Joseph Lazzaro

Spain defied the European Union on Friday, setting a 2012 deficit target at 5.8 percent of gross domestic product, a far softer goal than the 4.4 percent agreed with Brussels.

Brent crude rose above $124 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate rose as much as $1.11 to $110.55 per barrel on Thursday as upbeat economic data from China and the United States brightened oil demand prospects.

Greece has taken all the legal action needed to secure a second bailout from the euro zone countries, Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said on Thursday, and ministers are now waiting for the completion of the private second bond swap.

Davy Jones, former lead singer of the 1960s made-for-television pop band The Monkees, died on Wednesday at a hospital in Florida, according to an official from the local medical examiner's office.

The U.S. economy would have to strengthen to ensure that the unacceptably high jobless rate keeps dropping, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday, suggesting the option of further Fed bond buying remains on the table.

The U.S. economy grew a bit faster than initially thought in the fourth quarter on slightly firmer consumer and business spending, which could help to allay fears of a sharp slowdown in growth in early 2012.

Apple Inc is hosting a media event next Wednesday, where it is expected to unveil a faster, better-equipped version of its popular iPad tablet to thwart increasing competition from deep-pocketed rivals such as Amazon.com Inc.

New orders for manufactured goods fell in January by the most in three years as demand fell across the board from machinery to aircraft, suggesting the economy started the year on weaker footing than expected.

Mortgage interest rates continue to fall, amid concern about a sluggish U.S. economy and the European government debt crisis -- but U.S. home prices are declining in many markets, as well. What should Americans who are possibly thinking about buying a home do now?

TransCanada Corp said on Monday it aims to build the southern leg of its $7 billion Keystone XL oil pipeline first, skirting a full-blown federal review and heightening competition to move crude out of the glutted Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub.

Leading economies told Europe it must put up extra money to fight its debt crisis if it wants more help from the rest of the world, piling pressure on Germany to drop its opposition to a bigger European bailout fund.

Greece formally launched a bond swap offer to private holders of its bonds on Friday, setting in motion the largest-ever sovereign debt restructuring in the hope of getting its messy finances back on track.

Leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas turned publicly against their long-time ally President Bashar al-Assad of Syria on Friday, endorsing the revolt aimed at overthrowing his dynastic rule.

The Obama administration is weighing the circumstances that could warrant tapping the nation's strategic oil reserve, aware that supply disruptions from Iran could harm the global economy, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Friday.

Bailed-out insurer American International Group reported a profit of $19.8 billion for the fourth quarter, after an accounting determination that it is likely to post future profits let it release the value of some tax benefits.

Venezuela's ailing socialist leader, Hugo Chavez, will fly to Cuba on Friday for an unknown period to undergo new cancer surgery that has shaken the South American nation before an October presidential election.

Western and Arab nations will demand that Syrian forces implement an immediate ceasefire to allow relief supplies to reach desperate civilians in cities such as Homs which has endured a 20-day bombardment when they meet in Tunis on Friday.

Greece's parliament endorsed a debt swap with private bondholders on Thursday that forms the core of its 130-billion-euro bailout, despite new protests against tough budget cuts demanded in return for the rescue deal.

A confidential list of top Syrian officials suspected of ordering crimes against humanity including murder, abductions and torture has been given to the United Nations for possible future prosecution, U.N. investigators said on Thursday.

About 55 Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner jets may have a recently discovered flaw in the fuselage, the company said on Wednesday, while reiterating that the world's first carbon-plastic passenger plane is safe to fly.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) has made an agreed 992.4 million pounds ($1.6 billion) bid for Mozambique-focused Cove Energy (COVE.L), offering a full price to open up a new gas frontier for the Anglo-Dutch oil major in East Africa.

The Obama administration on Wednesday will propose cutting the top tax rate for corporations to 28 percent, and pay for it by eliminating dozens of tax loopholes companies now use to lower their rates, a senior administration official said.

European Union leaders will call at a summit next week for the world's 20 biggest economies (G20) to agree in April to substantially boost funds available to the International Monetary Fund, draft conclusions of the meeting showed.

The Food and Drug Administration plans to address a potentially life-threatening shortage of two leading cancer drugs by allowing one of them to be imported from abroad and rushing approval for a new manufacturer to make the second.

Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group has offered to take its Hong Kong-listed unit Alibaba.com private at a cost of around HK$19.6 billion ($2.5 billion), a move it said was not related to a possible deal with Yahoo Inc on buying back Yahoo's stake in the Chinese Internet giant.

For some observers, Greece can seem like a small problem in a distant land, incapable of affecting U.S. investors. But in the financial crisis era, that is most certainly not the case.

The United States, as most readers and investors know, went through a trying time from 2001 to 2008, and it is only now beginning to recover. Hence, the nation could use a little comic relief. And who better to provide it than, arguably, the greatest comedian of the modern era -- Groucho Marx.

Authorities arrested a suspect on Friday near the Capitol as part of a terrorism investigation, saying he sought to use explosives, the Justice Department and the Capitol Police said.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping said on Friday the Chinese economy would experience stable growth and avoid a hard landing this year, dispelling a scenario economists fear may upset the global economy.