Keeping the financial regulators on their toes

When members of Congress need factual information and insights into the effectiveness of the financial laws put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, they regularly turn to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Orice Williams Brown. Initially as director and now as managing director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment section, Brown and her staff have issued...

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Portuguese lawmakers clear biting 2013 austerity budget

LISBON: Bailed-out Portugal's lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to a 2013 budget imposing an unprecedented austerity squeeze even as protesters massed outside.The budget, aimed at saving 5.3 billion euros ($6.9 billion), passed easily with the support of the centre-right government, which has an absolute majority.The government says the plan, which relies on higher taxes for 80 percent...

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Two senior Zee journalists arrested on extortion charges

NEW DELHI: Two senior journalists of Zee news channel were arrested here today on charges of trying to extort Rs 100 crore from Congress MP Naveen Jindal's group for not doing news reports on coal scam linking his firm. The arrests on charges of extortion came following the registration of a case about 45 days ago on a complaint filed by Jindal's company with Delhi Police's Crime Branch. Sudhir...

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Space Pictures This Week: Space "Horse," Mars Rover, More

High Horse Photograph by Greg Parker, Your Shot The Horsehead Nebula rears its pretty head in a November 17 photograph submitted to National Geographic's Your Shot photo community.Taken...

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GOP Senators More Troubled After Rice Meeting

Three Republican senators who met Tuesday with U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice say they are more troubled now over her initial explanations about the deadly Sept. 11 raid in Libya.Rice met behind closed doors Tuesday with Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte — three of her harshest critics. Ayotte said Rice told them that her national television description...

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Obama drafts in Geithner to crack budget impasse

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has made Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner lead White House negotiator in budget talks with Congress aimed at averting the fiscal cliff, a report said Monday.The Wall Street Journal said Geithner was viewed on Capitol Hill as a straight-shooter who had a better chance of brokering a deal than Jacob Lew, Obama's former budget chief who has burnt his...

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LeT threatens to strike at Vaishno Devi

JAMMU: An email threatening to target the cave shrine of Vaishno Devi was purportedly sent by the banned terror outfit Lashker-e-Toiba to a hotelier in Katra to avenge the execution of 26/11 terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab, police said today. The email was received by A H Bhat, a hotelier of Devi Grand hotel, on November 24 threatening to target the shrine to avenge the hanging of Kasab, a...

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Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed

Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling. Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group...

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President Obama Prepares for Cabinet Shuffle

Nov 26, 2012 6:45am Carolyn Kaster/AP PhotoAs President Obama prepares for his second term, preparations have begun for the traditional shuffling of the Cabinet.Top priority for the president: filling slots for those top officials heading — if not running — for the door: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner.To replace Clinton,...

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Portugal MPs to adopt unpopular austerity budget

LISBON: Portugal's parliament is due to adopt on Tuesday a massively unpopular 2013 budget that will make unprecedented austerity reforms in a bid to satisfy international creditors helping the country fight off economic collapse.Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho's centre-right government has a comfortable majority in parliament, virtually guaranteeing the budget will pass.But lawmakers...

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