Costas Douzinas for guardian.co.uk The workers in a small bakery in central Athens announced this week that, while they would not close because they serve many vulnerable people, they were joining the two-day general strike by charging all products at cost. An unexpected surprise in these hard times for their customers, but an ordinary story of the life of resistance and kindness in the Greek capital. At th ...

Photo report from General strike on 19th of October in Athens. . 1343861 . by http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1343855 ...

By John O'Donnell BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Some euro zone countries want a European Commission task force to be given extra powers to oversee the sale of Greek state assets and the country's civil service under a far-reaching plan to tighten supervision of Athens, EU sources have told Reuters. The radical proposal, dismissed by some officials as a form of colonialism and which may be shot down in the face of st ...

Germany Questions Contract By SPIEGEL A huge arms deal is threatening to put French-German relations under strain. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, France wants to deliver two to four new frigates to the Greek navy and to allow the highly indebted nation to postpone payment of the €300 million ($412 million) purchase price per ship for the next five years. A stealth frigate built by DCNS of Fra ...

It is a nation built on the abolition of slavery, but there are at least 40,000 slaves in the US today. In the opening episode of Slavery: A 21st Century Evil, Al Jazeera's Rageh Omaar investigates food chain slavery, considered the easiest form of slavery to stamp out, in the US. The US has been leading the global fight against modern slavery. But, according to conservative estimates, there are between 40, ...

A short film about the Occupy Wall Street movement. ...

By James Gallagher Health reporter, BBC News Researchers have issued a warning about the health of people in Greece in the wake of the financial crisis. Writing in The Lancet, they said cuts to hospitals' budgets meant they were being overstretched. More people were reporting "bad health" and HIV infections were on the increase, the authors warned. While public health experts said the picture was "concernin ...

Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy draw up package to counter debt crisis but will not reveal details before G20 summit By guardian. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel after meeting in Berlin to discuss how to confront the eurozone bank and debt crisis. Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP The leaders of France and Germany have announced that they are ready to recapitalise Europe' ...

Who is the third who walks always beside you? When I count, there are only you and I together But when I look ahead up the white road There is always another one walking beside you T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land, V. What the Thunder Said We are indeed living in strange times. We are being forced to bare witness to the demolishment of the social foundations of the very essence of ʽEuropeʼ. The winds of history a ...

By Peter Schwarz 8 October 2011 The European institutions have clearly changed course in relation to Greece. Instead of the “rescue” of the country, they are now discussing its bankruptcy, and reducing the risk of contagion. The euro rescue fund, supposed to guarantee Greece’s solvency, is being used to secure the creditor banks against the consequences of state bankruptcy. The change of course has happened ...