2 men held for theft of Cyprus ex-leader's corpse

Menelaos Hadjicostis - Associated Press

A police officer investigates a grave where the body of former Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos was discovered at Strovolos cemetery, a suburb of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Tuesday, March 9, 2010. A 31-year-old Indian man confessed to the crime, and also named a 48-year-old Cypriot and his 44-year-old brother — a convicted felon serving life in prison — as the men who recruited him to help exhume and conceal the body. The suspect told investigators that the convicted man had ordered the theft.

Greece to Go to IMF if EU Refuses Aid: Report

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, center, and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, right, arrive for their meeting, Tuesday, March 9, 2010, in Washington. Prime Minister George A. Papandreou of Greece reiterated Monday in Washington that he would not rule out turning to the International Monetary Fund for help.

Greek Crisis Is Over, Rest of Region Safe, Prodi Says

The worst of Greece’s financial crisis is over and other European nations won’t follow in its path, said former European Commission President Romano Prodi, left, seen here in a file photo with his successor current EC President Jose Manuel Barroso

Proposal for European Monetary Fund Meets Resistance

Matthew Saltmarsh - NY Times

PARIS — The German proposal to establish a European monetary fund ran into skepticism at home and abroad Tuesday, highlighting the political and legal hurdles that such an undertaking would face. In her first public reaction, the French economy minister, Christine Lagarde, described the idea as interesting, but not urgent. “It does not appear

Erdogan promises green light for monastery revamp

Helen Christophi - Cyprus Mail

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to allow the Church of Cyprus to carry out a long-awaited conservation and restoration project on the Apostolos Andreas monastery located on the Karpass Peninsula in north, it emerged yesterday. According to reports, Erdogan assured Archbishop Chrysostomos, that he will allow the project to

Europe moves to ban trading in credit default swaps

Zachary A. Goldfarb and Steven Mufson - Washington Post

Europe moved ahead of the United States on Tuesday in advocating new measures to ban certain types of financial speculation after concerns surfaced that traders used complex financial instruments to push Greece deeper into a fiscal crisis and threaten the European economy. The European Commission said it would back a proposal to restrict trading

Greece says no budget slippage, concerned by yields

(Reuters) - Greece is ahead of schedule with plans to tame its budget deficit and there has been no slippage in moves to rein in spending, the government said in a report submitted to the European Union. The report, published on Wednesday, did identify risks, however, pointing to a deteriorating macroecnomic environment and stubbornly high yield

Curbing derivatives might hurt, not help, Greece

Stevenson Jacobs - The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Derivatives have become a dirty word. The complex financial products helped blow up the U.S. housing market. They all but sank AIG. Now European officials want to crack down on a derivative called a credit default swap. It's an insurance-like product that they say has worsened Europe's debt crisis and could bankrupt Greece. Hold on

Greek CDS overtures fall on deaf ears in Washington

(Reuters) - Greek leaders' overtures for far tougher curbs on credit default swaps fell largely on deaf ears in Washington, but they'll go back to Athens with some sage advice from local policy wonks: look in the mirror and don't blame market messengers for your debt woes. "It's fairly common for finance ministers and political leaders under

Woman, 62, held over Greek American entrepreneur’s murder

E- Kathimerini

A 62-year-old Bulgarian businesswoman has been charged in connection with the murder of a 66-year-old Greek-American entrepreneur whose corpse was found bound and gagged in his sixth-floor apartment in the district of Neos Cosmos last December, police said yesterday after detaining the suspect. According to police the 62-year-old has admitted to

Fears of a Greek bank run

Dody Tsiantar

(Fortune) -- In the middle of the 2001 debt crisis, Argentines stormed their nation's banks to get their money out. To stop the stampede, the government imposed controls that allowed them to take out only $250 at a time and limited withdrawals for overseas trips to $1,000. Greece, in the middle of its own financial crisis, is teetering on the b

US's Pelosi: U.S. Won't Abandon Greece;No Specific Guarantees

John Shaw

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou meets with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif. on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Tuesday, March 9, 2010.

Greece's Finmin Papaconstantinou on financial crisis

Richard Quest, Stephanie Elam, Jim Boulden, John Defterios - CNN

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, right, talks with Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, Tuesday, March 9, 2010, in Washington.

Clinton Says U.S. Backs Greece’s ‘Tough’ Economic Moves

Desmond Butler - The Associated Press

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou take part a joint news conference at the State Department in Washington, Monday, March 8, 2010.