Amazon revenue beats estimates as cloud sales surge

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc reported a better-than-expected rise in quarterly revenue on Thursday, powered by blockbuster growth in its cloud services unit. Amazon's web retail sales in the United States and internationally, the core of the company's business, also topped expectations, and it forecast revenue ahead of expectations for the third quarter. Shares of Amazon, the world's biggest online merchant, were up 2 percent in after-hours trading.