The European Union is dying -- not a dramatic or sudden death, but one so slow and steady that we may look across the Atlantic one day soon and realize that the project of European integration that we've taken for granted over the past half-century is no more.

The austerity measures that were supposed to fix Greece's problems are dragging down the country's economy. Stores are closing, tax revenues are falling and unemployment has hit an unbelievable 70 percent in some places. Frustrated workers are threatening to strike back.

Yesterday, buildings on the Greek island of Santorini (a popular tourist destination) were spray painted with anarchy symbols and revolutionary words.The reality is, the Greek people are sick of being fucked over by the system. They are taking measures into their own hands and fighting back.

Political theater now grips Greece. As with ancient Greek plays, today’s drama also reaches and touches everyone else. We sense Greece’s dilemmas becoming our own. Her rulers declare that a crisis now threatens Greece. They blame it on the masses. To overcome it, they must impose great suffering on the masses. The rulers’ chorus intones the absolute necessity, the utter unavoidability of that suffering as the only solution.

You have to feel sorry for the poor Canadians. With a right-wing government hell-bent on massive public expenditure cuts, they have to fund not just one grand international summit with the G20 this weekend, but two, with the G8 summit on Friday.

A letter bomb snuck into the Greek public order ministry building has exploded, killing one person. The blast occurred near Minister Michalis Chryssohoidis's office, who was uninjured.

Under the shadow of the austerity measures of the I M F ,a Greek Mayor defends the local authority boundaries of his Municipality, which the Greek government illegally changes. A huge ecological blow to Athens.

President Obama, and other world leaders at the G-20 summit on Sept 2009, in Pittsburgh. Obama urged leaders of the world in a letter, released on Friday, to work together in taking aggressive actions to repair the worldwide economic financial crisis.

If the long-running diplomatic soap opera starring German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy required a theme song, an appropriate choice might be Serge Gainsbourg's 1969 ditty "Je T'Aime ... Moi Non Plus" (I Love You ... Neither Do I).

Obama will not go to Australia, Indonesia this month With the worst oil spill in U.S. history presenting a key test of his presidency, President Barack Obama postponed a trip scheduled for this month to Australia and Indonesia, the White House said early on Friday.