Reuters: Top Global and Breaking News

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BEIT FAJJAR, West Bank (Reuters) - Jewish settlers opposed to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians were accused of setting fire to a mosque in the West Bank on Monday, burning the Koran and scrawling threats in Hebrew on its walls.

Korans burnt in West Bank mosque attack

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday said the United States was facing an "untenable fiscal situation" and would have to get serious about tackling its federal deficit.

Obama says fiscal situation "untenable"

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans maintain an edge among voters ahead of next month's congressional elections, but Democrats are gaining ground, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Tuesday.

Republicans retain lead ahead of November 2 vote: poll

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Guarding water wells and granaries from enemy raids is as old as war itself. In the Middle Ages, vital resources were hoarded behind castle walls, protected by moats, drawbridges and knights with double-edged swords.

Special report: The Pentagon's new cyber warriors

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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Two Russian-born scientists shared the 2010 Nobel Prize for physics for showing how carbon just one atom thick behaved, a discovery with profound implications from quantum physics to consumer electronics.

Duo wins 2010 physics Nobel for super-thin carbon

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DEARBORN, Michigan (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co has told its U.S. dealers it expects to drop about 175 Lincoln dealerships in and around urban markets as part of a plan to overhaul the brand with a new look and high-end stores.

Ford to cut dealers in Lincoln revamp

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic candidates hold a narrow advantage in the run-up to November's congressional elections in California where big-spending Republican Meg Whitman is struggling in the race for governor, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found on Tuesday.

Democrats hang on to leads in California

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Representatives of the Taliban and President Hamid Karzai's government have started secret talks to negotiate an end to the war in Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing Afghan and Arab sources.

Taliban and Afghan government hold talks to end war: report

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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A U.S. and two Japanese scientists won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry on Wednesday for inventing new ways to bind carbon atoms with uses that range from fighting cancer to producing thin computer screens.

American, two Japanese share Nobel for chemical tool

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WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday renewed its support for an Afghan reconciliation effort aimed at ending a 9-year-old war that has worsened, despite the presence of nearly 150,000 foreign troops in the country.

U.S. backs Afghan reconciliation, no comment on talks