Greece on "knife edge" in last hours to agree bailout
(Reuters) - Greece's prime minister scrambled on Sunday to convince lenders and politicians to sign off on a 130 billion euro ($171 billion) rescue, after his finance minister said just hours remain before the euro zone abandons the country to its fate.
A technocrat appointed in November, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is trying to ensure cash-strapped Greece avoids sinking into a chaotic default when big bond redemptions come due next month.
His finance minister said Athens had only until Sunday night to clinch a second financing package from lenders, after euro zone ministers bluntly told him they were ready to abandon Greece without proof it could push through painful cuts.
"We are on a knife edge," Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Saturday after what he called a "very difficult" conference call with euro zone counterparts.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/05/us-greece-idUSTRE8120HI20120205
Most Germans want Greece to quit euro: poll
(Reuters) - The majority of Germans feel the euro currency bloc would be better off if debt-crippled Greece left it, a poll published in mass-selling newspaper Bild am Sonntag showed on Sunday.
The Emnid poll said 53 percent of Germans surveyed thought Greece should return to its former currency, the drachma, while only 34 percent felt it should keep the euro.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/05/us-eurozone-idUSTRE8130TF20120205
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