Portugal approves austerity budget

Portugal's parliament has approved its budget for next year, which will result in the government making drastic cuts in public spending to reduce the deficit. The bill was passed comfortably on Friday after the main opposition Social Democratic Party abstained in the vote. "Now that the budget has been approved we must immediately get to work to create the conditions necessary for it to be implemented," Teixeira dos Santos, the finance minister, said after the vote. Jose Socrates, the prime minister, said in a brief statement after parliament approved the spending plan, that the country had "no alternative at all'' to the cuts. "We must make this effort,'' he said.