Greece

Two disparate forms Europe culture, on the surface at least, are fused in the latest short film produced by the Latvian #mindpower project — where prose by Latvian poetess Aspazija meets the iconic Cretan highlands music of Psarantonis.

Greece will join the United States and other NATO members in efforts to defeat militants of Islamic State (ISIS), an issue which is expected to be discussed in the summit of the transatlantic alliance in Brussels next month, Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said on Friday.

Having returned from the European Union leaders? summit in Riga on Friday, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is due to meet with SYRIZA members on Saturday to brief them on the course of negotiations with the country?s lenders.

Georgios Michelis, a former executive at Emporiki Bank, is on track to become chairman of Greece?s bank rescue fund, according to two euro-area officials.

The Catholic church in Venice that agreed to lend Saint Barbara?s relic to the Church of Greece has accepted a request from Archbishop Ieronymos for the remains to be kept in Athens until June 1.

The loan was due to last until Sunday.

Cash-strapped Greece will cut the pay of bank bailout fund executives by 40 percent because their salaries are a "provocation" during a time of austerity cuts elsewhere, the finance ministry said on Friday.

By Birgit Jennen and Rainer Buergin

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble raised the possibility that Greece may need a parallel currency alongside the euro if the country?s talks with creditors fail, people familiar with his views said.

Greece has emerged as a champion in inequality among the member-states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), whose most recent report found that across its 34 member-states inequalities in general became more acute last year.

Greek PM Alexis Tsipras is expected to make his “political solution” pitch to Eurozone partners-cum creditors in Riga on Thursday evening, on the sidelines of a EU summit in the Latvian capital.

Good news for at least one of Greece’s four systemic banks on Thursday, as Piraeus Bank said it has sealed a deal with Kuwait’s Al Ahli Bank to sell its 98.5-percent stake in Piraeus Bank Egypt (PBE) for US$150 million.

The agreement is subject to approval by the Egyptian central bank and the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF), amongst others.