PORTUGAL

The top official behind Standard & Poor's downgrade of the United States said on Friday it was not to blame for August's stock market rout, and warned that developed nations still needed to get their act together to tackle their mountains of debt.

Global stock market sentiment had weakened before Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. credit rating to AA+ from AAA, the rating agency's global head of sovereign ratings David Beers said on Friday.

After being held up as a model of strength in a region saddled with debt and low growth, Germany suddenly finds itself in a perfect economic storm that could force it to rethink its approach to the crisis plaguing the wider euro zone.

The U.S. ambassador made a surprise trip to a southern Syrian town Tuesday, his second visit to an area rocked by protests against President Bashar al-Assad and a move likely to antagonize the authorities in Damascus.

If doubts about U.S. government credit quality and the country's long-term growth horizon have seen its 10-year borrowing costs fall by a third, it's a wonder anyone pays heed to ideas of unsustainable sovereign debts.

Germany's top court will give its verdict early next month on whether the government broke the law with last year's bailouts of debt-stricken euro zone countries -- a ruling which could limit Berlin's room to manage the region's debt crisis.

The mystery behind the birth of lager beer has gained a new clue through the discovery of elusive species of wild yeast in the frozen forests of Patagonia in Argentina.

Scientists have cracked the mystery behind the lager beer after years of research and found the yeast's genomic foundation, paving way for new types of designer beers.

The mystery behind the birth of lager beer has been solved. Scientists have successfully traced the origin of the popular alcoholic beverage to a type of yeast, believed to have traveled 7,000 miles from Patagonia to Bavaria 500 years ago.

Both scientists and brewers knew for long time that the yeast that so happened to give beer the ability to ferment at cold temperatures was a hybrid. The knew it was the Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the yeast used to make leavened bread and ferment wine and ale. But the yeast remained a mystery to scientists who were unable to find it among the 1,000 or so species of yeast known to science.

The birth mystery of lager beer, prized as the most popular alcoholic beverage of today, may be solved as scientists discovered the yeast's genomic foundation that makes cold-brewing ale possible.

It's not hard to come up with reasons for the euro zone's exasperating inability to get a grip on its debt crisis.

With the global economy sputtering and financial markets on the rocks, the world needs reassurance the U.S. central bank stands ready to save the day.

With the global economy sputtering and financial markets on the rocks, the world needs reassurance the U.S. central bank stands ready to save the day.

From dawn in Tokyo to dusk in New York on Friday, fear lifted gold to a record high -- its fifth such day in a row -- and boosted silver, too, as the world's investors succumbed to the accumulated effect of one emerging danger after another.

Gold and silver prices rose dramatically early Friday as investors fled crumbling Asian and European stock markets, but later in the session some of those early gains disappeared as investors began buying heavily discounted tech stocks.

Gold charged to a record high early Friday in electronic trading as a host of bad economic news from around the world drove investors away from stocks for the safety of the yellow metal.

Global stocks ceded more ground Friday, hurt by mounting concerns the U.S. economy is heading into another recession and as some European lenders faced a short-term funding crunch, highlighting the risk of another banking crisis.

The United States and European Union called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down Thursday, and U.S. President Barack Obama accused him of torturing and slaughtering his own people in what U.N. officials said could be crimes against humanity.

The United States and European Union called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down on Thursday and President Barack Obama accused him of torturing and slaughtering his own people in what U.N. officials said could be crimes against humanity.

Gold close at a fresh high Thursday as investors sought safety from fresh evidence that the U.S. economy is struggling and not-so fresh evidence that Europe's debt problems are far from over.