s financial assistance plan was in sight Greece will leave its bailout programme next year without needing a third aid package, the country's prime minister, Antonis Samaras, announced on Monday, as he insisted that citizens could look to 2014 with confidence. Samaras told long-suffering Greeks that the end of the country's financial assistance plan was in sight after almost four years of painful austerity,...
s residence targeted in attack government says was intended to tarnish country's image before EU presidency The home of Germany's ambassador to Greece was sprayed with gunfire from automatic weapons on Monday morning, in a suspected terrorist attack the government said was aimed at hurting the country's image before it takes over the presidency of the European Union. No one was hurt. Anti-terrorism...
s most famous comedian, Lazopoulos is said to be the funniest man in the country, a modern reincarnation of the ancient satirist Aristophanes. There is nothing that the comic will not lampoon. In this, his latest show, corrupt politicians, treasured customs – from evading the taxman to pocketing " ta mavra " [black money] – Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and the Greeks themselves are all in...
s. My mother was next. The sparkle in her eyes has been gradually replaced by a lost confusion over the past few years. We have all gathered at our family home this year for the holidays; all her children, significant others and grandchildren. It is unspoken, but understood, that this is probably the last year she will know who we all are. The island of Mykonos plays host; beautiful and serene, without...
s war. Then came the white police vans and the Syrian men, women and children were gone. "Ever since we have lost all trace of them," said Vasillis Papadopoulos, a lawyer who defends the rights of migrants and refugees. "They just disappeared. Our firm belief is that they were pushed back into Turkey." Activists, lawyers, human rights groups, opposition MPs, immigration experts and international officials...
s third and probably final term, is ridden with angst about France, and the lack of reforms being undertaken by the lacklustre François Hollande, France's least popular president ever. More chaos and paralysis is foretold for Italy. The eurozone's second- and third-biggest economies are in trouble, and Germany, the unassailable number one, is worried about being dragged down with them. But politically,...
Bank of England governor tells House of Lords that it's more sensible to adjust conventional monetary policy before tackling the £375bn of UK gilts on the books Graeme Wearden ...
s cabinet of the austerity-fixated Wolfgang Schäuble is a tragedy for the eurozone periphery Wolfgang Schäuble is back on his throne. Confirmed as finance minister in Angela Merkel's new cabinet, his commandments will be as keenly followed in the corridors of Brussels as in Berlin. Such is the power of Germany's economy that Schäuble holds a key vote, and in many instances a veto, when the eurozone's...
s small circle of royalists, referring to Constantine's Danish-born wife. "His son Prince Nikolaos and his wife Princess Tatiana made the same move a few months back." Soaring property prices in London apparently spurred the move. But Constantine, who was dethroned by referendum on the return of democracy in 1974 and stripped of his Greek citizenship by the then socialist government 20 years later,...
ve got the laws you asked for – why do you want people to be nice as well? Or, even worse – we're being nice to you because the law tells us to be. That's good enough, isn't it? This may be the issue with the acceptability, or otherwise, of gay people in society. The legal protections are all pretty much in place, and the principle of equality enshrined. When same-sex marriages start taking place next...
s public debt – currently at 170% of GDP – is still unsustainably high It's been a good year for the eurozone crisis in the sense that flare-ups have been few and minor. But here comes thinktank Capital Economics with the gloomy diagnosis that Greece's public debt (currently at 170% of GDP) is still unsustainably high and "the country's crisis is not yet over". That is despite the clear improvement...
access to services At the Maroussi health centre, in the northern suburbs of Athens, more than 120 people have turned up despite the bad weather, in the hope of getting medical attention. "I was supposed to see the orthopaedic specialist for my hip," Katerina, 72, says. "But my doctor's not seeing patients so I'm queueing for another appointment." The 118 medics at the centre began their strike action...
s most dangerous roads. As winter approaches, their journey finally nears its end. The men are part of the South East Neighbourhood Safer Routes (Sensor) project, a two-year, €1.5m initiative that is mapping more than 14,000km of roads across 14 countries, from Slovakia in the north to Greece in the south. The project is not only ambitious in its geographical coverage, it is also the first of its type...
s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, believes his country has turned the corner and can hope for better things in 2014, following its worst economic crisis since the Franco era. In an interview with the Guardian and partner newspapers from Spain, Italy, France and Germany, Rajoy said the incipient turnaround proved that his austerity efforts "have made sense". "Last year, the debate was over when Spain...