He made clear in that conversation that he expects the government of Egypt and the governments of other regions in the -- other countries in the region to abide by their obligations to provide security to diplomatic facilities that they host.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

The internal processes by which these matters are considered within the U.K. or any other country are obviously the province of those countries and those governments.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

The ECB has pledged to buy the debt of fiscally struggling euro-zone countries in the secondary market if their governments request assistance and meet other criteria.

WSJ: Spain Sells Dollar Bond

In government-bond markets, China's support for wobblier states may well dwindle as 2013 gets nearer: then a new euro-zone sovereign-debt fund will be able to promote the claims of European governments on some countries above those of other creditors.

ECONOMIST: Capital and companies from China are sidling into Europe

Again, although the centre-left governments of the past six years have started to reform the labour market and liberalise the economy, other countries have done so faster.

ECONOMIST: Bad habits die hard

Whatever the eggheads may be saying, there are some obvious reasons why Western governments' zeal to promote democracy, and the willingness of other countries to listen, have ebbed.

ECONOMIST: Democracy's decline

This suggests southern Europeans, in particular, are increasingly afraid of what their governments might do with the euro and are willing to pay other countries to guard their cash.

FORBES: When Losing Money Sounds Like A Good Idea

In most other resource-rich countries, as prices rise governments take increasing cuts of the upside.

FORBES: Forget Gold, Invest In Oil

Greece is farther down this road than any other member of the euro zone even though other countries such as Portugal and Ireland have already seen their governments toppled and Spain is about to follow suit.

ECONOMIST: The markets are not the euro��s only threat. Voters may be too