“Czechs spend more time at work than any other EU citizens,” headlines Lidové noviny, which reports on the latest Eurostat figures on average working-hours in Europe’s member states. Men working in the Czech Republic spend an average of 42.7 hours per week in the workplace, closely followed by their colleagues in Greece (41.6 hours) and Bulgaria (40.5 hours). The lowest ranked countries are the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, where the working week is just over 37.7 hours -- considerably less than the EU average of 41.8 hours (2007). The Prague daily notes that the figures do not allow for the drawing of definite conclusions about levels of productivity, but it is clear that the average time spent at work has increased over the last two years. In the midst of the economic crisis, workers who are worried about their jobs are spending more time at the office for the same salaries they were earning a few years ago.
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.