Barack Obama to focus on economy, guns, immigration

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will be looking across a vast partisan divide on Tuesday night as he reports to Congress and the nation, hoping he can bend recalcitrant lawmakers to join him in a second-term drive to boost taxes to raise government spending power and to reform laws on gun ownership and immigration.

Likely new Eurogroup head wants to move on from crisis-fighting

(Reuters) - The man likely to head the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers told his colleagues on Monday he wanted to move on from simply fighting crises and focus on longer-term policies to cement fledgling confidence.

ECB'S Praet says France must cut spending and reform

PARIS (Reuters) - France must cut spending to meet its budget deficit target and undertake structural reforms to boost competitiveness, European Central Bank Executive Board Member Peter Praet said on Tuesday.

Canada economy shrinks in August, clouds outlook

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian economy shrank in August for the first time in six months, an unexpected contraction that pointed to a sharp slowdown in third-quarter growth and reinforced the Bank of Canada's message that interest rate hikes are less imminent.

Clinton Digs at China From Neighboring Mongolia

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia — _In an unmistakable message to China delivered in a speech from this neighboring country, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that economic success without meaningful political reform was an unsustainable equation that would ultimately lead to instability.