Balkan backlash
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Greece ground to halt today as thousands took the street in a bid to force the authorities to backtrack on tough belt-tightening measures intended to drag the country out of debt. Meanwhile the rest of the Eurozone is watching nervously, hoping the Greek government will stick to its guns.
The vast majority of Greece's 750,000 civil servants refused to turn up for work today, leaving government offices, schools and hospitals shut and transport severely disrupted.
Despite the heavy rain, about 10,000 people took to the streets in Athens to demonstrate against job losses and pension cuts. At one point police used teargas on protesters who tried to break through a security cordon, but for the most part the demonstration passed off peacefully.
The mass walk-out was triggered by tough measures announced by the Greek government to slash public spending and bring the troubled economy back from the brink.
Correspondent Malcom Brabant explains that ordinary working people are reluctant to make sacrifices because they feel they are not to blame for the country's economic woes. "They think that this crisis has been engineered by external forces, such as international speculators and European central bankers," he says.
Euro-anxiety
While the Greeks were out in force in Athens, their prime minister George Papandreou was in France, standing firm on his commitment to taking "any necessary measure" to slash the budget deficit.
Tomorrow he faces the EU summit, where the 27 country leaders will attempt to find a way out of the crisis seen as a threat to the entire Eurozone.
Today Eurozone finance ministers held a video conference to discuss the issue, fuelling further speculation that some kind of bailout is on the cards for Athens.
