UNITED STATES

A European finance minister, in Washington for a panel on global business and economics, sent up a flare to U.S. officials Monday afternoon, saying he hoped the U.S. would be more involved in playing a key role to solving the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe.

Stock index futures edged up Tuesday after upbeat data from Germany offset ratings agency Moody's downgrade of six euro zone countries.

Straws in the wind indicate that a non-war option does not hold much water in the current situation. Obviously there are two non-war options, but both look disappointingly implausible. They are: 1) Iran should retreat from its nuclear enrichment process and activities the West alleges are intended to make an N-bomb and 2) Israel, the West and Iran's pathological foes in the Arabian Gulf should live with a nuclear Iran. Both of these options are impractical.

Your next order of bacon or sausage at McDonald's may come from a slightly happier pig, as the world's largest restaurant chain has required its pork suppliers end the use of gestation pens, a nod to complaints by animal rights activists.

U.S. agri-business giant Monsanto said on Tuesday it will appeal a French court ruling that found it responsible for the poisoning of a farmer who inhaled a weedkiller in what is the first such case to reach court in France.

A man thought to be Iranian was seriously wounded in Bangkok on Tuesday when a bomb he was carrying exploded and blew one of his legs off, police and a government spokeswoman said.

Output at factories in the euro zone tumbled in December, reflecting a sick European economy that probably shrank at the end of 2011 but it is hoped will recover this year.

An Israeli diplomatic vehicle was attacked today in New Delhi, injuring four, including the wife of an Israeli defense representative working at the Embassy. The perpetrator reportedly used the same method of attack - detonating an explosive device that had been attached magnetically to the vehicle.

The Bank of Japan boosted its asset buying program by $130 billion on Tuesday and in the face of political pressure set an inflation goal of one percent, signaling a more aggressive monetary policy to pull an ailing economy out of deflation.

Futures on major U.S. stock indices pared earlier losses and point to a slightly higher opening Tuesday ahead of of economic data including retail sales.

Katharine Hayhoe, a well-known Christian climate scientist, said politics, not theology, is the problem.

We have been told that the war in Iraq is over, and were even shown metaphorical photographs of the last U.S. troops leaving Iraq with backpacks. However, Pentagon is asking nearly $3 billion for a war which it isn't even waging.

Chesapeake Energy Corp is seeking as much as $12 billion from assets sales and joint ventures to cope with a cash crunch amid rising debt and tumbling gas prices.

It looks like Barack Obama's Democrat supporters and dog lovers are determined to keep the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Doggy issue alive; in any case till the presidential elections. Romney's treatment of his dog Seamus has been making headlines quite often.

Gold prices followed crude oil and global stocks lower Tuesday after ratings firms cut the credit ratings of several European nations and banks and warned that more reductions were likely.

Apple Inc plans to announce a fourth-generation version of its iPad (4G iPad) in the first week of March, a Wall Street Journal report said, citing a person briefed on the matter.

Rating agency Moody's warned on Monday it may cut the triple-A ratings of France, the United Kingdom and Austria, and it downgraded six other European nations including Italy, Spain and Portugal, citing growing risks from Europe's debt crisis.

Boeing Co said on Tuesday it signed its largest ever commercial airplane order with Indonesia's Lion Air in a deal worth $22.4 billion.

The scars caused by a heart attack have been healed by stem cells collected from the patient's own heart, U.S. experts have said.found that the amount of scar tissue was halved in the small safety trial.

The U.S. Federal Reserve should do all it can to reduce very high unemployment and bring inflation back up to more desirable levels, a top Fed official said on Monday.

Hacker collective Anonymous has taken down a number of Web sites on Tuesday, including that of the Bahrain government and the U.S. maker of teargas used on protesters in Bahrain last month.