The end is in sight—sort of. In his weekly radio address, President Barack Obama said that Friday's government report on the gross domestic product revealed that the recession was “even deeper than anyone thought” when he took office, and the country still has "many more months" before it's fully recovered. “Important steps that we have taken over the last six months have helped put the brakes on this recession,” he said. “But history shows that you need to have economic growth before you have job growth.” (The jobless rate was 9.5 percent in June, and economists anticipate it will hit 10 percent by early 2010.) Still, the same government report showed that in recent months the economy overall has done " measurably better than expected," Obama pointed out, and stressed that innovation is the key to economic growth. "Innovation has been essential to our prosperity in the past," he said, "and it will be essential to our prosperity in the future."

Three American tourists are said to be in Iranian custody after they may have wandered across the Iraq-Iran border, according to Iran state TV. According to reports, all three tourists are in their twenties and one is a woman. The group traveled to Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq with an additional traveler, who fell ill and stayed behind at a hotel. The other three took a taxi to hike in the mountains of Ahmed Awa despite warnings to steer clear of the area because the Iranian territory isn’t marked. They contacted their fourth companion around 1:30 p.m. to say they were “surrounded by Iranian soldiers.” According to Peshrow Ahmed, a spokesman for the security manager in Sulaimaniya, officials are working to devise a plan to get the tourists home safely.

Sarah Palin’s spokeswoman, Meg Stapleton, is stamping out rumors that Palin and her husband are getting a divorce, preemptively cutting off reports before the media picks them up. The news sprang up on Alaska Report, a blog that claims to have been the first to report Palin becoming McCain's running mate. It cited "multiple sources in Wasilla and Anchorage" as well as a National Enquirer story that alleged both Todd and Sarah had affairs and wanted to divorce. The report also mentioned that Sarah didn't speak to her husband at her resignation event and left without him. “Yet again, some so-called journalists have decided to make up a story. There is no truth to the recent 'story' (and story is the correct term for this type of fiction) that the Palins are divorcing. The Palins remain married, committed to each other and their family, and have not purchased land in Montana (last week it was reported to be Long Island),” Stapleton wrote. On Politico, Jonathan Martin writes that "conflating such allegations by political opponents with the reporting of the mainstream media also endears Palin to her conservative base." Even in the rumor stage, it seems Palin can do no wrong.

A masked gunman opened fire at a club for gay youths in Tel Aviv on Saturday, killing two and wounding at least eight. Police say the shooting is "criminal rather than nationalistic," though the security clampdown that followed the incident is reminiscent of Palestinian attacks of the past. The gunman stormed the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association building and "opened fire in a basement room where teenage homosexuals were holding a weekly support group," Reuters reports. Police stopped short of labeling it a hate crime.

Days before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be sworn in for his second term, Iranian authorities are beginning a mass trial of more than 100 members of the opposition who have protested the results of the widely disputed presidential election. The protesters are accused of "conspiring with foreign powers to stage a revolution through terrorism," The New York Times reports. Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami criticized the trials, calling them “show” trials, and saying he hoped they would not “lead to ignorance of the real crimes.” Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who will not be tried, urged his followers to resume their chants of "God is Great" to protest the trials. Many of the charges come out of a confession by Muhammad Ali Abtahi, a reformist cleric who is also a widely read blogger. In a tearful videotaped confession that human-rights leaders say was most likely forced out of him, Abtahi said the elections weren't fraudulent and that the three opposition leaders "promised to always back each other up," which some are touting as proof of the opposition's malign intent.

Things are looking up for health care reform as Congress approaches its recess. On Friday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to approve a compromise health bill after weeks of often contentious negotiations between liberal and conservative Democrats. The final count was 31 to 28, with five Democrats and all Republicans voting against it. Meanwhile, in the Senate, a key lawmaker accused of stalling his own committee's vote suggested his patience might be at an end. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), who chairs the finance committee, indicated on Friday that ongoing negotiations between Republicans and Democrats would finish by September 15&mdashwith or without a deal. The move could clear the way for a partisan bill to pass out of the committee, where Baucus has emphasized bringing both parties together until now.

Get ready for even longer security lines: An apparently drunk man at New York City's LaGuardia Airport caused a scare early Saturday morning when he told police he had a bomb in his bag. On closer inspection, it turned out the so-called bomb was a fake—the man was carrying a homemade device of batteries and wires, constructed to look like a bomb. While the NYPD Bomb Squad inspected the device and emergency vehicles swarmed the area, hundreds of passengers were evacuated from the terminal and even rushed off planes waiting to take off on the runway. The man was arrested, and passengers were allowed back into the Central Terminal around 9 a.m.

Wall Street tycoons might not be able to bank on the cushy bonuses they saw in 2008. The House approved a measure on Friday to limit executive pay, capitalizing on recent anger over multimillion-dollar bonuses given to finance executives whose firms were bailed out by taxpayers. The measure applies to any firm with more than $1 billion in assets, and allows regulators "ban risky incentive-based pay" that could negatively affect the financial system, The New York Times reports. It would also allow shareholders to vote on executive pay. “What we’ve seen on Wall Street in the last many years is turning that concept of pay for performance on its head,” said Democratic Representative Chris Van Hollen. The Senate will take up a similar measure when it reconvenes in September, following its August recess.

The explosion of peace, love, and understanding brought on by President Obama's beer summit continues unabated. This time it's Henry Louis Gates Jr. moving things forward, sending a bouquet of flowers to Lucia Whalen, the woman who made the 911 call that eventually landed Gates in jail. “It was an expression of gratitude,” her lawyer and Daily Beast contributor, Wendy Murphy, told the Boston Herald. She wouldn't disclose the contents of the note, but the recent release of tapes of the 911 call showed that Whalen did not describe Gates or his driver, who were trying to get into Gates' house, as black. In the call, Whalen also suggested they might live at the house and not be burglars.

But where will we turn for our innuendo, invective, and vitriol now? After years of heated, often personal, attacks between the two news hosts, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News and Keith Olbermann of MSNBC are burying the hatchet. Or at least they're being forced to after their network heads issued orders from on high to end the feud. The idea for a peace treaty came out of a CEO summit meeting attended by both Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox News, and Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of GE, which owns MSNBC. The two discussed the battle and, according to The New York Times, "expressed regret over the venomous culture between the networks and the increasingly personal nature of the barbs." The many chapters and verses of O'Reilly vs. Olbermann are too numerous to summarize, but one of the most over the top aspects of the feud involved a sexual harassment suit filed against O'Reilly in 2004. Olbermann frequently referenced the lurid details of the suit on his show and at one point offered to pay the plaintiff to release purported tapes of conversations with O'Reilly.

Cycles Gladiator wine may have been a little too full-bodied for Alabama. The state has banned the sale of the wine because it shows a naked nymph on its label, and their liquor regulations prohibit the display of “a person posed in an immoral or sensuous manner” on alcohol packaging. But it’s a big blow for Cycles Gladiator, which says that the nude nymph design was inspired by a Parisian bicycle ad from the late 19th century. “The mythological image of the nymph riding her winged bicycle captures the grace and uninhibited beauty of our hillside vineyards,” the winery’s website reads.

The newly separated stars of TLC's Jon & Kate Plus 8 might not have had much time out of the limelight to process their recent life changes, but they'll be returning to prime-time this week all the same. Episodes going forward will be more about single parenting, the network says. "We will continue to capture this family's journey in a sincere and sensitive way," TLC President Eileen O'Neill told television critics this week. A few changes to look out for: The couple's signature couch is gone—instead, the single parents will sit on separate chairs "reflective of their own styles" and film their sequences on separate days. Also, Jon and Kate may introduce new romantic partners, though this will be handled on a "case-by-case basis." The name of the show will stay the same, by the way, despite the parents' split.

After being ousted by the Bush administration in 2007, a Nevada U.S. attorney may get his job back. President Obama nominated Daniel G. Bogden—who was forced to resign along with eight other federal prosecutors, sparking investigations into whether the dismissals were politically motivated—to serve as U.S. attorney in Nevada. Justice Department officials testified before Congress that there was nothing wrong with Bogden’s performance as U.S. attorney, and the department’s inspector general said no interviewed senior officials agreed that Bogden should be forced to step down. “I sincerely appreciate the opportunity that this nomination represents for me to return to public service,” said Bogden. Among his supporters are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator John Ensign (R-NV), who commended Obama for the nomination.

The escort who has plagued Silvio Berlusconi with scandal in recent weeks now says the Italian prime minister offered her a seat in the European Parliament. According to Patrizia D'Addario, the deal fell through after Berlusconi’s wife—who filed for divorce in May, citing her husband's taste in younger women—complained. Both Berlusconi and D'Addario insist that there was no exchange of money for sex between them, but D’Addario claimed she was promised help with the development of a real-estate project. No advancements were made in the project, D’Addario said, and so she was instead offered the opportunity to be a candidate in Berlusconi’s political party in the European parliamentary elections last month.

Corazon Aquino, the former Philippines president who played a key role in restoring the country’s democracy, died Saturday morning of colon cancer at the age of 76. Aquino was the first female president of the Philippines, toppling a dictator in 1986 with her "people power" revolution, and confronted natural disasters, military revolts, and communist rebellion, earning her the nickname “Calamity Cory.” While she did little to amend the country's crushing poverty, Aquino worked to dismantle monopolies and oversaw a number of free elections. She remained politically active after retiring, though she was happy to return to private life. “The best description for me might, after all, be that of my critics who said: 'She is just a plain housewife,'” Aquino told The Washington Post. “Indeed, as a housewife, I stood by my husband and never questioned his decision to stand alone in defense of a dead democracy against an arrogant dictatorship enjoying the support of the United States.”

Why lobby Congress yourself when you can make up fake people to do it for you? That's what an ex-staffer at the Washington lobby shop Bonner & Associates did. This week, the firm discovered that an ex-employee forged a letter from a Latino social-service group to Rep. Tom Perriello, urging the Virginia Democrat to make changes in a bill capping greenhouse-gas emissions. The letter used the letterhead of Creciendo Juntos, a Charlottesville-based group, The Washington Post reports. "We are concerned about our electric bills," it read, requesting "pro-consumer" changes. In an email, the lobby shop's founder Jack Bonner wrote: "A temporary employee—lied to us—and contrary to our policies sent these letters...This should not have happened—we had a bad employee—but through our internal checks, we found the problem, and on our own initiative took the step to notify the affected group." Perriello's office also reportedly received five letters containing very similar language that claimed to be from members of the Charlottesville branch of the NAACP—but when Perriello's office checked with the NAACP chapter, none of the names matched with real members.