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ATHENS -- After violent protests left dozens of buildings aflame in Athens, the Greek Parliament voted early on Monday to approve a package of harsh austerity measures demanded by the country's foreign lenders in exchange for new loans to keep Greece from defaulting on its debt. Though it came after days of intense debate and the resignation of several ministers in protest, in the end the vote on the austerity measures was not close: 199 in favor and 74 opposed, with 27 abstentions or blank ballots. The Parliament also gave the government the authority to sign a new loan agreement with the foreign lenders and approve a broader arrangement to reduce the amount Greece must repay to its bondholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the issue concerning a list of Swiss accounts published by Greek magazine, "Hot Doc," in Athens, Greece. It states that the speaker of the Greek Parliament, several employees of the Finance Ministry and a number of business leaders are on that list. The list is intended to crack down the rampant tax evasion in Greece.

The article reports on the impact of the economic crisis on the society of Greece. It notes that austerity frays civility in the country that leads to submerged divisions caused by the crisis. It points out that neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party members, with support from police, clash with the immigrants and the leftists. Critics project that journalists will encounter intimidation.

ATHENS -- Greece's political leaders failed again on Wednesday to form a government, as increasingly anxious and irritated European leaders urged the country to keep its commitments to creditors and decide whether it wanted to stay with the euro. ''We want Greece to stay in the euro zone, but whether Greece stays in the euro zone is in Greece's hands, and it's now a decision to be taken in Greece,'' the German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said in Brussels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ATHENS -- In the two years since Greece asked for a foreign bailout, its leaders have had trouble governing even with a clear majority. Now, as the country heads to elections on Sunday in which no single party is expected to secure enough votes to form a stable government, they may have to try governing with political chaos. Along with elections in France, and with a rising tide of anti-austerity sentiment across Europe, Greece's vote is expected to have a clear impact on the future of the euro. The next government, amid a deepening recession and facing likely social unrest, will have to enforce the country's loan agreement with its foreign creditors, which stipulates slashing $15.5 billion from the state budget over the next two years and completing a crucial bank recapitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- On a recent morning in the upper-middle-class neighborhood of Papagou here, members of the Greek ultranationalist group Golden Dawn stood at an outdoor vegetable market campaigning for the coming national elections. ''This is our party's program, for a clean Greece, only for Greeks, a safe Greece,'' Ilias Panagiotaros, the group's spokesman and a candidate for office, said as he handed out leaflets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- Andreas Georgiou was not particularly alarmed when he was asked to testify in a judicial investigation into one of the most contentious issues in Greece today: whether the 2009 budget deficit -- which precipitated not only Greece's crash but the broader euro zone crisis -- had been badly overstated. As the director of Greece's newly founded statistical authority, he was prepared to be summoned for questioning, but not for what actually awaited him. ''To my surprise, we were called not as witnesses but as suspects,'' he said. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ATHENS -- With the ink not yet dry on a complex agreement to write down more than $130 billion of Greek debt, Greece's political leaders leaped into full campaign mode on Sunday to prepare for national elections expected in late April or early May. Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos on Sunday submitted his formal bid for the leadership of the once-mighty Socialist Party; as the only candidate for the position he is all but guaranteed to replace the current leader, former Prime Minister George Papandreou. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Athens THE first time I visited Athens, the city was in flames. It was December 2008, and riots, set off after a policeman's bullet killed a teenager, engulfed the city. For several terrifying days, the rule of law was tenuous at best. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ATHENS -- Even as the European Union signed off Tuesday on a sweeping new arrangement to help avert a Greek default and stabilize the euro, many people here on the streets saw no end to their country's woes. ''They don't want to kill us but keep us down on our knees so we can keep paying them indefinitely,'' said Eva Kyriadou, 55, as she stood in a square in downtown Athens where the smell of tear gas and the smashed facades from last week's violent riots still lingered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- The acrid stench of tear gas permeated central Athens on Monday and the husks of burnt-out buildings still smoldered after a night of rioting following the Greek Parliament's vote to approve austerity measures in exchange for more rescue financing. In the aftermath, municipal workers were sweeping up broken glass while Greek political leaders were surveying the damage to their parties following the expulsion of dozens of lawmakers from their parties, after the legislators had broken ranks ahead of early national elections. On Monday, the government spokesman, Pantelis Kapsis, said the elections would be held in April. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- Greece's place in Europe once again hung in the balance on Friday, as the fragile interim coalition of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos was plunged into turmoil and European leaders expressed doubts about the country's commitment to remaking its economy and achieving solvency. After a wave of defections from his cabinet, and as protests turned violent in Athens amid a general strike, Mr. Papademos told lawmakers that they must approve new austerity measures demanded by Greece's creditors -- including a 22 percent cut in the benchmark minimum wage and public-sector layoffs -- or the country would suffer a disorderly default with social dislocation and would eventually leave the euro zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- As thousands of Greeks walked off the job in a general strike on Tuesday to protest stringent new austerity measures, there was a growing sense that the country was reaching a critical point in its efforts to survive the debt crisis. Greek political leaders postponed for yet another day a decision on an austerity package -- including 20-percent cuts to base pay for workers in private companies and a loosening of public sector job protections -- in exchange for the billions in loans Athens needs to prevent a default in March. With elections looming as soon as April, the parties fear that they are essentially being told to commit political suicide to save the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- Pushed against the wall by its foreign lenders, the Greek government agreed on Sunday to drastic new spending cuts but failed to complete an arrangement that would unlock the financing the country needs to prevent default. It agreed instead to resume talks on Monday. In a statement issued Sunday evening after a five-hour meeting, interim Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said that he and the leaders of the three parties in his unity government had agreed to cut spending this year by 1.5 percent of Greece's gross domestic product in order to meet the demands of foreign lenders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- Prime Minister George A. Papandreou and his chief rival agreed Sunday night to create a new unity government, under a new prime minister, that will move ahead with the country's debt-relief deal with the European Union and then hold new elections. Mr. Papandreou agreed to resign once the details are completed on Monday. The agreement appeared to break a political deadlock that had paralyzed Greece in the face of an acute financial crisis that threatened to infect other euro-zone nations, especially Italy. European leaders see the debt-relief deal struck with Greece on Oct. 26 as crucial to containing the crisis in Greece and insulating Italy, a much larger economy whose political leaders have also struggled to cut budgets and deal with heavy debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- Hours after the government won a crucial confidence vote that made it more likely that Greece would receive the foreign aid it desperately needs, the country's leaders on Saturday reverted to the type of political wrangling that threw Europe and its markets into turmoil last week. Prime Minister George Papandreou took the first steps Saturday to try to form a unity government with the opposition, which he said was necessary to steer the country out of danger. But by Saturday evening, the two sides seemed locked in position, with the prime minister making no immediate move to leave power -- a key demand of the opposition -- and the opposition leader reiterating his call for early elections and branding Mr. Papandreou ''dangerous for the country.'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- In a tumultuous day of political gamesmanship, Prime Minister George A. Papandreou called off a referendum on Greece's new debt deal with the euro zone on Thursday after winning a measure of support from his opposition and managing to repair, at least for a day, a major rupture in relations with Europe. The decision to abandon his idea of holding a popular vote on the European debt deal did not end the political turmoil here; Mr. Papandreou still faces a rebellion in his own Socialist Party and the fury of some opposition figures, and he will have to weather a difficult confidence vote on Friday. But talk of a possible unity government eased international fears of immediate new elections and a looming default if he did not survive in office, cheering markets in Europe and abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- Sitting in the modest living room of the home she shares with her parents, husband and two teenage children, Stella Firigou fretted about how the family would cope with the uncertainties of an economy crashing all around them. But she was adamant about one thing: she would not pay a new property tax that was the centerpiece of a new austerity package announced this month by the Greek government. ''I'm not going to pay it,'' Ms. Firigou, 50, said matter-of-factly, as she lighted a cigarette and checked her ringing cellphone to avoid calls from her bank about late payments on a loan. ''I can't afford to pay it. They can take me to jail.'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- Confrontations between the police and protesters reached a violent climax here on Wednesday as armored riot officers beat back demonstrators and fired volleys of tear gas into the crowds who had gathered outside Parliament. Inside, lawmakers approved a package of austerity measures aimed at helping Greece avoid a default. On the second day of a two-day general strike called by unions, rogue protesters also attacked the Finance Ministry on Syntagma Square across from Parliament and set fire to a post office in the ground floor of the building. The King George Palace, a luxury hotel that faces the square, was evacuated in the afternoon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- Parliament appeared close to approving and carrying out a set of unpopular austerity measures after a day of intense political maneuvering on Tuesday that seemed to bring wavering members of the ruling Socialist Party into line. While the lawmakers debated, riot police clashed with protesters outside the Parliament building. Parliament must pass the measures -- which include wage cuts, tax increases and privatizations in a recession-starved country -- before Greece's foreign lenders unlock the next installment of aid that the country needs to avoid default. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- Demonstrators projected the word across the facade of Parliament last week, and it underscored the hurdle that Prime Minister George Papandreou faces in selling an increasingly resentful electorate on a tough new round of austerity measures: ''Thieves.'' Most Greeks say they have little confidence in a political class that they see as corrupt and unaccountable. A recent study by Transparency International in Greece found that 9 out of 10 Greeks believed that their politicians were corrupt, and 80 percent said that Parliament had lost credibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- Greece and its foreign lenders reached an agreement on Thursday on a five-year austerity plan that Prime Minister George Papandreou must now push through Parliament in order for Greece to stave off default. Last week, the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, known as the troika, unexpectedly withheld the next installment of $17 billion in emergency aid to Greece over concerns that its blistering program of austerity measures might be falling short of its goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- They are the crown jewels of Greece's socialist state, and they are now likely to go to the highest bidder: the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki; prime Mediterranean real estate; the national lottery; Greek Telecom; the postal bank and the national railway system. And then comes the mandated deeper round of austerity measures, which will slash the wages of police officers, firefighters and other state workers who are protesting in Athens, and raise the taxes of citizens already inflamed by a recession-plagued economy and soaring joblessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- Prime Minister George Papandreou of Greece won a crucial vote of confidence early Wednesday, with all 155 lawmakers of the Socialist Party expressing their support for his beleaguered government, above the absolute majority of 151 votes required by Greece's 300-seat Parliament. The vote was conducted by roll call after several hours of fiery debate on Tuesday that resulted in several opposition lawmakers briefly walking out of Parliament in protest at comments by the deputy prime minister, Theodoros Pangalos, an outspoken Socialist stalwart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATHENS -- Since he was elected a year ago, Prime Minister George Papandreou has struggled to satisfy two difficult and seemingly mutually exclusive constituencies: international financial markets and Greeks. On Sunday, he claimed a victory on both counts, based on projections of a strong showing by his Socialist party in regional elections widely seen as a referendum on the government's austerity measures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Early Saturday morning inside the gates of Athens Polytechnic, a dozen groggy young people in hooded sweatshirts slumped on folding chairs around a smoky fire. Others trickled in, holding cups of coffee. Gypsy children scampered around with wheelbarrows, collecting empty beer bottles. One child lit a cigarette. But the young people were not recovering from a long night of drinking or studying. They were preparing for revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Just four years ago, this ancient capital was remade for the Summer Olympics by a new government that surged to power promising reform. Today, Athenians are faced with the worst unrest in decades. The question on many minds, as the capital faced its seventh day of violence following the shooting death by the police of a 15-year-old boy, was simply, ''What happened?'' Or it was, perhaps, ''What didn't happen?'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]