Support for Greece’s two pro-bailout parties has sunk to an all-time low, but pollsters predict the squabbling rivals will still scrape through upcoming elections with enough seats in parliament to push through the reforms demanded by lenders. With Greece finally clinching a 130-billion-euro rescue package to avert a messy default, attention is slowly shifting to elections due in April – with financial markets and European partners nervously waiting to see whether a new government will swallow the bitter austerity pill prescribed in return for aid. Backing the austerity steps has cost Greece’s two biggest political parties dearly. Their ratings have plunged as ordinary Greeks reeling from tax hikes and wage cuts blame them for the country’s slide to the brink... [Full article]
Two prominent Western journalists have been killed in the Syrian city of Homs in the latest violence in the besieged city which left 20 people dead. Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin, an American, and award-winning French photographer Remi Ochlik died when a shell hit a makeshift media centre in the... [Full article]
Experts already agree the second aid package for Greece will not be enough. What’s missing, they say, is a convincing growth-driven business model. Economists assume that Greece, after its second aid package, will not escape its debt trap without further aid. “The plan to radically revive the Greek economy with the euro is an illusion,” said Hans-Werner Sinn, head of... [Full article]
Austria will hold off on ratifying the controversial anti-online piracy treaty ACTA until the European parliament has ruled on it, the interior ministry said today. The announcement came after the European Commission said it had asked the EU’s highest court to rule on the legality of the treaty, which covers copyright, counterfeiting and Internet freedom. Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner... [Full article]
The new central government of Bosnia and Herzegovina aims to meet all conditions set by the European Union over the next month and apply for membership by the end of June, the Balkan country’s new prime minister told Reuters. The move comes after Muslim, Serb and Croat leaders put an end to the political deadlock that stalled reforms needed for... [Full article]
Will the new Greek bailout be enough to save the country from default? The ratings agency Fitch doesn’t think so: It downgraded Athens on Wednesday, saying a bankruptcy was “highly likely.” German commentators also feel Greece isn’t out of the woods yet. At first glance, the euro-zone finance ministers’ agreement on a new bailout for Greece seemed like a decisive step that would save the country from default. Politicians had no shortage of praise for the deal, reached in the early hours of Tuesday morning after marathon talks in Brussels. The rescue package would “secure Greece’s future in the euro area,” said Luxembourg Prime Minister... [Full article]
Canada is threatening trade retaliation if the EU tries to tighten regulations on oil from its highly polluting... [Full article]
Forty years ago Aberdeen’s harbour was so packed with fishing boats that you could walk from one quay... [Full article]
Giant chunks of melting ice broke free on the River Danube in Serbia today, damaging hundreds of boats,... [Full article]
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s struggling coalition partners claimed a rare victory over the German leader yesterday after apparently... [Full article]
Francois Hollande, the Socialist candidate for the French presidency, is ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy in the polls. But... [Full article]
Eurozone finance ministers have agreed a second bailout for Greece after 13 hours of late-night talks in Brussels.... [Full article]
The British communications minister, Ed Vaizey, is being urged to fight a change to European Union rules that... [Full article]
Hundreds of thousands of people protested across Spain Sunday against reforms to the labor market they fear... [Full article]
Germany’s government and the two major opposition parties said Sunday they would jointly nominate former East German human... [Full article]
Two Italian soldiers were due before a magistrate in India on Monday for allegedly shooting dead two Indian... [Full article]
