King Abdullah of Jordan has sworn in the new government led by a reformist Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour. His appointment came after the king took the unprecedented step of consulting parliament. Previously it had no role in forming governments. The new cabinet will face a task of implementing measures to try to reduce Jordan’s three-billion-dollar deficit. Here is Dale Gavlak.
Reform-minded Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour has merged several portfolios to cut spending in the cash-strapped kingdom which is facing a three-billion-dollar deficit. Jordan hopes to cut its
budget
deficit by about a third this year to curb the impact of soaring fuel
import
cost and high social spending designed to deter the kind of uprising scene in neighboring Arab states. Late last year, Prime Minister Ensour ended fuel subsidies, triggering nationwide protest, some demanding that the king stepped down.
French police have foiled the thief to the elephant tusks from the Natural History Museum in Paris. A 20-year-old man broke into the museum overnight and used the chainsaw to remove one of the tusks from an elephant that once belong to the French King Louis XIV. The man fled when the museum’s alarms went off. He was caught by police in a nearby street. Museum’s staff say they are confident the tusk can be restored.
An Indian restaurant in Britain has created an Easter egg which it says is up to ten times hotter than a vindaloo curry or the