Greece

By Eleni Chrepa & Nikos Chrysoloras

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras struck a defiant tone as he prepared for meetings in Brussels with European leaders to discuss the cash-strapped country?s bailout.

Greek PM to travel to Berlin, and then to Moscow

ATHENS -- Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will visit Berlin next Monday, and will travel to Moscow in April, a month earlier than planned.

A spokesman for the German government stated that Tsipras was invited by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Main opposition New Democracy party Antonis Samaras was urged by government sources to take precautions if he believes that his cell phone is tapped. The sources commented on a report by private ANT1 TV that reported on phone-tapping suspicions.

By Maria Petrakis

In the halls of the IKA state-welfare center on a recent rainy day in the Athens suburb of Neos Kosmos, Katerina Dimas and her eight-year-old son had front-row seats in the drama of Greece's cash crunch.

By Alexis Papachelas

The insatiable beast of populism, nurtured over the past few years, has not left a single hand unbitten, not even the one that fed it so systematically.

The beast has no reason, no ideology or political preferences and, more importantly, can never have enough.

Alternate Culture Minister Nikos Xydakis visited the archeological site of the Athens Acropolis to meet with staff and technicians involved in restoration work on the monument.

Xydakis also visited the souvenir shop, ticket office and wheelchair access elevator.

In his interview to Italian television, the Greek Minister of Finance Yianis Varoufakis used lyrics of Beatles song to answer a question about whether Greece continues to ask for money.

By Sotiris Nikas

The Euro Working Group held an extraordinary teleconference on Greece on Tuesday, concluding that the creditors? technical experts are experiencing cooperation problems with their Greek counterparts, and called on the latter to increase their efforts.

By Stathis Kousounis

Tourism bookings from Russia this season have so far shown a massive yearly decline of 50 to 60 percent at Greece?s popular destinations, according to the president of the Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (SETE), Andreas Andreadis.

 Revenues from privatizations will now be channeled toward supporting the social security system

By Vangelis Mandravelis

Greece?s creditors and the market appear particularly unhappy with the announcements by Alternate Finance Minister Nadia Valavani on the change in the destination of privatization revenues.