Ireland accepts $113-billion bailout package

[link to www.latimes.com]

European officials rescued their second country in seven months Sunday, offering financially strapped Ireland a bailout package worth $113 billion in a bid to shore up confidence in the battered euro.

Dublin quickly accepted the emergency lifeline, hoping to calm anxious investors ahead of the opening of international markets Monday. The move was a humiliating climb-down for the Irish government, which had insisted for weeks that it did not need outside help to deal with its crushing public debt and decimated banking sector.

All eyes are now turned to Portugal and Spain, where, in many ways, the Irish bailout will face its true test. Fear that Lisbon and Madrid are also in danger of defaulting has led investors to dump those countries' bonds and push up their borrowing costs in recent days.