Republicans pound Barack Obama

Republican presidential candidates led by frontrunner Mitt Romney used their first big televised debate to lash out at President Barack Obama -- but not each other.
The debate in Manchester, New Hampshire, late Monday did little to define differences between the seven candidates in the unwieldy Republican line-up as White House hopefuls reserved their venom for Obama on the economy and foreign policy.
The civil exchanges left Romney, who has a slight, but consistent lead in the polls, still looking like the man to beat for the nomination.
Standing behind the centre podium in CNN's ultra modern studio, the carefully combed Romney looked suitably presidential as he led the charge against Obama.
"Any one of the people on this stage would be a better president than President Obama," Romney said.
"Why isn't the president leading? He isn't balancing our budget and he isn't leading on jobs. He's failed the American people... And that's why he's not going to be reelected."
Michele Bachmann, a congresswoman and leading light of the staunchly conservative Tea Party movement, momentarily upstaged the other six when she used her opening comments to announce that she had just formally registered her candidacy.
Bachmann, the only woman on the stage, pulled her punches when opportunities came to attack Romney, but she almost shouted during assaults on Obama.
"President Obama has failed his leadership," she charged.
Newt Gingrich, a veteran Republican who was speaker of the House of Representatives in the 1990s, piled in to attack "the Obama depression."
The presidential election is not until November 2012. But candidates were using this event -- the first of many over the coming months -- to solidify their sometimes poor name recognition across the country and position themselves for a grueling campaign.

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Greek PM rebuffs austerity opponents, vows June vote

Protesters shout slogans and lift a Greek flag during a rally against austerity economic measures and corruption in Athens' Constitution square, June 9, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Pascal Rossignol

The Greek government defended its new austerity package from attacks in parliament on Friday, saying it was the only way to stave off bankruptcy, and made a new call for opposition parties to back the plan. Prime Minister George Papandreou's plan almost doubles the belt-tightening measures for 2011 already agreed with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, after the lenders judged that Athens had missed goals outlined under its bailout.
The ruling Socialist party has 156 deputies in the 300-seat house but growing numbers of its members are expressing unease at proposals including cutting spending and raising taxes to reduce the deficit by 6.5 billion euros more this year than first planned.
Papandreou is anxious to pass the plan for more austerity through 2015 despite strikes, mass street protests and dissident voices within his own ruling Socialist party.
"The medicine is not pleasant and the treatment requires devotion and commitment," he told parliament.
"No prime minister of any country wants to go out with a beggar's tray and collect money from other countries ... I certainly don't, but I do it for Greece."
Papandreou is fighting to get not only opposition parties but also his reluctant PASOK party behind the strategy, a condition for receiving more aid from international lenders who threw Greece a 110 billion euro ($160 billion) emergency funding lifeline last year.

PROTESTS AT PARLIAMENT

According to a weekly schedule released by parliament, lawmakers will start debating the midterm plan in the chamber's economic affairs committee on Wednesday.
That will coincide with a nationwide strike by labor unions expected to draw tens of thousands of demonstrators to Syntagma square, parliament's front stoop and the site of two weeks of nightly grassroots protests.
The square is also the convergence point of daily marches by staff in firms earmarked for privatization who oppose the government's pledge to raise 50 billion euros in the selloff of state-owned companies by 2015.
In a televised address to the nation, Papandreou invited proposals for the plan from opposition parties and called for cooperation to improve Athens' position in talks with Brussels ahead of a June 23-24 EU summit.
"I call on the leadership of all parties to cooperate," he said in a televised announcement. "There are many and important points where we converge. With a national consensus, we can negotiate jointly with our partners."
In a move aimed at reducing resistance by the main opposition New Democracy party to the measures, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said the government was considering submitting a new tax bill in September cutting VAT and corporate taxes and said he hoped parliament would approve the mid-term plan by the end of June.
The IMF and EU have demanded wider political consensus in Greece before they give the debt-ridden euro zone member more cash. But the main opposition groups have vowed to vote against the new measures, saying they are choking economic growth.
"The mid-term plan is unreliable, unjust and ineffective. It is a de facto confession of the failure of the bailout," New Democracy party spokesman Yannis Michelakis said in a statement.
European officials are still trying to work out a plan which hits private investors for some of the cost of the new funding plan, expected to be worth around an additional 120 billion euros including 30 billion from sales of Greek state assets.
Figures on Thursday showed the economy is in worse shape than initially feared, with gross domestic product tumbling 5.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.

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Japan finmin Noda emerging as key PM candidate - paper

 







 Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda is emerging as a key candidate to replace Naoto Kan as prime minister and head of the ruling Democratic Party.



Senior ruling party officials plan to nominate Noda as a candidate for the post in a party election to choose its new leader when Kan steps down and Noda himself is keen to run, the paper said.
The officials hope the choice of Noda, in charge of budget preparations, may smooth passage of bills needed to issue bonds to fund a significant portion of the current fiscal year's state budget, as well as the second extra budget for reconstruction from the devastating earthquake in March, the paper said.
Noda, a fiscal hawk, has called for the need to rein in Japan's huge public debt possibly with tax hikes.
Kan, struggling to contain a nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co's crippled Fukushima plant and rebuild Japan's northeast from the devastating March 11 quake and tsunami, last week survived a no-confidence vote by saying he would step down.
He did not say when, though, and rivals in his own party as well as the opposition want him to go soon, clearing the way for a coalition.
Noda has been touted as among possible contenders to replace Kan, alongside Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku and former foreign minister Seiji Maehara.

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