Fluctuating between 2,000 and 10,000 in number, most of them are situated in Bucharest, where they are part and parcel of day-to-day life for residents of the city’s Colentina quarter and have created a veritable Chinatown in the Voluntari neighbourhood: Chinese businesses in Romania have made the front page of today’s Cotidianul, which devotes a lengthy special report to these immigrant entrepreneurs. “At the end of 2008, 9,432 Chinese and Sino-Romanian companies were registered in Romania, with Chinese investment totalling €230.8 million, according to the Romanian foreign minister,” relates the Romanian daily. Cotidianul adds that business dealings between the two countries increased last year by 38%, putting China in 17th place in the ranking of countries invested in Romania. According to Cotidianul, the Chinese have taken a shine to life in Romania because, “unlike other countries in the region, here the people are friendly and welcoming”.
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.