoff / Noozhawk photo)
Spectators dressed in festive attire ? whites, greens and reds ? watched the 2013 event from curbs, restaurant patios and from the upstairs windows or rooftops of State Street businesses and retailers.
On the sidewalks, children and adults alike shouted ?Viva la Fiesta!? as they smashed confetti-filled eggs onto the heads of unsuspecting fellow revelers.
Passersby stirred up wafts of Mexican- or American-themed foods from nearby El Mercado De la Guerra, and a steady stream of mariachi music filled lulls in the parade's march.
?Look at him jump!? a man yelled to his children, who wore giddy expressions after watching the high-stomping hooves of passing horses.
Plenty of amateur photographers also turned out for the event, which included a seemingly endless sea of cowboy boots, sombreros, confetti, flower hair pains and festive garb.
The five-day Fiesta festivities continue Saturday and conclude Sunday. Click here for more information.
? Noozhawk staff writer Gina Potthoff can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
Dancers in festive attire flaunt their Fiesta spirit during Friday's Historical Parade. (Fritz Olenberger photo, courtesy of Old Spanish Days)
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Source: http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/historical_parade_promenades_down_state_street_20130802
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NEW YORK (AP) ? A New York City playwright who directed a show called the "American Suicide Bomber Association" unwitting sparked a bomb scare when he threw a prop from the production into the trash at his home.
Playwright Ethan Fishbane tells The New York Post (http://bit.ly/16Pymas ) he wasn't thinking when he discarded the fake bomb while cleaning out his Manhattan apartment Tuesday.
A building superintendent saw the prop the next morning and called police.
That brought out the bomb squad.
It didn't take long for investigators to figure out what had happened.
Fishbane says he was stunned when officers knocked on his door, but he praised the department for its quick response, saying it was "wholly appropriate."
The 23-year-old wrote the play while attending New York University's Tisch School of The Arts.
___
Information from: New York Post, http://www.nypost.com
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/discarded-nyc-theater-prop-sparks-bomb-scare-155356528.html
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Devin Coldewey NBC News
16 hours ago
Lookout
The organizations make setting up a malware-serving website like signing up for an email or online game.
Mobile security software company Lookout was hot on the trail of a set of Russian malware distributors ? and was surprised to find that the biggest groups responsible were as neatly and effectively organized as a small tech business.
Don't get paranoid just yet: Lookout explained to NBC News in an email that this type of fraud isn't nearly as common here: "It appears that they've cut back on targeting [Western] countries because they're having more success in Russia and the Eastern block. In the past we've even seen SMS fraud targeting the U.S. and western Europe," they wrote.
The way it works is this: an unscrupulous or merely curious Android user searches for free games or apps on his or her phone, and follows a resulting link to a legitimate-looking landing page. After agreeing (often without knowing it) to a terms of service, they are served up a malware application that scams money by fraudulently sending premium SMS messages ? special texts used to purchase ringtones or sign up for a service.
Thousands of Twitter accounts and fake websites are set up to lure unwitting users, but when Lookout followed the thread a bit further, they found that many led back to a few surprisingly professional-looking organizations.
Lookout
An example of a "landing page" users would be sent to (and redirected from).
From their official websites, productivity contests, and easy-to -use tools, at first glance one might guess these malware operators were legitimate software developers or advertisers. And in effect, that's exactly what these malware HQs are: small startups raking in cash thanks to the booming mobile sector. It just happens that the business they make their money through is fraud.
Affiliates sign up for the site as if they were joining a forum or freelance contractor website. A user-friendly, step-by-step process helps them create fake webpages, design and submit malware-toting apps, and makes the latest virus-scan-avoidance software available.
Meanwhile, the malware makers register dozens or hundreds of fake accounts on Twitter and other networks ? out of almost a quarter-million accounts analyzed by Lookout, over 50,000 were puppet accounts linking to malware.
Just 10 of these malware HQ organizations account for 60 percent of the SMS fraud Lookout tracked in Russia. Such scams don't usually affect the U.S. or western Europe, but it's not unheard of.
Twitter shuts down such accounts when it finds them, and malicious apps are removed from Google's Play Store whenever detected, but are these big organizations being raided or shut down now that they've been outed??
"We generally don't comment on ongoing investigations like this one," wrote Lookout. "However, in past investigations that are now closed, we have contacted authorities."
Even so, it's little comfort when the groups out there are so well-organized and well-staffed. Your best bet is to stick to well-known websites and only download apps from stores you trust. The problem may not be going away just yet, but consumers can avoid it ? with a little discretion.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
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Now here?s a great conservation success story: After more than 100 years, Gal?pagos giant tortoise hatchlings finally have a chance to thrive and survive on their native Pinz?n Island, after conservationists cleared it of the invasive rats that nearly wiped out the animals.
Like most Gal?pagos giant tortoises?including the conservation icon Lonesome George, who died last year?the tortuga subspecies that once lived on Pinz?n Island was nearly wiped out by the arrival of pirates, fishermen and invasive species in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In this case, the greatest threat to the Pinz?n Island tortoise subspecies (Chelonoidis nigra duncanensis) came in the form of voracious black rats (Rattus rattus) and Norway rats (R.? norvegicus), which ate both the tortoises? eggs and their defenseless hatchlings. Older tortoises can defend themselves against rats but so many young animals were killed by rodents that the subspecies could not replenish its population as older animals died off. By the beginning of the twentieth century, it appeared that no young tortoises on the island were surviving until adulthood.
Conservationists took the first step toward saving the Pinz?n Island tortoises in 1965 by collecting as many of the animals as they could and placing them into captive breeding programs. Tortoises were then hatched and reared on other islands and brought back to Pinz?n Island once they were old enough, but the impossibility of successful breeding on their home island led to the subspecies being classified as extinct in the wild.
The next step began a few years ago when Gal?pagos National Park and its partners launched a program to eradicate the rats and other invasive species throughout the archipelago, starting on smaller islands such as Pinz?n, which as of last year was home to an astonishing 180 million rats. Last December more than 20,000 kilograms of poison were dropped on the 18-square-kilometer island. ?The poisons, which dissolve after a few days, were specially designed to attract rats but repel birds and other wildlife that might accidentally consume them. The rodents quickly took the bait and Pinz?n has now been tentatively declared rat-free.
The return to Pinz?n Island
Late last month Gal?pagos National Park took the third step and returned 118 juvenile tortoises to Pinz?n from a breeding center on Santa Cruz Island. It took 11 park rangers two and a half hours to carry the young tortoises over rocky terrain to place them in nests in their native volcanic soil. Last week, as conservationists looked on, the hatchlings started to emerge and explore their newly resurrected home. The young tortoises may represent the only healthy juveniles on Pinz?n since before the year 1900. They join approximately 100 century-old tortoises and another 250 that have repatriated to the island over the last few years and range in age from five to 40.
Emerging from the nest
The rat eradication project had numerous partners, including Island Conservation, the Charles Darwin Foundation, Bell Laboratories (not the lab of telephone fame), which manufactured the poisons, and The Raptor Center of the University of Minnesota, which is helping to preserve the native birds of the Gal?pagos. In a press release, Island Conservation CEO Bill Waldman called the tortoises? return to Pinz?n ?a dream come true for conservationists around the world. We owe much to our predecessors who had the foresight to preserve this unique species in captivity.? Other animals that now have a new chance at survival on Pinz?n include a recently recognized seabird species called the Gal?pagos shearwater (Puffinus subalaris), the Pinz?n lava lizard (Microlophus duncanensis), and several species of other birds and iguanas.
Some risks remain, of course. Although the poisons dropped on Pinz?n in December appear to have wiped out rats and other invasive rodents, the island will be monitored for two years to make sure none survived. Other islands where the poisons have been used so far appear to be rat-free, so the chances for Pinz?n appear good. And now, even as the young Pinz?n tortoises explore their new home, the project will move on to larger islands, including Floreana, which is 10 times the size of Pinz?n and home to more than 40 threatened species. ?That project, which is slated for 2014 and will cost several million dollars, will be much harder due to the island?s human population. But if it succeeds, it will pave the way for other rat eradication projects on islands around the world?and hopefully save other endangered species like the ones that now have a new chance on Pinz?n Island.
Photos: An adult Pinz?n giant tortoise, uncredited. A giant tortoise hatchling on Pinz?n Island, photographed by Francesca Cunninghame at Charles Darwin Foundation. Galapagos National Park personnel returning young tortoises back to their native habitat on Pinz?n Island, uncredited. All photos courtesy of Island Conservation
Previously in Extinction Countdown:
Also from Scientific American:
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/basic-science/~3/ZYZrtop53pc/post.cfm
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A new clip from the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic, JOBS, has been posted online. In the scene Jobs and Wozniak, played by Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad, are driving while debating names for their new company. Jobs rejects any names related to Star Trek, threatening to drive the car off the road, but then grasps onto the name Apple arguing that it is "the fruit of creation" and "comes before Atari in the phonebook." While obviously fictionalized, this depiction does pull information from both Wozniak's and Job's stories of how the Apple name came to be.
MagBak reaches KickStarter goal in under three days
MagBak, a magnetic patch that can be used to mount an iPad to any magnetic surface, has reached its KickStarter funding goal in less than three days. Customers who purchase the MagBak receive two silicon patches, in their choice of six colors, that are placed on the back of any iPad. These patches contain small magnets that allow the device to be securely mounted to any metal surface, and can also hold a smart cover neatly on the back of the iPad. Additionally, the textured silicone surface improve the iPad's grip, allowing it to be set on an inclined surface without sliding down.
by MacNN Staff
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This year marks National Geographic Traveler's 25th annual photo contest, which invites amateurs to submit their best snaps for review by the mag's venerable photo editors. Last night, the winners were revealed in all their high-res glory.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/here-are-national-geographic-travelers-best-photos-of-1002461925
An internal memo at Seattle City Hall is causing quite a stir. It suggests government workers no longer use the terms "citizen," or "brown bag."?
According to the Office for Civil Rights, the terms are potentially offensive and other words should be used.
"Luckily, we've got options," Elliott Bronstein of the Office for Civil Rights wrote in the memo. "For 'citizens,' how about 'residents?'" Bronstein wrote.
The Office of Civil Rights says Seattle serves all residents, whether they're United States citizens or not.
And while city leaders publicize "brown bag" lunch meetings as a way to designate a bring-your-own lunch time event, the term has a sorted [sic] history.?
"It used to be a way people could judge skin color," Bronstein said in a phone interview.
But the City of Seattle isn't alone. State lawmakers have voted to remove gender specific words in official records.
Freshman are now "first-years," journeymen are "journey-level," and penmanship is simply "handwriting."
To offend or not to offend, turns out to be a very sensitive question.
So what is a person supposed to say instead of brown bag? According to the memo, people should try "lunch-and-learn" or "sack lunch."
Definitions of *brown bag* ...
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brown%20bag
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/brown-bag
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=brown+bag
KOKO-TV has a history as an affiliate of NBC/ABC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KOMO-TV
Read more here:
?http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/02/seattle-officials-call-for-ban-on-potentially-offensive-language/#ixzz2aox3LzSp
Ignorant and clueless Mr. Bronstein, in his own words.....?
"For a lot of particularly African-American community members, the phrase brown bag does bring up associations with the past when a brown bag was actually used, I understand, to determine if people's skin color was light enough to allow admission to an event or to come into a party that was being held in a private home," Bronstein said.
?
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This Feb. 11, 1964 image provided by the David Anthony Fine Art gallery in Taos, N.M., shows a photograph of the Beatles taken by photographer Mike Mitchell during a news conference before the band's first live U.S. concert at the Washington Coliseum. Mitchell?s portraits of the Beatles are the centerpiece of a monthlong photography exhibition at the gallery. This marks the first time the images have been shown since their unveiling in 2011 at a Christie?s auction in New York City. (AP Photo/David Anthony Fine Art, Mike Mitchell)
This Feb. 11, 1964 image provided by the David Anthony Fine Art gallery in Taos, N.M., shows a photograph of the Beatles taken by photographer Mike Mitchell during a news conference before the band's first live U.S. concert at the Washington Coliseum. Mitchell?s portraits of the Beatles are the centerpiece of a monthlong photography exhibition at the gallery. This marks the first time the images have been shown since their unveiling in 2011 at a Christie?s auction in New York City. (AP Photo/David Anthony Fine Art, Mike Mitchell)
This Feb. 11, 1964 image provided by the David Anthony Fine Art gallery in Taos, N.M., shows a photograph of John Lennon taken by photographer Mike Mitchell during the Beatles first live U.S. concert at the Washington Coliseum. Mitchell?s portraits of the Beatles are the centerpiece of a monthlong photography exhibition at the gallery. This marks the first time the images have been shown since their unveiling in 2011 at a Christie?s auction in New York City. (AP Photo/David Anthony Fine Art, Mike Mitchell)
This Feb. 11, 1964 image provided by the David Anthony Fine Art gallery in Taos, N.M., shows a photograph of George Harrison taken by photographer Mike Mitchell during the Beatles first live U.S. concert at the Washington Coliseum. Mitchell?s portraits of the Beatles are the centerpiece of a monthlong photography exhibition at the gallery. This marks the first time the images have been shown since their unveiling in 2011 at a Christie?s auction in New York City. (AP Photo/David Anthony Fine Art, Mike Mitchell)
This Feb. 11, 1964 image provided by the David Anthony Fine Art gallery in Taos, N.M., shows a photograph of Ringo Starr taken by photographer Mike Mitchell during the Beatles first live U.S. concert at the Washington Coliseum. Mitchell?s portraits of the Beatles are the centerpiece of a monthlong photography exhibition at the gallery. This marks the first time the images have been shown since their unveiling in 2011 at a Christie?s auction in New York City. (AP Photo/David Anthony Fine Art, Mike Mitchell)
This Feb. 11, 1964 image provided by the David Anthony Fine Art gallery in Taos, N.M., shows a photograph of Ringo Starr taken by photographer Mike Mitchell at a news conference before the Beatles first live U.S. concert at the Washington Coliseum. Mitchell?s portraits of the Beatles are the centerpiece of a monthlong photography exhibition at the gallery. This marks the first time the images have been shown since their unveiling in 2011 at a Christie?s auction in New York City. (AP Photo/David Anthony Fine Art, Mike Mitchell)
TAOS, N.M. (AP) ? Snow and frigid temperatures didn't stop thousands of screaming teenagers from crowding into the Washington Coliseum in the nation's capital for the Beatles first live concert on American soil.
And not having a flash didn't stop photographer Mike Mitchell, then just 18 years old, from using his unrestricted access to document that historic February night in 1964 using only the dim light in the arena.
Ghostly shadows and streams of light filled some negatives. With the help of modern technology and close to 1,000 hours in front of the computer screen, Mitchell was able to peel back decades of grunge and transform those old negatives into a rare, artful look at one of pop culture's defining moments.
Mitchell's portraits of the Beatles are the centerpiece of a monthlong exhibition at the David Anthony Fine Art gallery in Taos ? the first time the prints have been exhibited since being unveiled in 2011 at a Christie's auction in New York City. The gallery started hanging the first of the framed prints a week ago in preparation for Friday's opening.
"Just amazing," gallery owner David Mapes said as he looked around the room at the large black and white prints and wondered aloud what it must have been like to be in Mitchell's shoes that night.
Mapes pointed to a photograph of the four band members, their backs to the camera with a thin ribbon of light outlining their silhouettes. When he first saw it, he said he teared up. He knew he had to find a way to share it with others.
"It brought back memories of that time. I was a teenager and it was so much about love and everything was optimistic feeling," he said.
It didn't take long from the time the Beatles released their debut album in 1963 to go from a little British bar band to an international sensation. The Beatles' reach eventually stretched beyond music and haircuts to religion and politics.
"The Beatles came to represent some of the yearnings for peace and hope and equality and a larger social justice. In the United States and throughout the world, their personalities became as important as the music," said Norman Markowitz, a history professor at Rutgers University.
For Paul Vance, who teaches a class on the Beatles at Winona State University in Minnesota, the band was the reason he pursued music. He was 11 years old when the Beatles first came to the U.S.
The Beatles had good timing, he said, having arrived at a time when America was still heartbroken over the assassination of then-President John F. Kennedy and young people were looking for meaning in their lives.
"Much has been said and written about it," Vance said of the Beatles' influence. "It's a very significant point that the world after the Beatles was a radically different place than the world before the Beatles, and they did influence and change so many aspects of not just American life, but life everywhere."
Mitchell can't predict what role his photographs will play as historians and music fans continue to examine the evolution of American pop culture. Still, those moments captured by his camera that February night tell a grainy story of four young men who seemed to be having the time of their lives.
Mitchell remembers how hot it was inside the coliseum. The crowd was deafening but the resonating bass beats were unmistakable. He said the Beatles were "on fire" that night.
"They were really juiced. It was obvious at the time that they were really, really, really into it and I think the pictures really benefit from that," he said.
Mitchell said his goal was simple. He wanted to make great portraits of the Beatles while discovering a little more about who they really were.
With no flash, he was forced to wait for the perfect time to snap that shutter. His photographs immortalized the important details of the moment in a bath of light while the rest faded into darkness. It was the concert that marked the beginning of his fascination with light.
"I think that was the first time in my life that I had to really look more deeply at light and take my queues from what the light was doing," he said. "I learned to sort of feel from the light."
____
Follow Susan Montoya Bryan on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/susanmbryanNM
____
Online:
www.mikemitchell.us
www.davidanthonyfineart.com
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JeeYeon Park CNBC
11 hours ago
Stocks soared to fresh closing highs on Thursday, one day before the government releases critical jobs figures that could help determine whether the economy is healthy enough for the Federal Reserve to begin to slow down its stimulus package.
The rally, in which the S&P 500 went through the 1,700-point level for the first time, was sparked by a plethora of upbeat economic data ahead of the widely-watched jobs report set for Friday morning.
Analysts polled by Reuters expect to see a gain of 184,000 jobs in July, after a 195,000 uptick in the previous month.?
(Read more:?July jobs report key to Fed action)
"The jobs numbers have been decent as of late, but the problem is the quality of employment," said Lance Roberts, chief economist at StreetTalk Advisors. "There's also clearly a divergence between the stock market and real economy and that's because of the artificial stimulus from the Fed.
"The problem is that they're not seeing that stimulus being translated into the economy so the worry we should have is that we're inflating valuations and the issue of potentially blowing an asset bubble is very real."
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve?declined to signal when it would start tapering its bond-buying program, which has buoyed the markets. However, it did raise concerns about rising mortgage rates and flagged the risks of inflation falling too far below its target. In addition, the central bank slightly downgraded its outlook for economic growth.
But several reports on Thursday boosted the views of many analysts that the economy is getting healthier. Weekly jobless claims?dropped to a 5-1/2 year low, according to the Labor Department. And the number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms?declined modestly in July, with employers announcing 37,701 cuts last month, down 4.2 percent from June, according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
In another positive sign, the pace of growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector accelerated in July to the?highest level since June 2011 as new orders surged, according to the Institute for Supply Management.?
The positive economic data have stimulated the stock markets recently. Major stock averages closed out their?best July since 2010 on Wednesday and so far this year, the Dow and S&P 500 have spiked more than 19 percent, while the Nasdaq has surged an impressive 21 percent.
On Thursday, the?Dow Jones Industrial Average spiked to close 128 points higher and set a fresh all-time high of 15,650.69, lifted by Bank of America and P&G. ExxonMobil was among the few Dow components in the red.
The?S&P 500 and the?Nasdaq both put on 1 percent, with the S&P 500 piercing the 1700 barrier to close at 1706.87. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, slid below 13.
All key S&P sectors closed in positive territory, led by financials and industrials.
"The rising asset prices will help instill confidence and that will breed more confidence," said Matthew Kaufler, portfolio manager of the Clover Value Fund at Federated.?
"However, we've had a great run in the market and at some point there will be a correction in the near point?still, my sense would be that there's enough momentum that we'll end the year up a few percentage points higher than where we currently are."
(Read more:Short the S&P atall-time highs? Absolutely!)
Asian stocks rallied after China's official PMI (purchasing manager's index) data showed the country's manufacturing sector continued to expand in July, defying forecasts of a contraction. But the picture was mixed, with a private gauge of factory activity by HSBC showing an 11-month low of 47.7 in July. Japan's Nikkei rallied to a one-month peak on the news, the Shanghai Composite hit a one-week high and South Korea's Kospi touched a seven-week high.
"Official PMI is more skewed to larger companies, and the HSBC figure reflects the smaller companies and that is where you get this divergence," said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economics research at HSBC.
(Read more: Will China PMI mark the end of negative data surprises?)
In Europe, the European Central Bank kept its main interest rate unchanged at a record low of 0.5 percent, and reiterated that rates would remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time.
"Labor market conditions remain weak. Looking ahead to the remainder of the year and 2014, euro area growth should benefit from a gradual recovery in global demand," said ECB president Mario Draghi in a press conference following the announcement. "Our monetary policy stance remains accommodative for as long as necessary. We have unanimously confirmed the forward guidance we gave last time."
Euro zone manufacturing activity grew for the first time in two years in July, with the purchasing manager's index (PMI) climbing to 50.3 in July. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion.
And the Bank of England left its interest rates unchanged at 0.5 percent, as expected, under its new governor, Mark Carney.
(Read more:July jobs report key to Fed action)
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