Greece

The race was on in Greece on Dec. 18 to forestall early elections -- and a possible blow to fiscal reforms -- hours after parliament failed to elect a new president.
      
Only 160 deputies on Wednesday supported the government candidate, former EU commissioner Stavros Dimas, far short of the 200 required.
      

By Antonis Galanopoulos and Marcus Bensasson

Greece moved a step closer to early elections after Prime Minister Antonis Samaras failed to gather enough support for his nominee in a parliamentary vote for a new head of state.

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The government garnered 160 votes in the first round of crucial presidential elections on Wednesday, performing slightly worse than anticipated and increasing speculation about snap polls.

Rectors representing the country’s largest universities on Wednesday appealed to the government to take immediate action to relieve operational problems at the institutions that have been caused by troika-mandated funding cuts, a rash of student transfers to the big universities and staff cutbacks.

By Stathis Kousounis

Greece enjoyed the fifth-biggest increase in Google searches from the UK market this year in the category of emerging holiday destinations, according to a chart published by the world’s biggest online search engine.

Italy was top, followed by Iceland and Portugal.

Bank governors have an obligation to talk openly and honestly and to issue warning whenever they see any kind of major danger lying ahead.

Comments made earlier this week by former finance minister and Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras clearly fulfilled this obligation.

Just a few hours ahead of a crucial presidential ballot on Wednesday, Greece's conservative-led government warned that failure to elect a new President could have devastating consequences for the country.

The first of possibly three presidential ballots will take place on Wednesday evening, with the government expecting its candidate, Stavros Dimas, to receive at least 161 of 300 MPs’ votes, which will be well short of the 200 needed to be elected but a basis for the coalition to work from for the final ballot on December 29, when 180 votes will be required.

The uncovering of the Alexander the Great-era tomb at Amphipolis in northern Greece is the subject that most intrigued Greek web users, according to statistics made public on Tuesday by Google.

According to the search engine, Amphipolis was the most searched word on Greek Google this year.

Former mayor of Thessaloniki Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, who is serving a 12-year prison sentence for the embezzlement of nearly 18 million euros in municipal funding, is to face new charges over another 1.1-million-euro hole in the city’s coffers.