Oliver Tree

Markets are fretting over the outcome of Sunday's Greek vote -- with the anti-bailout Syriza party polling neck and neck with rival New Democracy -- and policymakers seem spellbound by the prospect of a breakup of the euro zone.

As the euro zone lurches from crisis to crisis, the spotlight is set to fall on Chancellor Angela Merkel as world leaders look to Germany to take a lead.

At stake is the country's continued membership in the euro currency, and the future of the euro zone itself. Here is our handy guide to the key events and implications you can expect going forward.

Mediterranean minnow Cyprus is only days away, according to rumors, from requesting a bailout equivalent to 10 percent of its GDP.

On Monday her house was among several raided by security forces, with Sobchak ordered to appear at a police station only hours before a major anti-government rally took place in Moscow on Tuesday.

EU officials have been keen to trumpet the latest euro zone Band-Aid as a triumph for collective action and an answer to critics who accused the group of acting too slowly and with not enough money in the past.

On June 22, Cricket mobile will begin selling Apple's flagship iPhone 4 and 4S without a contract. Buy the phone from Cricket (for $399 and $499, respectively) and pay a $55 monthly charge for unlimited calls, data and messaging. Don't like the deal anymore? Then just cancel.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has become the latest leader to challenge, and ultimately humble, the Iron Chancellor.

The focus has turned to Spain, where banking debts last week sent Liberbank, Ibercaja and Caja 3, who together hold toxic real estate assets valued at around ?11.8 billion ($14.8 billion), into merger talks.

Speaking at a conference in Italy over the weekend, Soros said: The Greek crisis is liable to come to a climax in the fall.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano said two weeks ago he expected a framework co-operation deal to be signed with Iran when he returned to Vienna from a rare trip to Tehran.

A higher-than-expected 60.3 percent voted yes in the euro zone's only national referendum on the fiscal pact, a binding agreement which will tie the 25 signatories to hard budget targets and set fines for missing them.

As the risk of a messy Greek exit from the euro and a general breakup of the euro zone spark global slowdown fears, panicked investors have fled the troubled euro to safe havens such as U.S. treasuries and, crucially, the dollar.

Anti-treaty parties have gained significant support in the run up to Thursday's vote, with nationalists Sinn Fein rising to become the second most popular party, according to recent polls.

According to experts, the virus is so complex it could have only been created by a nation state - leading to speculation it was launched by the United States or Israel to damage or spy on the region's governments.

Liberbank, Ibercaja and Caja 3, who hold toxic real estate assets of around ?11.8 billion ($14.8 billion), are at an advanced stage of merger negotiations.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, having so far successfully fought off the idea of euro bonds, is besieged on all sides as leaders line up behind French President Francois Hollande and his appeals for the collective financial instrument.

The European Union has filed a suit with the World Trade Organization against Argentina?s import restrictions, raising the dispute between the EU and the South American nation only weeks after Buenos Aires nationalized Spanish oil firm Repsol?s subsidiary in the country.

Bankia, Spain's fourth largest bank, reportedly asked for the suspension ahead of a board meeting on Friday afternoon aimed at redrawing its accounts for 2011 and submitting a plan to bolster its finances.

The talks between the permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany (P5+1) ended in Baghdad after two days of tough negotiations surrounding Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, which Iran had threatened to walk out of following the P5+1's refusal to scale back economic sanctions.

Greece, a country that accounts for less than 2 percent of the union's GDP, continues to wreak havoc among EU leaders as they plead and threaten the Mediterranean basket case to abide by a harsh medicine of tax rises, welfare cuts and liberalization.

Speaking at a summit in Brussels, the heads of Germany and several EU institutions all urged the debt-stricken country to stick to the deeply unpopular tax hikes, labor reforms and welfare cuts that have divided Greece and pushed it to the brink of exiting the currency union.

The accident happened in an area formerly operated by diamond giants De Beers.

The latest call to arms comes as world powers met with Iran for talks in Baghdad, with the Iranians promising a new and comprehensive package of proposals.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the forces of President Bashar al-Assad pounded Rastan in the early morning, adding that at least six people have been killed in other parts of the country on Wednesday.

The election of Hollande earlier this month has fractured the traditional Franco-German alliance, with the French premier's desire to tackle the sovereign debt crisis through growth clashing with Chancellor Angela Merkel's predominantly austerity-led agenda.

The talks between representatives of the U.S., Russia, France, Britain, Germany, China and Iran are aimed at diffusing rising tension in the region, with Iran seeking a reprieve from crippling sanctions imposed on its energy and banking sectors.

The Shiites were on their way back from a pilgrimage in Iran, when they were ambushed in Syria's Aleppo province.

Turkey signed the pipeline deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Sunday, bypassing the central government in Baghdad.