IBT Staff Reporter

Hideki Irabu the former Yankees fastball pitcher was found dead on Wednesday by his friend at home near Los Angeles.

The economy grew less than expected in the second quarter as consumer spending barely rose amid higher gasoline prices, and growth braked sharply in the prior quarter, a government report showed on Friday.

Chevron Corp, the second-largest U.S. oil company, reported a 43 percent jump in quarterly profit on Friday, beating Wall Street forecasts as high oil prices and fat refinery margins offset a drop in its oil output.

Stocks dropped for a fifth straight day on Friday after weak data on the economy and a setback on a debt deal discouraged investors, pushing the S&P 500 briefly below a key technical level.

The U.S. economy came perilously close to flat-lining in the first quarter and grew at a meager 1.3 percent annual rate in the April-June period, leading economists to warn of recession if a stand-off over U.S. debt does not end quickly.

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Phoenix police said Thursday they believed that a 10-year-old girl died after she was locked inside of a box as punishment for stealing a Popsicle. Four people were arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of first-degree murder after Samantha and John Allen, both 23, confessed to locking the child into a storage container, police said.

Tire makers Michelin and Continental raised their full-year sales targets and said price hikes were compensating for the surging cost of rubber, their main raw material.

China has ordered companies that have issued bonds to submit any asset restructuring plans to bond holders for approval, sources said, as Beijing steps up its efforts to rein in the risks from a mounting pile of local government debt.

French and Italian oil majors Total SA and Eni SpA reported lower second-quarter profits on Friday, reflecting dollar weakness and production outages partly due to fighting in Libya which shut some fields.

The on-off manner of Manchester United's pursuit of Wesley Sneijder continues, with latest reports stating that the frustrated English side will look elsewhere for a Paul Scholes' replacement.

Nintendo's shocking profit battered its shares as much as 20 percent, underscoring deep challenges for an iconic brand struggling to win back users flocking to other gadgets.

Leaked photographs of an all-white Samsung Galaxy S2 Android phone has been doing rounds on the web sphere.

The Great Recession was even greater than previously thought, and the U.S. economy has skated uncomfortably close to a new one this year.

U.S. stocks opened 1 percent lower and were on track to post their worst weekly losses in nearly a year on Friday after data showed meager growth in the economy while a setback in Washington over a debt deal kept investors nervous.

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Long-term investors are losing patience with companies that fail to maximize value as the slowing recovery whittles away returns, with some calling for greater financial rewards for loyalty or takeovers that put growth targets back on course.

Phoenix police said Thursday they believed that a 10-year-old girl died after she was locked inside of a box as punishment for stealing a Popsicle. Four people have been arrested.

Stocks were on track to post their worst weekly losses in nearly a year on Friday after data showed meager growth in the economy while a setback in Washington over a debt deal kept investors nervous.

Former New York Yankee pitcher Hideki Irabu was found dead on Wednesday. His body was reportedly found by his friend. He was 42 years old.

A recent study published by the American Heart Association said that the rate of pregnancy-related stroke in women rose by 54 percent.

The U.S. economy came perilously close to flat-lining in the first quarter and grew at a meager 1.3 percent annual rate in the April-June period as consumer spending barely rose.

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Apple is the largest smartphone vendor surpassing Samsung and Nokia not only in terms of revenue, but also in volume accounting for 18.5 percent of the smartphone shipments in the second quarter.

Greece will get its next 8 billion euro tranche of emergency loans from the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund in September as planned, provided it meets agreed criteria, the spokesman for the Eurogroup President said on Friday.

EADS , whose Airbus unit has outpaced U.S. rival Boeing in the battle for plane orders so far this year, forecast a significant rise in operating profit next year as demand for aircraft grows.

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U.S. stock index futures fell on Friday after lawmakers in Washington delayed a vote on a Republican proposal to raise the U.S. government's debt limit.