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An unusual small claims lawsuit by a Honda hybrid owner took another complicated turn Wednesday with additional arguments that prompted a commissioner to delay a ruling for more consideration.

Superior Court Commissioner Douglas Carnahan said he was aware of “a media blitz on this case,” and wanted to be clear on all of the issues raised by Honda owner Heather Peters.

Peters told the court she was anxious to get the matter resolved and did not want to waste the court’s time.

“You’re not wasting the court’s time,” said Carnahan. “These are serious issues affecting more people than just you.”

Honda representative Neil Schmidt showed up for the hearing with a stack of envelopes that the commissioner estimated as 8 inches high, purportedly containing letters from satisfied Honda owners.

Carnahan declined to open the envelopes, saying it would just prolong the hearing that has already gone on longer than most small claims court actions.

Peters said she did not want to see the letters and had submitted her own testimonials from those who are dissatisfied with the cars.

“I’ll stipulate there are people who love their cars,” she said as she pointed to the audience where six other disappointed Honda owners were seated, including a woman who drove from Sacramento to attend the hearing.

The woman, Kathy Wood, of Elk Grove said outside court, “I drove from Sacramento because if she can do all this that’s the least I can do.”

Peters, a former lawyer, has been using the Internet to try to rally other Honda hybrid owners to follow her example and go to small claims court rather than accept a proposed class-action settlement by Honda.

Peters bought her car in April 2006.

Peters claimed the car never came close to the 50 miles per gallon (21.26 kilometers per liter) promised and that it got no more than 30 miles per gallon (12.75 kilometers per liter) when the battery began deteriorating. She still owns the car and wants to be compensated for money lost on gas, as well as punitive damages.

She bolted from a class-action lawsuit in order to sue for $10,000 rather than agree to a proposed settlement by Honda with thousands of car owners that would give each owner $100 to $200 and a $1,000 credit on the purchase of a new Honda.

She has said that if all owners of the problem cars won in small-claims court, it could cost Honda $2 billion

Wood said she is planning to opt out of a class-action suit.

“I’m never buying a Honda again,” Wood said.

Schmidt presented charts that he said showed that even with the decreased mileage, Peters benefited from having the car. She called his calculations “laughable.”

“If Honda snuck into my garage and siphoned gas out of my car, that’s a crime,” Peters told the commissioner. “That’s what they’re doing.”

Honda also sent Darren Johnson, its manager in charge of certifications, to explain how Honda tests its vehicles in relation to tests by the environmental protection agency.

Schmidt claimed there was no fraud and said “we’re being sued for telling the truth and she actually benefited from having the hybrid.”

Carnahan said he was taking the matter under submission and would have a ruling probably next week or at least before the Feb. 11 deadline for people to opt out of the class action case.

Outside court Peters said, “I feel great. I did my best. However he decides it I’m happy I did it. It’s brought to light a lot of background stuff that people should know.

“I’m the trailblazer here,” she said, “and everyone else can follow what I did.”

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The war of words between Europe and private investors heated up Tuesday as talks to reduce Greece’s massive debt burden hit an impasse.

While the finance ministers of the countries that use the euro as their currency adopted a tough stance on how much rescue money they would pump into the Greek economy, the head of the group that represents the country’s private creditors _ banks and other investment firms _ warned that the future of Europe was being threatened if a voluntary debt reduction deal over Greece was not agreed.

Charles Dallara, the managing director of the Institute of International Finance, warned that Europe was putting “decade of progress at risk” over the management of Greek debt-reduction talks, which stalled over the weekend.

“European stability is at stake as well,” Dallara said in Zurich in a press conference.

On the front line of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, Athens is trying to get its private creditors to swap their Greek government bonds for new ones with half their face value, thereby slicing some euro100 billion ($130 billion) off its debt. The new bonds would also push the repayment deadlines 20 to 30 years into the future.

However, the main stumbling block over the past few weeks to securing this deal has been the interest rate these new bonds would carry. A high interest rate could buffer losses for investors, but would also require the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund to put up more than the euro130 billion ($169 billion) in rescue loans they promised in October.

Dallara said the private creditors, which include banks, insurance companies and hedge funds, were acting in good faith and that the proposal made last week was in the spirit of last October’s agreement. At that time, Europe’s leaders said Greece should look to reduce the value of its private sector debts by 50 percent, or euro100 billion ($130 billion).

In the early hours of Tuesday, eurozone politicians drew a firm line on the Greek debt restructuring.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister who chaired a meeting of finance ministers on efforts to fight the crisis, said the average interest rate over the lifetime of the new Greek bonds must be “clearly below 4 percent,” with an average rate of less than 3.5 percent for the period until 2020. That is far below the 4 percent demanded by the Institute of International Finance, which has been leading negotiations for the private bondholders.

The European ministers’ tough stance on the interest rates underlines how the eurozone and the IMF are unwilling to increase new rescue loans above the promised euro130 billion, even though Greece’s economic situation has deteriorated. After already granting Greece a euro110 billion bailout in May 2010, the eurozone and the IMF are threatening to withhold further funding for the country, which has repeatedly failed to hit budget and reform targets required in return for the financial aid.

The interest rate caps will also seriously test the willingness of private bondholders to agree to a debt deal voluntarily.

Dallara said talks would continue over the coming days, adding that he was confident there would be “large-scale” participation by the private sector if a “voluntary” deal is clinched.

However, he refused to put a deadline on the discussions.

Given the complexity of the negotiations and the legal consequences that would ensue, many analysts think a deal has to be agreed soon if Greece is to meet a vital bond repayment deadline in March.

If it can’t pay its bond, Greece would be in default of its debts, a scenario that could lead to renewed panic in financial markets and potentially derailing a feeble global economic recovery.

Dallara said Europe must keep the support of the private sector, given the massive amounts of debt that have to be refinanced from France to Portugal.

He added that there wasn’t a country that didn’t need investment from the private sector.

“Investors need to feel confident in their investments … in sovereign debt,” he said.

Before Dallara’s latest comments, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the current impasse was a normal part of difficult negotiations.

“We continue the negotiations (with investors) as happily, but also as little susceptible to blackmail as possible,” he told reporters in Brussels. “That exists in every bazaar _ a final offer _ one shouldn’t let oneself be overly impressed by that.”

The alternative to a voluntary deal would be to force losses on to investors _ a move that the eurozone has so far been unwilling to make. Some officials fear that a forced default could trigger panic on financial markets and hurt bigger countries like Italy, Spain or even France.

But several ministers indicated that they might be willing to accept a forced default if it puts Athens in a position where it can eventually repay its remaining debt _ including the rescue loans from the eurozone and the IMF. The eurozone has said that Greece’s debt is sustainable if it falls to some 120 percent of gross domestic product by 2020. Without a restructuring it would reach close to 200 percent by the end of the year.

Even Olli Rehn, the EU’s Monetary Affairs Commissioner, said that forcing some holdouts to accept a restructuring that has the support of the majority of bondholders would be acceptable.

“That is possible within the framework of achieving a voluntary agreement on private sector involvement,” Rehn said, referring to so-called collective action clauses that Greece could write into its old bond contracts to allow majority decision making. The Commission has so far always been opposed to any forced losses for investors.

But ministers also put the pressure on Greece to reach a manageable debt level by bolstering its reform and austerity measures.

“Greece and the banks have to do more in order to reach a sustainable debt level,” Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager told reporters as he arrived for a second day of meetings with his European counterparts. “We have to await the discussions about that because a sustainable debt level is absolutely a precondition for the next (rescue) program.”

Schaeuble also insisted that firm support for new austerity measures from all major Greek parties _ including after elections expected in April _ was a precondition for a new bailout.

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Pan Pylas in Zurich and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens, Greece, contributed to this story.

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Asian stocks posted muted gains Monday in trade thinned by Chinese New Year holidays as talks on a debt agreement for Greece dragged on.

Only a handful of markets were open for business. Trading is closed in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and South Korea.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average was up 0.2 percent at 8,779.16 while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.3 percent to 4,228.10. New Zealand’s benchmark added 0.1 percent to 3,279.19.

On Friday, stocks in Europe mostly held their gains for the week, waiting for the outcome of Greece’s negotiations with its creditors on a deal to cut the face value of up to euro200 billion ($258 billion) in debt by 50 percent.

Over the weekend, the representative of Greece’s private creditors said the talks are continuing even after his unexpected departure from the country.

A deal in Athens would allow the country to receive a second bailout package from other European governments and the International Monetary Fund, and cut Greece’s debt from an estimated 160 percent of its annual economic output to 120 percent by 2020 low interest rate personal loans.

That is still painfully high, but without the help, Greece will not be able to pay euro14.5 billion in debt due March 20. A Greek default would send borrowing costs higher across Europe and could trigger chaos in the global financial system.

On Wall Street on Friday the Dow rose 96.50 points to close at 12,720.48. The S&P 500 index inched up 0.88 to 1,315.38 and the Nasdaq gained 1.63 points to 2,786.70.

In energy trading, benchmark crude was down 41 cents at $97.92 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Thousands of Romanians, including teenage students who cut class, marched through their capital on Thursday to demand the resignation of their government for imposing harsh austerity measures in order to receive international loans for the nation’s battered economy.

It was one of the largest protests in recent times in Bucharest and came after a week of sometimes violent anti-government demonstrations.

As the march reached University Square, protesters blocked traffic and shouted what has become a trademark slogan aimed at President Traian Basescu: “Get out, you miserable dog.”

The square _ a focal point of recent protests _ is historically significant for Romanians because it was a centerpiece of the 1989 anti-communist revolution that led to Romania’s birth of democracy.

On Thursday, some protesters pretended to hang Basescu and his close political ally, Tourism and Regional Development Minister Elena Udrea, by stringing their dummies to gallows set up in the square.

“Resign!” and “Down with Basescu!” other protesters screamed.

Some 14-year-old students at a school located along the route of the march abandoned class to join the demonstration. “To prison with you!” the students yelled at their president.

Police said 7,000 attended the rally, while organizers claimed the crowd was far larger.

In 2009, Romania took a two-year euro20 billion ($27.5 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the World Bank as its economy shrank by 7.1 percent. It imposed harsh austerity measures under the agreement, reducing public wages by 25 percent and increasing taxes. Anger has mounted over the wage cuts, slashed benefits, higher taxes and widespread corruption.

On Thursday, Basescu made his first public appearance since the protests began a week ago in an address to ambassadors in Bucharest. He spoke about Iran, the Middle East, domestic reforms and the “Arab Spring,” but did not touch on the demonstrations or the anger over the state of Romania’s economy.

During the Bucharest rally, one protester who only identified himself as Tudor, a 43-year-old locksmith said: “We want decent salaries and pensions. We want change _ from the top to the bottom.”

Another protester, a 55-year-old nurse named Lorelei said, “We wouldn’t have needed to have austerity measures if our governments hadn’t stolen so much and bled us dry.” She said she has attended all this week’s anti-government rallies.

Three opposition parties organized Thursday’s march, with protesters arriving in the capital from all over the country. Opposition leaders and Romanian personalities addressed the crowd before the march.

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The Greek government and its creditors return to the negotiating table this week to revive stalled talks on a debt swap as German Chancellor Angela Merkel places pressure on both sides to forge a deal.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said two days ago that talks with the Institute of International Finance will resume on Jan. 18. The Washington-based IIF, which represents banks holding the bonds, said on Jan. 14 there is a

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China is expecting foreign trade growth to slow this year to around 10 percent amid a grim outlook for exports, a state news agency reported Saturday.

The world’s second-largest economy’s foreign trade will be hurt by weak external demand, increasing trade competition, a stronger Chinese currency and other factors, the official Xinhua News Agency cited an official from the country’s top economic planning agency as saying.

“We expect more difficulties in foreign trade and the export situation will be grim in 2012, especially in the first half of the year,” said Zhang Xiaoqiang, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, according to Xinhua.

Last year, China’s foreign trade grew 22.5 percent to $3.6 trillion, according to data from the official General Administration of Customs released earlier in the week.

The data also showed that exports in December rose 13.4 percent, down slightly from November’s growth rate. In a new that sign the economy is slowing, import growth showed an unexpectedly sharp drop, falling to 11.8 percent, barely above half the previous month’s gain payday loans.

On Saturday, Zhang told a forum in Beijing that improving tax and insurance policies and providing financial support for small trading companies could help stabilize export growth, Xinhua said.

China’s relatively robust growth has been a rare bright spot for a struggling global economy. But growth has slowed in recent months after Beijing tightened lending and investment curbs to prevent overheating.

A slump in demand for Chinese goods abroad has prompted the government to reverse course and promise to help struggling exporters and shore up growth with more bank lending and other measures. It is unclear what impact the measures will have.

Chinese export growth has fallen steadily since August as Europe’s debt crisis and high U.S. unemployment hurt demand. But it has stayed in double digits, showing the competitive strength of Chinese exporters in global markets.

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World stock markets rose Friday, driven higher by a successful bond issue in Europe that eased worries over the continent’s sovereign debt crisis.

Benchmark oil rose to nearly $100 per barrel and the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.

European shares rose in early trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.6 percent to 5,694.38. Germany’s DAX gained 0.7 percent to 6,221.96 and the CAC-40 in Paris gained 0.9 percent 3,229.17. Wall Street, too, was set to open higher, with Dow Jones industrial futures up 0.1 percent to 12,424. S&P 500 futures rose 0.1 percent at 1,293.

Asian shares were mostly higher. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1.4 percent to close at 8,500.02 and South Korea’s Kospi index moved 0.6 percent at 1,875.68. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index vacillated before closing in positive territory, up 0.6 percent to 19,204.42.

Australia’s S&P ASX 200 was 0.4 percent higher at 4,195.90. Benchmarks in Singapore, Indonesia, India and Malaysia also rose.

But mainland Chinese shares fell as investors continued to cash in on recent gains. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.3 percent to 2,244.58, while the Shenzhen Composite Index dropped 3.5 percent to 845.93.

“The market will be volatile for the next one or two weeks after this correction, since there is just no support for the market to rise in the long term,” said Xu Xiaoyu, an analyst at China Investment Securities, based in Beijing.

PetroChina, the country’s biggest oil and gas company and the Shanghai benchmark’s biggest component, gained 1.4 percent as oil prices rose to near $100 a barrel in Asia on Friday on worries over supply tightness.

Elsewhere, raw materials and industrial companies advanced, following their U.S. counterparts higher. Japanese heavy equipment maker Komatsu Ltd guaranteed payday loans. jumped 4.1 percent and Hitachi Construction Machinery gained 3.8 percent.

Energy Resources of Australia soared 6 percent and Paladin Energy Ltd., an Australian uranium miner, gained 3.1 percent. But shares in Australia’s QBE Insurance group dropped 3.1 percent, after the company warned its earnings could halve following a spate of natural disasters in 2011.

South Korean tech shares advanced, with Samsung Electronics Co., the country’s largest company, up 1.8 percent and Hynix Semiconductor, a global leader in chip-making, surging 4.1 percent. Its largest banking group, Woori Financial Holdings Co., jumped 3.9 percent.

Strong bond auctions in Italy and Spain on Thursday pushed stocks higher. Italy was able to sell one-year bonds at a rate of just 2.735 percent, less than half the 5.95 percent rate it had to pay last month. Spain was able to raise double the amount of money it had sought to raise in its own bond sale as demand for its debt was strong.

Investors have been worried that Italy and Spain might get dragged into the region’s debt crisis. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have been forced to get relief from their lenders after their borrowing costs spiked to levels the countries could no longer afford.

Benchmark oil for February delivery rose 78 cents to $99.88 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract tumbled $2 to finish at $99.10 per barrel in New York on Thursday.

In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.2843 from $1.2827 late Thursday in New York. The dollar was slightly down at 76.73 yen from 76.76 yen.

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