 » It was a turbulent week for Greece and the euro zone. As angry demonstrators filled the squares of Athens, George Papandreou, the prime minister, narrowly won a vote of confidence in parliament. A bigger test will come when Greek politicians vote on contentious legislation to enact yet more austerity measures and structural reforms. Euro-zone finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg gave warning that the next tranche of bail-out funding for Greece, which is needed to avoid a debt default in mid-July, would be released only if the legislation is passed. See article » The IMF said that contagion from the Greek crisis posed considerable risks to the Spanish economy and that efforts on reform must not slow. Earlier, up to 200,000 people rallied on the streets of Spanish cities, protesting against austerity and political corruption. The so-called indignados plan to stage a huge demonstration in Madrid in late July. » Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, promised both to lower income taxes and to keep the budget deficit under control, after he won a vote of confidence in parliament. Days earlier Umberto Bossi, the leader of the Northern League, Mr Berlusconi's coalition partner, had called for tax cuts. See article » A court in the Netherlands cleared Geert Wilders on all charges of inciting hatred against Muslims. Mr Wilders, who leads a far-right party that supports the minority government, has compared the Koran to "Mein Kampf". His trial was seen as a test of Dutch freedom-of-speech laws.
Going against the traffick » The presidents of seven Central American countries, Colombia and Mexico, together with Hillary Clinton and other foreign ministers, gathered in Guatemala for a summit which approved a co-ordinated strategy against drug mafias in Central America. See article » After having kept Argentina guessing for months, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the president, said she would seek a second term at an election due in October. Opinion polls suggest that she should win easily against a splintered opposition. » In Venezuela troops laid siege to a prison after 22 people were killed in battles between rival gangs of inmates. » Haiti's parliament rejected Michel Martelly's nominee for prime minister, a setback for the country's new president.
A bloody regime » In his first public speech for two months, Bashar Assad, Syria's embattled president, called for a "national dialogue", once again promised reform, and said an election would be held in August—but with no hint that his ruling Baath party would allow an opposition to compete. Demonstrations and killings continued. See article  » Tunisia's former president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, and his wife were each sentenced in absentia to 35 years for corruption and fined $66m. » As Yemen's government in Sana'a seemed to lose its grip, dozens of members of al-Qaeda escaped from a prison in the southern port city of Mukalla. Allies of the organisation have recently captured or attacked several towns in the region. » In Bahrain eight pro-democracy campaigners, all Shias, were given life sentences in a special security court for "plotting to overthrow the government". Thirteen other opposition figures were sentenced to up to 15 years in prison, seven in absentia. » A spate of bombings in Iraq killed at least 35 people, 27 of them in Diwaniya, south of Baghdad, the capital. The attacks were presumed to have been carried out by Sunni extremists linked to al-Qaeda. » In a blow to Palestinian hopes of unity, Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Meshal, leaders respectively of Fatah and Hamas, the two main Palestinian factions, who have agreed to oversee jointly a government of technocrats, cancelled a meeting at which they were meant to select a prime minister.
Nice to see you  » China released Ai Weiwei on bail from detention, after the artist and human-rights activist admitted evading tax. Mr Ai was arrested in April as he boarded a flight for Hong Kong, and was held in secret without access to a lawyer. China said it released Mr Ai for "his good attitude in confessing his crimes" and because of a chronic illness. See article » After government-backed protests in Hanoi demanded that China respect Vietnam's territorial claims in the South China Sea, the two countries conducted a joint naval patrol in disputed waters. China urged America to avoid getting involved in the dispute. » A volcano in Chile continued to send plumes of ash across the southern Pacific, obscuring airspace in the far south of the world and grounding flights around the region. » Pakistan arrested Brigadier Ali Khan for his ties to Hizb-ut-Tahrir, a banned Islamist group. The most senior Pakistani army officer to be taken into custody in a decade, Brigadier Khan was detained shortly before India's foreign secretary flew to Islamabad for talks with her Pakistani counterpart. Both sides started a dialogue in February for the first time since the Mumbai attacks of 2008, in which Pakistani officers are accused of involvement.
The beginning of the end » Barack Obama proposed withdrawing 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next summer, with 68,000 remaining to support the transition of responsibility for security to the Afghans by 2014. Some military men worried that Mr Obama's plan would hamper American advances against the Taliban. See article  » Republicans threatened to stop funding American participation in the Libya campaign, claiming that Mr Obama is violating the 1973 War Powers Resolution by not seeking congressional approval for military action. Senators John Kerry and John McCain introduced a bipartisan resolution authorising the president to commit forces, but not to deploy ground troops. See article » Jon Huntsman declared his candidacy for president. The former governor of Utah and ambassador to China is a late entry to the Republican field, but is exciting interest as a more charismatic version of Mitt Romney, the party front-runner. As an Obama appointee to China, however, he is sure to get a rough ride from conservative activists. | 
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