Economy’s rebound was even faster than thought, outlook remains bright
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy’s bounce-back last quarter from a dismal winter was even faster than previously thought, a sign that growth will likely remain solid for rest of the year.
The economy as measured by gross domestic product grew at a 4.6 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday. It was the fastest pace in more than two years and higher than the government’s previous estimate of 4.2 percent.
The upward revision reflected stronger-than-expected business investment and exports last quarter.
The healthy second-quarter growth marked a sharp rebound from the January-March quarter, when the economy shrank at a 2.1 percent rate in the midst of a brutal winter that idled factories and kept consumers at home.
Wall Street cheered the upbeat economic report, which helped spur the Dow Jones industrial average to a 1 percent gain.
Abbas accuses Israel of genocide, demands deadline to occupation
UNITED NATIONS — Facing pressure at home to come up with a new strategy for achieving Palestinian statehood, Mahmoud Abbas said Friday he would ask the U.N. Security Council to dictate the ground rules for any talks with Israel, including setting a deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian lands.
In a speech to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, the Palestinian leader also accused Israel of conducting a “war of genocide” in Gaza, but stopped short of saying he would pursue war crimes charges against Israel.
“This last war against Gaza was a series of absolute war crimes carried out before the eyes and ears of the entire world, moment by moment,” Abbas said. The devastation unleashed, he asserted, “is unmatched in modern times.”
While the Palestinian president spoke forcefully, appearing visibly angry at times, the address was short on specifics. He did not offer his own deadline for an Israeli withdrawal, as some had predicted, nor did he say anything about joining the International Criminal Court as his aides have repeatedly said he is prepared to do.
Role of respiratory virus probed in weakness, paralysis in 9 kids
NEW YORK — Health officials are investigating nine cases of muscle weakness or paralysis in Colorado children and whether the culprit might be a virus causing severe respiratory illness across the country.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday sent doctors an alert about the polio-like cases and said the germ — enterovirus 68 — was detected in four out of eight of the sick children who had a certain medical test. The status of the ninth case is unclear.
The virus can cause paralysis but other germs can, too. Health officials don’t know whether the virus caused any of the children’s arm and leg weaknesses or whether it’s just a germ they coincidentally picked up.
The cases occurred within the last two months. All nine children are being treated at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, and most are from the Denver area.
Clooney and fiancee arrive in Venice for star-studded wedding in romantic city
VENICE, Italy — George Clooney vowed he would never marry again, giving hope to millions of women that they one day might get their chance at romance with Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor.
And for more than two decades, Clooney’s love life has been tabloid fodder as he carried on romances with a series of models and actresses, a cocktail waitress, an Italian starlet and a former professional wrestler — before meeting his match in human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin.
Less than five months after their engagement was announced, the couple is marrying this weekend in a celebrity-studded wedding extravaganza in Venice, one of the world’s most romantic settings.
It has not been reported if Michelle Pfeiffer has called him on his $100,000 bet that he would, indeed, never marry again following his four-year marriage to Talia Balsam, which ended in 1993. And it is unknown how many hearts have been broken by Clooney’s renunciation of his sworn bachelorhood, but there are plenty.
By wire sources