But he made clear the package on March 24 will not feature details of where cuts in public spending will fall – instead focusing on measures to encourage economic growth.
He also refused to rule out more tax rises beyond the hikes on top earners and national insurance already announced.
Interviewed on Sky News’ Sunday Live programme, Mr Darling said of the Budget: ”Of course it is important because the economy and the decisions we take that will affect the next five, 10, 20 years are pretty critical to the big decision, …

The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration.
It’s time to start cashing them in.
For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each year.
Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than …

Two guns used in high-profile shootings this year at the Pentagon and a Las Vegas courthouse both came from the same unlikely place: the police and court system of Memphis, Tenn.
Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that both guns were once seized in criminal cases in Memphis. The officials described how the weapons made their separate ways from an evidence vault to gun dealers and to the shooters.
The use of guns that once were in police custody and were later involved in attacks on police officers highlights a little-known …

In its annual report on human rights, the US State Department raised concerns about the treatment of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for hedge fund Hermitage Capital Managment, who died in custody on tax evasion charges that the report claims were “widely believed [to have been] fabricated”.
Giving prominence to the claims that his death was due to “deliberate medical neglect”, the report said: “The official report of his cause of death was heart failure, which was widely considered to be a false diagnosis intended to hide the decision to deny him …

President Barack Obama says he wants projects helping specific states yanked from the health care bill Congress is writing. Democratic senators, being senators, beg to differ.
The Senate-approved health measure lawmakers hope to send to Obama soon would steer $600 million over the next decade to Vermont in added federal payments for Medicaid and nearly as much to Massachusetts.
Connecticut would get $100 million to build a hospital. About 800,000 Florida seniors could keep certain Medicare benefits. Asbestos-disease victims in tiny Libby, Mont., and some coal miners with black lung disease or …