MADRID (Reuters) – Spain has threatened to retaliate against Argentina for nationalizing a Spanish energy firm, but Madrid will find it hard to put real pressure on a maverick nation that has been shut out of world debt markets and has ignored international fines in previous disputes.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said this week she would fulfill a life-long dream and solve her country’s energy shortage by seizing control of its biggest oil company, YPF, a subsidiary of Spain’s Repsol (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain has threatened to retaliate against Argentina for nationalizing a Spanish energy firm, but Madrid will find it hard to put pressure on a maverick nation that has been shut out of world debt markets and has ignored international fines in previous disputes.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said this week she would fulfill a life-long dream and solve her country’s energy shortage by seizing control of its biggest oil company, YPF, a subsidiary of Spain’s Repsol.

MADRID/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Spain is in a deep economic and financial hole. Unemployment exceeds 23 percent and Madrid has missed targets to reduce its gaping budget deficit.

With yields on Spanish government bonds back around 6 percent, many pundits reckon a humiliating international bailout beckons to rescue a banking system weakened, like the economy, by a burst housing bubble.

MADRID/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Spain is in a deep economic and financial hole. Unemployment exceeds 23 percent and Madrid has missed targets to reduce its gaping budget deficit.

With yields on Spanish government bonds back around 6 percent, many pundits reckon a humiliating international bailout beckons to rescue a banking system weakened, like the economy, by a burst housing bubble.

ROME/MADRID (Reuters) – Most of the people of southern Europe have stayed surprisingly stoical up to now in the face of some of the most painful budget cuts in living memory, but signs are stirring that patience may soon run out.

An unexpectedly broad general strike in Spain on Thursday and mounting opposition to Prime Minister Mario Monti in Italy are among indicators that resistance is growing in a region at the centre of concerns about a resurgence of the euro zone debt crisis.

ROME/MADRID (Reuters) – Most of the people of southern Europe have stayed surprisingly stoical up to now in the face of some of the most painful budget cuts in living memory, but signs are stirring that patience may soon run out.

An unexpectedly broad general strike in Spain on Thursday and mounting opposition to Prime Minister Mario Monti in Italy are among indicators that resistance is growing in a region at the centre of concerns about a resurgence of the euro zone debt crisis.

MADRID (Reuters) – Every Tuesday evening dozens of homeowners who cannot pay their mortgages gather in a cramped community center near Madrid’s main bullring to discuss strategy to fight their banks.

Newcomers, many of them immigrants from South America, take turns speaking about how close they are to eviction. They tell of losing their jobs, defaulting on their loans and receiving court notice saying they will be kicked out.

MADRID, March 26 (Reuters) – Every Tuesday evening dozens of
homeowners who cannot pay their mortgages gather in a cramped
community center near Madrid’s main bullring to discuss strategy
to fight their banks.

Newcomers, many of them immigrants from South America, take
turns speaking about how close they are to eviction. They tell
of losing their jobs, defaulting on their loans and receiving
court notice saying they will be kicked out.

MADRID, March 12 (Reuters) – Spain’s new centre-right
government will embark on its most sensitive austerity measures
to date — health and education spending cuts in the
country’s autonomous regions — as soon as it clears a
local election hurdle at the end of March.

Cuts in social services are likely to set off street
protests as Spain struggles to save at least 30 billion euros
this year to meet tough European deficit reduction goals while
the economy shrinks and almost one in four are out of work.

MADRID, Feb 3 (Reuters) – The Spanish government has
placed limits on executive pay at banks that received state aid
after a series of scandals over fat payouts for bankers who
loaded dodgy property debt onto lenders that then needed bailing
out.

The cap was set at 600,000 euros ($790,000) per year for
executive salaries at banks rescued by public funds, and
incentive pay was suspended, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos, a
former Lehman Brothers executive, said on Friday.