24.6% Unemployment Rate in Spain

EURO WATCH

24.6% Unemployment Rate in Spain

By RAPHAEL MINDER
Published: July 27, 2012
MADRID — A day after markets registered relief at comments from the European Central Bank president in strong support of the euro, data from Spain showed the fragility of the underlying economy as the region’s debt crisis drags on.
Just over 5.69 million Spaniards ended the second quarter jobless, raising the unemployment rate to a record 24.6 percent, compared with 24.4 percent in the first quarter, according to the latest national employment statistics published Friday.

Wary consumers, trade curb U.S. growth in Q2

Wary consumers, trade curb U.S. growth in Q2
By Lucia Mutikani
WASHINGTON | Fri Jul 27, 2012
(Reuters) - U.S. economic growth slowed as expected in the second quarter as consumers spent at their slowest pace in a year, potentially pushing the Federal Reserve closer to pumping more money into the economy.
Gross domestic product expanded at a 1.5 percent annual rate between April and June, the weakest pace of growth since the third quarter of 2011, the Commerce Department said on Friday.

Mayor Bloomberg spouts off for tight gun laws

July 27, 2012
Mayor Bloomberg spouts off for tight gun laws following Colorado movie theater massacre, but records show he's showered thousands of dollards on lawmakers who drew high marks from gun lobby
Mayor will host Aug. 15 fund-raiser for Massachusetts' Scott Brown despite senator's long history of supporting gun rights. Brown, who opposes assault weapons ban, earned 'A' from National Rifle Association
BY KENNETH LOVETT / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
THURSDAY, JULY 26
ALBANY — Mayor Bloomberg has been all over the airwaves calling for better gun control following the Colorado movie theater massacre — but he doesn’t always put his money where his mouth is.
Even as he’s pushed for tougher gun laws, he has showered thousands of dollars on lawmakers who drew high marks from the gun lobby over the past decade, campaign finance records show.

Storms knock out power as they rip through Northeast

Storms knock out power as they rip through Northeast

By Khara Lewin, CNN
July 27, 2012
(CNN) -- Storms ripped through the Northeast, killing at least two people as they unleashed strong winds and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of customers, authorities said Friday.
The storms struck Thursday, and at one point that evening, severe thunderstorm watches were in effect for a continuous stretch from Oklahoma through New Jersey.
In Pennsylvania, a tree crushed a woman in her car as she sought shelter at a campsite, killing her, said Glenn Dunn, the emergency management coordinator for Potter County.

Will you ring Creed's bell to mark the start of the Olympics?

Will you ring Creed's bell to mark the start of the Olympics?

26 July 2012
by Jonathan Jones



Artist Martin Creed has asked us all to ring a bell on the first day of the Olympics. Creed believes in public art of the collective, but what does it really mean if we all ring a bell at once?
Everything is going to be alright. Those are the words Martin Creed wrote in neon in one of his public artworks. This white-light message has been seen on buildings all over the world. I have read it in Hackney, in Milan. Maybe it should have been written around the Olympic stadium to reflect the hope that, as one of Europe's most struggling economies hosts the world's biggest sporting event, this will boost us, save us, put some Olympic fire in our finances.

Europe's risk assets bolstered by ECB action hopes

Europe's risk assets bolstered by ECB action hopes

Friday, 27 July 2012 Written by Asad Naeem

LONDON: European equities rose and peripheral bond yields fell on Friday on growing expectations of ECB action to bring down Spanish and Italian borrowing costs, but concerns about possible German opposition to such a move kept risk appetite in check.
Euro zone governments and the European Central Bank are preparing to intervene on financial markets, French daily Le Monde reported, citing unnamed sources.
The report came a day after ECB President Mario Draghi boosted risk assets across the globe with his pledge do whatever it takes within the bank's mandate to defend the single currency.
"Now all of a sudden everybody thinks he (Draghi) is going to start printing. He has backed himself into a corner, if he doesn't come up with anything then he could be in trouble," said Ioan Smith, strategist at Knight Capital.
"You wouldn't want to be short (equities) at the moment given the market's reaction, the market is very skittish."

Strip Clubs in Tampa Are Ready to Cash In on G.O.P. Convention

Strip Clubs in Tampa Are Ready to Cash In on G.O.P. Convention

By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
Published: July 26, 2012
TAMPA, Fla. — Over at the back door of the 2001 Odyssey, a limo-size tent with flaps — especially designed for discretion and camera-shy guests — is ready to go up. Déjà Vu is welcoming extra “talent” from around the country in its V.I.P. rooms.
And Thee DollHouse is all Americana: women plan to slip out of red, white and blue corsets and offer red, white and blue vodka. The headliner that week is expected to bear an uncanny resemblance to a certain ex-governor from a wilderness state, known for her strong jaw and devotion to guns and God.

Tweet show: Stewart-Pattinson scandal in 140 characters

Tweet show: Stewart-Pattinson scandal in 140 characters

July 27, 2012
By Arienne Thompso USA Today

A pop culture sensation like the Robert Pattinson-Kristen Stewart-Rupert Sanders cheating scandal only comes around so often in Hollywood, so it makes sense that Twitter would be, well, all atwitter with the news.

On Wednesday, Stewart, 22, confirmed that she had been unfaithful to her "Twilight" co-star and boyfriend of three years, Pattinson, 26, and then apologized within the span of just three sentences: "I'm deeply sorry for the hurt and embarrassment I've caused to those close to me and everyone this has affected. This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I

China Charges Wife of Bo Xilai in Killing of British Man

China Charges Wife of Bo Xilai in Killing of British Man

By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: July 26, 2012
BEIJING — Gu Kailai, the wife of the disgraced political leader Bo Xilai, has been charged with the intentional homicide of a British businessman, a crime that triggered China’s most serious political crisis in decades, the state media reported Thursday evening.
The official Xinhua news agency published a brief dispatch announcing that Ms. Gu and an aide employed by the family had been formally charged in the poisoning death of Neil Heywood, the 41-year-old Briton whose body was found in November in a hotel in Chongqing, the municipality in southwest China led by Mr. Bo until he was deposed by Communist Party leaders.

Although the announcement repeated earlier accusations that tied the murder of Mr. Heywood to “a conflict over economic interests,” it added fresh detail, saying that Ms. Gu committed the crime in order to protect her son, Bo Guagua. The article did not mention Mr. Bo’s full name, suggesting prosecutors have decided not to implicate him in the crime.

The announcement said no trial date had been set.

Teen Doing Well 2 Years After Stem Cell Windpipe Transplant

Teen Doing Well 2 Years After Stem Cell Windpipe Transplant

Treatment may offer hope for other ill children, researchers say
July 26, 2012
WEDNESDAY, July 25 (HealthDay News) -- Two years after he became the first child to receive a stem cell-supported trachea (windpipe) transplant, a 13-year-old boy is able to breathe normally, has grown about four inches taller, does not require any anti-rejection drugs and has returned to school.

Ciaran Finn-Lynch, born with a structural defect of his large airway, underwent the transplant in March 2010 at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. After his windpipe was removed, it was

Three-planet system's regular orbits hint at orbital chaos elsewhere

Three-planet system's regular orbits hint at orbital chaos elsewhere

Systems evolve from one disk then have orbital interactions destabilize them.

by Matthew Francis - July 26 2012
The Solar System is remarkably regular, its eight planets orbiting the Sun in the same direction in very nearly circular trajectories. Their orbits lie nearly in the same plane, which is aligned with the Sun's equator. These facts point toward a common origin for the Solar System, where everything collapsed from a single protostellar disk.

However, many exoplanetary systems are very different: exoplanets often orbit in highly elliptical orbits, and some "hot Jupiters" (giant planets in very small orbits) even revolve in the opposite direction from their host stars. A current major challenge in astrophysics is to understand why irregular systems exist.

Americans rally past France in women's soccer

Americans rally past France in women's soccer

Down 2-0 early, US storms back with a 4-2 win
An early start to the Olympics turned into an early hole for the U.S. women's soccer team in Glasgow, Scotland on Wednesday, after they gave up two quick goals before unleashing an attack the rest of the world will find hard to stop.

Rivals Phelps, Lochte share a suite in Olympic Village

Rivals Phelps, Lochte share a suite in Olympic Village

By Erik Brady, USA TODAY 2012/7/26
ONDON – Michael Phelps shares a four-bedroom suite in the athletes' village with six other American swimmers, including rival Ryan Lochte. The two are partners at cards, but aren't roommates — Phelps has the suite's only single.
"We're able to request if we want a roommate or not," Phelps said Wednesday, appearing relaxed as he chatted amiably with reporters at a Speedo event. "For the competition part, I don't really like a roommate."

Phelps does like having suitemates, and he offered a glimpse of village life, talking about nightly

'So You Think You Can Dance': Amber Jackson, Brandon Mitchell Bite The Dust

Jul 26 2012 9:17 AM EDT 37

'So You Think You Can Dance': Amber Jackson, Brandon Mitchell Bite The Dust

Plus Witney Carson and Chehon Wespi-Tschopp soar on Wednesday night's show.
By Natasha Chandel
"So You Think You Can Dance" might be taking two weeks off during the Olympics, but they left on a very high note. Season nine has seen an exceptional group of dancers who flourished with their mesmerizing routines, a testament to the show's six Emmy award nominations. Starting the night off with a Tyce Diorio Broadway number honoring the late Charlie Chaplin and the silent film era, the top 16 set the stage for success.

While it was unfortunate to see contemporary dancer Amber Jackson and the show's first top 20 stepper Brandon Mitchell eliminated, it was still a night to celebrate. Here's how the pairs performed.
Tiffany Maher and George Lawrence II
One of season nine's favorites, Tiffany and George opened the show with a fun Nappytab hip-hop routine inspired by the impending birth of their first child. Although they hit hard, the talented duo was surpassed by their cuteness and lack of "grundge."

Nas Explains How He Went From 'Life's A Bitch' To 'Life Is Good'

Jul 26 2012 8:27 AM EDT 107

Nas Explains How He Went From 'Life's A Bitch' To 'Life Is Good'

'There's bad, there's joy, pain, all the emotions ... life is still good, no matter what,' MC says in MTV's Hip-Hop Music Preview.
By Rebecca Thomas
Listening to Nas' Life Is Good is like dropping a golden subway token into a mechanical turnstile, one that grants you instant entry into a New York City of days long gone.

A product of the gritty Queensbridge Houses, Nas navigates his borough in dizzyingly poetic detail, shouting out 'hood-famous hustlers and incense-burning Five-Percenters over a bed of rich horns and pounding knocks. "Colosseum downstairs, gold-teeth mouth," the baby-faced 39-year-old spits on "A Queens Story," giving a nod to the mall on Jamaica Avenue and 165th Street where a basement throbbed with jewelers and hair-extension purveyors.

If that sounds like golden-era nostalgia, then fair enough, but as God's Son told us when we sat down with him in L.A. for MTV's Hip-Hop Music Preview, "I got jazz in my soul." On Life Is Good, Nasty

Samsung trounced iPhone twice over in Q2 smartphones claim analysts

Samsung trounced iPhone twice over in Q2 smartphones claim analysts

Chris Davies, Jul 26th 2012
Samsung had an iPhone-squashing Q2 2012, analysts predict, shipping twice as many smartphones in the three month period, though the specter of the iPhone 5 is expected to put a dampener on Korean celebrations. The Galaxy S III helped lead Samsung to a total of 52m smartphones in Q2, Juniper Research estimates, more than double Apple’s market-disappointing 26m iPhone sales.
Of course, Samsung’s strength is its spread across the smartphone playing field. The Galaxy S III shipped 10m devices itself, but Samsung also has “Galaxy products hitting all price points” Juniper highlights, having “leveraged its global brand strength and the popularity of the Android OS to drive sales of smartphones in all price tiers.”

Bill O'Reilly: New poll has President Obama up big

Bill O'Reilly: New poll has President Obama up big

Published July 25, 2012 | O'Reilly Factor | Bill O'Reilly
By Bill O'Reilly
A new NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll says the President is ahead of Mitt Romney by six points; 49-43. Wow, how about that?
However, that poll may not be accurate. In a Rasmussen Daily Tracking poll today, taken among the likely voters, Mitt Romney leads 47-44. That is a stunning nine point difference from the "Wall Street Journal"/NBC survey. So, what is going on?
Well, first of all the NBC deal is registered voters, not likely voters. Secondly, there is an 11-point difference Democrats over Republicans in the NBC/Journal poll. It's not that they stack the deck. It's just that the random sample came out that way.

Zynga shares slump as Facebook changes raise concerns

Zynga shares slump as Facebook changes raise concerns

Thu Jul 26, 2012 6:28pm IST
(Reuters) - Shares of Zynga Inc fell in premarket trading on Thursday, after Facebook Inc made it harder to find games such as "FarmVille", sparking concerns that its results were unlikely to improve anytime soon.

A slew of analysts cut their ratings and price targets on shares of Zynga, which slashed its outlook and reported lower-than-expected quarterly results on Wednesday.

"The biggest factor impacting current performance appears to be the way Facebook is surfacing gaming content on its platform," JP Morgan's Doug Anmuth wrote in a note to clients.

Surfacing refers to how a website showcases content.

Facebook recently tweaked the way users find games in its app center -- giving prominence to newer titles and pushing down older games -- making it difficult for users to find older, popular titles from Zynga.

Shares of Zynga started sliding in post-market trading after the company reported results and were

Pa. Man Gets 5 Years for Pilgrimage Trip Scam

Pa. Man Gets 5 Years for Pilgrimage Trip Scam

PHILADELPHIA July 26, 2012 (AP)
A suburban Philadelphia man is heading to federal prison for bilking devout customers out of more than $400,000 by promising holy land trips that never happened.

A federal judge ordered 74-year-old John Baird to spend five years in prison for ripping off mostly elderly victims who thought they were buying trips to Christian pilgrimage sites.

Prosecutors say the Elkins Park man ran the scheme from 2004 to 2007 as operator of Christian Pilgrim Tours. He promised trips and even an audience with the Pope only to cancel the tours after getting paid in advance.

Baird blamed legal advisers for his business problems but U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson rejected that excuse, saying Baird preyed on the vulnerable.

Baird was also ordered to repay his victims about $410,000.

Number of Americans seeking jobless aid falls sharply, but seasonal factors skew the numbers

Number of Americans seeking jobless aid falls sharply, but seasonal factors skew the numbers

By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, July 26

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dropped by 35,000 last week, a figure that may have been distorted by seasonal factors.

The Labor Department said Thursday that applications fell to a seasonally adjusted 353,000. That’s down from a revised 388,000 the previous week and the biggest drop since February 2010.
The four-week average, a less volatile measure, declined 8,750 to 367,250. That’s the lowest level since the end of March.

Applications surged two weeks ago, reversing a big drop the previous week. But economists caution that the government struggles every July to account for temporary summer shutdowns in the auto industry. The adjustments have been unusually difficult this year because some automakers skipped

Unlimited Vacation Time: The Ultimate Work Benefit?

Unlimited Vacation Time: The Ultimate Work Benefit?

By Lisa Scherzer | The Exchange
2012/7/25
In April Donny Salazar, vice president of customer experience at Gilt Groupe in New York, took three weeks off to travel through Southeast Asia. He got massages every day on the beach at Ko Phi Phi in southern Thailand, went on a cruise through Halong Bay in Vietnam, and saw the bustle of Ho Chi Minh City.
The trip was a combined two-week sabbatical — which every salaried Gilt employee is entitled to after three years of continuous service — and an unlimited vacation time policy. "I really took advantage of recharging," says Salazar, 32, who timed the trip to coincide with a promotion and transition to a different department within the company.
Unlimited vacation days. It sounds like the holy grail of perks, the work equivalent of a $7.95 all-you-can-eat buffet: Take as many days off as you want, whenever you want to take them, as long as you get your work done.
A number of companies, particularly the Silicon Valley, start-up kind, are moving away from the traditional vacation accrual policy and toward a looser, more employee-friendly unlimited paid time off policy. These somewhat new policies give workers greater flexibility and free managers from the administrative drudgery of having to track employees' time off. More important, an unlimited vacation policy gives these companies a recruiting edge in the war for talent.
A Perk Worth Offering

NASA: Strange and Sudden Massive Melt in Greenland

NASA: Strange and Sudden Massive Melt in Greenland

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON July 24, 2012 (AP)





Nearly all of Greenland's massive ice sheet suddenly started melting a bit this month, a freak event that surprised scientists.

Even Greenland's coldest and highest place, Summit station, showed melting. Ice core records show that last happened in 1889 and occurs about once every 150 years.

Three satellites show what NASA calls unprecedented melting of the ice sheet that blankets the island, starting on July 8 and lasting four days. Most of the thick ice remains. While some ice usually melts during the summer, what was unusual was that the melting happened in a flash and over a widespread

Tell us: Who will be USA men's basketball team MVP?

Jul 25, 2012

Tell us: Who will be USA men's basketball team MVP?

By Reid Cherner, USA TODAY
On Sunday, the USA men's basketball team does it for real.

The 5-0 record on the exhibition tour was less important than the time it gave players to come together as a team.

Still, yesterday's 100-78 win against Spain was a statement if only to signal to the other title game favorite that if you want to knock off the USA you better bring everything you have.

USA BASKETBALL: Anthony leads latest victory

The gold medal is the USA's to lose. That much is accepted. Early on it might be more interesting to figure out who will be this team's leader than who might challenge the defending champs.

Last night against Spain it was Carmelo Anthony as he had 27 points -- 23 in the first half -- to lead

Chad Everett, star of 'Medical Center,' dies

Chad Everett, star of 'Medical Center,' dies

2012/7/24
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The star of the 1970s TV series Medical Center who went on to appear in such films and shows as Mulholland Drive and Melrose Place has died. Chad Everett was 75.
Everett's daughter says he died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles after a year-and-a-half-long battle with lung cancer.
His acting career spanned more than 40 years and included guest starring roles on such TV series as The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote and Without A Trace. He most recently appeared in the TV series Castle. His film credits include The Jigsaw Murders, The Firechasers and director Gus Van Sant's Psycho.
Everett is survived by his two daughters and six grandchildren. He was married to actress Shelby Grant for 45 years until her death last year.

Michael Gartenberg: With Mountain Lion, Macs, iPhones and iPads can all get along

Michael Gartenberg: With Mountain Lion, Macs, iPhones and iPads can all get along

Apple s new Mac operating system is all about the ecosystem

By Michael Gartenberg
July 25, 2012
Computerworld - Not for the first time, Apple and Microsoft will be facing each other this year with new releases of their PC operating systems. This time will be different, though, since both companies, and not just Apple, will be looking to consumers as the drivers of adoption.

Microsoft isn't abandoning its business customers, of course; they remain critical to the company. But it now wants to become more of a consumer brand. That's a response to a shift that now has consumers driving technology, and the $3 trillion market that's at stake for the consumer wallet. For much of its history, Microsoft could think about business users first, because most consumers, when it came time to choose a PC operating system for their own use, tended to go with what they used at work, meaning Windows. Today, things are turned around. Consumers are buying what is new and ahead of the curve (the iPhone and iPad both benefited greatly from that trend), and then demanding that they be granted

Ford earnings hit hard by Europe loss

Ford earnings hit hard by Europe loss

By Emily Jane Fox @CNNMoney July 25, 2012



NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Ford Motor's second-quarter profit was weighed down by the economic crisis in Europe, but a persistent rebound in U.S. car sales helped the company top analysts' earnings forecasts.
Ford (F, Fortune 500) said Wednesday that net income dropped 57% to $1 billion, or 26 cents a share, from $2.4 billion, or 59 cents, in the second quarter of last year.
On an operating basis, Ford earned 30 cents a share in the latest quarter, topping the 29-cent consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by Briefing.com.
The decline in Europe erased gains in North America, as Ford reported a $404 million loss in pre-tax operating profit on the continent. Last year, Ford reported a $176 million pre-tax operating profit gain

New York Fed Faces Questions Over Policing Wall Street

New York Fed Faces Questions Over Policing Wall Street

BY BEN PROTESS AND JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG
JULY 24, 2012,



As the Federal Reserve Bank of New York faced criticism for missing a multibillion-dollar trading loss at JPMorgan Chase, the regulator convened a town hall meeting in May to bolster employee morale.

Two months later, the New York Fed staff huddled again, after lawmakers questioned why the regulator had failed to rein in banks that manipulated key interest rates.

“We were told to keep our heads down and stay focused,” said one person present at the July meeting who requested anonymity because the gathering was not public.
The New York Fed, whose weaknesses were first exposed when the financial crisis hit, is undergoing a new trial by fire as it grapples with how to police Wall Street. While the regulator has revamped its

Minor 3.8-magnitude earthquake rattles Los Angeles

Minor 3.8-magnitude earthquake rattles Los Angeles

Updated 06:59 a.m., Wednesday, July 25, 2012
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Seismologists say a mild earthquake widely felt throughout Southern California was centered along the coast west of downtown Los Angeles.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude-3.8 quake struck at 3:18 a.m. Wednesday. The epicenter was 2 miles east-southeast of Marina del Rey near Culver City and Inglewood.

A Sheriff's Department dispatcher says it "wasn't much of a quake" and that he hasn't had any calls from the public about it.

Within half an hour of the quake hitting, hundreds of people from as far away as Riverside and the San Fernando Valley reported feeling the shaking on the USGS website.

Fire Department spokesman Matt Spence says firefighters rolled out of stations throughout the city and surveyed 470 square miles. No infrastructure damage was found and no injuries have been reported.

Romney, Obama dig in over 'you didn't build that' furor

Romney, Obama dig in over 'you didn't build that' furor

Published July 25, 2012
FoxNews.com
The campaign debate over President Obama's "you didn't build that" remark raged on Wednesday even as Mitt Romney arrived in London for his overseas trip -- with Obama conducting damage control in a new TV ad and Romney's campaign rejecting the president's claim that his words were taken out of context.
The president over the past several days has argued that Republicans twisted his words. While Romney claims Obama was talking about businesses when he said, "if you've got a business, you didn't build that," Obama now says he was actually trying to make the point that business owners "didn't build" roads and bridges -- something he had referred to earlier in the speech.