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Reuters) - A decision to return two Italian marines accused of murdering fishermen to stand trial in India stirred anger in Italy on Friday and calls for Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi to resign. Mario Monti's caretaker government on Thursday reversed a March 11 decision not to send the marines back from a home visit after Rome secured a promise from New Delhi that the two would not face the death penalty if convicted, officials said. The marines, part of a military security team protecting a tanker from piracy, are accused of shooting two fishermen off the coast of Kerala in...

Italian magistrates investigating losses at Banca Monte dei Paschi say the mushrooming scandal has taken a dramatic turn, with political fallout that threatens to rock the country’s elections next month and upset eurozone plans for a banking union. “The situation is explosive,” said Tito Salerno, head of the prosecuting team in Siena, describing the fast-moving events at Italy’s third-largest bank as extremely grave. The Milan bourse tumbled 3.4pc and yields on 10-year Italian bonds spiked 15 basis points to 4.31pc as the political scandal widened. Monte dei Paschi (MPS), the world’s oldest bank dating back to 1472, is under investigation...

Germany’s Angela Merkel and other center-right leaders have indicated they would like to see Mario Monti to keep on running Italy instead of Silvio Berlusconi. The center-right leaders—as well as the two Italian political adversaries—met in Brussels ahead of an EU summit on Thursday (13 December) in an event designed to prevent Italy’s political turmoil from stirring up the euro crisis once again. The center-right European People’s Party (EPP) chief Hans Martens admitted to journalists he stage-managed the whole thing so that neither Monti nor Berlusconi knew the other would be there until the last minute to make sure that...

Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti insisted Tuesday that the eurozone was overcoming its debt crisis and that member states were determined to preserve the common currency. … “More than a currency, the euro is a symbol of European integration that European governments are determined to preserve and strengthen,” said Monti, few days after Eurostat data showed that the 17-nation eurozone tipped into recession in the third quarter of 2012. …

Italy's ex-premier and possible future candidate Silvio Berlusconi criticised his successor Mario Monti for raising taxes in an interview out on Tuesday, accusing him of being "conditioned" by the left. Berlusconi also told the newly-launched Italian edition of The Huffington Post that Monti was too "servile to Germany, a hegemonic state that is dictating rules on discipline and austerity to other European state countries." The former prime minister also criticised mistakes made in introducing the euro but said "it would be difficult to exit the eurozone now." He said the only option was to convince Germany that austerity alone is...

For those to whom this comes as a surprise, following the periodic jaunts of Tim Geithner to Europe explaining just what is truly important in life, not to mention Obama's daily phone calls to Mario Monti, we feel truly sorry: •EU-IMF REVIEW OF GREEK DEBT SITUATION SET TO BE DELAYED UNTIL AFTER U.S. ELECTION - EUROPEAN OFFICIALS And the punchlines: •"Obama doesn't want anything on a macroeconomic scale that is going to rock the global economy before Nov. 6," a senior EU official told •"As far as European leaders are concerned, they don't want Romney, so they're probably willing to...

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti met the leaders of the parties backing him in parliament on Tuesday and called on them to give their unified support to help Italy through current market turmoil. Monti said in a statement he was "worried by the situation of emergency" on financial markets, and had told the party chiefs that "cohesion" was needed "to overcome the critical situation and give an image of unity abroad". Italian borrowing costs have risen sharply since the weekend agreement by eurozone finance ministers to lend up to €100 billion to recapitalize Spain's banks, with speculation rife that Italy...

U.S. growth in the first quarter fell to 2.2 percent, a disappointment. But in Europe, that news would have caused general rejoicing. For consider the gathering crisis on the old continent. With negative growth now for six months, Britain has fallen back into recession. "I don't think we're anywhere near halfway through the eurozone crisis," said Prime Minister David Cameron this weekend. Romania's government fell last week. The Czech government barely survived a vote of no confidence. In the capital cities of both countries, tens of thousands have angrily protested the new austerity. The Dutch government also fell last week,...

The growing gulf between France and Germany was underlined as the eurozone's two biggest economies clashed over tackling the debt crisis. It is "not for Germany to decide for the rest of Europe", said Francois Hollande, the frontrunner to replace Nicolas Sarkozy as French president. If elected, Mr Hollande says that he will not pass the fiscal austerity pact agreed by the leaders of 25 European nations, unless it contains measures to spur on growth. His stance puts him on a collision course with Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. She hit back at the French Socialist candidate's plans, warning the...

Angela Merkel doesn’t want to be left alone in the turmoil of the crisis. With her long time partner Nicolas Sarkozy on the way out after the first round of French elections, the chancellor is already looking for another ally, and Mario Monti seems to be her choice. German government’s spokesman Steffen Seibert has revealed that Merkel and Monti’s staff have already met to plan a series of joint German-Italian initiatives to promote economic stimulus measures to be discussed at the European council in June, La Stampa reports. In addition to the possible loss of traditional stalwarts France and Netherlands...

Two days after French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit, Mario Monti traveled to Berlin on 11 January for discussions on saving the Eurozone with Angela Merkel. The Italian PM, who advocates a more flexible approach to the crisis, succeeded in obtaining the support of the German Chancellor. "I am demanding heavy sacrifices from Italians," Monti told Die Welt newspaper. "I can only do this if concrete advantages become visible." If not, he said, "a protest against Europe will develop in Italy, including against Germany, which is seen as the ringleader of EU intolerance, and against the European Central Bank." His words...

ERLIN (Reuters) - Angela Merkel's hand-picked choice for the ceremonial post of president resigned Friday in a scandal over political favors, dealing a blow to the German chancellor in the midst of the euro zone debt crisis. In a curt five-minute statement at the Bellevue presidential palace, Christian Wulff acknowledged that he had lost the trust of the German people, making it impossible to continue in a role that is meant to serve as a moral compass for the nation. "For this reason it is no longer possible for me to exercise the office of president at home and abroad...

The latest Gallup survey finds U.S. Unemployment Increases in Mid-February Gallup only polls those 18 and above while the official BLS number includes 16 and above. Given teenage unemployment, this would (or at least should) artificially lower unemployment numbers for Gallup. Yet, Gallup is higher, way higher, when one considers underemployment. The U.S. unemployment rate, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, is 9.0% in mid-February, up from 8.6% for January. The mid-month reading normally reflects what the U.S. government reports for the entire month, and is up from 8.3% in mid-January. US Unemployment Rate, Monthly Averages Gallup also finds...

The European Union Council, which begins on Thursday, is scheduled to sign the new fiscal compact. But at the same time, a dozen countries, led by Italy, are contesting the austerity policies imposed by "Merkozy" and calling for an economic stimulus package. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has given the pact minimal support, out of consideration for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. His Socialist opponent (in the up-coming presidential election) François Hollande has promised to renegotiate the accord if he wins the ballot. The Budget Pact is scheduled to be signed by 25 European heads of government on Friday, March 2, in...

Political leaders in Italy and Spain have called for a massive boost to the EU rescue fund and a blast of monetary stimulus by the European Central Bank (ECB), putting them on a collision course with Germany over the handling of the eurozone crisis. Italy's premier Mario Monti has told Berlin that the new European Stability Mechanism (ESM) must be doubled to €1 trillion (£828bn) to restore investor confidence in southern European debt, according to Der Spiegel. The move comes days after Mr Monti warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel that austerity fatigue is growing in the debtor states and there...

Pressed hard by the recession and national debts, European governments are rewriting the labour law, whether watering down job protection or cutting wages cuts. And employers are smiling. by Stephan Kaufmann In Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal, the crisis is raging. All of southern Europe has been laid low. All of southern Europe? Not exactly. Some people in these countries are seeing long-cherished wishes come true. One is Juan Rosell, head of the Spanish employers' organization CEOE, who has been calling for a relaxation of job protection for years. Now the government has heeded his call. “It won’t be the...

BERLIN: Angela Merkel's hand-picked choice for the ceremonial post of president was expected to resign on Friday in a scandal over political favours, dealing a blow to the German chancellor in the midst of the euro zone crisis. Christian Wulff, who has been under fire for months, was to give a statement at 1000 GMT. Merkel abruptly postponed a trip to Rome where she was to hold talks with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, and scheduled a news conference for after Wulff speaks.

Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti will meet France's President Nicolas Sarkozy of France on Friday as pressure mounts on two of the biggest but most fragile economies in the debt-wracked eurozone. Nervous European banks parked €455bn in the safe haven of the European Central Bank overnight - a new record - preferring to earn low interest rather than take the risk lending to each other. Bank shares in France and Italy continued to fall as worries about the eurozone debt crisis resurfaced. The effects of the crisis on the real economy have deepened, with official figures on Friday showing that...

Italian PM Mario Monti has pleaded for the eurozone to expand its "big bazooka" bail-out fund as an expensive Italian bond auction suggested that even last week's flood of cheap loans from the European Central Bank (ECB) has failed to stem the crisis. The Italian prime minister used his end of year press conference to warn that indebted countries will be "in difficulty" unless the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) is boosted with "significantly greater" firepower. Italy raised €7bn (£5.9bn) in the first big test of the bond markets since the ECB opened its doors with €489bn of cheap loans...

While we have long known that the drachma, and recently the lira, have seen significant "when issued" interest by institutional clients desiring to hedge their currency collapse exposure, and thus early markets by various trading desks, little did we realize just how destabilizing this fact to the system would be, at least according to SWIFT. According to the WSJ, this organization, best known for making an abrupt appearance any time one wishes to do a wire transfer, then promptly disappearing until the next such instance, ended up promptly shutting down any Plan B optionality when "at least two global banks...