Greece

eleven days ago, the apocalypse did not happen. The Greek elections took place, and the radicals did not win. Syriza — the neo-Marxist, anti-austerity party whose members call one another "comrade" and whose policies include the creation of 100,000 new government jobs — did not get the most votes. New Democracy , the establishment center-right party, emerged victorious, though just barely. They formed a shaky coalition with two center-left parties and promised to push through the budget cuts that the European Union has...

BEIJING — Greece's prime minister is in China seeking investment and trade deals to help revive his country's recession-battered economy. Antonis Samaras met Thursday with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, after which the two witnessed the signing of agreements in fields including shipping and telecommunications. Li said during the meeting that China hopes the two countries can double their two-way trade by 2015 as well as boost cultural exchanges, the state Xinhua News Agency reported.

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Alexander the Great died more than 2,300 years ago. But his cult of personality is just starting to grip this tiny Balkan country. To the annoyance of next-door Greece, which has long claimed the conqueror as its own, Macedonia has anointed Alexander its national hero. The government has renamed the international airport here in his honor, as well as the main highway to Greece. Soon to come: a 72-foot-tall marble colossus of Alexander astride his favorite warhorse, Bucephalus, which will dominate the skyline of the...

ATHENS, Greece — Flights in Greece were halted for four hours Thursday as the country's two largest labor unions staged work stoppages to protest austerity measures and a government decision to cancel a teachers' strike. Flights resumed after being grounded between 12:00 and 4:00 p.m. (0900-1300 GMT), when air traffic controllers joined the protest called by labor unions GSEE and ADEDY. The government this week issued an emergency order to force high school teachers to work through the...

BERLIN — Greece's Parliament approved far-reaching spending cuts early Monday in a bid to secure a bailout and stave off bankruptcy, as buildings burned in Athens, set ablaze by furious protesters who fear that European demands to reshape their economy will further exacerbate a crippling recession. The measures, which will slash the minimum wage, trim a fifth of government workers and slash entitlement spending, are wrenchingly unpopular in a country already seized by 21 percent unemployment and dim prospects for the...

NOT SINCE THE NIGHT when soldiers emerged from the belly of a giant wooden horse in ancient Troy has Greece engineered a more stunning surprise: On Monday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou shocked Europe , and the world, by announcing that he would not put a promised economic austerity package into effect until the voters of his debt-strapped nation approve it in a referendum. Mr. Papandreou's announcement comes on the eve of a Group of 20 summit in Cannes, France, and less than a week after...

To anyone who knows Greece even a little, Anne Applebaum's Dec. 23 op-ed, "Venting in Athens," projected an inaccurate picture of Greece. Among the facts not mentioned: Greece, a U.S. ally in all major conflicts throughout the 20th century and the 21st century to date, is a stable, progressive democracy, with the fastest growing economy in the eurozone and among the top 20 in the U.N. Development Programme's Human Development Index. The largest shipping powers in the world, and the most significant force for development in the...

KIFISIA, Greece This upscale suburb of Athens offers a snapshot of a country sliding toward bankruptcy. It's an ugly picture, as expectations of prosperity and stability vanish and fear begins to take over. The trendy shops in the town center looked empty during a visit this week; many stylish restaurants were said to be closed or open only on weekends; banks here, as everywhere in Greece, have been depleted over the past month by a riptide of withdrawals. I'm here visiting Yannos Papantoniou, an old friend from graduate school who served as...

· The visitor who scribbled "process junkie" in artist Maro Vandorou's guest book wasn't far wrong. The artist photographed, then digitized, then printed her latest suite of pictures using the antiquated platinotype process. The Byzantine manufacture of the paper she used requires blocks of explanatory wall text. And the pictures? Her photos of decapitated statuary and ivy-encrusted stairways at an ancient Greek cemetery seem secondary to the labor of making them. Also on view at Hillyer, landscape paintings by Paul Reuther, an...

The government officials and economists who put together a bailout for Greece in May of last year knew there was a substantial chance the program would fail but were unprepared for how fast their efforts unraveled, putting Europe's economy again at risk , according to people involved with the talks and others who closely followed them. The three-year, $160 billion program was admittedly ambitious, requiring Greece to make deep cuts to its social programs, slash public payrolls and...

ATHENS, Greece — Police on Thursday arrested two Greek men on suspicion of attacking a Cameroonian national and setting fire to his coffee bar in a central Athens neighborhood that has become a flashpoint for racist violence. The suspects, both 34, appeared before a prosecutor later in the day and were formally charged with deliberate arson, illegal violence and causing damage. Police spokesman Christos Parthenis said a search of the suspects' homes revealed "slogans and symbols...

ATHENS, Greece — A 6-year-old girl drowned when a small boat crammed with immigrants trying to enter Greece illegally sank off an eastern Aegean Sea islet. Greece's Merchant Marine Ministry says 21 people, mainly Syrians, were rescued after the vessel foundered for unknown reasons Wednesday off Farmakonissi. The nationality of the drowned child was not available. Uninhabited Farmakonissi, just off the Turkish coast, is regularly used by human trafficking rings to drop off people...

SCHOOL DAZE: The Greek government invoked emergency powers to prevent protesting teachers from disrupting university entrance exams this month. Civil servants' unions retaliated by calling a 24-hour strike for Tuesday. CHARMING: It is the third time this year that the conservative-led coalition government has used the emergency civil mobilization order — normally reserved for natural disasters — to end a labor dispute in the crisis-hit country. BUSINESS AS...

TORONTO — A Palestinian man convicted of hijacking an airliner in Greece in 1968 has been deported from Canada 26 years after entering the country using an alias, the immigration minister said Monday. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said the case "made a mockery of Canada's generosity and our fair immigration system for two and a half decades. " Kenney said Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad made a false refugee claim in 1987. The government learned a year later that he was a member of the...

NASHUA, N.H. — A New Hampshire man who fled a day before being convicted in 1991 of killing his 2-year-old stepson has been tried and convicted again in Greece, where he is serving an 18-year sentence for the boy's death, authorities said Friday. Federal and state officials held a news conference to provide an update on 45-year-old Steven Kamberidis' whereabouts since he disappeared May 14, 1991, the day before he was convicted in Nashua of second-degree murder in the 1989 beating death of...

The March 8 editorial "NATO's European Mission" unfairly dismissed Greece's stance on the NATO candidacy of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and the settlement of the name issue prior to the Bucharest summit. Greece advocates the Euro-Atlantic integration of all Balkan countries, including FYROM. However, a country that systematically violates NATO's values and principles, including that of neighborly relations, would undermine the alliance's cohesion and solidarity and jeopardize its credibility.

ATHENS— U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced strong American support Sunday for Greece's plan to recover from its financial crisis, calling its latest proposals to reform "vital first steps. " "We know these were not easy decisions, they were acts of leadership," Clinton said in Athens while meeting with Greek officials. "We know the price of inaction would have been far higher . . . .The payoff for these sacrifices will not come quickly, but it will come. " Besides praise for Greece's leaders,...