UNITED STATES

The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Zoran, SIGA Technologies, Mentor Graphics, First Financial Northwest, and Transition Therapeutics. The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: Clinical Data, Camtek, Silicon Motion Technology, China MediaExpress Holdings, and Banner.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade on Tuesday are: Chesapeake Energy, Home Depot, V.F. Corp, Hess Corp, Juniper Networks, Dean Foods, Carnival Corp, Yahoo, Jds Uniphase and Wal-Mart Stores.

Spot gold was last down 0.8 percent at $1,394.14 an ounce at 1025 GMT, having risen on Monday to its highest in about seven weeks. U.S. April gold futures were up 0.5 percent at $1,395.20 an ounce.

Bloody crackdown against demonstrators is set to cost the Libyan government heavy as officials withdraw while soldiers deflect towards protesters in the first signs of the Moammar Gaddafi's regime beginning to crumble.

Refiners Holly and Frontier Oil agreed to merge in an all-stock deal valued at nearly $3 billion, to create an independent refiner serving the mid-continent, Rocky Mountain and Southwest refining markets.

Malware on mobile phones could be the next big target for criminals.

Futures on major U.S. stock indices point to lower opening on Tuesday, following declines in European and Asian stock markets as continued political unrest in the Middle East weighed on the sentiment.

Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday lowered Japan’s debt Aa2 rating outlook to negative from stable, saying political stalemate in the country will restrict efforts to tackle the nation’s debt.

Futures on major U.S. stock indices point to lower opening on Tuesday, following declines in European and Asian stock markets as continued political unrest in the Middle East weighed on the sentiment.

The race is between US-based Boeing Co. and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) and the outcome will drastically change the face of both the country's employment sector.

U.S. stocks recorded solid performance in the second half of the last year though the early part of the year was jittery. While the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11 percent, the Nasdaq Composite gained 17 percent and the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 13 percent. Where do U.S. stocks go from here? There are analysts who think stocks are poised to show further gains this year.

Toyota Motors will introduce home battery chargers for electric and plug-in hybrid cars next year, the Nikkei business daily reported.

BHP Billiton agreed to acquire all of Chesapeake Energy's interests in the Fayetteville Shale play in central Arkansas for $4.75 billion, marking its entry into the US shale gas business.

From adventurous trails on mountans and lakes to the wild life, rail roads and the magnificent glaciers, here's a video tour of the beautiful Alaska.

Various members of the United States Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee recent defended their cyber security bill saying it didn't promote the notion of a kill-switch.

The March opening race of the Formula One season in Bahrain was cancelled on Monday, as the country's opposition prepared to press for change in country's Sunni leadership, backed by protesters camped out in streets.

U.S. drone strikes killed at least 11 people on Monday in tribal regions along Pakistan's western border, local officials said.

A suicide bomber killed at least 30 people in a government office in northern Afghanistan on Monday, officials said, with violence spiralling across the country even before an expected spring offensive.

Pakistan said on Monday it was taking steps to keep a U.S. consulate worker, imprisoned in a local jail for shooting two Pakistanis, safe from harm in a case that has unleashed a diplomatic storm.

Egypt's public prosecutor on Monday moved to freeze the foreign assets of Hosni Mubarak, the first sign that the deposed president would be held to account by the rulers to whom he handed power 10 days ago.

U.S. officials have revealed that an American detained in Pakistan after killing two men worked for the U.S. spy agency as a contractor, and not as a diplomat as previously said, according to reports.