AP - Official data shows German January exports improved 0.2 percent compared with January 2009 but declined a sharp 6.3 percent from December.

Controversy over the future of the eurozone after the Greek crisis is at a new pitch over ideas for a rescue fund.

AP - European officials urged the U.S. to join in a crackdown on speculators who bet against Europe's currency union, warning they might ban some credit default swaps — opaque financial instruments blamed for worsening the world financial crisis.

Reuters - European policy makers played down on Tuesday the idea of creating a European Monetary Fund, saying it was at most a long-term project that did not offer a solution to Greece's immediate debt problems.

World stock markets traded in very narrow ranges Tuesday as investors took a breather a year after shares began their recovery from multiyear lows.

AP - German carmaker Audi AG says its 2009 net income fell 39 percent to euro1.35 billion ($1.8 billion) as the economic downturn cut demand for its cars.

Reuters - European policymakers came out in support of a rescue fund that would mark a new phase of economic cooperation within the 16-nation euro zone, setting them on a potential collision course with its central bank.

German police were hunting Monday for four bandits who stormed a poker tournament in Berlin and made off with euro240,000 ($328,000) in jackpot money in a brazen daylight heist.

The European Union plans to create a European Monetary Fund to better coordinate the economies of the 16 countries that use the euro and prevent financial debacles such as the Greek debt crisis from undermining the credibility of Europe's single currency.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised Greece Sunday that euro zone countries would help it overcome its financial problems and vowed a European crackdown on financial speculators Athens blames for its woes.