Sonia is much better: Rahul

 

President of India's ruling Congress party Sonia Gandhi, who underwent surgery in the US recently for an unspecified ailment, is "much better", her son Rahul Gandhi said yesterday.
Rahul, who returned here yesterday after attending to his mother, told reporters that "she is much better".
Sonia had left earlier this month for the US where she underwent successful surgery.

we also know  that she is a wonderful lady for  indians politics.Many years ago she become prime minister of india.but she left her sit for indian.So we can say that she is much better for india.

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Egypt says will not need IMF, World Bank funds

Egypt will not borrow from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund after revising its budget and cutting the forecast deficit, even though a loan had been agreed, Finance Minister Samir Radwan said .

The 2011/12 deficit in the first draft budget was forecast at 11 percent of gross domestic product, but was revised to 8.6 percent because of a national dialogue and the ruling army council's concerns about debt levels, the minister told .

"So we do not need to go at this stage to the Bank and the Fund," Radwan said, adding Egypt, which had borrowed from the IMF under ousted president Hosni Mubarak, still had the "best relations" with the two US-based institutions.

Despite the budget revisions, the government said it still expected growth of 3.0-3.5 percent, in line with previous forecasts, which some economists said could prove optimistic.

Egypt this month agreed on a $3-billion (1.9 billion pounds), 12-month standby loan facility from the IMF, which Cairo had said came with more lenient terms than usually associated with such lending.

The IMF and World Bank had been among a range of foreign countries and bodies to offer funds to Egypt to help cover a big budget shortfall after the economy was plunged into turmoil by the mass protests that drove Mubarak from office on February 11.

Egypt's cabinet had approved on June 1 a budget for 2011/12 that increased spending by a quarter to create jobs and help the poor. That was revised in a new draft announced on Wednesday that included raising income tax and reducing fuel subsidies.

Gulf Arab states are among those who offered support.

Radwan said Qatar had provided $500 million for budgetary support in the past week. "That is a gift," he said, when asked if there were any conditions attached to the Qatari cash.

He said Saudi Arabia had earlier offered a similar amount.

The minister said the first draft of the budget, which forecast a deficit of about 170 billion Egyptian pounds, was discussed with activists, writers, the business community, trade unions and non-government organisations.

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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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