Berlin

TIRANA/BELGRADE - The Serbian-Albanian working group was formed on Thursday after a meeting between Serbian Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic and Albanian Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Entrepreneurship Arben Ahmetaj in Tirana on Thursday.

By Rainer Buergin, Birgit Jennen & Brian Parkin

The first direct talks between Greece and Germany since a new anti-bailout government took power in Athens last week yielded no agreement on how to narrow their differences.

By Nikos Chrysoloras & Rainer Buergin

The first direct talks between Greece and Germany since a new anti-bailout government took power in Athens last week yielded no agreement on how to narrow their differences.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he and his Greek counterpart, Yanis Varoufakis, ?agreed to disagree? in their Berlin meeting.

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A defiant Greece said Feb. 5 it would not be ?blackmailed? by its European Union partners but that it did want to find a joint solution to its debt and austerity crisis.

Greece's borrowing rate soared above the symbolic level of 10 percent on Thursday, after the European Central Bank moved to restrict the country's banks' access to a key source of cash.
      
Shortly after 0800 GMT, Greek 10-year bonds were fetching yields of 10.051 percent on the secondary market, up from 9.678 percent on Wednesday.
      

By Lucy Meakin

Greece?s government bonds may decline after the European Central Bank restricted direct access to its funding lines, adding to pressure on the newly-elected government to moderate its anti-austerity policies.

The 43rd Istanbul Music Festival will host some 600 local and international artists in Istanbul between May 31 and June 29 The 43rd Istanbul Music Festival, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (?KSV), will once again present music lovers with a jam-packed program this year between May 31 and June 29. The program was announced at a press meeting on Feb. 3.

Days before a highly anticipated Merkel-Tsipras meeting, the Chancellory in Berlin reiterated that "all our actions aim on keeping Greece within the eurozone".

Moreover, Angela Merkel is quoted as saying that "I hold the view that European countries should hold the same undifferentiated stance on the Greek issue".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday she saw no substantial differences in the positions of major EU powers on Greece, which is campaigning to renegotiate the terms of its bailout programme.

?I don't think that the positions of the member states of the eurozone with regard to Greece differ, at least in terms of substance,? Merkel said.