Prime Minister, Austerity Package | featured news

Greece's new prime minister, Lucas Papademos, won a crucial confidence vote Wednesday on severe austerity measures to be made in exchange for more bailout funds to help the country step back from the brink of bankruptcy.

Thousands of protesters and an equal number of police fanned out in several Greek cities Saturday evening ahead of an expected announcement by the country's prime minister that additional austerity measures are on the way.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou sacrificed his finance minister on Friday and put his main socialist party rival into the job in a bid to force through an unpopular austerity plan and avert bankruptcy.

Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates resigned Wednesday and warned of grave consequences for the country after parliament rejected his government's latest austerity measures aimed at avoiding a bailout.