UK's Osborne sharpens axe for austerity spending plan

Britain's finance minister will on Wednesday unveil budgets for government departments over the next five years, in a spending review expected to herald further austerity measures and bitter recriminations. George Osborne, a possible successor to Prime Minister David Cameron and his de facto deputy, is aiming to eliminate Britain's budget deficit and run a surplus by the end of the current parliament in 2020. "As a nation determined to live within our means, we are facing painful choices, and th