Evening Edition

After a marathon cabinet meeting, the Socialist government of George Papandreou announced an extra 1.6 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in savings this year and an “immediate” sale of lucrative state assets.

These include OTE, the Balkans’ largest telecoms operator, and the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki which rank among the busiest in the Mediterranean in terms of tourism and trade.

With billion of euros in loans from the EU and the IMF at stake, officials were adding the finishing touches to a programme of new spending cuts and an aggressive privatisation drive worth 50 billion euros ($71 billion).

Measures to economise three billion euros this year have already been doubled to six billion euros, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said last week.

Long reluctant to target the Syrian leader directly, the European Union decided to slap an assets freeze and travel ban on Assad, the latest in a string of measures against his regime as the US and Britain called for an end to the killing of anti-regime protesters.

Foreign ministers of the 27-member bloc also called for quick Middle East peace talks, strengthened sanctions on Iran and Libya, chided Yemen’s leader for failing to sign a transition deal, and urged Bahrain to stick to reform.

The eruption of Grimsvoetn has raised concerns over a repeat of last year’s travel chaos sparked by the eruption of another Icelandic volcano which led to the biggest shutdown of European airspace since World War II.

“The low-level winds are … blowing strongly towards the UK,” said Peitur Arason of the Icelandic Meteorological Office, meanwhile British air traffic control operator NATS said volcanic ash was expected to reach Scottish airspace by 2300 GMT on Monday.

As nominations opened for the International Monetary Fund’s next managing director, Lagarde told US television network CNBC that it was “premature” to talk of her taking the job.

But a steamroller of support for her candidacy for one of the most powerful jobs in global finance was building in Europe.

Instead, the reasons for the spiking death tolls are more likely due to the rise in the population density, the number of mobile homes and the chance paths taken by a series of tornadoes that have happened to target populated areas.

“This year is an extraordinary outlier,” said Harold Brooks, research meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma.

Around 10 people were wounded and towering flames rose over PNS Mehran in the centre of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, where the military and government confirmed that the base was under “terrorist attack”.

An AFP reporter saw swarms of soldiers and navy commando reinforcements pile into the base as smoke rose into the night sky. Over a period of several hours, an AFP photographer heard nine blasts and periodic bursts of gunfire.

It was the worst assault on a military base since the army headquarters was besieged in October 2009, piling further embarrassment on the armed forces three weeks after Osama bin Laden was found living under their noses.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said four to six militants used ladders to climb into the naval air base in the teeming port city of Karachi under the cover of night late Sunday, triggering gunbattles and a series of explosions.

A visiting delegation of the UN Security Council said on Sunday they were “very, very concerned about the rapidly deteriorating situation in Abyei” and formally called on Khartoum to withdraw its troops.

“The members of the Security Council call upon the government of Sudan to halt its military operation and to withdraw immediately from Abyei town and its environs,” the French ambassador to the United Nations, Gerard Araud, told a joint news conference in Khartoum with his Russian and US counterparts.

Officials hope that a forensic analysis of Allende’s remains will resolve a decades-old controversy over his death in his presidential palace on September 11, 1973 in the midst of the coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power.

The official version was that Allende killed himself with an assault rifle — a gift from Cuban leader Fidel Castro — as the La Moneda presidential palace was being bombed by Air Force planes and besieged by tanks and soldiers.

The Cupertino, California-based gadget-maker is expected to launch a new Web-hosted music service next month, according to multiple reports, after negotiating deals with at least three of the four major record labels.

The service is likely to be presented at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which opens in San Francisco on June 6 and which has been the venue for past launches of high-profile Apple products.

The clashes in Sanaa cast further dimmed prospects for a political solution to a three-month crisis in which youth-led demonstrators, inspired by protests that swept aside the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia, are demanding an end to nearly 33 years of Saleh rule.

The United States and Saudi Arabia, both targets of foiled attacks by a strong wing of al Qaeda based in Yemen, are keen to end the Yemeni stalemate and avert a spread of anarchy that could give the global militant network more room to operate.

The assault casts fresh doubt on the military’s ability to protect its bases after a raid on the army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi in 2009 and is a further embarrassment following the surprise raid by U.S. special forces on the al Qaeda leader’s hideout north of Islamabad on May 2.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said just six militants were believed involved in the attack on the PNS Mehran base in Karachi late on Sunday, destroying two aircraft and laying siege to a main building in one of the most heavily guarded bases in the unstable, nuclear-armed country.

After Britain over the weekend endorsed French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde as an “outstanding candidate” for the job, officials of emerging economies pushed back fiercely while they maneuvered to select a candidate of their own.

“A stench of colonialism is wafting around 19th and H streets in Northwest Washington, site of the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund,” said Moises Naim, a former World Bank board director for Venezuela who is currently at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The Mexican Finance Ministry said it would nominate central bank chief Agustin Carstens, placing a prominent emerging market name into the race to lead the global lender.

The International Monetary Fund has promised a merit-based process to replace former leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn of France, who is under house arrest in New York on charges he attempted to rape a hotel maid.

Italy, which has the euro zone’s biggest debt pile in absolute terms, was hit by credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s decision on Saturday to cut its outlook to “negative” from “stable”.

In an explanatory statement, S&P said it did not expect Rome to seek financial help from the EU or IMF due to the “absence of significant imbalances”. The sheer size of its public debt effectively made it too big to bail out.

Athens is feeling mounting pressure from policy makers in Brussels and the European Central Bank to redouble its efforts to cut deficits and push reforms to fix the economy’s woes after falling behind targets set in its 110 billion euro bailout plan.

During a marathon meeting, the cabinet considered a raft of new austerity measures, including deeper cuts in public sector wages, more consumer tax increases, and even the taboo issue of dismissing full-time civil servants.

North Sudan’s army vowed to hold all the territory it took, defying demands from the U.N. Security Council and drawing sharp criticism from the United States and other world powers.

South Sudan accused Khartoum of trying to provoke war and prevent the oil-rich south from becoming an independent country after it voted to break away from the north in a January referendum agreed under a 2005 peace deal.

Preliminary purchasing managers’ surveys pointed to marginally slower economic growth in the euro zone and China in the second quarter while growth in the common currency bloc’s dominant service sector also slowed more sharply than expected.

But policymakers will take some cheer from the fact that prices did not rise so steeply this month.

Britain’s Met Office is predicting the plume of ash from the Grimsvotn volcano would cover the Irish Republic, Northern Ireland, Scotland and parts of northern Britain by 2 a.m. ET

U.S. President Barack Obama is due to fly into Britain on Tuesday from Ireland for a state visit.

Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, said he would “absolutely” be willing to negotiate with Democrats, who have hammered his plan to scale back government-run health plans for the poor and the elderly.

With Ryan’s plan headed for likely defeat in the Democratic-controlled Senate, that chamber’s top Republican said it was time for “an adult conversation” on ways to keep healthcare costs under control.

The unusually brazen assault, which the Taliban said was to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden, was a reminder that the Pakistanis are catching blame from both sides in the aftermath of the May 2 raid by U.S. commandos.

While Americans have accused elements in the Pakistani security services of having sheltered bin Laden in the military town of Abbottabad, the Taliban and al-Qaida fault the army for its level of cooperation with the Americans. It was the third purported revenge strike in Pakistan since bin Laden’s death.

Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority said it appears that ash from the Grimsvotn (GREEMSH-votn) volcano could reach Scottish airspace as early as Tuesday and affect other parts of the U.K. and Ireland later in the week.

British Airways suspended all its flights for Tuesday morning between London and Scotland, while Dutch carrier KLM and Easyjet canceled flights to and from Scotland and northern England at the same time. Two domestic airlines also announced flight disruptions.

Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority said it appears that ash from the Grimsvotn (GREEMSH-votn) volcano could reach Scottish airspace as early as Tuesday and affect other parts of the U.K. and Ireland later in the week.

British Airways suspended all its flights for Tuesday morning between London and Scotland, while Dutch carrier KLM and Easyjet canceled flights to and from Scotland and northern England at the same time. Two domestic airlines also announced flight disruptions.

It’s a grim reality for patients and families in Bulgaria, a struggling EU nation where donors are troublingly scarce, hospitals are strapped for funds and blood traders – mainly Gypsy, or Roma, men – are thriving.

Trading in blood and blood products is illegal in Bulgaria, punishable by a fine of up to euro5,000 ($7,100). But lawyers say it’s difficult to prove an illegal blood transaction because that requires an official complaint lodged by the person who pays the donor – and families are so desperate they consider the black market blood donors lifesavers.

The decision, however, doesn’t mean the prison gates will swing open in an uncontrolled release.

The high court’s 5-4 decision calls on the state to cut the population to no more than 110,000 inmates. To get there, state officials have two years to either transfer some 33,000 inmates to other jails or release them.

With Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels becoming the latest respected Republican to forgo a candidacy, many party insiders say the field is largely set. And Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and Olympic Games organizer, is in front.

“It’s Romney’s to lose,” said Scott Reed, a GOP consultant who managed Bob Dole’s presidential campaign. He said Romney’s biggest advantages are his personal wealth, fundraising know-how and experience as a 2008 contender, when John McCain won the nomination.

The massive, $553 billion bill providing a budget for the Pentagon boasts millions of dollars that President Barack Obama didn’t request for weapons programs, installations and other projects in districts from Illinois to Mississippi represented by House GOP freshmen. The additions look suspiciously like the pet projects that Republicans prohibited when they took over the House and that the new class of lawmakers, many with tea party backing, swore off in a promise to change Washington’s spending habits.

Heated campaign talk of reining in spending and barring earmarks often cools once candidates get to Congress and face the needs and demands of their districts, especially in times of wobbly economic recovery and a widespread shortage of jobs.

“The truth about federal energy subsidies, including federal subsidies for ethanol, is that they have to be phased out,” Pawlenty told about 200 Republican activists and supporters in Des Moines in his first public appearance since officially kicking off his White House bid Sunday. “We simply can’t afford them anymore.”

The former Minnesota governor is using his first week of campaigning as an announced candidate to try to cast himself as a straight-talking Midwesterner, unafraid to consider drastic changes to sensitive spending programs in order to solve the nation’s fiscal problems. He faces several obstacles in pursuing the GOP nomination; he isn’t well-known nationally, ranks low in popularity polling and has been tagged by comedians and the chattering class as boring.

The Associated Press-GfK poll suggests that arguments for overhauling the massive benefit programs to pare government debt have failed to sway the public. The debate is unlikely to be resolved before next year’s elections for president and Congress.

Americans worry about the future of the retirement safety net, the poll found, and 3 out of 5 say the two programs are vital to their basic financial security as they age. That helps explain why the Republican Medicare privatization plan flopped, and why President Barack Obama’s Medicare cuts to finance his health care law contributed to Democrats losing control of the House in last year’s elections.

The UCI insisted Monday that it had “never altered or hidden the results of a positive test,” and that seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong had never been notified of a positive finding.

“The UCI is deeply shocked by the seriousness of the allegations made on the `60 Minutes’ program aired by U.S. television network CBS,” the body said in a statement. “The allegations of Mr. Tyler Hamilton are completely unfounded.”

That was years ago.

Hamilton is finally coming clean about doping in the cycling world, and his version of the truth is anything but helpful to the planet’s most famous cyclist. Once one of Armstrong’s key teammates, Hamilton is casting more doubts on an unparalleled career that some people believe was tainted by drugs.

The 27-nation bloc instituted an assets freeze and a visa ban on Assad and nine other members of his regime.

Earlier this month, the EU sanctioned 13 people with links to the Syrian regime, but Assad was not among them. A European official said at the time that the omission was part of a deliberately gradual approach.

The street fighting, in which six people were killed and nearly 40 wounded, was the heaviest clash between the pro- and anti-Saleh camps since hundreds of thousands of Yemenis began taking to the streets three months ago in protests demanding the ouster of the president after 32 years in power.

It erupted amid increased tensions after Saleh refused at the last minute on Sunday to sign a U.S.-backed agreement, mediated by Yemen’s powerful Gulf Arab neighbors, under which he would step down in 30 days. Saleh had promised to sign the deal, but instead, his regime sent mobs of armed supporters into the street Sunday, protesting at embassies, in an orchestrated campaign to demand he stay in power.

Knee replacement surgeries have doubled over the last decade and more than tripled in the 45-to-64 age group, new research shows. Hips are trending that way, too.

And here’s a surprise: It’s not all due to obesity. Ironically, trying to stay fit and avoid extra pounds is taking a toll on a generation that expects bad joints can be swapped out like old tires on a car.

Did you, like many thousands of others, turn to a social network and confess to the world something you had kept hidden? Did you laugh it off and make jokes about not having to go to work Monday? Did you pick your favorite end-times pop song and blast it on the car stereo?

Did you maybe scoff a little while wondering – just a teensy bit, in a tiny place in the very back of your head – what you might do if Saturday were indeed your final day on the planet?

As the appointed day drew nearer, Hopkins started making the 100-mile round trip twice a day to warn people about the apocalypse coming on May 21, spending at least $15 in retirement savings on gas each way.

When the Rapture didn’t arrive Saturday, Hopkins and countless other crestfallen followers began turning their attention to more earthly concerns. On Monday, they anxiously awaited California radio preacher Harold Camping’s first public statement about why his doomsday prediction did not come true.

Lawmakers voted 74-8 to debate and vote the legislation this week, before key provisions expire on Friday. President Barack Obama was in Europe, so any extension must pass the House and Senate, then be flown overseas and signed into law before the three provisions expire.

That would require uncommon speed for the deliberative Senate, where one member can delay or block legislation. And there were opponents: Senators of both parties said the law, designed after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, would give the government too much power.

The Government Accountability Office, in a report being released Tuesday, said at least 3,700 government contractors and nonprofit organizations that received more than $24 billion from the stimulus effort owed $757 million in back taxes as of Sept. 30, 2009, the end of the budget year.

The report said the tax delinquents accounted for nearly 6 percent of the 63,000 contractors and grantees examined and cautioned that the real number might be higher because the known tax debt does not measure such factors as income underreporting.

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are backing a bill that would set a Nov. 1 deadline for the State Department to decide on the $7 billion project. A Canadian company wants to build a 1,900-mile pipeline to carry crude oil extracted from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas.

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who chairs the energy panel, said it makes sense to pursue reliable and affordable energy in North America. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would create thousands of jobs and help cut $4-a-gallon prices at the pump, Upton said.

New Jersey casino regulators approved the sale of Trump Marina Hotel Casino on Monday to the owners of the Golden Nugget casinos in Nevada for $38 million – about a tenth of what the property was expected to fetch just three years ago.

Landry’s Inc. has rebranded the casino as the Golden Nugget Atlantic City, a name change that became official with Monday’s vote by the Casino Control Commission.

The trial of businessman Tahawwur Rana is being closely watched worldwide for what testimony might reveal about suspected links between the Pakistani militant group blamed in the rampage on India’s largest city and Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, which has come under increased scrutiny since Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces on May 2 outside Islamabad.

Of particular interest is the government’s first and main witness, David Coleman Headley, who is cooperating with prosecutors after pleading guilty to taking photos and videos of targets in Mumbai before the rampage that killed 160 people including six Americans over three days. Rana is accused of providing cover for Headley, his long-time friend from boarding school, by allowing him to use his Chicago-based immigration services business as a cover when he traveled to Mumbai to scout sites.

Failure would have meant a major embarrassment to the administration. It has taken a leading role in the Human Rights Council after years in which the U.S. dismissed it as an anti-Israel peanut gallery, and a Syrian victory might have meant the end of that effort.

Syria was poised earlier this month to gain membership at the same time its regime was pressing a brutal crackdown that had killed more than 900 people and the U.S. was readying sanctions on President Bashar Assad. Not a single Arab or Asian country was willing to run against the Syrians. The administration was dealing with a hostile Congress that wanted no part of the human rights body, long held up as Exhibit A for American critics of the U.N.

But an Associated Press review found that in legislature after legislature, nearly all the most punitive measures failed.

What had passed as of Monday mostly reinforced current federal law, though a small number of states actually passed legislation that was helpful to illegal immigrants.

“In 2009 I had the sense if she made it to the White House and I had stayed silent, I could never forgive myself,” Frank Bailey told The Associated Press.

Palin’s attorney did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

She’s not sulking about her glaucoma, or the cataracts that have turned her eyes a cloudy blue-white and forced her to navigate her tank essentially from memory.

She’ll pull out a wiggle dance if you want it (still smooth). She waves, practices a newly learned rolling maneuver and even plants a grandmotherly peck on a visitor’s cheek.

By the time it was over, as many as 40 people had been treated by paramedics for headaches, nausea, dizziness and asthma attacks.

During the coming months, state air quality regulators would field more than 200 additional complaints about the “rotten egg” fumes overtaking this dusty agricultural community at the northern tip of the Salton Sea and tracked the smell to a soil recycling facility that leases tribal land less than two miles from the school.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service earlier this month formally lifted federal protections for more than 1,300 wolves in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Utah. That will allow hunting of the carnivores that ranchers say have taken a steady toll on their livestock over the past two decades.

Tex Marchessault, a cattle rancher near Dillon, Mont., said he’s lost several young cattle over the years, and other livestock have been injured in attacks. Government trappers killed a six-wolf pack on his land a few years ago, but another pack soon took its place, he said.