Post-election stalemate in Italy spooks investors

Top news: The Italian stock market fell sharply amid fears that the results of Sunday and Monday's election could produce a prolonged standoff between parties. With Italians awaiting the official vote tally, the poll remains deadlocked between the center-right and center-left blocs. Comedian Beppe Grillo's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, or "non-party", was the election's biggest winner, taking fully 25 percent of the vote.
The results were widely seen as a rebuke of the austerity policies of Mario Monti's technocratic government, but a new election will be required if the current standoff can't be resolved.
Already, the interest rate on Italy's benchmark 10-year bond has risen .25 percent and the country's FTSE MIB index is down more than 4 percent. The Euro, meanwhile, slid to an almost seven-week low against the dollar, and banks across Europe reacted negatively to the uncertainty.
"What is now decisive for Italy - but, because Italy is such an important country for Europe, also for the whole of Europe - is that a stable government that is capable of acting can be formed as quickly as possible," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters in Berlin.
Iran: Talks between Iran and six Western powers resumed in Almaty, Kazakhstan Tuesday, but few are hopeful that they will yield an agreement.

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Middle East Saudi Arabia has purchased large shipments of Croatian infantry weapons and supplied them to rebels in Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the administration is exploring new ways to support the Syrian rebels and that it would not leave them "dangling in the wind." A hot air balloon crashed on Tuesday near the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor, killed at least 18 people. Africa Fighting between rival factions of the M23 insurgency in eastern Congo left at least eight people dead. A "manifesto" left by militants in Mali warned against implementing strict Islamic law too quickly and predicts the French intervention. A YouTube video surfaced that apparently shows members of a French family held hostage by Islamists in Cameroon. Asia Thailand's prime minster is scheduled to meet with her Malaysian counterpart Thursday for talks that could presage peace negotiations with separatist rebels. A new report from Human Rights Watch documented 75 cases of alleged sexual abuse by Sri Lankan security forces against ethnic Tamils in state custody. American basketball player Dennis Rodman arrived in North Korea Tuesday with a delegation from the Harlem Globetrotters. Americas The Colombian government authorized a committee to meet with ELN rebels in an effort to free two German hostages. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Monday signed into law a set of sweeping education reforms. Thousands of Colombian coffee growers went on strike, demanding greater subsidies as global prices for their product slump. Europe The head of Portugal's main center-left opposition party said Monday that the country should renegotiate its 78-billion-euro international bailout because austerity has failed. The runner-up in Armenia's presidential election may challenge the official results that gave his opponent a new five-year term. Europe's fisheries ministers may back off a plan to ban the practice of discarding fish at sea.

-By Ty McCormick