European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet delivered an impassioned defense of Europe's common currency as the market continued to cast doubt on the ability of Greece and other debt-ridden euro zone countries to get their deficits under control, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Trichet's remarks came as worries spread through financial markets that Greece's fiscal woes will extend to other countries including Portugal and Spain. The cost of insuring the sovereign debt of those countries against default soared Thursday, putting downward pressure on the euro.

The Australian sharemarket fell to a five-month low today, taking the market's loss this week to $30.83 billion, The Australian reported. The surprise 268 point plunge on the Dow Jones Index on Wall Street overnight created an instant negative lead for equities markets across the Asia Pacific region. In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 dropped 107.3 points to 4514.3 while the All Ordinaries was down 111.4 points to 4532.7.

The euro gained against the dollar Wednesday after the European Commission accepted Greece's budget-reducing plan, though the common-currency has come off its highest levels of the day, The Wall Street Journal reported. Many currency analysts said the acceptance of Greece's plan, in which it detailed how it would strip spending from an over-the-limit budget, had already been "priced in" to the euro, limiting its gains on the report's release.

Canwest Global Communications Corp. will make changes to the way the court-supervised sale of its newspapers and online businesses will work, a company spokesman said Monday. A committee of noteholders had complained the bidding process for Canwest LP, which holds the big city dailies like the Ottawa Citizen and the Montreal Gazette, was not robust enough, the Canadian Press reported. Canwest spokesman John Douglas said the company worked with the group and a mutual agreement has been reached.

Many countries have started to see a rebound from last year’s economic recession. But will it last? Economists at the World Economic Forum in Davos warn that paying down massive public debt will be "very, very painful." Deep spending cuts and significant tax hikes may be unavoidable, Spiegel Online reported. For those now in their 30s, Kenneth Rogoff has bad news. "It will be terrible for you," the Harvard University economics professor told a young German at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "Germany's debt is exploding, the population is aging," he said.

Outgoing EU economics commissioner Joaquin Almunia has warned that Greece will have to adopt new austerity measures if it fails to meet targets set out in an already tough emergency budget, The Irish Times reported. Mr Almunia said the budget programme was achievable but prone to risk. By mid-March, Greece will have to submit its first special report to Brussels on the implementation of the measures, with a follow-up due in mid-May.

Are EU policy makers willing to let Greece suffer a little? The Source asked. Absolutely. Greece is paying about 3.5 percentage points over benchmark rates in order to borrow, which is a hefty tax on the country’s already strained public finances. But EU officials in Brussels note that a bailout might encourage “moral hazard,” allowing yet another Greek government to skirt much-needed reforms. The bloc’s finance ministers and bureaucrats justifiably feel duped.

Davos 2010 wrapped up yesterday after five days of yet more soul-searching on how to regulate banking and stop the global financial world creating another crisis, The Irish Times reported. The economic summit concluded with much the same message as last year – governments need to co-operate. What’s different this year is that Davos, with all its aspirations for global agreement, was faced with governments wanting to go it alone. The contentious issue is US president Barack Obama’s planned banking reforms, unveiled just six days before Davos.

European leaders are quietly considering whether to come to the aid of their troubled neighbor Greece amid fears that the nation might default on its debts and unleash another round of financial crisis, The New York Times reported. Only a month after Dubai was rescued by its neighboring emirate Abu Dhabi, Germany, France and other European powers are discussing whether Greece might need a bailout too. After a decade of debt-fueled profligacy, Greece is confronting what amounts to a run on the bank.

As speculative pressure intensified against Greece in European financial markets on Thursday, senior figures in the Greek government sought to bolster confidence that it will repay its debts on time, The Wall Street Journal reported. The message: Their government, which took office in October, has embarked on an austerity plan that will rebuild the country's shattered credibility and start bringing its debt burden down by 2012.