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Germany approves Cyprus' bailout, economic indicators slip unexpectedly, and more in our roundup of the business stories that are making news and driving opinion

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble
(Image credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

1. GERMAN LAWMAKERS SIGN OFF ON CYPRUS RESCUE

German lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to approve Cyprus' $13 billion European bailout on Thursday. The result was widely expected, as the terms of the deal — including closing Cyprus' second biggest bank and siphoning money from wealthy bank depositors to help pay for the rescue — is widely popular in Germany's center-right ruling coalition. The bailout isn't entirely in the clear yet, however, as members of the divided parliament in Cyprus revealed Wednesday that it, too, would hold another vote on the plan, casting new doubt on its future. [Reuters]

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.