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    Eline Gordts

    Eline Gordts

    Assignment Editor, HuffPost

  • At Athens' Main Market, Greeks Brace For New Austerity

    It's noon and the heat in the historical center of Athens is suffocating, as if the buildings themselves are perspiring. In Athens’ central market -- or Varvakeios Agora, as locals call it -- action is sluggish. Here, where merchants sell every imaginable edible product, the Greek government’s announcement it has agreed to another tough austerity package in exchange for a third bailout by international creditors is the topic of conversation among vendors and buyers.

  • PHOTOS: Iranians Welcomes Nuclear Deal With V-Signs, Dancing

    Iranians celebrated at home and in the streets on Tuesday, hours after negotiators for Iran and six world powers announced in Vienna they had brokered a historic deal years in the making. Tuesday's deal will curb Iran's controversial nuclear program in exchange for sanction relief. Many in Iran hope that the agreement will bring an end to Tehran's international isolation and that prospect of sanctions relief will allow the economy to recover.

  • North Korea Installs Cycle Lanes In Pyongyang

    North Korea has installed cycle lanes on major thoroughfares running through Pyongyang in an apparent bid to cut down on pedestrian accidents as more people have the cash to spend on bicycles to get around. Bicycles are an expensive but popular mode of transport for many in an impoverished and reclusive country where private car ownership, although on the rise, is still rare. Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

  • 'Greeks Have Been Pushed To The Abyss'

    This time, we discuss the Greek debt crisis with Paul De Grauwe, a professor at the London School of Economics. The Greek government surprised everybody on Thursday by submitting a proposal to Greece's international creditors that would implement severe austerity measures in return for new bailout funds. Less than a week ago, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' government had urged voters participating in a national referendum to reject a bailout deal that included similar austerity measures.

  • Meet The Greeks On Both Sides Of Sunday's Referendum

    Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Athens Friday night, two days before Greeks are expected to vote in a crucial referendum on a bailout deal with the country's international creditors. "Yes" and "no" voters rallied simultaneously in downtown Athens. An estimated 25,000 people came out to Syntagma Square in support of the "no" camp, police said.

  • Boko Haram Steps Up Attacks In Nigeria After Week Of Bloodletting

    Suspected Boko Haram insurgents attacked the outskirts of a state capital in northeastern Nigeria on Friday, escalating their attacks after a week of bloodletting in which more than 150 people were killed, military sources said. Heavy gunfire was heard coming from the fringes of Maiduguri, the capital of Bornoa state, for about half an hour on Friday evening. Military sources said insurgents attacked a village on the edge of the city but were repulsed.

  • Report: European Countries Tried To Block Release Of Gloomy IMF Report On Greece

    Euro zone countries tried in vain to stop the IMF publishing a gloomy analysis of Greece's debt burden which the leftist government says vindicates its call to voters to reject bailout terms, sources familiar with the situation said on Friday. The document released in Washington on Thursday said Greece's public finances will not be sustainable without substantial debt relief, possibly including write-offs by European partners of loans guaranteed by taxpayers. Publication of the draft Debt Sustainability Analysis laid bare a dispute between Brussels and the Washington-based global lender that has been simmering behind closed doors for months.

  • Scientists: Climate Change Boosts European Heat Waves

    As Germany and Spain sweated and London sweltered through its hottest July day on record this week, scientists said it is "virtually certain" that climate change is increasing the likelihood of such heat waves in Europe. In real-time data analysis released on Friday, a team of international climate scientists from universities, meteorological services and research organizations said the kind of heat waves hitting Europe this week - defined as three-day periods of excessive heat - are becoming much more frequent in the region. In De Bilt in the Netherlands, for example, a heat wave like the one forecast for the next few days would have been a roughly 1-in-30-years event in the 1900s, according to the scientists.

  • North Korea Blacklists More Internet Sites

    North Korea, already one of the least-wired places in the world, appears to be cracking down on the use of the Internet by even the small number of foreigners who can access it with relative freedom by blacklisting and blocking social media accounts or websites deemed to carry harmful content. The move won't be noticed by most in the North since hardly anyone has access to the Internet. Warnings, in Korean and English, are now appearing on a wide array of sites, including social media such as Instagram, Tumblr and Flickr and websites like the South Korean news agency Yonhap, along with specific articles about the country.

  • 10 Things You Need To Know About Greece's Week Of Crisis

    As Tuesday's deadline for an IMF debt repayment and a new bailout deal came and went without agreement, the country moved into uncharted waters. While Greece and its international creditors continue to wrangle over the terms of a deal, worried Greeks lined up outside closed banks, uncertain about what is next for their money, their currency and their country. Greece received the first multibillion-dollar bailout deal in 2010, months after the country had announced that it would no longer be able to pay for years of accumulated debt.

  • PHOTOS: A Day Of Uncertainty In Greece

    Greeks faced an uncertain future on Monday, one day ahead of a deadline for the country's government to pay back 1.6 billion euros to the International Monetary Fund or default on its debts. Greece's banks and stock market remained closed on Monday, after talks between the country and its international creditors broke down over the weekend. "I can't believe it," Athens resident Evgenia Gekou, told Reuters.

  • Other Nations Change Gun Laws After Massacres. Why Not America?

    This time, we speak with Harvard professor Dr. David Hemenway. Nine people died in the mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, including the pastor, a recent university graduate and a librarian. President Barack Obama responded to the shooting in a solemn address on Thursday.

  • North Korea Claims It Has Found Cure For MERS, Ebola, SARS And AIDS

    North Korea says it has succeeded where the greatest minds in science have failed. The authoritarian, impoverished nation better known for pursuing a nuclear program despite global criticism announced Friday it has a drug can prevent and cure MERS, Ebola, SARS and AIDS. The secretive state did not provide proof, and the claim is likely to provoke widespread skepticism.

  • Israel Says Attack That Killed 4 Children On Gaza Beach Was Accidental

    Israel's military has concluded its probe into one of the most harrowing incidents from the 2014 summer war with Hamas, saying the deaths of four Palestinian children killed on a Gaza beach were accidental. It says the children's tragic deaths were an accident and did not affect the legality of the attack. Israel has referred about 100 cases to legal examination since the war that killed over 2,200 Palestinians, and 73 people on the Israeli side.

  • European Leaders Keep Greece Waiting As Deadline Nears

    The leaders of Germany, France and the European Commission told Greece on Wednesday it must reach a deal with its creditors and stop seeking softer terms in a political fix to unlock desperately needed funds. The chairman of euro zone finance ministers said a cash-for-reform deal with Athens was still possible in time for their June 18 meeting with just a few issues remaining to be solved, but Greek counter-proposals were not yet satisfactory. Spokesmen for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande said they would meet leftist Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras after dinner at a European Union summit with Latin American countries in Brussels.

  • Why Beijing Is Censoring Information About The Cruise Ship Disaster

    Today, we speak with Jeremy Goldkorn, the founder and director of Danwei. China suffered one of the worst maritime disasters in its recent history this week when a cruise ship with more than 400 people aboard capsized in the Yangtze river. Chinese authorities have severely restricted access to information about both the causes of the tragedy and the efforts to recover the victims' bodies.

  • Blasts At Election Rally In Turkey Kill At Least 2, Over 100 Injured

    Two blasts ripped through a Kurdish rally in Turkey on Friday, killing two people and injuring more than 100 in what President Tayyip Erdogan described as a "provocation" designed to undermine peace before Sunday's parliamentary election. Eyewitness Guy Martin, a British photographer, told Reuters the blasts occurred some five minutes apart - the first in a rubbish bin which was ripped apart and the second in front a power generator. The explosions killed two people and injured more than 100, Erdogan said in an interview with broadcaster ATV, having earlier expressed condolences for the victims.

  • Greece Rejects Creditors' 'Absurd' Proposal

    Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday spurned "absurd" terms of proposed aid from lenders and delayed a debt payment to the International Monetary Fund, prolonging an impasse that threatens to push Greece into default and out of the euro zone. In a defiant speech aimed at winning parliament's backing for his rejection of the austerity-for-aid package, Tsipras balanced indignation with confidence that a deal was "closer than ever before" to keep his country inside the currency bloc. The contradictory message underscored the growing pressure on Tsipras to quickly sign a deal before cash-strapped Athens runs out of money, while also trying to placate hardliners in his leftist party who oppose the terms creditors are demanding.

  • This Feisty Feminist Is About To Shake Turkish Politics

    Yüksekdağ is the co-leader (she shares the job with a man) of the fastest growing political party in Turkey: the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). In June the HDP will make its formal debut in the general elections. The daughter of farmers, she says she’s been devoted to socialism and women’s rights since she distributed her first feminist leaflet in high school.

  • Asia: World Tango Capital?

    There, another man in a shiny gray suit over a gray shirt and a gray tie leads a woman across the dance floor as her legs dart through a flowered dress with a (very) high leg slit. The familiar twang of the tango fills the air as we breathe in the beauty of … Buenos Aires? This is Hong Kong.