Britain won’t ease austerity in its budget to be presented this week, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said in an interview to be aired Sunday on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” program. “We are going to stick with the deficit reduction plan that I set out almost two years ago,” Osborne said, according to a transcript of the interview. U.K. jobless claims rose more than economists forecast in February, and a broader measure of unemployment remained at the highest level in 16 years, acc

Spain’s public-debt burden surged to the most in at least two decades, underlining concerns about its ability to reorder state finances as contagion from the debt crisis focuses on the euro area’s fourth-biggest economy. The nation’s overall debt last year amounted to 68.5 percent of gross domestic product, exceeding the government’s forecast of 67.3 percent, data on the Bank of Spain’s website showed Friday. That compares with 66 percent in the third quarter and 61.2 percent at the end of 2010.

Greece remains “accident prone” and may require further debt restructuring or additional financing from euro countries if it struggles to implement measures attached to a new 130 billion-euro ($171 billion) bailout, staff at the International Monetary Fund said. The loan package is based “on ambitious fiscal and privatization targets and above all on a reinvigoration of structural reforms,” IMF staff wrote in a report released Friday. “In the event of slower progress in policy implementation, or

CANBERRA (AP) ― WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to run for a seat in the Australian Senate in elections due next year despite being under virtual house arrest in England and facing sex crime allegations in Sweden, the group said Saturday.The 40-year-old Australian citizen is fighting extradition to Sweden. He has taken his legal battle all the way to Britain’s Supreme Court, which is expected to rule on his case soon.“We have discovered that it is possible for Julian Assange to run for th

PARIS (AFP) ― With just over a month to go Friday before the first round of France’s presidential vote, right-wing incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy is closing the gap with Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande.As polls showed Sarkozy cutting his rival’s lead after several weeks of campaigning and a swerve to the right, Hollande was also facing a new threat on his left flank from firebrand Left Front candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.The campaign moved into a new phase Friday after a deadline passed for wo

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Film actor George Clooney and his father were arrested Friday during a protest outside the Sudanese Embassy, and the actor said he has asked President Barack Obama to engage China to help stop a humanitarian crisis in northern Africa.The protesters accuse Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir of provoking a humanitarian crisis and blocking food and aid from entering the Nuba Mountains in the county’s border region with South Sudan.Clooney, his father, Nick Clooney, and others were

30 Iranian banks blocked from most global  commerce following European sanctionsBRUSSELS (AP) ― Dozens of Iranian banks were blocked from doing business with much of the world as the West tightens the financial screws on a country it wants to prevent from developing nuclear weapons.The Belgium-based company that facilitates most international bank transfers on Thursday took the unprecedented step of blocking 30 Iranian banks from using its service. The move is likely to hurt Iran’s all-importan