From Washington: Rates on 30-year mortgages fell for a third straight week. That puts the average long-term home loan right where it was last year - near historic lows. Great news? Maybe not ...

From Miami: Cuba is one of the world's few holdouts of the market economy. Its protest is even reflected in its term for Gross Domestic Product. In Cuba, it's called "Gross Socialist Product." Now, the government says it won't use that measure anymore.

From Washington: The number two man at the Pentagon, Paul Wolfowitz, is back from a tour of the tsunami-affected countries. While he was in Indonesia, he said perhaps it's time for the U.S. to reconsider its longtime sanctions against that country's military.

From Los Angeles: Government officials from Australia are in the U.S. this week to round up new investments...

From Indonesia: Japan, the U.S., and international institutions like the World Bank, have promised to give Indonesia $1.7 billion in grants and low-interest loans to rebuild the devastated Aceh province.

From Los Angeles: There could be a big-time merger in the world of Department stores. Federated is considering buying rival May Department Stores. The deal's still in the early stages, but if it goes through, the merger would combine giants like Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Marshall Fields under one roof.

From Paris: The battle to take over the London Stock Exchange, is heating up. After more than 300 years as one of Britain's key institutions, the LSE is considering bids from two European rivals.

From Los Angeles: If you happed to catch the first episode of the The Apprentice season 3 on TV last night...you already know Burger King will have a new item on the menu this morning. The Western Angus Burger was created by one of the wanna-be Donald Trump teams in what was basically a 60-minute product placement for the burger chain.