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Continuing, he said farmers do not get fertilizers to buy and even if they do, they pay black market price which was far more than the market price

For instance, he said this year, government had imported 180,000 tonnes of fertilizers but argued that the amount that would go to farmers was not known because under the invoice system of distribution, beneficiaries of the subsidized fertilizers could not be traced and recorded

And is our proposal to the government to increase their allocation to the ministry

He urged the government to channel a large chunk of the revenue that would be generated from the oil and gas sector into the development of agriculture in the country

The Atwima-Nwabiagya South MP urged his colleague MPs to use their positions to help solve the challenges the farmers faced in the countr

Mr. Abu, on his part, stressed the need to make the farming profession lucrative in order to reduce the retention rate and attract the youth.

“It is important that our farmers are encouraged to remain in Agriculture and adopt scientific and modern practices of farming to enable them increase their production and productivity every season to reduce hunger and poverty,” he said.

revealed that youth unemployment had soared even higher, with 43% of the under 25s who are not studying now unable to find work.

The first quarter

"It is a dramatic and brutal increase," said Helena Pinto,

a leap in emigration by people desperate to find work.

Portugal's economy is expected to shed yet more jobs and shrink by a further 2.3% this year,

bidding of the troika of lenders who keep it afloat - the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission.

government forces ever-deeper austerity

Portugal has now been in recession for almost three years

Passos Coelho's announcement

he would cut another €4.8bn spending over the next three years is expected to harm short-term growth further.

sack one in twenty public employees,

increase civil service working week from 35 to 40 hours

raise the retirement age by a year to 66

austerity has so far failed

taming the country's budget deficit

5.7% interest

country's constitutional court threw out €5.8bn in cuts to

civil service pay and sickness benefits.

the government selling ten year bonds

raising €3bn

could have sold three times as much debt this week

potential recovery in a country which needed €78bn of bailout money to escape bankruptcy

fail to spark growth

raising hopes that Portugal could wean itself off aid next year.

The government forecasts a third straight year of recession

unemployment rising to 18.5%

austerity

other southern European countries

increased last year from 4.4% of GDP to 6.4%.

signs of softening

the troika

extended the repayment period for Portugal's bailout loans

seven years

government is trying to encourage young people to take such positions to address long-term unemployment.

The official unemployment rate for Saudis is around 12 per cent. However, economists estimate that only 30-40 percent of working age Saudis participate in the workforce, either by holding jobs or seeking employment.

years of successive fiscal surpluses and foreign currency reserves

economists often warn that high government spending, particularly on salaries, is unsustainable.

the French government has suspended its implementation until 2015

26 blockades on France's main road arteries on Saturday

Up to 4,500 trucks caused significant disruption from the Paris region to Bordeaux and Aix-en-Provence in the south, affecting transit towards Spain and Italy

Meanwhile, in Brittany, up to 40,000 people took part in a rally in Carhaix, many wearing “bonnets rouges” (red caps) that have become synonymous with rising anger against President François Hollande’s punitive tax hikes.

“Brittany is being scorned and ignore

The government is due to propose a “Pact for the future of Brittany” on Wednesday which it hopes will finally quell the protest movement and stop it spreading to other regions.

Jean-Marc Ayrault, the prime minister, has promised a “total overhaul” of France’s tax system to quell tensions – an overhaul that Mr Hollande says will take his entire five-year mandate to complete

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of the Front de Gauche (Left Front) party, warned that “France is in 1788”, namely on the verge of revolution. “The tax system is rejected by all as everyone knows that it protects the privileged wealthy,” he told Le Parisien.

“We are asking for a tax reform respecting a simple principle: everyone pays and the more you earn, the more you pay.”

The authority's payment ban also applies to social housing tenants who subscribe to satellite television channels

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) provides £25m per year in Discretionary Housing Payments to allow local authorities to provide support for tenants affected by the change.

Under the changes, 14% is deducted from housing benefit for people with one spare bedroom, and a quarter for two or more.

"If their spending includes satellite television. If it includes smoking then what we say to you is we can't give you extra taxpayers' money to support you to continue to make those life choices.

He said: "I find it quite shocking that the council are saying they're not going to use the money to support people if they happen to be in a contract for satellite TV, which they might have taken before the bedroom tax came in to effect, or they are smokers

e-toll gantries and a conventional, manned toll-gate.

monthly fee of 550 rand ($54; £33) to use the roads, while those who do not register pay up to three times as much if they do not pay within seven days.

Their car number plates are scanned by gantries over the toll roads and bills sent to their homes if they have not paid in advance.

Critics have described the system as "highway robbery".

The government says the e-toll is the only way it could have afforded to improve the congested roads around the commercial capital, Johannesburg.

'Reducing contributions to social security by 5 percentage points in the second half of the year is expected to have an impact on the budget worth probably around 2.6 billion lei. This means that the impact next year will be worth around 5.2 billion.

the government wants to reduce spending and obtain additional budget revenues so that to be able to cover the 2.6 billion leu in the second half of the year and the 5.2 billion in 2015,' Ponta said.

this cutting as a necessary condition for the further economic development of the country and the encouraging of the fiscal facilities and creation of jobs starting on July 1.

"Farmers already pocket huge amounts of cash without having to farm in ways that reduce their effect on wildlife

The subsidies are estimated to cost about $20bn a year, equivalent to almost 3% of Indonesia's total economic output.

petrol prices to rise by 44% and diesel by 22%.

Thousands of motorists rushed to fill up before midnight, after the measure was announced late on Friday.

The announcement sparked clashes in the capital, Jakarta, where protesters blocked roads and fought with police.

Indonesians had been demonstrating on the streets of many major cities all week in anticipation of the rise.

Treasurer Chris Bowen said the move would achieve "several purposes". "It will provide funds for cancer and stroke-related health services, it will deter young people from taking up smoking, and it will help return the budget to surplus," he said. It adds to Australia's move to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products in December after a landmark High Court victory again major tobacco firms.

Kevin Rudd, who successfully challenged Julia Gillard for the ruling Labor Party leadership last month amid dismal polling figures, has not yet specified when the election - originally set for 14 September - will be held, but it must take place by 30 November.

That means companies would have to prove that such oils are safe to eat

Americans ate about one gram a day last year, down from 4.6 grams in 2006

Mexico recently surpassed the United States as the country with one of the highest obesity rates in the world.

32.8% of adult Mexicans are obese, compared to 31.8% of Americans.

The law imposes a levy of 8% on junk food, after the Senate increased it from the 5% originally proposed; and creates a tax of one peso ($0.07; £0.04) on every litre of soft or sugary drinks.

The legislators also passed a controversial hike in value added tax (VAT) for border regions, from 11% to 16%.

"Simply relying on the recent levy changes is not going far enough," she said.

British Gas, the UK's biggest energy supplier, has already announced that it will cut prices by 3.2% on 1 January, following the government rebate.

The current day trip for an adult is $75 return from Fremantle with Rottnest Express. A day return trip from Hillarys on Rottnest Fast Ferries comes in at $84

"If that was the price wouldn't you say: 'Let's not go to Hillarys or somewhere else in Perth, let's go to Rotto have a beer and lunch and come back at five o'clock'," he said.

a simple measure that would automatically improve patronage.

The prices include a $16.50 landing fee, which blows out to $21.50 for an extended stay.

estimated to be more than $5 million annually.

Mr Papandroulakis said he had informal talks with Premier Colin Barnett on the subsidy issue.

Rottnest Express director Glenn Gaynor said his company offered 40,000 heavily discounted tickets per year, at prices that often left them operating the ferry service at a loss.

The thinktank expects the unemployment rate to have dropped to 7% in the three months to February

"That said, falling real incomes didn't get in the way of robust consumer spending growth over the last year. Household spending growth outpaced income growth as consumers saved less (or borrowed more)

This week's official data may show that the squeeze on real pay is now over.

"Earnings growth moving above consumer price inflation would also be a very welcome development for the government given Labour's focus on the cost of living.

Philip Shaw, economist at Investec, expects CPI to come in at 1.5%, which would be the lowest rate since October 2009, and he forecasts it will stay relatively low.

However we are keeping an eye on wholesale food prices – note that wheat prices (in sterling terms) are up 9.5% so far this year, while corn is 17% higher," he said.

The taxes will increase the price of junk foods – those high in saturated fat, sugar and salt – by 8%

9.2% of children in Mexico now have diabetes.

It will also put one peso (about 4p) on a litre of sugary drinks such as Coca Cola

"the Danish saturated fat tax is a dream from a researcher's point of view. We're beginning to get the preliminary results of the introduction of the tax. Of the data they have already got, it had a 4% effect on saturated fat levels. It is completely wrong to say it didn't work."

Related information

The proceeds will go to charities involved in clearing up the environmental damage caused by the bags rather than the government or the retailers.

Tougher action and ambitious targets are needed to cut waste and boost recycling, and bring England in line with the rest of the UK and much of Europe.