Greek political parties were engaged in a last-gasp attempt to form a government and avoid new elections on Thursday after voters rejected an international bailout and plunged the debt-ridden country into crisis, Reuters reported. Socialist PASOK party leader Evangelos Venizelos is the third and last political leader to try to form a government after Sunday's election, which left pro- and anti-bailout forces balanced almost equally.

As presidential rivals debated the roots of unemployment during the recent campaign, many companies held off on announcing job cuts to avoid inflaming an already fraught political issue. But now that voters have chosen Socialist François Hollande over center-right President Nicolas Sarkozy to be their next president starting on Tuesday, labor unions say many large French companies are preparing to announce large layoffs in the weeks and months ahead, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Insolvent Swiss oil refiner Petroplus owes Algerian state energy firm Sonatrach over $250 million in unpaid bills, an Algerian energy sector official told Reuters. Sonatrach has not received payment for several cargoes of crude it delivered to the refiner, the source said, without specifying what action, if any, the Algerian firm planned to take to recover the money. Late last year, Petroplus said lenders had frozen a credit facility which it was using to buy crude for delivery to its refineries. It filed for insolvency protection in January.

The evidence of businessman Seán Quinn, his son and nephew denying contempt of court orders restraining them from putting property assets beyond the reach of Anglo Irish Bank is "fantastic" and "incredible", the High Court was told Thursday, the Irish Times reported. Shane Murphy SC, for the bank - now Irish Bank Resolution Corporation - argued it has proven beyond reasonable doubt the three Quinn family members breached court orders of June and July 2011.

From 2013 there will be a five-year hiatus during which two religious holidays and two public holidays will be cancelled. All Saints Day, Corpus Christi, a commemoration of the formation of the Portuguese Republic and a holiday celebrating independence from Spanish rule will all now be regular working days, The Telegraph reported. Portuguese daily Diario de Noticias reports that the Portuguese Catholic Church claims to have reached an "exceptional understanding" with the country over the suspension.

Spain's government will effectively nationalize the nation's fourth largest bank to shore up the hurting banking sector and try to convince investors the country doesn't need a bailout like those taken by Greece, Ireland and Portugal, the Economy Ministry said Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. Under the deal, €4.5 billion ($5.9 billion) in funding that Bankia SA received from Spain in 2010 and 2011 will be converted into shares of the institution's parent company, the ministry said in a statement.

Two years after Europe bailed Greece out to protect the euro, the rescue has become a debacle that threatens to unravel the common currency, The Wall Street Journal reported. After Greece's May 6 elections left pro-bailout parties too weakened to govern the country, more elections are likely in June, with no guarantee a stable government will emerge. By next month, Athens must identify €11.5 billion, or $15 billion, in fresh spending cuts or face suspension of the international loans it needs to pay pensions and run schools.

Hutchison Whampoa Ltd has made a revised 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) bid for eircom, the Irish phone company granted court protection from creditors six weeks ago, according to sources familiar with the deal. Hutchison, the parent company of 3 Mobile, amended its offer after the court-appointed examiner overseeing Eircom's reorganization rejected an initial bid over the conditionality attached to it, Reuters reported. A tweaked bid, with some technical adjustments and no conditions, has been resubmitted, but it is still subject to due diligence said a source.

Greece is heading for a clash with international lenders as the radical leftwing party that came second in the weekend’s election called for the ripping up of a “barbarous” austerity programme underpinning its bailout and questions mounted about the country’s future inside the euro, the Financial Times reported.

Everyone in Europe seems to agree that government austerity has been overdone. Now comes the hard part: finding someone to pay for less of it, the International Herald Tribune reported in an analysis. Classic fiscal stimulus through increased deficit spending by governments does not seem to be an option, analysts say, simply because not enough private investors are willing to lend more money to the countries that need it most, like Spain. On the contrary, some analysts argue, more borrowing would simply destroy what little investor trust remains.