MADRID — Tens of thousands of Spaniards and Portuguese rallied in the streets of their countries’ capitals Saturday to protest enduring deep economic pain from austerity cuts.

In Madrid, demonstrators approached parliament for the third time this week to vent their anger against tax hikes, government spending cuts and the highest unemployment rate among the 17 nations that use the euro currency.

The boisterous crowds in the Spanish capital let off ear-splitting whistles near parliament and yelled ‘‘Fire them, fire them!’’ -- referring to the conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

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Rajoy’s administration presented a 2013 draft budget on Friday that will cut overall spending by 40 billion euros ($51.7 billion), freezing the salaries of public workers, cutting spending for unemployment benefits and even reducing spending for Spain’s royal family next year by 4 percent.

Pablo Rodriguez, a 24-year-old student doing a master’s in agricultural development in Denmark, said the austerity measures and bad economy mean most of his friends in Spain are unemployed or doing work they didn’t train for.

Spain's unemployment rate is almost 25 percent, and more than half of people under 24 are jobless.

‘‘I would love to work here, but there is nothing for me here,’’ Rodriguez said. ‘‘By the time the economy improves it will be too late. I will be settled somewhere else with a family. One of the disasters in Spain is they spent so much to educate me and so many others and they will lose us.’’

He doubts he will put his education to use in Spain until he is 35 or 40, if ever, will probably get job abroad and stay.

In Lisbon, retired banker Antonio Trinidade said the budget cuts Portugal is locked into in return for the nation’s €78 billion ($101 billion) bailout are making the country’s economy the worst he has seen in his lifetime. His pension has been cut, and he said countless young Portuguese are increasingly heading abroad because they can’t make a living at home.

‘‘The government and the troika controlling what we do because of the bailout just want to cut more and more and rob from us,’’ Trinidade said, referring to the troika of creditors -- the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. ‘‘The young don’t have any future, and the country is on the edge of an abyss. I'm getting toward the end of my life, but these people in their 20s or 30s don’t have jobs, or a future.’’

In Spain, Rajoy has an absolute majority and has pushed through waves of austerity measures over the last nine months -- trying to prevent Spain from being forced into the same kind of bailouts taken by Portugal, Ireland and Greece.

The protests near Spain’s parliament turned violent Tuesday and Wednesday nights when protesters clashed with riot police, who barricaded entry to the streets surrounding government buildings. Dozens of people were arrested and injured.

Investors worried about Spain’s economic viability have forced up the interest rate they are willing to pay to buy Spanish bonds. The country’s banks hurting from a property boom that went bust are set to get help soon from a €100 billion ($129 billion) financial lifeline from the eurozone, and Rajoy is pondering whether to ask for help from the ECB to buy Spanish bonds.

Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro said Saturday that the budget cuts for next year were necessary to ease market tensions and try to bring down high interest rates Spain must pay to get investors to buy its bonds.

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TERRASSA, Spain -- Ana Valderrama and Tony Cortes do not look like squatters.

The suburban apartment they've illegally occupied since December is free of clutter. Its stone floors shine while two poster-sized pictures of daughters Jennifer, seven, and Ariadna, 11, hang on gleaming white walls.

Twelve months ago, life was very different.

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Valderrama, 36, and Cortes, 38, had both been out of work for more than two years. Unable to maintain payments on their 102,000-euro (around $128,000 at today’s exchange rates) mortgage, the couple lost their home in this commuter town about 12 miles north of Barcelona.

"I was very depressed when I realized I may be on the street with my two girls," Cortes told msnbc.com. "It’s a depression the whole family feels, a sort of Chinese torture."

Desperate to ensure they had a roof over their head, Valderrama, Cortes and 10 other families took possession of an empty apartment building. But life is still precarious. The family of four now lives on 641 euros ($800) a month in public assistance and they could face eviction at any time.

Destitution
While sophisticated and fun-loving Barcelona serves as the country's showcase to the world, Terrassa is among the many towns hiding Spain's shame: Despite boasting Europe's fourth-largest economy, hundreds of thousands have been forced into destitution by the country's housing crash.

Photos: Faces of Spain's economic crisis

Many Spaniards now exist on the margins of a society that just a few years ago promised them easy access to cars, holiday homes, trips abroad and regular tickets to professional soccer games.

The crisis was born out of a mighty housing and construction bubble that saw house prices triple between 1995 and 2007. They've fallen by at least a quarter since then.

'The country is on its knees': Ireland grapples with economic collapse

About one out of every four people in Spain is without a job, according to government statistics. However, the large so-called "gray economy" mitigates the effects of unemployment, the IMF says.

In 2010, court evictions hit 100,000 – four times the total in 2007. About 200 homes are repossessed every day across Spain, according to the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) campaign group.

These repossessions continue despite a voluntary ethical code signed by many banks that is intended to delay evictions by two years in cases of families with no income. Still, an estimated 20 percent of the country’s unoccupied homes are now owned by banks, The Economist reported.

You don’t have to look very far to see the toll the crash has taken on people who have worked all their lives.  

Before the crisis Juan Antonio Pache, 67, did not think of himself as poor.

His construction business once employed nine people. He borrowed money to build a house on land he already owned, and a few years later he borrowed more to extend it.

Pache's company thrived, he said, until 2007 when he noticed a fall-off in new business. By April 2008, income had decreased "vertically," he said.

"I made proposals, proposals and proposals but no projects came," he said. He fell behind on payments to Spain's equivalent of Social Security. Soon he could not afford his mortgage payments of around 3,000 euros a month.

Now the bank has seized his house and land. He has lost his business and lives with his son in Sabadell, a city northwest of Barcelona.   

He doesn't receive a state pension, and his wife has moved in with family in another town. 

"All I've done is work. I've worked day and night on the highways. And after so much work I have no house and no pension," he said, standing very straight. "I don't know what kind of country this is."

Greek tragedy: Economic crisis sparks brain drain

With banks in a fierce competition for new customers and mortgages easy to come by, some borrowers doubtless took on too much debt during the boom years. But even as the crisis hit, politicians assured the public that all would be well.

In 2008, former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero declared that Spain had "perhaps the most solid financial system in the world."

Infant malnutrition
The fact the crisis is taking a toll in a relatively wealthy part of Spain surprises those who work with the most vulnerable.

"We have noticed a huge increase in people asking for food assistance – around three times more than a year ago," said Ester Soto, a manager at Terrassa's Red Cross homeless shelter.

Fraying family networks and swinging cuts in social programs, as well as the worsening crisis, are the likely reasons for this growth, she said.

More startlingly, the Red Cross is also seeing evidence of infant malnutrition for the first time in decades, Soto added.

"And this is not a poor town," she said.

Spain's financial plight has taken center stage for European Union leaders who are tackling long-term plans for closer fiscal and banking union in a bid to strengthen the euro's foundations, after bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal failed to end a 2-1/2-year old debt crisis.

On June 9, the European Union stepped in with the promise of a bank-bailout plan of up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) and Spain formally requested the rescue on Monday. The original announcement failed to calm nerves as investors worried that it might not be enough and a wholesale bailout of Spain could be in the offing.

Spain to seek bailout; up to $125 billion on table

Paul De Grauwe, a prominent economist and professor at the London School of Economics, said that not only would the bailout announced in early June probably be inadequate, it was unlikely that European Union’s response would help ease the suffering of millions of Spaniards.

He also said the European Union's decision-making process, which is propelled by economic powerhouse Germany, is deeply undemocratic.

"Today it is a German politician who decides about Spain," he said. "They couldn’t care less about the Spanish unemployed. They will only care about unemployment if it is German unemployment. They will only care about youth unemployment if it is German youth unemployment."

Germany grows weary of being Europe's crutch

'I want to work'
Spanish youth unemployment stands at 50 percent, the highest in Europe. Such statistics are a fact of life for university student Marisol Martin.

"I want to work, have money, be independent and have my own place," the 19-year-old said. "I go on the Internet, send out resumes and resumes but nothing."

The only opportunities for people like her, she said, are unpaid work experience positions or poorly paid jobs in bars or restaurants.

So she is taking English classes and hopes to one day leave Spain.

"My dad’s told me and my sister that what I have to do is get out and go to England," she said.

Martin's friend Laia Moreno, 18, lives with her mother. "I would like to have my own place and my own life," she said.

"I wanted to be a teacher," she adds. But for now, that dream has died and she's trying to get a driver's license so she can deliver pizzas.

'I had to sell everything'
Life isn't much better for many immigrants, with the unemployment in these communities hovering at around 35 percent.  

Wilson Lopez left Ecuador more a decade ago in search of a better life for his wife and son. Nine years ago, he took on a mortgage of 109,000 euros, on which his wife Isabel and he made interest-only payments, Lopez said.

"I paid my mortgage loyally for nine years," the 63-year-old native of Guayaquil said during a protest organized by the PAH in Barcelona.

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In 2010, Lopez lost his job as a security guard in a local hotel.

"I had to sell everything – my wife's jewelry, our television, clothes – everything," he said.

Lopez would like to hand over the apartment's keys to the bank and have done with it, he said. But he can't because most homeowners in Spain can be pursued for mortgage debt even after their properties have been repossessed.

Instead, Lopez felt forced to extend the loan for another 40 years. He pointed out wryly that he will be over 100 when it runs its course.

"The government works for the banks but it does not help the people," he said.

This sort of disillusionment has grown as people impacted by the crisis watch the government bailing out banks while imposing widespread cuts to public services.

Amid this backdrop, the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) has sprouted branches throughout the country.

In the last six months, PAH has suspended or delayed dozens of evictions by protesting outside foreclosed homes and helping people negotiate with their banks. Their highly public campaign has fed a wave of defiance and forced the government to promise relief for borrowers.

But the organization is not "superman," warned PAH organizer Guillem Domingo.

"This country’s politicians need to step-up, be courageous," he said.

Spanish bailout may prove to be stopgap measure

Spain's "indignados" or M-15, which helped spark the global "Occupy" movement, is also flexing its muscles. While huge public protests have largely died down, the group, along with the PAH, has seen an opportunity in the country's estimated one million empty homes for the growing number of homeless.

And on June 15, activists filed a case against the former management of one of the largest lenders Bankia, whose partial nationalization helped push Spain to seek the EU bailout.

The mass movement has helped raise tens of thousands of euros via crowdsourcing to bring a case against the bank. 

Ghost towns tell the story of Ireland's faded dream

The apartment illegally occupied by Cortes and Valderrama is owned by CatalunyaCaixa, a regional bank. The unofficial residents' offers to pay rent to the bank have so far gone unanswered, PAH organizer Domingo said.

CatalunyaCaixa did not respond to a request for information or comment on their plans for the apartment building.

Still, defying the powers-that-be has energized Valderrama and Cortes.

"Every day that passes I feel stronger," Valderrama said. "I have gone through so much, and every time you do you become more powerful."

"I lost my shame many years ago," Cortes added and smiled.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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ZAGREB, Croatia -- Several government ministers in Croatia will join a gay pride march set for this weekend amid threats of violence from opponents, saying it was a test of democracy for a country due to join the European Union next year. 

Last year's event, held in the Adriatic city of Split, plunged into violence as police failed to protect the marchers from angry locals who pelted them with eggs and rocks. Several people were injured and at least 30 arrested. 

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Several nationalist and war veteran groups have issued warnings against this year's June 9 march in Split, calling it a "shameful provocation by sick people to which we will respond."

Split Mayor Zeljko Kerum has also said he would not take part in the march, which he said was disapproved of by most residents. 

Where to celebrate Pride Month

Nevertheless, in an unprecedented move for the Balkans, where gay rights are largely ignored and Pride marches are few and far between, the liberal center-left cabinet said it approved of the event. 

Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic called on Split residents to show tolerance and accept "standard democratic practice of Western Europe."

"The eyes of the European Union will be focused on Split on Saturday ... The gay population does not threaten anyone and we just have to accept them," Milanovic told Media Servis, a local electronic news provider. 

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Indeed, the EU delegation in the capital Zagreb said in a statement that it would be watching the march carefully.

"We are encouraged by government members' plans to take part... but at the same time we express our concern at some homophobic comments by the local (Split) authorities," the AFP quoted an EU statement as saying. 

The country is set to join the European Union in July 2013.

Similar marches have been held for a decade in the capital Zagreb under heavy police protection, but with a relatively few incidents. 

Reuters contributed to this report. 

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Europe's naval force patrolling off the coast East Africa said on Tuesday it had attacked Somali pirate installations on land, the first time it had conducted such an action since extending its remit from strictly to sea-based operations. 

Initial reports indicated that there were no casualties during the operation, which happened earlier on Tuesday, according to the European Union Naval Force (Somalia) Operation Atalanta's website.

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"We believe this action by the EU Naval Force (NAVFOR) will further increase the pressure on, and disrupt pirates' efforts to get out to sea to attack merchant shipping and dhows," the commander of the EU Naval Force, Rear Admiral Duncan Potts, said in a statement. "The local Somali people ... many of whom have suffered so much because of piracy in the region, can be reassured that our focus was on known pirate supplies and will remain so in the future."

The action was conducted from the air and "at no point did EU Naval Force 'boots' go ashore," the statement said.

Arms race? Somali pirates, tankers up their game

The European force, which is trying to stamp out piracy off the coasts of lawless Somalia, is made up of around 1,400 military personnel, nine warships and five maritime surveillance aircraft, according to NAVFOR's website. 

Despite successful efforts to quell attacks in the Gulf of Aden, international navies have struggled to contain piracy in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea owing to the vast distances involved.

Fighting Somali pirates with science

Seaborne gangs have raked in an estimated $150 million in ransoms in what has become a highly organized, international criminal enterprise, security analysts say. Somali pirates in the failed state have carried out more than 800 attacks on ships, from private yachts to oil supertankers since 2008, Bloomberg reported. 

Interactive: Global piracy 

On March 23 the EU Council decided to allow its forces in the region to take "disruption action against known pirate supplies on the (Somali) shore."

"Putting pressure on their business model by destroying their boats and eliminating their fuel dumps will make life more difficult for the sponsors of piracy and the pirates themselves," the Council said in a statement. 

Reuters contributed to this report. 

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The Dutch government, one of the most vocal critics of European countries failing to rein in their budgets, quit Monday after failing to agree on a plan to bring its own deficit in line with European Union rules. 

The government information service announced Queen Beatrix had accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his Cabinet after a meeting in which Rutte told her talks on a new austerity package had failed over the weekend. 

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Rutte is to address parliament Tuesday to discuss interim measures to keep public finances in order and schedule new elections. No date for elections was immediately announced, but opposition lawmakers called for a vote as soon as possible. 

The Dutch government collapse came a day after the first round election victory of France's soft-on-austerity socialist candidate Francois Hollande. It calls into question whether austerity policies that are causing trauma in countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal can be enforced even in "core" European countries such as France — or the Netherlands, one of the few along with Germany to maintain an AAA credit rating. 

Rutte's hopes to clinch a deal to cut the target below the EU's 3 percent target evaporated on Saturday, when his most important political ally, populist euroskeptic Geert Wilders walked out of the talks, saying a slavish adherence to European rules was foolish and would harm the Dutch economy.

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That view is shared by some, such as the government's own Central Plan Bureau, and opposed by others, such as Dutch Central Bank President Klaas Knot. 

"We don't want our pensioners to suffer for the sake of the dictators in Brussels," Wilders said. 

Opposition lawmakers say they are prepared to work with Rutte to draw up a 2013 budget. 

However, Diederik Samsom, leader of the opposition Labor Party, signaled he would not insist on bringing the Dutch deficit back in line with EU norms next year. 

Although the Netherlands has relatively low levels of national debt, its economy is in recession and it is expected to post a deficit of 4.6 percent in 2012. 

The package Rutte had been negotiating with Wilders would have slashed foreign aid and hastened a planned increase in the retirement age to 66 from 65. 

Wilders, who is publishing a book in the U.S. next week about his struggle against Islam, said abruptly Saturday he could not support the package because it was unfriendly to the elderly. 

Ratings agency Fitch last week warned the Netherlands stands to lose its AAA credit rating depending on the outcome of the budget talks that failed Saturday. 

Central Bank President Knot has predicted Dutch interest rates will increase by around 1 percent if the country's rating is cut, making budget reform vital. 

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Tens of thousands of Czechs on Saturday staged one of the biggest protests since the fall of communism, marching in Prague against spending cuts, tax increases and alleged corruption and calling for the end of a center-right government already close to collapse.

Police estimated that 80,000 to 90,000 workers, students and pensioners snaked through the capital to rally in Wenceslas Square. Chanting and whistling, the crowd held banners proclaiming "Away with the government" and "Stop thieves." Organizers put the crowd at 120,000, the BBC reported.

Rallies of such a scale are rare in the country of 10.5 million people.

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The demonstration against Prime Minister Petr Necas's government is the third such trade union-led protest in 12 months against austerity measures, and the turnout underscored rising public frustration after a series of graft scandals.

 

"This government is devastating state structures and is demeaning the unprotected with its asocial reforms," Jaroslav Zavadil, the head of the Confederation of Trade Unions, told the crowd.

The protest comes as the government is working to reaffirm its majority in parliament ahead of a Monday deadline.

The turmoil was triggered by the defection of Deputy Prime Minister Karolina Peake and her allies from the scandal-ridden junior ruling party Public Affairs.

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Peake has pledged her faction will continue to support the cabinet, but on Saturday it remained uncertain whether she could muster the 10 votes the government needs for the "safe majority" that Necas wants from her to avoid early elections.

An early election, two years after the last vote, would be likely to hand power to the opposition Social Democrats, who have a nearly 20-point poll lead over Necas' Civic Democrats.

The Social Democrats have pledged to undo some of the government's reforms of the pensions, health care and welfare sectors, and to tax companies and the rich to keep the budget under control.

"The reforms are not thought-out. The reforms are chaotic," party leader Bohuslav Sobotka said before marching on Saturday.

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Flag-waving Spanish workers livid over labor reforms they see as flagrantly pro-business blocked traffic Thursday, forming boisterous picket lines outside wholesale markets and bus garages, as part of a nationwide strike.

Unions claimed massive participation in the 24-hour stoppage protesting what they claim to be the latest dose of bitter medicine Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government has prescribed to appease European Union overseers and jittery investors watching Spain's debt grow and its GDP shrink.

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Police arrested a number of protesters in Madrid, while small-scale violence flared in Barcelona, Spain's second city. Tourists were locked out of the Alhambra, a 14th-century Moorish palace in the southern city of Granada which is one of Europe's great cultural monuments.

The unions demanded a "gesture" from the government to scale back the reforms, warning they could cause more unrest from May 1.

The government quickly said no, and downplayed the impact of the strike, which failed to bring the country to a standstill. "There is no stopping on the path to reform," Labor Minister Fatima Banez said.

In fact, the government will on Friday serve up even more austerity pain with a 2012 budget to feature tens of billions of euros (dollars) in deficit-reduction measures.

PhotoBlog: Workers strike in Spain filling streets and closing businesses

The cuts are designed to help Spain lower its deficit to within EU limits and calm the international investors who determine the country's borrowing costs in debt markets — and therefore have a lot of say in whether Spain will follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal in needing a bailout.

There were no reports of significant violence in Thursday's demonstration. A total of 58 people were detained and nine were injured in scuffles as the strike got under way a minute after midnight, Interior Ministry official Cristina Diaz said.

Unions are challenging a conservative government not yet 100 days old, protesting changes to labor market rules long regarded as among Europe's most rigid. Among other things the changes make it cheaper and easier for companies to lay people off and let them cut their wages unilaterally.

On the Gran Via, one of the Spanish capital's main commercial strips, a group of about 500 whistle-blowing picketers marched slowly, blocking traffic for about an hour. Police and helmeted riot police watched from the sidelines.

As the group made its way down the boulevard, many merchants — such as jewelers and clothing retailers — pulled down their metal shutters or locked their front doors.

PhotoBlog: Spanish protests turn violent, destructive

One protester, Angel Andrino, 31, said he was laid off a day after the labor reforms were approved in a decree last month. The government argues that while the reforms might hurt now, they will create jobs in the future. Spain is by official estimates already back in recession.

Andrino lives with his parents and brother, the latter the only one to be employed, with a part-time job.

"We are going through a really hard time, suffering," he said. "The rights that our parents and grandparents fought for are being wiped away without the public being consulted."

General Workers Union Secretary General Candido Mendez put average participation at midday at 77 percent but said that it was 97 percent in industry and construction. "This strike has been an unquestionable success," said Mendez.

Some statistics, however, suggested the strike had not brought the country to a standstill.

Electricity consumption — a measure of industrial and commercial activity — was down by 17 percent at mid-morning, according to the Interior Ministry. That is slightly less than during the last general strike in 2010, which was deemed only partially successful.

Investors are worried about prospects for continued, widespread social unrest of the kind seen in bailed-out Greece. But management professor Jose Ramon Pin of IESE Business School said this will not happen in Spain because people reluctantly accept that the country needs a radical economic makeover.

"This country is in no mood for taking to the streets," Pin said.

One of the strike's most noticeable effects was on public transportation, with unions guaranteeing only around 30 percent of normal service at rush hour times.

"We're offering the government a chance to start a different path (of reform) in search of wider consensus," Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, head of Spain's largest union Comisiones Obreras said. "If not there will be rising social conflict."

 The main airline, Iberia, canceled 65 percent of its flights.

By mid-morning, 402 flights had been canceled, National airport operator AENA said. Minimum services decreed by law ensured that 1,675 flights would operate — less than half of the average daily amount of more than 4,500 flights.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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The European Union banned the wife of Syrian President Bashar Assad from traveling to the EU or shopping at European companies in a move to stop her from buying the Chanel dresses and Louboutin shoes she apparently craves.

The EU's latest round of sanctions, which also targeted the president's mother and sister, is notable for including Assad's London-born wife Asma, whose luxury shopping habit was laid bare this month in a cache of hacked emails.

Assad has been the target of sanctions since May last year, but these have so far had little impact on his policies. Violence has intensified in Syria in recent weeks as pro-government forces bombard rebel towns and villages, looking to sweep their lightly armed opponents out of their strongholds.

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After Friday's decision, EU border guards will refuse Asma entry if she tries to travel into the bloc, though Britain will have to allow her in if she uses a British passport.

"British nationals, British passport holders do obviously have a right of entry to the United Kingdom," Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

Report: 'I am the real dictator,' wife of Syria's Bashar Assad says

"But given that we are imposing an asset freeze on all of these individuals, and a travel ban on other members of the same family and the regime, we're not expecting Mrs. Assad to try to travel to the United Kingdom at the moment," he said.

A former investment banker, Asma Assad once cultivated the image of a serious-minded woman inspired by liberal values.

But she appears to have continued a life of luxury shopping and entertainment during the uprising against the four-decade rule of the Assad family, while according to the United Nations at least 8,000 people have been killed in the violence.

Emails she exchanged with her husband, obtained by Britain's Guardian newspaper, apparently showed they were buying pop music and luxury goods on the internet during the bloodshed.

Making sanctions personal
Asma Assad, a 36-year-old mother of three, was shown to have a penchant for crystal-encrusted Christian Louboutin shoes and Chanel dresses from France.

Before the Syrian insurgency started a year ago, a glowing article in Vogue magazine described her as "a rose in the desert" and her household as "wildly democratic."

But that image has crumbled as the emails showed her spending tens of thousands of pounds on jewels, fancy furniture, and a Venetian glass vase from Harrods.

EU foreign ministers also added other Syrians to a list of those facing asset freezes and bans on travel to the bloc, and barred EU companies from doing business with two Syrian oil companies, EU officials said.

The decisions, which come into force on Saturday, follow 12 previous rounds of sanctions aimed at isolating Assad within Syria and cutting off his sources of finance. These included an arms embargo and a ban on importing Syrian oil into the EU.

"With this new listing we are striking at the heart of the Assad clan, sending out a loud and clear message to Mr. Assad: he should step down," Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the international community's objective was "a situation where Assad recognizes his responsibility, moves aside and we are able to see a genuine movement forward in Syria".

The international community has struggled to formulate a joint approach to Syria in the face of opposition from Russia and China to U.N. Security Council resolutions proposed by the West.

French foreign minister Alain Juppe called on the Syrian opposition to unite and present a plan to EU leaders. Such a move had been crucial for the Libyan opposition last year, and had helped galvanize Western support.

It is a priority "to convince the opposition to get together and organize itself. You can't win when you're divided," he said. "I make a reference to the National Transition Council in Libya, which came to Brussels to present its political road map, and that had a lot of impact to give it credibility. The Syrian opposition needs to do the same."

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European Union states are set to ban Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's wife Asma from travel to and shopping in the EU, diplomats said, cranking up pressure on his government to end a bloody crackdown on popular unrest.

A British-born former investment banker who had once cultivated an image of a woman inspired by Western values, Asma al-Assad has become a hate figure for many Syrians. She has stood by her husband during a year-long crackdown on popular unrest in which the U.N. says at least 8,000 people have died.

In recent weeks she became the focus of media attention when a trove of emails between her and her husband obtained by Britain's Guardian newspaper appeared to show them shopping for pop music and luxury items while Syria descended into bloodshed.

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The EU has responded to Syria's violence with a broad range of sanctions, which include a ban on Syrian oil imports to Europe and measures against the Syrian central bank and other companies and state institutions.

On Friday, it is expected to take new steps. For Asma, they will mean she will no longer be able to travel to the EU or buy products from EU-based companies, in her own name.

Foreign ministers of EU member states are set to agree on a new round of measures, the bloc's 13th, and impose asset freezes and bans on travel to the EU against 12 people, include Asma.

Finally, UN reaches agreement over 'extremely dangerous crisis' in Syria

A prohibition for European companies to do business with two more Syrian entities is also planned.

"The text (of sanctions) has gone through," said one EU diplomat, referring to an agreement reached by EU envoys in Brussels to a list of new sanctions. Another diplomat confirmed Assad's wife is included in the list of sanctioned individuals.

The list still needs formal approval from ministers. It will become public on Saturday when new sanctions are due to go into effect.

Assad himself has been a target since May last year, but sanctions have had little impact on his policies so far.

Violence has intensified in recent weeks as pro-government forces bombard rebel towns and villages, looking to sweep their lightly armed opponents out of their strongholds.

The international community has struggled to formulate a joint approach in the face of opposition from Russia and China to any resolution by the U.N. Security Council.

Assad absorbed a major diplomatic blow on Wednesday, however, when Russia and China joined the Security Council in voicing support for U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's bid to end violence that has brought Syria to the brink of civil war.

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Updated at 10 a.m. ET: BRUSSELS -- After months of tough negotiating, Europe and the International Monetary Fund sealed a deal early Tuesday to hand Greece €130 billion ($170 billion) in additional bailout loans to save it from a default that threatened the viability of the euro, undermining global economic confidence.

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The early-hours agreement to avert default comes after negotiators persuaded private bondholders to take greater losses and Athens to commit to very severe austerity measures.

Ministers finalized measures to cut Greece's debt to 120.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2020, a fraction above the target, to secure its second rescue in less than two years and meet a bond repayment next month.

The eurozone and the IMF, which will be providing the money for the new bailout, hope the new program will eventually put Greece back into a position where it can survive without external support and secure its place in the euro currency union. Finance ministers from Greece and the other 16 euro countries meeting in Brussels wrangled until the early morning hours over how that could be achieved.

What does the Greece bond swap bailout deal mean?

On top of the new rescue loans, Athens will also ask banks and other investment funds to forgive it some €107 billion in debt, while the European Central Bank and other national central banks in the eurozone will forgo profits on their holdings.

The accord, which had been months in the making, seeks to reduce Greece's massive debts on all fronts, with both private and official creditors going beyond what they had said was possible in the past.

But the costs for Greece, in potential loss of autonomy and further strict austerity measures, were implicit from a statement from Eurogroup, which Europe's finance ministers belong to.

"The Eurogroup is fully aware of the significant efforts already made by the Greek citizens but also underlines that further major efforts by the Greek society are needed to return the economy to a sustainable growth path," the statement read. "We reiterate our commitment to provide adequate support to Greece during the life of the programme and beyond until it has regained market access, provided that Greece fully complies with the requirements and objectives of the adjustment programme."

So it was clear that Greece, which kicked off Europe's debt crisis two years ago, was at the very best starting a long and painful road to recovery. At the worst, the new program would push the country even deeper into recession and see it default on its debts further down the line.

"It's not an easy (program), it's an ambitious one," said Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, adding that there were significant risks that Greece's economy could not grow as much as its international creditors were hoping.

The austerity measures wrought from Greece are also widely unpopular among the population and may hold difficulties for a country which is due to hold an election in April. Further protests could test politicians' commitment to cuts to wages, pensions and jobs.

So social upheaval was a real risk, Paschos Mandravelis, a political analyst at Greece's Kathimerini newspaper, told NBC News' Andy Eckardt.

"If people in the broad middle class landscape get desperate and feel choked, there is the possibility of some kind of uprising," he said.

A Greek's only hot seller: Tear gas masks

And some economists say there are still questions over whether Greece can pay off even a reduced debt burden.

A return to economic growth could take as much as a decade, a prospect that brought thousands of Greeks onto the streets to protest against austerity measures Sunday. The cuts will deepen its five-year recession, hurting government revenues.

Europe's economy edges closer to recession

A report prepared by experts from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund said Greece would need extra relief to cut its debts near to the official debt target given the worsening state of its economy.

If Athens did not follow through on economic reforms and savings to make its economy more competitive, its debt could hit 160 percent by 2020, said the report, obtained by Reuters.

"Given the risks, the Greek program may thus remain accident-prone, with questions about sustainability hanging over it," the nine-page confidential report said.

NBC News, msnbc.com, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report 

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran has halted oil shipments to Britain and France, the Oil Ministry said Sunday, in an apparent pre-emptive blow against the European Union after the bloc imposed sanctions on Iran's crucial fuel exports.

The EU imposed tough sanctions against Iran last month, which included a freeze of the country's central bank assets and an oil embargo set to begin in July. Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi had warned earlier this month that Tehran could cut off oil exports to "hostile" European nations. The 27-nation EU accounts for about 18 percent of Iran's oil exports. 

According to the BBC, Qassemi reaffirmed his stance, claiming the suspension posed no problems for Iran.

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Targeting Britain and France appeared to be a political decision by Iran to punish the two countries for supporting tougher sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program.

"Crude oil exports to British and French companies have been halted," Oil Ministry spokesman Ali Reza Nikzad-Rahbar said on the ministry's website. "We have our own customers and have no problem to sell and export our crude oil to new customers."

Britain's Foreign Office declined comment, and there was no immediate response from French officials.

The European Commission said last week that the bloc would not be short of oil if Iran stopped crude exports, as they have enough in stock to meet their needs for around 120 days.

Industry sources told Reuters on Feb. 16 that Iran's top oil buyers in Europe were making substantial cuts in supply months in advance of European Union sanctions, reducing flows to the continent in March by more than a third - or over 300,000 barrels daily.

France's Total has already stopped buying Iran's crude, which is subject to fresh EU embargoes. Market sources said Royal Dutch Shell has scaled back sharply.

Greece, Turkey and Saudi Arabia
Among European nations, debt-ridden Greece is most exposed to Iranian oil disruption.

Motor Oil Hellas of Greece was thought to have cut out Iranian crude altogether and compatriot Hellenic Petroleum along with Spain's Cepsa and Repsol were curbing imports from Iran.

Iran was supplying more than 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to the EU plus Turkey in 2011, industry sources said.

By the start of this year imports had sunk to about 650,000 bpd as some customers cut back in anticipation of an EU ban.

Saudi Arabia says it is prepared to supply extra oil either by topping up existing term contracts or by making rare spot market sales. Iran has criticized Riyadh for the offer.

Iran said the cut will have no impact on its crude sales, warning that any sanctions on its oil will raise international crude prices.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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