UNITED STATES

U.S. President Barack Obama, looking to jump-start the stalled Middle East peace process, will hold talks Tuesday with Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, who Washington hopes can help to get things moving.

Stocks rose on Tuesday after better-than-expected results from retailers Home Depot Inc and Target Corp offset a surprise drop in housing starts.

A senior Iranian official said Tehran was ready for negotiations with the West on its disputed nuclear program based on mutual respect and without preconditions, state television reported on Tuesday.

Software developers will be able to start charging for applications downloads to Palm Inc's high-profile Pre smartphone with the company's launch of an e-commerce beta program set to start in mid-September.

Poised for Recovery, Big Gas Deal, Stocks Hit Wall

Oil pared gains and stood below $67 a barrel on Tuesday as weak headline U.S. housing data renewed doubts over the pace of economic recovery in the world's largest energy user. Investors were also awaiting weekly U.S. fuel inventory reports due later on Tuesday and Wednesday, expected to show crude stockpiles have risen for the fourth straight week.

Albert Gonzalez is the mastermind behind what authorities have reported as the largest hacking and identity theft case ever in U.S. history.

Three men were indicted on Monday for allegedly stealing more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers in what U.S. authorities said they believe is the largest hacking and identity theft case ever prosecuted.

Qwest Communications International Inc said on Tuesday that it would discontinue its own-brand wireless service at the end of October and started telling customers they need to switch to another service.

Stock index futures pointed to a flat to slightly higher open on Tuesday after a surprise drop in housing starts offset better-than-expected results from retailers Home Depot Inc and Target Corp .

A widely used blood pressure drug may hold promise as a treatment for multiple sclerosis, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Binge drinking is usually seen as a problem of college campuses, but many older adults may be overindulging in alcohol as well, a study published Monday suggests.

The new director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, has one main goal for the giant research agency -- getting more money.

U.S. producer prices fell by a larger-than expected amount in July and notched a record decline compared with a year earlier as gasoline prices plummeted, government data on Tuesday showed.

Sweden's Koenigsegg and U.S.-based General Motors said on Tuesday they had inked a deal for the niche sports car maker to buy loss-making Saab Automobile.

New U.S. housing starts and permits unexpectedly fell in July, pulled down by steeper declines in multifamily units, a government report showed on Tuesday.

Target Corp reported its eighth consecutive drop in quarterly profit, but the results were better than Wall Street had expected as the No 2 U.S. discount retailer cut costs and stocked less merchandise.

Lawmakers debating an overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system are focusing on proposals that would form healthcare cooperatives to help provide medical coverage.

Severe sleep apnea raises the risk of dying early by 46 percent, U.S. researchers reported Monday, but said people with milder sleep-breathing problems do not share that risk.

Oil rose toward $68 a barrel on Tuesday in line with a broad recovery on Asian and European stock markets after falling the previous day to a two week-low.

Don't blame global stock markets for being skittish. It is August, after all, a month that has spelled trouble in the past two years.