A diplomatic spat has broken out between the United Kingdom and Israel over an arrest warrant issued against former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni as she prepared for a trip to London, the Times reveals. “The warrant sought to question Ms Livni over her role in last winter’s Israeli offensive in Gaza, over which both sides have been accused of war crimes”, the London daily reports. Israel’s government is said to be “furious” over the affair and has issued “an angry warning today that its ties with Britain were in jeopardy”. Speaking at a security conference, Ms Livni, who subsequently cancelled her trip to meet a Jewish group in London, has declared she is “proud” of her role in Operation Cast Lead – an Israeli offensive against Gaza militants firing rockets into Israel, in which some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died during a three-week war.
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.