Ireland becomes the second eurozone member to require a rescue. In May, European governments and the IMF agreed on an emergency loan package to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debts.

Ireland needed less than 100 billion Euros from the emergency fund of the euro countries and the IMF, which contains a total of 750 billion.

The money will be used as a credit line for its state-backed banks, which are losing deposits and struggling to borrow funds on open markets.

The exact terms are negotiated in the coming days. This is done by experts from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF.

Ireland has been brought to the brink of bankruptcy because of its 2008 decision to insure the nation’s banks against all losses — a bill that is swelling beyond euro50 billion and driving Ireland’s deficit into uncharted territory.

The Dutch Finance Minister pointed out that the financial support is in the form of government guarantees. “It will cost Dutch taxpayers nothing.”

Dutch children have been rated the most fortunate children in Europe. Their parents go out of their way to please them, and teachers expect less of them than some of their European counterparts.

The German researchers studied children in 21 industrialised countries on the basis of six criteria: material wealth, health, education, relationships, safety and their own feelings of luck. The Netherlands has come top of a league table for child well-being across 21 industrialised countries.

Swedish and Finnish children were in second and third place. American children were bottom of the list where boys and girls are the most negative about their current situation and future possibilities.

Surveys by Britain’s Child Poverty Action Group, Unicef International and the World Health Organisation have all reached similar conclusions about Dutch children.

This is the second time Dutch children ranked happiest in Europe.

The happiest children
1 Netherlands
2 Sweden
3 Finland
4 Norway
5 Spain
6 Switzerland
7 Denmark
8 Germany
9 Belgium
10 Poland
11 Ireland
12 Czech Republic
13 Portugal
14 Austria
15 France
16 Italy
17 Canada
18 Greece
19 Hungary
20 Great Britain
21 United States

Source: Unicef

In the first ever detailed ranking of 60 of the world’s financial hubs, published today by the international research agency Tax Justice Network (TJN), The Netherlands ranks 15th of the 60 financial “tax havens” in the world.

Delaware in the US is officially the world’s most secret financial location. Delaware was found wanting in 11 out of 12 secrecy indicators. London was also ranked in the top five most secretive jurisdictions.

The researchers looked in particular to banking secrecy, the transparency of financial legislation and the degree of financial activities abroad. The Dutch Antilles are ranked at the 38th place in the “Financial Secrecy Index”. The most important tax haven is the U.S. state of Delaware, followed by Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, the city of London, Ireland, Bermuda, Singapore, Belgium and Hong Kong.

In the fight against tax evasion Tax Justice Network calls for international regulation including the automatic exchange of financial information.

Norway retains the number one spot in the annual United Nations human development index while China made the biggest strides in improving the well-being of its citizens.

The index compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) ranks 182 countries based on such criteria as life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

Norway, Australia, Iceland, Canada and Ireland take the first five spots while Niger ranks at the very bottom, just below Afghanistan.

The UNDP said the index highlights the grave disparities between rich and poor countries.

This year’s index was based on data from 2007 and does not take into account the impact of the global economic crisis.

“Many countries have experienced setbacks over recent decades, in the face of economic downturns, conflict-related crises and the HIV and AIDS epidemic,” said the UN development report’s author Jeni Klugman.

“And this was even before the impact of the current global financial crisis was felt.”

The top ten countries listed on the index are: Norway, Australia, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Japan.

The United States ranks 13th, down one spot from 2008.

source: AFP / Expatica