Ever since the euro crisis erupted in late 2009 Greece has been at or near its heart. It was the first country to receive a bail-out, in May 2010. It was the subject of repeated debate over a possible departure from the single currency (the so-called Grexit) in 2011 and again in 2012. It is the only euro country whose official debt has been restructured. On December 29th the Greek parliament failed to elect a president, forcing an early snap election to be called for January 25th. The euro crisis is entering a new, highly dangerous phase, and once again Greece finds itself at the centre.

Alexandra Nikolovieni, 55, lost her job escorting young children on a school bus four years ago and has not been able to find another one since. To help financially, her daughter and her son-in-law, who have two children, moved into her house. But now they have lost their jobs, too. Ms. Nikolovieni, who volunteers at a food pantry in this suburb of Athens, says that every month she sees more and more people like her, qualifying for bundles of groceries and picking out used shoes for themselves or their children. “Are things getting better?” she said.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan is to establish a special working group to examine the costs to the State of financial regulation. This comes in the wake of revelations that the Irish taxpayer is being forced to plug a €58 million hole in the State’s annual regulatory bill, the Irish Times reported. Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said the Central Bank confirmed to him that €57.9 million of the State’s €136 million bill for overseeing the sector in 2013 went “unrecovered”.

The founder of City Link’s parent company has denied the firm’s collapse was mishandled and apologised to more than 2,000 workers who found out on Christmas Day that they would lose their jobs, The Guardian reported. Jon Moulton said the directors of Better Capital, which owns the parcel delivery firm, were very sorry about its collapse and the fallout for its workforce.

Greek agita is back. Or is it? After a two-year spell during which investors eagerly snapped up Greek assets, the prospect of new elections and the arrival of a tough-talking new prime minister are once again roiling European markets, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. But as the yields on benchmark Greek bonds soared and the Athens stock exchange plunged 4 percent, analysts remained divided as to whether the election of a new government with a mandate to reject years of forced austerity will signal a return to the dark days of the European debt crisis.

Allianz could be exposed to claims of at least $100 million linked to the AirAsia jet missing off the Indonesian coast with 162 people on board, which would be the third major airline accident it has been exposed to this year, the Irish Times reported. Allianz said it was lead reinsurer on the flight, having previously been the main reinsurer to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which disappeared over the Indian Ocean in March, as well as to flight MH17, shot down in July while flying over Ukraine.

Russia’s economy contracted for the first time in more than five years in November, taking a step toward a full-scale recession next year, data from the economy ministry showed Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported. After an optimistic start to the year, when Russia hosted the Winter Olympic Games and enjoyed high oil prices, the world’s largest country by area later stumbled over Western sanctions, massive capital outflows and a sudden drop in oil prices. Now the economy is widely seen contracting next year for the first time since the global financial crisis.

Austria has agreed to sell nationalised bank Hypo Alpe Adria's Balkans network to private equity firm Advent and Europe's development bank for up to 200 million euros ($245 million), as it pushes ahead with winding down the defunct lender, Reuters reported. The sale, announced by the finance ministry and Advent after weeks of complex negotiations, is expected to close by the second quarter of 2015, pending regulatory approval. Under the deal Advent gets an 80 percent stake, while the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will get 20 percent.

Creditors of Mriya Agro Holding Plc said they presented the Ukrainian agricultural group with their own plan to restructure about $1 billion debt, Bloomberg News reported. Bondholders and lenders want the company to hire a chief restructuring officer and have submitted a “detailed proposal” to help rescue the company and avoid insolvency, according to an e-mailed statement from Rothschild, their financial adviser. Tension between management and creditors has been growing since Mriya said in August it missed payments on some of its obligations.

Latvian Saeima passed amendments to the Insolvency Law in the final reading today, stipulating that the amendments will come into force on March 1, 2015, reports LETA. The government originally approved amendments to the Insolvency Law on September 25, according to which bank mortgages issued to borrowers who buy a home/apartment, and have no other domicile, will be considered non-recourse loans.