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U.S. Army Captain Michael Kelvington, commander of the Battle company, 1-508 Parachute Infantry battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, bows next to remains of Gulam Dostager, a member of Afghan Local Police who was killed in the blast of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) during the joint Tor Janda (Black Flag in Pashtu) operation, in Zahri district of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan May 25, 2012.  REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov  (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: MILITARY CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Reuters Photojournalism

Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography.  See more | Photo caption 

Members of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels fly over the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan as part of the 25th annual Fleet Week celebration in New York, May 23, 2012.  REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz (UNITED STATES - Tags: MILITARY ANNIVERSARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Fleet Week

The U.S. Navy takes Manhattan for a week.  Slideshow 

Photo

The SpaceX mission

A privately owned unmanned rocket blasts off on a mission to be the first commercial flight to the International Space Station.  Slideshow 

U.S. services sector shrinks again in March

NEW YORK | Fri Apr 3, 2009 1:36pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Business activity in the U.S. services sector shrank for a sixth straight month in March as cash-strapped consumers cut back on purchases and the employment outlook deteriorated further, according to a report on Friday.

The Institute for Supply Management's services index dropped to 40.8 last month from 41.6 in February. Economists had forecast a slight rise to 42.0 in the index, where any reading below 50 denotes contraction.

The services sector represents about 80 percent of U.S. economic activity, including businesses like banks, airlines, hotels and restaurants.

(Reporting by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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