Headlines

A meeting of European Union finance ministers turned a little unruly late Wednesday when George Osborne, Britain’s chancellor of the Exchequer, accused his counterparts of making him look like an “idiot” because he pushed for approval of stricter banking laws, the International Herald Tribune reported. Earlier in the day, Mr. Osborne challenged his fellow European finance ministers to carry out an international accord on raising capital requirements for banks to fortify them against a future crisis or face a hostile reaction from financial markets.

The 17 countries that use the euro are facing the highest unemployment rates in the history of the currency as recession once again spreads across Europe, pressuring leaders to focus less on austerity and more on stimulating growth, the Associated Press reported. Unemployment in the eurozone rose by 169,000 in March, official figures showed Wednesday, taking the rate up to 10.9 percent — its highest level since the euro was launched in 1999.

Troubled Irish property developer Treasury Holdings has begun legal proceedings against Nama. It is seeking substantial compensation and is contesting the constitutionality of the legislation governing its activities, the Irish Times reported. It is understood that Treasury, which is jointly controlled by businessmen Richard Barrett and Johnny Ronan, has made an application to the High Court on both matters.

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said central bank officials are prepared to take unpopular measures to prevent banking excesses from undermining financial stability and economic growth, Bloomberg reported. “Our role will be to take away the punch bowl just as the next party is getting going,” King said in a BBC Radio address Wednesday in London. “That won’t make us popular among bankers, politicians and even at times some of you, and it’s not supposed to.

Marta Fernández should have been celebrating. After looking for work for months, she found a position in a media company in Madrid. But her new job, working full time for €300 a month, will barely cover her rent. She is one of the luckier Spaniards aged 25 and under, of whom more than half are languishing outside of work or education as the country suffers one of the highest levels of youth unemployment in the EU, the Financial Times reported. The abrupt end of Spain’s construction boom left thousands of young labourers without work.

A group of bondholders of bankrupt Japanese semiconductor maker Elpida Memory Inc have threatened to thwart the auction of the company's assets if trustees agree to a reported selling price of 150 billion yen ($1.9 billion), Reuters reported. In a filing to a Tokyo district court on April 27, the bondholders said they could submit a rival reorganisation plan if the bankruptcy trustees agreed to a low-ball bid that would "unintentionally transfer great value to the winning sponsor".

Demonstrators turned out in large numbers for May Day rallies in hard-hit European countries on Tuesday, protesting their governments' push for austerity and flexing populist muscle ahead of key Greek and French elections, The Wall Street Journal reported. Protesters used this year's labor-day celebration, which came amid new signs of economic contraction across much of Europe, as a platform against a German-led view that spending cuts and tax increases are the best medicine for the region's sovereign-debt woes.

Australia's slowing economy was given a shot in the arm Tuesday when the central bank cut a hefty half-percentage point from official interest rates, signaling a shift in its focus away from fighting inflation and toward safeguarding growth amid an uncertain global outlook, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Spanish oil heavyweight Repsol YPF SA has lost nearly one-fifth of its valuation after Argentina's move to seize control of YPF SA sliced off a huge chunk of the company's production and earnings. Yet, two weeks after the Argentine bombshell, some investors and analysts are starting to devise a potential upside scenario for the battered Spanish company, The Wall Street Journal reported.

More than a fifth of Lloyds Banking Group’s Irish residential mortgage book is impaired or unlikely to be repaid in full, it said today, but its impairment charges fell, the Irish Times reported. In a statement Tuesday, the bank said 67 per cent of all its loans in Ireland were classified as impaired at the end of the first quarter. But the lender's Irish impairment charge fell to £526 million (€643 million) from £1.144 billion a year earlier, and £711 million or the last quarter of 2011, it said.