Prime Minister Lucas Papademos sought backing on Sunday from leading Greek party leaders for painful and unpopular reforms that the near-bankrupt country must negotiate now that a long-awaited debt relief deal seems almost secured. Attention is shifting to negotiations with Greece's international lenders who want proof that the Papademos coalition will take action on reforms

Greece and its private creditors worked on stitching together the final bits of a complex debt swap agreement on Saturday, amid growing optimism a deal will be clinched in time to avert an unruly default. After weeks of muddling through round after round of inconclusive talks, the negotiations appear to be in their final phase,

Germany is pushing for Greece to relinquish control over its budget policy to European institutions as part of discussions over a second rescue package, a European source told Reuters on Friday. “There are internal discussions within the Euro group and proposals, one of which comes from Germany, on how to constructively treat country aid programmes

The European Union and IMF want Greece to push through more budget cuts and implement a series of long-agreed austerity reforms before they agree on a new bailout the country needs to avert bankruptcy, a report obtained by Reuters shows. All eyes have been on Athens' tortuous debt swap talks with its private creditors in

Leaders of the Arab Spring sought to assure the world's elite in Davos that the rise of political Islam is not a threat to democracy, and pleaded for help creating jobs and satisfying the hunger of their people for a better life. Politicians, activists and entrepreneurs from countries that have cast off dictators and held

The European Central Bank's loans to banks have averted a major credit crunch but credit remains seriously impaired in parts of the euro area, ECB President Mario Draghi said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday. Draghi said it was not yet clear whether the cash the ECB has pumped into the banking

Ford Motor Co reported a lower-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on Friday as commodity costs shot up and results from operations outside North America fell short of expectations. The No. 2 U.S. automaker's losses in Europe nearly quadrupled during the quarter as the economy suffered amid the ongoing debt crisis. Flooding in Thailand led to a loss