Greece

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author of the just-released The End of Sparta In Greek mythology, the prophetess Cassandra was doomed both to tell the truth and to be ignored. Our modern version is a bankrupt Greece that we seem to discount. News accounts abound now of impoverished Athens residents scrounging pharmacies for scarce aspirin - as Greece is squeezed to make interest payments to the supposedly euro-pinching German banks.

With the heat bearing down, the humidity wearing down, and the air conditioning breaking down, High Season affords a fast, cheap escape from this ozone-swathed Summer of Hell. An amiable lark of a movie starring that amiable lark of an actress, Jacqueline Bisset, Clare Peploe's High Season is a diverting romantic romp shot in the most diverting of locales - the Greek isle of Rhodes, where whitewashed villages cradled in rocky green hillocks tumble down into cobalt blue seas. It's an idyllic retreat - the idyllic-ness of it all being summarily overrun by camera-snapping hordes of vacationing Brits, who line the beaches like endives lining a produce shelf: thin, white and packed closely together.

The United States defeated Greece, 103-95, in overtime in the opening game of the qualifying round of the World Basketball Championships yesterdaywed in Villa Ballester, Argentina. "We've been inconsistent, either very good or not so good, and that is the sign of a young team that hasn't been together as long as the teams we play," U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said. Georgia Tech's Kenny Anderson missed an open jumper with five seconds to play in regulation. The rebound bounced to Constantinos Patavoucas, who took two dribbles and fired from just inside halfcourt.

ATHENS, Greece - New Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said Monday he was determined to keep the country in the eurozone, but acknowledged it is set to miss its deficit reduction target this year. Papademos was chosen last week to head a 15-week coalition government supported by the outgoing Socialists and rival conservatives. It was created to secure the approval of a new, massive bailout deal worth $177.6 billion from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

ATHENS, Greece - European and global financial leaders have agreed to release 44 billion euros ($57 billion) in critical loans to Greece and provide billions in additional debt relief in order to help the country stabilize its ailing economy. After three weeks of negotiations, Greece's euro partners and the International Monetary Fund agreed early Tuesday morning to release the loans in four installments beginning next month. The leaders also settled on a raft of measures - including a debt buyback program and an interest-rate cut on loans - that will reduce the country's debts by about 40 billion euros.

ATHENS, Greece - Greece's cash-strapped government detailed Monday its plans to sell 28 state-owned buildings on long-term lease, including tax offices, ministry buildings, and the main police headquarters in Athens. A government privatization fund said it hoped to make 30 million euros - $39 million - annually from the lease agreements lasting 20 to 25 years. Included on the list of buildings for sale are the main properties used by the ministries of justice, education and culture, 12 tax offices, and the greater Athens police headquarters.

Greece's financial problems were back in the news Tuesday after a report that the country was trying to renegotiate a financial safety net. A Greek financial official denied the report, but the country's borrowing costs shot up and the value of the euro declined. Here are some questions and answers about the effect of Greece's problems. Why should Americans care about Greece's troubles? Greece is not the only European nation with budget problems. Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and maybe Italy are also struggling.

ATHENS, Greece - Europe's fragile financial calm was shattered Wednesday as investors worried that violent anti-austerity protests in Greece and Spain's debt troubles showed that the continent still cannot contain its financial crisis. Police fired tear gas Wednesday at rioters hurling gasoline bombs and chunks of marble during Greece's largest anti-austerity demonstration in six months. The protests were part of a 24-hour general strike, the latest test for Greece's nearly four-month-old coalition government and the new spending cuts it plans to push through.

Will Greece exit the eurozone? Hard to believe, but the answer to this question could determine the fate of the U.S. economy this year. Global investors have been driving stock prices down, as odds rise that Greece will quit the European currency union. Greece is at loggerheads with Germany, the dominant European economy that dominates policy decisions for the continent. German leaders want the Greeks to get their financial house in order; i.e, to stop borrowing money and ultimately to repay the hundreds of billions of euros they owe. Most of those euros are owed to Germany.

Peter Goldmark is a former publisher of the International Herald Tribune In 1975, New York City was on the edge of default. Putting in place a sound, long-term solution was painful and difficult - but the city was rescued and disaster averted, with the State of New York playing the key role. (Disclosure: I served as Gov. Hugh Carey's budget director during that period.) I am reminded of all this because of what is going on in Greece, the epicenter of a crisis of the entire eurozone.