Young, brash and tie-less, former communist Alexis Tsipras has emerged from the shadow of austerity in Greece to become the country’s first radical left-wing prime minister.

Syriza had run on a campaign of renegotiating the country’s €240bn international bailout deal, and pledged to reverse many of the reforms pushed through to qualify for the rescue loans that have kept Greece financially afloat for the past four years.

Greece’s left-wing Syriza appeared on course last night to trounce the ruling conservatives in yesterday’s snap election and could win the absolute majority it wants to fight international creditors’ insistence on painful austerity measures.

The mood music around the election of left-wing Syriza in Greece changed significantly in the EU as voting day approached.

Polls have closed in a Greek general election that could change the shape of Europe.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is convinced Greek opposition leader Alexis Tsipras will do business with other euro-region governments if he wins next week’s election and scale back his demands that put him on a collision course with creditors, German government officials said.

European stocks grow at lesser rate

Eurozone politicians are not obliged to rescue Greece as the country is no longer of systemic importance to the euro, a senior member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party has said.

Greece’s splintered political landscape means small, often relatively new parties may determine whether the winner of elections next month can cobble together a lasting government and avoid a new financial crisis.

Shares fell in Europe and Greek debt yields rose yesterday after the parliament in Athens rejected the government’s presidential candidate, setting the stage for an election that anti-bailout party Syriza could win.

Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras has announced plans for an early general election next month after parliament rejected his candidate for president, throwing the country’s international bailout into doubt.

Greece will hold early national elections on January 25 after parliament failed to elect a new president in a third and final round of voting, prime minister Antonis Samaras has announced.

A ferry carrying about 470 people caught fire off the Greek island of Corfu, trapping passengers on the top decks as gale-force winds and choppy seas hampered the evacuation.

The European Commission has said Greece is on course to end a draconian bailout programme in February and switch to “much lighter surveillance” despite delays concluding negotiations with rescue lenders.

A FALLING oil price is good for Western economies, at least in the short to medium-term, but it is not necessarily good for stock markets.

Greece will ask today for a two-month extension to its bailout programme and which the eurozone is in favour of granting, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said yesterday.

A protest through central Athens to mark the anniversary of the fatal police shooting of an unarmed teenager quickly turned violent as marchers damaged shopfronts and bus stations and set fire to looted clothes.

The eurozone economy grew faster than analysts forecast in the third quarter as Germany and France rebounded and Greece showed some signs of revival.

Brussels is considering scrapping the troika that supervises Greek reforms to allow Athens to pursue its own plan to bolster the economy — in return for a drip-feed of debt relief, according to European officials.

Moody’s ratings agency has upgraded Greece’s government bond rating, predicting a gradual decline of its massive national debt.

Inspectors from Greece’s EU/IMF lenders said yesterday that they had concluded a short, interim check-up of the country’s performance under its bailout and will return for a more comprehensive audit in late September.

Six years of budgetary cuts have left Greece’s finances on a sounder footing, but the cost has been enormous, writes Ann Cahill, Europe Correspondent.

Greece says it has reached an agreement with its international debt inspectors that will allow the release of a long-delayed rescue loan instalment.

You could have parked anywhere you liked in Athens a few weeks ago — the city’s parking police had all been fired.

The home of Germany’s ambassador to Athens was sprayed with gunfire early yesterday, in a suspected terrorist attack that prompted both governments to declare it would not strain ties between bailed-out Greece and its leading lender.

The home of Germany’s ambassador to Athens was sprayed with gunfire from automatic weapons in an overnight attack, Greek police said.

A Greek MP sought by police has given himself up, bringing to six the number of politicians from the extreme-right Golden Dawn party in custody and facing criminal charges.

Thirty-nine people were killed and around 10 injured when a bus plunged off a viaduct in southern Italy in what Prime Minister Enrico Letta described yesterday as a huge tragedy.

Greece adopted the last piece of legislation its international lenders required to release the next batch of rescue loans on Thursday, ending two months of wrangling over unpopular measures to overhaul the economy.

Germany’s Finance Minister has visited Greece amid massive police security, insisting there was “no convenient short cut” for the country’s bailout programme.

Trains ground to a halt and hospitals worked with emergency staff as Greek workers went on strike yesterday in protest at government plans to fire thousands of public sector employees.

Europe is set for a restless summer as the slumbering financial crisis reawakens. Luke Baker looks a problem that refuses to go away.

Greece has three days to reassure Europe and the International Monetary Fund it can deliver on conditions attached to its international bailout in order to receive the next tranche of aid, eurozone officials said.

Fairfax Financial Holdings — which has seen its 2011 investment in Ireland’s biggest bank jump about 50% — is now focusing on Greece, betting that the worst has passed for the recession-battered nation.

The fate of Greece’s shaky coalition government is hanging in the balance after crucial talks to end a major disagreement over the closure of state TV collapsed.

Greece’s two largest unions have called a 24-hour general strike for tomorrow to protest at the government’s move to close state-run TV and radio, a decision that has shocked the public and triggered a political crisis.

Greece's coalition government has said it will use emergency powers to prevent teachers from disrupting university entrance exams as part of their planned strike this month.

Unions in Greece today launched another general strike against austerity measures, amid predictions that unemployment in the crisis-hit country will reach 30% this year.

Greece’s government has announced emergency powers to force striking subway workers back to work, with those defying it risking arrest.

Lavish fireworks displays have ushered in 2013 across the Asia-Pacific region and Europe is holding scaled-back festivities in the hope of beginning a new year that will be kinder to its battered economies.

Greek tax collection is still falling well short of key targets intended to reduce the country’s staggering debt, the European Union has warned.

The 17 Eurozone countires have struck an agreement with the IMF on a programme to reduce Greek debt and put Athens on the way to get the next instalment of its much-needed bailout loans.

The IMF and EU appear to have ironed out their differences over Greece’s bailout and releasing the long-delayed latest instalment to Athens.

The European Union failed to reach a deal on giving Greece more financial aid yesterday, prolonging uncertainty over the future of the debt-plagued country and the 17-member eurozone.