Spain to miss deficit targets in 2012, 2013: says IMF

As per IMF, Spain will miss its deficit targets in 2012 and 2013 and its debt will jump to more than 90 percent of gross domestic product next year as it recapitalizes its banking sector.

The International Monetary Fund said in its fiscal monitor report that the country's deficit would reach 7 percent of GDP in 2012 and 5.7 percent in 2013, compared with European Union-agreed targets of 6.3 percent of GDP this year and 4.5 percent of GDP next year.

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Spain replaced Greece, Portugal and Ireland as the epicenter of the euro zone debt crisis after it missed its budget targets by a wide margin in 2011.

Read details: Business Recorder

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Uncertainty lingers on NASA's Mars program

Photo NASA

This week’s arrival of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity set the stage for a potentially game-changing quest to learn whether the planet most like Earth ever had a shot at developing life, but follow-up missions exist only on drawing boards.

The United States had planned to team up with Europe on a trio of missions beginning in 2016 that would culminate in the return of Mars soil and rock samples to Earth, an endeavor the National Research Council considers its top priority in planetary science for the next decade.

Citing budget concerns, the Obama administration terminated NASA’s participation in Europe’s ExoMars program earlier this year, spurring the U.S. space agency to re-examine its options before another flight opportunity comes and goes. Earth and Mars favorably align for launches about every 26 months.

The situation is complicated by massive budget overruns in the $2.5-billion US Curiosity mission, intended to determine if Mars could now or ever have supported microbial life, and in the $8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, a successor to the Hubble observatory.

Read details: Toronto Sun

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Spain unveils austerity budget

Spain is cutting 27bn euros ($36bn; £22.5bn) from its budget this year as part of one of the toughest austerity drives in its history.

Changes will include freezing public sector workers' salaries and reducing departmental budgets by 16.9%. The government says it will raise 12.3bn euros this year, aided by an increase in tax for large companies.

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said the nation was in an "extreme situation".

Read more: BBC News

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