Morning Edition

Even as the job market is improving and other indicators are positive, the Federal Reserve wants to keep interest rates super low until 2014. The Fed reaffirmed that policy Tuesday. That's likely because the economy is still growing slowly — not nearly fast enough to sustain consistent, long-term job creation.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Britons are struggling with the issue of faith in the workplace. Two British women, one an airline employee and the other, a nurse, were suspended or barred from doing their jobs because they wore crucifixes at work. Now the two are taking their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

To find out how this debate is playing out in the UK, we called Lucy Kellaway, she's a columnist for the Financial Times. And she joined us from London.

Lucy, good to talk to you again.

LUCY KELLAWAY: Hello.

On Tuesday, President Obama received the endorsement of the nation's largest organized labor organization, the AFL-CIO. Collective bargaining has been under attack in several states, which has drained union resources. But labor leaders say that's made them more determined than ever to keep Obama in the White House.

The Senate is on the verge of passing a highway bill. It would spend more than $100 billion on the nation's roads in two years. The bill is expected to pass with bi-partisan support. But it's had an unusual and controversial path.

Far right politician Marine Le Pen is officially in the French presidential race after getting the required 500 mayors' signatures to appear on the ballot. She launched her campaign in a small town in the north of France, a poor region where many see globalization and immigration as France's biggest problems.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. You too could be the proud new owner of an entire town. Buford, Wyoming goes up for sale next month. It's at 8,000 feet, the highest town on the coast-to-coast Interstate 80. It's an old railroad town, once home to thousands, but now with a population of one. That person, Don Sammons, plans to retire from managing his businesses and move. So an auction comes in April - one gas station, one convenience store, a garage and a home. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Pizza chefs from around the world are gathered to compete in events like: largest dough stretch, fastest pizza-box folding and freestyle acrobatic dough-tossing.

U.S. officials have not released the name of the U.S. soldier accused of killing some 16 Afghan civilians in southern Afghanistan over the weekend. The shootings come as anti-Americanism already is boiling over in Afghanistan after U.S. troops burned Qurans last month.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with trade moves against China.