EUROPEAN UNION

Greece's conservatives are close to forming a coalition government following their narrow election victory, a party official said Monday.

With Sunday's Greek election result doing little to ease long-term fears that the country still faces a messy exit from the euro, the G-20 delegates are left speculating how to tackle a spiraling crisis with no clear end in sight.

?The new government in Greece must fulfill their commitments quickly,? says German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Papandreou believes that given enough time, the Greeks would be able to adhere to bailout terms.

With French President Francois Hollande's Socialist Party appearing likely to cement its hold on the country's government in elections on Sunday, the Journal du Dimanche has reported that France wants the European Union to agree on growth-boosting measures worth ?120 billion ($151 billion) this year.

Ahead of what is likely to be a week full of drama, stomach-churning market action, and violence in the streets of Athens, a German documentary is making the rounds online outlining the severe socioeconomic dysfunction that led Greece to its current state of affairs.

Markets are fretting over the outcome of Sunday's Greek vote -- with the anti-bailout Syriza party polling neck and neck with rival New Democracy -- and policymakers seem spellbound by the prospect of a breakup of the euro zone.

Some Greeks are likely to vent their anger by supporting the anti-austerity radical leftist Syriza party in this weekend?s poll.

At stake is nothing less than Greece?s financial survival and the viability of the euro zone currency bloc.

Britain's goods trade deficit unexpectedly widened in April as exports plunged, raising the threat of a third quarter of economic contraction and adding urgency to new measures to foster growth as trading partners in the euro zone weaken.

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell Thursday amid report of cut in Spain's credit rating and disappointing data from the U.S.

Helicopter gunships aren't the only things Russia is giving Syria; now the Kremlin is printing money for the cash-strapped Damascus regime. But whereas the former makes Assad's regime stronger militarily, the latter may be contributing to an inflation rate that is now more than 30 percent.

It seems that since the very beginning of the European debt crisis the half-life of announced bailout measures is steadily contracting

The European Union's ?100 billion ($126 billion) bailout of Spanish banks may have, at least temporarily, saved those institutions. But the rescue is being judged a failure by the markets, as it appears to have seriously damaged the government's ability to borrow from international creditors, something a country running on deficit financing for the foreseeable future is vitally dependent on.

The U.S. singled out China on Monday in its effort to push the international community to place additional economic pressure on Iran.

Washington, which put a $33 million bounty on the heads of six al Shabab commanders last week, said on Sunday that it will continue to provide assistance to the African Union Mission in Somalia, of which Kenya is a part, but did not elaborate.

EU officials have been keen to trumpet the latest euro zone Band-Aid as a triumph for collective action and an answer to critics who accused the group of acting too slowly and with not enough money in the past.

Google was targeted for unethical and anti-competitive business practices once again when a non-profit organization working on public interest issues filed a complaint against the search engine giant with the anti-trust body, Competition Commission of India (CCI), Friday. This comes at a time when Google India is already facing a formal probe on a similar complaint filed by an Indian matrimonial site.

Crude oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose 40,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 31.75 million in May, a new survey has shown.

Russia and China remain opposed to any external intervention efforts int Syria by foreign countries, even as UN observers come under fire during their investigations of a civilian massacre.

Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Friday resumed talks in Vienna, hoping to sort out the differences on conducting investigation into the alleged nuclear weapon program in the Islamic republic.