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Greece is confident a debt relief deal with private creditors that is crucial to avoid default can be reached “very soon,” a government spokesman said Friday.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos met for a third day with negotiators from the Institute of International Finance, which represents the private creditors who are being asked to take a loss on their bondholdings to lighten Greece’s debt load by euro100 billion ($129 billion).

“The atmosphere of the talks is good, they are continuing today and we hope they will be concluded very soon,” government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis told private Radio 9.

“This is very important for the sustainability of the national debt and our ability to handle the debt.”

Papademos was joined by Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos at a 90-minute meeting Friday with top IIF officials Charles Dallara and Jean Lemierre.

Venizelos told reporters the talks would resume at 7:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) following an afternoon tele-conference with eurozone officials.

An agreement is needed if Greece is to get the next batch of bailout cash that would prevent a devastating debt default _ Greece does not have enough money to cover a euro14.5 billion bond repayment in March.

The bond-swap deal is part of a second bailout agreed by eurozone countries, worth euro130 billion ($168 billion) in loans and support for banks.

Under the proposed deal, private creditors would cancel 50 percent of their Greek debt in exchange of a cash payment and new bonds with a longer maturity.

But the negotiations stalled last week over a disagreement on the interest rate those new bonds would have.

The two sides are now considering a proposal to set an interest rate of below 4 percent that would gradually increase until 2020, according to European officials.

Louka Katseli, a minister in the previous Socialist government, said the talks were being complicated by the involvement of a large number of parties with a stake in the debt deal.

“This does not only involve Greece and the creditors,” Katseli told private Skai television.

Heavily involved behind the scenes are countries like Germany, which is paying the bulk of Greece’s rescue loans, and the IMF, which is also involved in the bailouts. There are also the individual bond holders, like hedge funds which have bought Greek bonds but at the same time also hold default insurance, Katseli said.

Also Friday, international debt inspectors arrived in Athens to assess whether Greece is doing enough to get more bailout cash.

Officials from the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund met with Venizelos. They will scrutinize Greece’s public finances to make sure it is on track with painful austerity reforms needed to keep tapping rescue loans.

Near-bankrupt Greece has been surviving on a euro110 billion ($142.02 billion) rescue loan program from European countries and the IMF since May, 2010, but required additional help to meet its funding needs.

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Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo reiterated a pledge to make extra budget cuts amid slower economic growth while calling on the European Union to step up efforts to bolster the region

An Italian coast guard official vehemently demanded that the captain go back to his crippled cruise ship to oversee its evacuation, but the captain repeatedly resisted, according to a shocking audiotape made public Tuesday.

Prosecutors have accused Capt. Francesco Schettino of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his vessel before all passengers were evacuated during the grounding of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the Tuscan coast on Friday night.

After Schettino was interrogated by prosecutors for three hours Tuesday, a judge in Grosseto, Tuscany, ruled that the captain, who had been detained a few hours after he allegedly abandoned the Concordia, should be released from jail and confined to his home near Naples under house arrest, his lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, told reporters outside the courthouse.

Prosecutors wanted him kept in Grosseto’s prison, and Leporatti had asked that he be freed.

The death toll from the tragedy nearly doubled to 11 on Tuesday when divers extracted the bodies of four men and one woman from the ship’s wreckage. The victims were in their 50s or 60s and each wore the orange vest that passengers use, indicating they were apparently passengers and not crew members, said a Coast Guard spokesman, Cmdr. Filippo Marini. Their nationalities were not immediately determined.

Prior to that grim finding, the coast guard had raised the number of missing to 25 passengers and four crew members. Italian officials gave the breakdown as 14 Germans, six Italians, four French, two Americans, one Hungarian, one Indian and one Peruvian. But there was still confusion over the numbers, with the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin listing 12 Germans as confirmed missing.

The Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 people when it hit a reef off the Tuscan island of Giglio after Schettino made an unauthorized deviation from the cruise ship’s programmed course, apparently as a favor to his chief waiter, who hailed from the island.

Schettino has insisted that he stayed aboard until the ship was evacuated. However, a recording of his conversation with Italian Coast Guard Capt. Gregorio De Falco indicates he fled before all passengers were off _ and then resisted De Falco’s repeated orders to return.

“You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear?” De Falco shouted in the audio tape.

Schettino resisted, saying the ship was tipping and it was dark. At the time, he and his second-in-command were in a lifeboat and the captain said he was coordinating the rescue from there. He also said he was not going back aboard the ship “because the other lifeboat is stopped.” Passengers have said many lifeboats on the exposed port side of the ship didn’t winch down after the ship had capsized.

De Falco shouted back: “And so what? You want to go home, Schettino? It is dark and you want to go home? Get on that prow of the boat using the pilot ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what their needs are. Now!”

“You go aboard. It is an order. Don’t make any more excuses. You have declared ‘Abandon ship,’ now I am in charge,” De Falco shouted.

At one point, De Falco vowed: “I’m going to make sure you get in trouble. … I am going to make you pay for this. Go on board, (expletive)!”

Schettino was finally heard on the tape agreeing to reboard. But the coast guard has said he never went back, and had police arrest him on land.

The 52-year-old Schettino, described by the Italian media as a genial, tanned ship’s officer, has worked for 11 years for the ship’s owner and was made captain in 2006. He hails from Meta di Sorrento, in the Naples area, which produces many of Italy’s ferry and cruise boat captains. He attended the Nino Bixio merchant marine school near Sorrento.

Schettino recounted his version of events before prosecutors and the judge at Tuesday’s hearing in Grosseto to decide whether he should remain jailed.

The captain could face up to 12 years in prison on the abandoning ship charge alone.

Leporatti told the hearing the captain had insisted that after the initial crash into the reefs he had maneuvered the ship close to shore in a way that “saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.”

Passengers, however, described the evacuation as chaotic.

Steve and Kathy Ledtke, who live in Fort Gratiot, Michigan, said they were sitting down to a late dinner Friday when they realized something had gone wrong. Kathy Ledtke told WDIV-TV that it seemed no one was in charge.

“It was complete chaos and it was every man for himself,” Kathy Ledtke said. “Nobody knew where to go.”

Earlier Tuesday, Italian naval divers exploded holes in the hull of the grounded cruise ship, trying to speed up the search for the missing while seas were still calm. Navy spokesman Alessandro Busonero told Sky TV 24 the holes would help divers enter the wreck more easily.

“We are rushing against time,” he said.

The divers set four microcharges above and below the surface of the water, Busonero said. Video showed one hole above the waterline less than two meters (6 feet) in diameter.

Mediterranean waters in the area were relatively calm Tuesday with waves of just 12 inches (30 centimeters) but they were expected to reach nearly 6 feet (1.8 meters) Wednesday, according to meteorological forecasts.

A Dutch shipwreck salvage firm, meanwhile, said it would take its engineers and divers two to four weeks to extract the 500,000 gallons of fuel aboard the ship. The safe removal of the fuel has become a priority second only to finding the missing, as the wreckage site lies in a maritime sanctuary for dolphins, porpoises and whales.

Preliminary phases of the fuel extraction could begin as early as Wednesday if approved by Italian officials, the company said.

Smit, a Rotterdam, Netherlands-based salvage company, said no fuel had leaked from any of the ship’s tanks and that the tanks appeared intact. While there is a risk the ship could shift in larger waves, to date it has been relatively stable perched on top of rocks near Giglio’s port.

Smit’s operations manager, Kees van Essen, said the company was confident the fuel could safely be extracted using pumps and valves to vacuum the oil out to waiting tanks.

“But there are always environmental risks in these types of operations,” he told reporters.

The company said any discussion about the fate of the ship _ whether it is removed in one piece or broken up _ would be decided by Italian ship operator Costa Crociere and its insurance companies.

The Miami-based Carnival Corp., which owns the Italian operator, estimated that preliminary losses from having the Concordia out of operation at least through 2012 would be between $85 million and $95 million, along with other costs. The company’s share price slumped more than 16 percent Monday.

It was not yet clear if the ship _ which was completed in 2006 _ would ever be able to return to service.

Carnival said its deductible on damage to the ship was approximately $30 million. In addition, the company faces a deductible of $10 million for third-party personal injury liability claims.

Carnival said other costs related to the grounding can’t yet be determined.

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U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said he sees some reason for optimism in Europe, while acknowledging that 2012 is set to be a challenging year.

Home sales and construction will improve this year, contributing

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner

South Korea and Indonesia will probably keep interest rates unchanged this week as a drop in their currencies risks heightening inflationary pressures even as the faltering global economy undermines growth prospects.

All 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News expect the Bank of Korea to keep the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate unchanged at 3.25 percent on Jan. 13 for a seventh straight month, the longest pause since tightening began in July 2010. Bank Indonesia will keep the reference rate at 6 percent tomorrow, 13 of 18 economists surveyed predict, while the rest see a quarter-percentage-point cut.

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A national strike fueled by widespread dissent over spiraling gas prices paralyzed Nigeria on Monday, as tens of thousands of protesters took over the empty streets to criticize government corruption in one voice.

Protests remained largely peaceful across the country on the strike’s first day, though a police shooting in Lagos left one dead and four wounded, while another in the northern city of Kano killed two more.

Still, the widespread anger could be felt just like the heat pouring off burning tires and debris left scattered by some protesters, upset by the ingrained graft and failures of Nigeria’s young democracy.

“It is high time to take Nigeria into our hands,” said Bola Adejobi, 53, who works as an educational consultant and an interior designer said. “It happened in Egypt. It happened in Libya.”

Labor unions called the strike after President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration announced Jan. 1 it unilaterally removed subsidies that kept gasoline prices low in the nation of 160 million people. The decision saw gas prices rise from $1.70 per gallon (45 cents per liter) to at least $3.50 per gallon (94 cents per liter). That spurred a spike in prices for food and transportation across a country where most live on less than $2 a day

Cheap gasoline remains the only noticeable benefit for Nigeria’s public after 50 years of oil production that has seen military leaders and politicians embezzle billions in government funds. Gasoline also remains vital in a nation where electricity remains scarce.

“People have to understand that in the West, petrol is for your car. In Africa, in Nigeria especially, petrol is your life,” said musician Seun Anikulapo-Kuti, son to the late Afrobeat legend Fela. “There’s no light without petrol. Everybody runs a generator.”

The scope of the strike Monday became clear at first light in Lagos. The typically snarled streets of the commercial capital stood empty. Trade unions set up informal roadblocks, aided by local gang members who attacked cars of those driving in spite of the strike.

More than 10,000 people later gathered at a public park in Lagos, with nearly everyone shouting their criticisms of Jonathan and Nigeria’s federal government. Placards and banners bore an effigy of Jonathan with devil horns and fanged teeth, working as an attendant at a gas station. In Nigeria’s capital Abuja, thousands also demonstrated in the streets.

While most businesses remained closed Monday, some flights left Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport. Oil production also apparently continued in Nigeria, which produces about 2.4 million barrels of oil a day and remains a top crude supplier to the U.S. However, the unions representing oil workers had promised to go along with the national strike.

Activists also wore shirts bearing symbols for a loose-knit group of protests called “Occupy Nigeria,” inspired by those near Wall Street in New York. The anger of those gathered also extended to the government’s weak response to ongoing violence in Nigeria by a radical Muslim sect that, according to an Associated Press count, killed at least 510 people last year free 3-in-1 credit report.

Famous Nigerian authors, including Chinua Achebe, issued a statement Monday saying they supported the strike, and warning that if left unattended the violence by the sect known as Boko Haram could sweep the country.

“The country’s leadership should not view the incessant attacks as mere temporary misfortune with which the citizenry must learn to live; they are precursors to events that could destabilize the entire country,” their statement read.

Police largely stood by as some protesters lit bonfires and pulled metal barriers into a Lagos highway. As officers picked up the barriers, some demonstrators moved to help them.

In the Ogba neighborhood, however, witnesses and a doctor said a police officer opened fire on a group of protesting youths, killing one and wounding four others. An angry crowd later pushed the corpse through the neighborhood in a wheelbarrow, shouting promises of revenge, setting fires and knocking over police traffic posts.

The police officer accused of killing the protester has been arrested, Lagos state police spokesman Samuel Jinadu said.

In Nigeria’s second-largest city of Kano, protest organizer Ashiru Sharif said two young men were shot dead by security officers who opened fire on a crowd of chanting protesters.

“We were not attacking anybody,” said Sharif, adding that 24 other peaceful protesters were wounded.

Meanwhile, angry protesters attacked the seat of Kano’s state government, setting offices and cars ablaze, local police commissioner Ibrahim Idris said. Security officers there shot at the mob, resulting in a stampede that left seven wounded, Sharif said. Authorities later set a dusk-to-dawn curfew to tamp down on the violence.

Violence also cut across religious lines in Nigeria, which is divided into a largely Christian south and Muslim north. In Edo state, state police commissioner David Omojola said that a mob attacked a Muslim neighborhood in the southwestern city of Benin, leaving people injured. Rioters also attempted to torch a mosque, but were stopped by the police, Omojola said.

It remains to be seen how long the strike will last. The unions have said described it as indefinite, saying they’ll only stop if the government restores the fuel subsidies. Jonathan has remained adamant the subsidies must remain in place to save the country about $8 billion a year, money he says will go toward badly needed road and public projects.

But Monday’s demonstrations show Nigerians as a whole appear unwilling to let the government in a nation where corruption runs rampant have any more money.

“Corruption is the bane of this nation,” said Udoka Iloba, a 40-year-old accountant. “Nigerians are tired.”

___

Associated Press writers Ibrahim Garba in Kano, Nigeria; Lekan Oyekanmi in Abuja, Nigeria and Yinka Ibukun in Lagos, Nigeria contributed to this report.

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A day after taking over the job as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray defended his role and says he’ll work to win Congress over.

"The appointment is valid, I’m now the director of the bureau," said Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general. "The important thing for us is that we now have the ability to protect consumers across the country on both bank and nonbank issues."

As for those who say his recess appointment is illegal, Cordray said he’d "leave those details to others," during a forum at the Brookings Institution.

President Obama on Wednesday gave Cordray the job of running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau through a recess appointment. However, Republicans and some big business groups argue Congress isn’t in recess.

White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler said the administration believes otherwise, despite the Senate’s "pro forma" sessions every three days, and said the appointment was necessary to fulfill the president’s obligation to keep government functioning.

The consumer bureau is an independent agency created as part of the Wall Street reforms of 2010 tasked with regulating financial products such as mortgages and credit cards. As its new chief, Cordray says he plans to move forward and not worry about potential lawsuits that may challenge his agency’s powers.

The new pup watching your money

That’s easy to say now, because the bureau hasn’t done much yet to irritate Big Business. Cordray acknowledged the bureau has yet to release a single new rule, enforcement action or examination report one hour payday loan.

"But we have lots of work in the pipeline," he added.

In the meantime, Republicans are already preparing for a showdown. Cordray has already been asked to testify at a House Oversight subcommittee panel meeting later this month. He has until Friday to agree to appear.

Cordray was asked several times at the Brookings forum about how he planned to smooth things over with Congress, where Republicans are questioning the legitimacy of his job and the agency’s new powers. He said he plans to work as hard as he can to "improve things" for consumers, which will help "win our way forward."

"The most important thing we can do at the bureau is keep our nose to the grindstone and keep doing our work," Cordray said. "We will prove our own case, both to people who represent the public and the public at large."

In the meantime, the bureau announced Thursday that it launched a new supervisory program over nonbanks, aimed at reviewing and regulating student loan providers, debt collectors, payday lenders, and mortgage originators and servicers.

"This is an important step forward for protecting consumers," Cordray said. "Holding both banks and nonbanks accountable to consumer financial laws will help create a fairer, more transparent market for consumers."

–CNN’s Jessica Yellin contributed to this report. 

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Fewer Americans filed claims for unemployment insurance payments last week, showing the labor market is starting 2012 on better footing than a year earlier.

Applications for jobless benefits (INJCJC) decreased 15,000 in the week ended Dec. 31 to 372,000, Labor Department figures showed today. The median estimate of 38 economists in a Bloomberg News survey forecast 375,000 claims. The average over the past four weeks declined to the lowest level in more than three years.

The decrease in firings indicates employers may be getting more comfortable with their headcounts and their economic outlooks as the year begins. Economists forecast a Labor Department report tomorrow will show hiring picked up and joblessness held below 9 percent in December.