“An initial hearing amid much tension," writes To Vima. The trial of alleged members of the “Conspiracy of Cells of Fire” got underway in Athens on January 17. Thirteen people, including four by proxy, are accused of membership of a terrorist group. The group, which sprang up following the riots of December 2008, has claimed a dozen attacks with dynamite, including the mailing of parcel bombs to foreign embassies in the capital in November 2010 and, more recently, an explosion outside the seat of the Court of Athens. No was injured in the attacks. “Amidst a crowd of police and journalists, a tense atmosphere prevailed throughout the first session, with the youth refusing to testify," reports the newspaper. “The court has therefore postponed its response to [the defendants’] procedural objections until next Monday. The trial can begin then.”
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.