The Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos has said the participation of Greece's private sector creditors in the country's multi-billion euro bond
swap
exceeded all expectations. Under the deal, more than 100bn of Greece's debt would be
written off
. The eurozone finance ministers announced that Greece had met the conditions to receive around $47bn.
The Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi has demanded from Britain an urgent explanation about a failed rescue mission in Nigeria, in which a kidnapped British engineer and his Italian colleague were killed. Alan Johnston reports from Italy.
Britain argues that events were just moving too fast as the hostage drama reached a
climax
. It says it wasn't practical to consult the Italians before sending in the troops. But Italy's Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi seemed
unimpressed
with that line. He's continued to demand what he called "utmost clarity" from Britain with regards to what happened. But at the same time, the Italian news agency has reported sources in the prime minister's office here as saying that Italy doesn't want to
escalate
this dispute.
World News from the BBC
Israeli air strikes in Gaza have killed four Palestinians - two of them senior members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a local militant organisation. The BBC Jerusalem correspondent says the main target of the first attack against a car travelling west of Gaza City was Zuhair al-Qaissi, the new leader of the group. A passenger in the car also died. Mr al-Qaissi's predecessor was killed last August in a similar strike.