Reuters: Top Global and Breaking News

[emirate]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner faces a lonely campaign to make China's currency a major issue at the next Group of 20 summit as would-be allies shrink from confronting Beijing.

U.S. set to be a posse of one on China yuan at G20

[emirate]

LONDON (Reuters) - Halliburton Co, the oilfield services company that cemented the blown-out Gulf of Mexico well which caused the United States' worst-ever oil spill, on Sunday said a BP report into the disaster that laid the blame on the cement job offered a questionable account of events and "erroneous conclusions."

Halliburton slams "erroneous" BP rig blast report

[emirate]

TOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) - Japan said it will ask China to pay for damage to its patrol boats suffered in a collision with a Chinese trawler, as Asia's top two economies continue to bicker over the affair.

Japan seeks damages as China trawler row lingers

[emirate]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama signed a $30 billion small business lending bill into law on Monday, claiming a victory on economic policy for his fellow Democrats ahead of November congressional elections.

Obama signs small business bill into law

[emirate]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional passage of a bill to pressure Beijing to revalue its currency could further harm U.S.-Chinese trade relations already hampered by mutual mistrust and suspicion, U.S. companies invested in China said on Monday.

U.S. business fears "downward spiral" in China trade

[emirate]

CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez and a rejuvenated opposition bloc both claimed victory on Monday in Venezuela's parliamentary election, where challengers dented but did not overturn his Socialist Party's majority.

Both sides hail victory in Venezuela election

[emirate]

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The United States appears to have widened drone aircraft attacks against al Qaeda-linked militants in Pakistan and may have killed a senior leader of the group, Pakistani and U.S. officials said on Tuesday.

U.S. lowers threshold for Pakistan drone strikes

[emirate]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Rob Portman, a senior official under former President George W. Bush, has opened a commanding 13-point lead over his Democratic rival in a Senate race in Ohio, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday said.

Poll gives former Bush official big lead in Ohio

[emirate]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators racing to implement new financial market policing powers will appear together before a Senate committee this week to face questions likely tinged with election-season politics.

Financial regulators to trot out reform plans

[emirate]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With just two months left before it has to issue a final report, a U.S. commission looking at ways to cut the federal deficit was to meet again on Wednesday amid questions about its hard-headedness.

Deficit-cut panel convenes amid skepticism