Not even the relatively good news of a declining federal budget deficit or the impending bad news that Congress has not resolved the rising costs of Medicare.

CNN: AllPolitics - Pundits and Prose - Charles Bierbauer

The market seemed receptive: Morgan Stanley (nyse: MS - news - people ) was expecting a pack of budget airlines--including EasyJet , Ryanair (nasdaq: RYAAY - news - people ), Go and Buzz --to triple their share of European air travel, to 28%, by 2010.

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North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, proposed a stripped-down version of Simpson-Bowles on Fox News Sunday.

FORBES: Obama's Opportunity To Go Big On The Fiscal Cliff

It could then drop some of its often weak non-news programmes, which take up half the hours broadcast and a third of the budget.

ECONOMIST: The BBC

In an interview with the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA), Gholam Reza Kateb a member of the national planning and budget committee in Parliament referenced a report from Iran's oil minister Rostam Qasemi.

CNN: Iran's oil revenue problem