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Phone hacking by the media cost me my job advising Elle Macpherson, a business adviser told a U.K. inquiry Tuesday, describing how the Australian supermodel wrongly blamed her for leaking intimate secrets to the press.

Mary-Ellen Field told an inquiry into British media ethics that the leaks cast a shadow of suspicion over her, with Macpherson becoming convinced that Field was an alcoholic and ordering her to an American rehabilitation clinic. Field said she was shocked by the allegations that she was a drunk who’d been blabbing about her employer, but went along with Macpherson’s recommendation because she needed her job.

“I have a severely disabled child who can never look after himself so walking away from a high-paying position is not a good idea,” Field said.

The rehab was grueling _ she described it as being “like one of those CIA renditions, except they don’t put you in chains” _ but it didn’t do her much good.

Even though staff at the clinic said she was not an alcoholic, Macpherson fired her anyway, and Field lost her job at her firm shortly afterward. She told the inquiry there was no doubt the sacking was the result of what happened with Macpherson.

Field said her employer told her that “I’d been indiscreet, that the clients didn’t trust me.”

Although it has since emerged that the media leaks were the result of phone hacking not indiscretion, Field said she has not heard from fellow Australian Macpherson in years.

Field was one of several victims of press intrusion testifying Tuesday at Britain’s Royal Courts of Justice. The inquiry was set up after the scandal over phone hacking and other underhanded tactics used at the News of the World, which was closed in July amid allegations of widespread criminality no credit check payday loans.

Among those due to testify Tuesday were British comedian Steve Coogan, soccer player Garry Flitcroft, and Margaret Watson, whose daughter Diane was stabbed to death at her Scottish school two decades ago.

The parents of murdered British schoolgirl Milly Dowler and film star Hugh Grant were the first victims to testify on Monday, with Grant being particularly scathing.

He described mysterious break-ins, leaked medical details and hacked voice mails. Grant attacked the Mail on Sunday tabloid, accusing it of spying on his conversations. The paper denies the charge, but lawyers at the inquiry said Tuesday the tabloid’s response smacked of an attempt to intimidate witnesses.

David Sherborne and Neil Garnham pointed to an article on the Mail’s website describing Grant’s allegations as “mendacious smears driven by his hatred of the media.”

“(Is) everyone who has the temerity to give evidence critical of the press is going to face this the following morning?” Garnham asked.

Sherborne also invoked the Mail article when he said many witnesses were worried about “the sort of intimidatory tactics that we’ve seen in the press this morning.”

The Mail’s lead counsel was not at the hearing but was expected to reply later Tuesday.

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Greece’s new prime minister will present his policy platform in parliament Monday, ahead of a midweek confidence vote in his coalition government that is tasked with implementing crucial reforms and securing the country’s international loan lifeline.

Lucas Papademos, a former central banker picked by broad party consensus last week after the previous Socialist government imploded, is expected to easily win Wednesday’s confidence vote.

His interim coalition administration is backed by Greece’s two biggest parties and a small right-wing nationalist party. It has a mandate to coast the austerity-fatigued country over the next three months, with national elections tentatively scheduled for February.

Tough work lies ahead. Papademos’ government must pass the 2012 austerity budget, approve a new euro130 billion ($177 billion) international bailout cobbled together last month, and see through lagging reforms that will include thousands of public sector layoffs.

Most crucially, it must secure the next euro8 billion ($11 billion) installment of the rescue loans without which the country will go bankrupt before Christmas.

Greece depends on loans from a euro110 billion ($150 billion) rescue package agreed in 2010, when huge borrowing costs blocked the debt-crippled country from international markets. That bailout later proved inadequate, forcing the new bailout agreed on Oct. 26 that will also see the reduction of the country’s privately held debt by some euro100 billion, or 50 percent.

Athens is expected to officially launch talks in the next few days with banks and other private bond holders on the debt writedown.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos has said he hopes the next loan installment can be approved by his 16 eurozone colleagues in a Thursday teleconference. Greece’s eurozone partners are first seeking a written commitment from Athens to support the second bailout, signed by Papademos, the leaders of the main Socialist and conservative parties, the central bank governor and finance minister low fee pay day loans.

But conservative leader Antonis Samaras insisted Monday that he would not sign, arguing that he has already pledged to back the deal and his word should suffice.

“Some say that to unblock the (euro8 billion) installment we need to sign a joint statement with all the parties that support this new transitional government,” Samaras told his New Democracy party lawmakers. “I said it before and I say it now: I will not sign such statements.”

Samaras pledged to back the interim government but said elections must be held as initially agreed on Feb. 19, and promised, if elected, to cut taxes.

Greeks have suffered some 20 months of harsh austerity, with repeated pension and salary cuts compounded by a spate of tax increases. Unions have reacted with a wave of general strikes and demonstrations, many of which led to riots. A small left-wing party has called an anti-austerity protest just ahead of Papademos’ speech in parliament, while civil servants will hold work stoppages Tuesday.

However, Greeks appear relieved by the formation of the new government last Friday, after ten days of political wrangling triggered by the resignation of Socialist prime minister George Papandreou amid a party revolt halfway through his four-year term.

Some 73 percent back Papademos’ selection according to a survey in Sunday’s To Vima newspaper, and 78 percent approved the coalition government. But only 26 percent said they expected the three parties to support the government’s work, with 56 percent voicing fears that the parties will focus on campaigning for February’s elections. The Nov. 11 poll of 1,000 people gave a 3 percent margin of error.

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The dollar has jumped against the yen after Japanese monetary authorities intervened in the currency market to weaken the yen, whose recent appreciation has hurt the country’s vital exporters.

Monday’s action, confirmed by Finance Minister Jun Azumi, came after the Japanese currency had surged to a post-World War II high of 75.32 yen against the dollar earlier Monday bad credit unsecured personal loans.

By 11:45 a.m., Tokyo time, the dollar has risen sharply to 79.19 yen.

The strong yen erodes overseas earnings for Japanese exporters.

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An agreement to contain the European debt crisis electrified the stock market Thursday, driving the Dow Jones Industrial average up nearly 340 points and putting the Standard & Poor’s 500 index on track for its best month since 1974.

Investors were relieved after European leaders crafted a deal to slash Greece’s debt load and prevent the crisis there from engulfing larger countries like Italy. The package is aimed at preventing another financial disaster like the one that happened in September 2008 after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

But some analysts cautioned that Europe’s problems remained unsolved.

“The market keeps on thinking that it’s put Europe’s problems to bed, but it’s like putting a three-year old to bed: You might put it there but it won’t stay there,” said David Kelly, chief market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds.

Kelly said Europe’s debt problems will remain an issue until the economies of struggling nations like Greece and Portugal grow again.

Commodities and Treasury yields soared as investors took on more risk. The euro rose sharply against the dollar.

Stronger U.S. economic growth and corporate earnings also contributed to the surge. The government reported that the American economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate from July through September on stronger consumer spending and business investment. That was nearly double the 1.3 percent growth in the previous quarter.

Banks agreed to take 50 percent losses on the Greek bonds they hold. Europe will also strengthen a financial rescue fund to protect the region’s banks and other struggling European countries such as Italy and Portugal.

“This seems to set aside the worries that there would be a massive contagion over there that would have brought everything down with it,” said Mark Lamkin, head of Lamkin Wealth Management.

The Dow Jones industrial average soared 339.51 points, or 2.9 percent, to 12,208.55. That was its largest jump since Aug. 11, when it rose 423.

All 30 stocks in the Dow rose, led by Bank of America Corp. with a 9.6 percent gain. It was the first time the Dow closed above 12,000 since Aug. 1.

Even with Thursday’s gains, the Dow remains 4.7 percent below the high for the year it reached April 29. The Dow has fallen every month since then due to a combination of a slowdown in the U.S. economy, a worldwide parts shortage after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and concerns about the European debt crisis. The Dow is now at approximately the same level it traded at on July 28.

Stocks fell for much of August in the wake of a last-minute deal to prevent the U.S. government from defaulting on its debt.

But anticipations of a solution to Europe’s debt problems and signs that the U.S. economy is not in another recession have lifted stocks higher throughout October.

The Dow is up 11.9 percent for the month so far. With only two full days of trading left in the month, the Dow could have its biggest monthly gain since January 1987.

The S&P 500 rose 42.59, or 3.7 percent, to 1,284.59. Those gains turned the S&P positive for the year for the first time since Aug. 3, just before the U payday loans.S. government’s debt was downgraded. The index is up 13.5 percent for the month, its best performance since a 16.3 percent gain in October 1974.

The Nasdaq composite leaped up 87.96, or 3.3 percent, to 2,738.63.

Small-company stocks rose more than the broader market. That’s a sign investors were more comfortable holding assets perceived as being risky but also more likely to appreciate in a strong economy. The Russell 2000 index jumped 5.3 percent.

Raw materials producers, banks and stocks in other industries that depend on a strong economy for profit growth led the way. Copper jumped 5.8 percent to $3.69 a pound and crude oil jumped 4.2 percent to $93.96 a barrel.

The euro rose sharply, to $1.42, as confidence in Europe’s financial system grew. The euro was worth $1.39 late Wednesday and had been as low as $1.32 on Oct. 3. European stock indexes also soared. France’s CAC-40 rose 6.3 percent and Germany’s DAX jumped 6.1 percent.

Investors sold U.S. Treasury notes and bonds, an indication they were moving away from safer investments. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves in the opposite direction of its price, rose to 2.39 percent from 2.21 percent late Wednesday.

European leaders still have to finalize the details of their latest plan. French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke with Chinese President Hu Jintao amid hopes that countries with lots of cash like China can contribute to the European rescue.

Past attempts to contain Europe’s two-year debt crisis have proved insufficient. Greece has been surviving on rescue loans since May 2010. In July, creditors agreed to take some losses on their Greek bonds, but that wasn’t enough to fix the problem.

Worries about Europe’s debt crisis and a weak U.S. economy dragged the S&P 500 down 19.4 percent between April 29 and Oct. 3. That put it on the cusp of what’s called a bear market, which is a 20 percent decline.

Since then, there have been a number of more encouraging signs on the U.S. economy. Despite the jitters over Europe, many large American companies have been reporting strong profit growth in the third quarter.

Dow Chemical rose 8.2 percent after its profit last quarter rose 59 percent on strong sales growth from Latin America. Occidental Petroleum Corp. jumped 9.7 percent after reporting a 50 percent surge in income.

Citrix Systems Inc. rose 17.3 percent. The technology company’s revenue rose 20 percent last quarter, and it forecast growth of up to 13 percent for 2012. Akamai Technologies Inc., whose products help speed the delivery of online content, jumped 15.4 percent after the company reported earnings that beat analysts’ expectations.

Avon Products Inc. fell 18 percent, the most in the S&P 500, after the company said the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating its contacts with financial analysts and Avon’s own probe into bribery in China and other countries.

Nine stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was heavy at 6.5 billion shares.

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The speaker of Britain’s House of Commons says a pie attack on media mogul Rupert Murdoch at a parliamentary committee hearing could lead to permanent security changes.

An activist launched a shaving foam pie at Murdoch, 80, inside the Houses of Parliament in July as Murdoch testified about Britain’s tabloid phone hacking scandal.

Speaker John Bercow said Monday the incident had exposed inadequate security arrangements.

Visitors in the future may face new restrictions during high profile events, including restrictions on the type of items they can bring into Parliament my credit score. Bercow said officials will also consider creating a new post of director of security.

Jonathan May-Bowles pleaded guilty to assaulting Murdoch and was sentenced to six weeks in jail.

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The European Central Bank offered new emergency loans to banks on Thursday to help steady them through the government debt crisis, but decided to keep interest rates on hold despite fears of a sharp economic slowdown.

President Jean-Claude Trichet did not even indicate that a rate cut was due in coming months, which many experts expect will be necessary to stave off a possible new recession.

“The economic outlook remains subject to particularly high uncertainty and intensified downside risks,” Trichet said, adding however that “at the same time interest rates remain low” and that inflation will likely remain high for months.

Instead, Trichet focused on measures to keep the financial system working properly. The ECB will offer an unlimited amount of 12-month and 13-month loans to banks. That will provide banks financing for a longer period and shield them from turbulence in borrowing markets.

The ECB will also keep offering unlimited amounts of credit at its shorter-term lending operations of up to 3 months through the first half of next year free business cards.

Many European banks are exposed to losses on Greek debt. That has made borrowing between banks, crucial for their daily functioning, increasingly difficult because of fears the money might not be repaid.

Trichet said the bank would also buy up to euro40 billion ($53 billion) in covered bonds, a type of security used by banks to raise funding. The ECB’s presence will help free up that credit market and make borrowing easier for banks.

The bank has maintained throughout the crisis that its unconventional measures such as extra credits are kept in a separate track from interest rate policy, and Thursday’s decisions continued that stance.

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The home-buying season was a bust.

March through August are typically the peak buying months. But this time, Americans bought fewer new homes in that stretch than in any other six-month period since record-keeping began a half-century ago.

And sales of previously occupied homes didn’t fare much better. They nearly matched 2009’s total for the peak buying months. And that was the worst since 1997.

Combined, total sales this spring and summer were the weakest on records dating to 1963. The figures underscore how badly the housing market is faring and suggest that a recovery is years away.

Because the economy is barely growing and unemployment exceeds 9 percent, many people see a home purchase as too big a risk. Some worry about losing their jobs. Others can’t afford the 20 percent down payment that most lenders now require.

Not even shrunken home prices and the lowest mortgage rates in six decades are convincing would-be buyers.

“The job engine has really sputtered out, and without jobs, Americans really can’t purchase homes,” said Celia Chen, a housing economist at Moody’s Analytics.

Plunging stock prices and renewed recession fears have led many economists to push back expectations for a housing recovery.

Chen expects prices to bottom at the start of 2012. And she doesn’t expect sales and prices to make a healthy recovery until 2015 at the earliest. In hard-hit areas such as California and Florida, it could take decades for prices to return to normal, she said.

Pierre Ellis, an analyst at Decision Economics, said that until wages increase and hiring picks up, sales will languish.

The “bad news is the evident absence of optimism that sales will pick up to any degree,” Ellis said.

Roughly 168,000 new homes were sold from March through August, the Commerce Department said Monday. That’s fewer than the 180,000 for the same period last year _ and last year’s sales were boosted by a temporary buyer’s tax credit fast cash advance loan. Over the same period in 2009, roughly 208,000 new homes were sold.

In a healthy six-month buying season, about 400,000 new homes would sell.

Among re-sales, about 2.8 million homes sold from March through August this year. That’s roughly as many as in the same periods in 2009 and 2010. In a healthy market, about 3.3 million would be sold in that six-month stretch.

Michael McGrew, who runs McGrew Real Estate in Lawrence, Kan., said many families won’t buy until the economy strengthens. Even in Lawrence, which had a low unemployment rate of 6.4 percent in July and is home to the University of Kansas, people are worried, McGrew said.

What would help most would be a relocated company that’s ready to hire in the Lawrence area, McGrew says. But hopes for the housing market to turn around soon are dim, he said.

“We’re actually seeing more people trading down their home or trading out of our market entirely,” McGrew said.

Nationally, prices are still falling. Prices for previously occupied homes have sunk more than 5 percent over the past year to a median of $168,300. New-home prices have fallen even further, by 7.7 percent, to $209,100.

That suggests builders and Realtors are slashing prices to compete with low-priced foreclosures and short sales. Short sales occur when lenders allow homes to be sold for less than what’s owed on the mortgage.

Combined, foreclosures and short sales are selling at an average 20 percent discount. And they’re lowering neighboring home values.

Devan MacConnell, 28, an administrator at a nonprofit in southeast Virginia, had been renting for years before buying a short sale this month _ a one-bedroom condo in Virginia Beach overlooking the ocean. She picked it up for $215,000, about $35,000 less than neighboring apartments.

“It was a steal,” she said.

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Under pressure from skeptical financial markets, the world’s economic powers are scrambling to keep Europe’s debt crisis from tumbling out of control.

Finance ministers and central bankers are pushing for bold action by the Group of 20 nations to get the global economy back on track, while wavering over helping Greece avoid a destabilizing default.

The focus of the three days of discussions shifts Saturday shifts from the G-20 to the International Monetary Fund and its sister institution, the World Bank. Both have warned the global economy is entering dangerous waters.

For Christine Lagarde, who took over as head of the IMF in June, the crisis poses a tough first test. Lagarde has warned that without bold and collective action, the world’s major economies risk slipping back into recession.

To avoid that, G-20 officials have pledged to “take all necessary actions to preserve the stability of banking systems and financial markets.” They are also encouraging Europe to move quickly to carry out its promises to help Greece. But private economists have questioned whether the action plan unveiled Thursday goes far enough to deal with market concerns that a Greek default is a virtual certainty that threatens to destabilize other highly indebted European countries.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warned that a second massive bailout package for Greece _ tentatively agreed to in July _ may have to be re-evaluated after the country’s international debt inspectors discovered problems in implementing previous promises. This re-evaluation could include changing the terms of an agreed voluntary contribution from banks and other private investors to Greece’s rescue, two European officials said.

One of the officials said that Germany and other rich eurozone nations, including the Netherlands and Austria, are now pushing for an “orderly default” by Greece. That would entail losses for investors that go beyond the 21 percent cut in the face value of government bonds foreseen under the voluntary contribution. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The comments underline how confidence is eroding among core eurozone countries over whether they can actually save Greece, whose debt is close to 160 percent of its gross domestic product and whose economy looks now set for a fourth straight year of recession.

Stock markets in Europe and the U.S. recouped some of their previous day’s hefty losses Friday, but investors remained skeptical about whether the world’s leading economies can keep the global economy from going over the cliff.

Investors will be looking for more during the meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

“I think many in the markets are no longer reassured by platitudes; we want to see action and not just words _ more walking the walk and less talking the talk,” said Louise Cooper, an analyst with BGC Partners. “The G-20 communique was more eloquent on the problems facing the world than the solutions to be found.”

In Europe, France’s CAC-40 closed up 1 percent at 2,810.11 while the DAX in Germany rose 0.6 percent to 5,196.56. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares ended 0.5 percent higher at 5,066.81.

Wall Street pushed higher, too _ the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.1 percent at 10,745 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.5 percent to 1,134.

Despite the modest gains Friday, the worries are piling up for investors: a U.S. Federal Reserve warning this week that the American economy is in significant difficulty, a raft of downbeat European and Asian economic indicators and the continued concern over Greece’s debt.

Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University’s Martin Smith School of Business said the great concern is that if Greece doesn’t make further painful cuts in government spending and ends up defaulting on its debt, the shock waves will rock big banks in Europe who carry heavy Greek debts their books.

He said this would cause fearful investors to sell bonds of other heavily indebted countries such as Italy and Spain, countries with much bigger economies.

“The fear in markets is that the problem will spread to bigger economies such as Spain and Italy. Europe would not have the resources to handle a crisis of that magnitude,” Sohn said.

The finance officials at the Washington meeting said they believed that the 17 nations that use the common euro currency were getting the message they needed to move more quickly to reform their surveillance procedures and increase economic support.

“The leading lights of the eurozone are aware that time is running out,” British treasury chief George Osborne said Friday. “There is a far greater sense of urgency than there was three weeks ago.”

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he had stressed during the G-20 discussions that “Europe will need an exercise of political will. We will need decisiveness and clarity.”

G-20 finance officials devoted part of their discussions Friday to the issue of providing more support to poor nations. French Cooperation Minister Henri de Raincourt said that one proposal being examined would be for the rich nations to establish an emergency food stockpile to help poor nations, particularly in Africa, deal with unexpected crises.

He said the stockpile could be tapped quickly during the 90 days it normally takes the international community to organize food shipments to disaster areas. The G-20 officials hope to develop an action plan on development aid to present at the G-20 leaders’ summit in Cannes, France.

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Associated Press writers Martin Crutsinger and Luis Alonso Lugo in Washington and Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris contributed to this report.

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Armed men from Liberia have killed at least 15 people in attacks on villages along the border over the last two days, Ivory Coast’s defense minister said Saturday.

The violence began Thursday night in the country’s southwest, a region that has seen fighting even after the resolution of Ivory Coast’s bloody political crisis earlier this year.

Also Saturday, an international watchdog said it had documented a similar attack that left at least eight people dead back in July.

Matt Wells of Human Rights Watch says the fighters loyal to ex-President Laurent Gbagbo crossed over the border at night and killed villagers, including women and children, and then disappeared back into the Liberia’s dense jungle just a couple of miles away.

“Some had their throats slit and others were shot. They shot a woman from behind at point blank range,” Wells says. “The latest attack looks to be of a very similar nature.”

Ivory Coast was plunged into months of violence after Gbagbo refused to cede power after losing the November presidential election. President Alassane Ouattara has pledged to investigate the killings of thousands of people during the conflict on both sides.

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Stocks fell Monday on worries that Greece could be edging closer to defaulting on its debt. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note reached another record low as investors piled into U.S. government debt.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 70 points, or 0.6 percent, to 10,921 at 10:30 a.m. It had been down as many as 135 points shortly after the opening bell.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 6, or 0.5 percent, to 1,148.

Technology stocks fared better than the overall market following news of a semiconductor deal. The Nasdaq fell less than point to 2,467.

Worries over Europe’s debt crisis drove traders into Treasurys, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to 1.87 percent, the lowest since the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis began keeping daily records in 1962. During the financial crisis in late 2008, the 10-year yield hit a low of 2.05 percent.

European bank shares fell sharply over worries about their exposure to Greek government debt. Traders fear that Greece could default on its debts, and European policymakers are divided over how to handle the crisis. Investors are also worried that ratings agencies may downgrade the credit ratings of French banks, which could bring more instability to Europe’s beleaguered financial system.

The resignation of a key European Central Bank official Friday combined with worries over a new recession in the United States led to a large stock market sell-off faxless pay day loans. The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index have fallen for six of the past seven weeks.

A default by Greece or one of the continent’s other heavily indebted governments could ripple through the global markets and make it more difficult for other European countries to borrow money. Economists worry that Europe’s financial crisis could tip a weakening U.S. economy into another recession.

McGraw-Hill Cos. rose 2.6 percent. The company said it will split into two public companies, with one unit focused on education services and the other centered on markets, including the rating agency Standard & Poor’s and J.D. Power and Associates.

NetLogic Microsystems Inc. jumped 50 percent after Broadcom Corp. said it has agreed to acquire the maker of semiconductors for $3.7 billion. Bank of America Corp. rose 1 percent after its CEO, Brian Moynihan, announced new cost-cutting goals.

Wynn Resorts rose 2 percent after a unit of the casino operator said it had a signed a deal to build a resort in Macau. Casinos have been expanding their operations in the former Portuguese colony, considered the world’s most lucrative gambling market.

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