By Courtney Tower

OTTAWA (MNI) - Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, in the wake of deepening concerns about the Greek and Portuguese economies, Tuesday said that the risks of global sovereign credit problems are increasing.

World economic recovery could take longer to be fully achieved than has been expected and a main factor in this is the growing debt of many countries, Carney told the Finance Committee of Canada's House of Commons.

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) - Senate Republicans again banded together Tuesday and rejected a Democratic motion to formally begin debate on a financial regulatory reform bill.

The Senate voted 57 to 41 to begin the debate on financial regulatory reform. Sixty votes are required to begin the debate.

By Ian Mckendry

WASHINGTON (MNI) - As the Congressional hearing on the actions of Goldman Sachs prior to the financial crisis drags on well into the day, the firm's executives continue to insist their actions were appropriate and ethical.

"I had every reason to be ethical with respect to what the firm did with me including compensation," said Daniel Sparks, the former head of the Wall Street giant's Mortgage Department, told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation.

By Dennis Pettit

NEW YORK, April 27 (MNI) - The dollar racked up solid gains vs. the euro while wilting against the yen as a fresh wave of risk-aversion rippled through financial markets Tuesday, with an already nervous market disposition exacerbated by ratings action on some European sovereign debt.

By Suzanne Cosgrove

CHICAGO (MNI) - European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet Tuesday said that it was "out of the question" that a European nation should default, but refused to answer questions regarding the current debt crisis in Greece, noting that negotiations are still in progress.

Speaking at a morning event at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs on "Lessons from the Financial and Economic Crisis," Trichet said central bankers faced exceptional challenges during the crisis, and were "exposed to things that were not in the textbooks."

By Yali N'Diaye

WASHINGTON (MNI) - Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Carl Levin was hoping to get answers from current and former Goldman Sachs executives at a hearing Tuesday, but instead he and several other congressional questioners expressed frustration at what they deemed a lack of cooperation.

During the hearing, the Goldman Sachs executives on the first panel also said they were not responsible for the financial crisis.

WASHINGTON (MNI) - The following are excerpts from the ISM Semiannual Forecasts. Surveyed purchasing and supply executives expect improvement in both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sector in the remainder of 2010, April 27:

Economic growth is expected to continue in the United States throughout the remainder of 2010, say the nation's purchasing and supply executives in their spring 2010 Semiannual Economic Forecast. Expectations for the remainder of 2010 have improved in both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors.

As Federal Reserve policymakers convened their two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting, intensified worries about debt burdens in Southern Europe roiled financial markets worldwide and made it even less likely that the FOMC will dare to signal a shift toward tighter U.S. monetary policy.