Inspired by the prospect of big gains, fraudsters are continually inventing ingenious schemes to misappropriate emissions allowances. The wave of carbon credit VAT scams in late 2009 is relatively small beer in comparison to a recent large-scale operation carried out by a sophisticated group of computer hackers. The German edition of the Financial Times reports that the group used fake email identities to convince large numbers of businesses in Europe, Japan and New Zealand to re-submit their carbon exchange user information to a bogus website. Once they had appropriated the necessary access codes, the group transferred their victims' emissions credits to accounts in the UK and Denmark, before selling them off for cash. It is not yet known how many companies fell victim to the scam, "but checks in Germany have revealed that three out of four companies investigated were affected." Carbon exchanges in 13 countries have now been closed in response to the problem. "Carbon trading is considered to be the best instrument for protecting climate. But this fresh case of fraud has shown that it also remains very vulnerable," worries the daily.
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.