European cuts

Riot police fire tear gas in Athens as clashes break out in the first general strike since the new coalition took power. In Spain, anti-austerity protests threaten to tear the country apart.

Major strides are taken to tackle eurozone debt, with plans for a banking union and German approval of a permanent bailout fund to rescue ailing countries.

Private depositors flee Spanish banks and Catalonia seeks a 5bn euro rescue, heightening fears of a full country bailout.

Greece’s Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, calls for more time to implement tough spending cuts and reforms, ahead of talks on its bailout.

A town mayor nicknamed the “modern Robin Hood” is beginning a three-week march in support of anti-austerity campaigners. So who is Spain’s new cult hero?

The UK’s economy is not expected to grow at all in 2012 and it will take an “Olympic” effort and hard work to battle the eurozone crisis, domestic deficit-cutting and tight credit conditions.

Stock markets plunged and the cost of borrowing in Spain and Italy went up as the European Central Bank President Mario Draghi disappointed markets with a non-committal press conference.

The future of the euro is under the spotlight again, as EU officials visiting Greece cast doubt on its ability to repay its debts and Spain sees its borrowing costs soar.

Worries that Greece may soon be bankrupt and Spain will need a full-scale bailout send the euro sliding and Spanish bond yields soaring to a euro-record high of 7.52 per cent.

The UK economic forecast is cut and the global recovery shows further signs of weakness, the International Monetary Fund said in its World Economic Outlook today.

The smiles are strained and the body language stiff but Conservative David Cameron insists he has much in common with Francois Hollande – the Socialist he refused to meet during France’s elections.

Prime Minister David Cameron will today attend a crucial summit that could determine the future of the eurozone.

With Barclays under pressure after admitting trying to manipulate key lending rates, Channel 4 News looks at the measures the eurozone is proposing to reform banking.

With world leaders at the G20 summit putting pressure on eurozone countries to sort out their problems, Channel 4 News looks at the action they are taking.

As G20 leaders in Mexico urge Europe to take act to end the eurozone debt crisis, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso declares that the crisis originated in the US.