Greece Debt Crisis, Eurozone | featured news

Political leaders in Greece need to show the resolve to stay in the euro zone, which will require Athens to stick to the terms of its rescue package, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Thursday.

Latest austerity cuts approved as 100,000 take to the streets in protest; 93 buildings damaged in Athens.

Greece's Cabinet approved austerity measures demanded in return for a new eurozone bailout of the debt-stricken country Saturday, a day ahead of a crucial vote in Parliament.

Greece must surrender control of its budget policy to outside institutions if it cannot implement reforms attached to euro zone rescue measures, the German economy minister was quoted as saying on Sunday.

European Central Bank policymaker Athanasios Orphanides called for euro zone leaders to abandon plans to make private sector investors help reduce Greece's debts, but his push showed no sign of gaining any traction in Europe's capitals on Friday.

Stocks jumped more than 2 percent at the open on Thursday after European leaders agreed to boost the region's bailout fund and struck a deal with banks and insurers to accept 50 percent losses on Greek bonds.

The country that seems to crop up more and more in the current eurozone discussions is Italy, but why should it be affected by the Greek crisis?

A top bank lobbyist insisted Saturday that banks and the eurozone are far from reaching a deal to cut Greece's debt, despite claims by eurozone finance ministers that they will ask banks to take steeper losses on their Greek bonds.

France is ready to do whatever it takes to rescue Greece, the government said, and urged the debt-laden euro-zone member to swiftly implement the July 21 plan to prevent bankruptcy.

By insisting that it receive collateral from Greece in return for aid, Finland threatens to upend an agreement that euro zone countries made in July to expand the E.U. bailout fund.