Erstellt am: 4. 11. 2011 - 14:56 Uhr

Panic in the air in Cannes, Athens, Rome...

Reality Check: Greek crisis and the G20, Mars 55 project ends, Palestinian youth theatre in Vienna, Reporter 12.

"Headless chickens" is the expression that springs to mind when looking at the G20 meeting in Cannes. After all the uproar yesterday about Greece, today the spotlight is starting to turn to Italy - the next country in line with massiv, unserviceable debts and an very shaky government, and you can feel the panic in the air, even from Vienna.

Tonight at midnight (maybe the time was chosen to add even more drama, as if any more were needed?) the Greek parliament takes a vote of confidence in the government.

It seems to be some sort of mixture between a Greek tragedy and a Whitehall farce, with people changing sides and changing their minds faster than you can say "U-turn". It's unclear whether Papandreou is playing a very clever game of poker, or committing political suicide. By this time tomorrow, we shoud know whether his gamble has worked. Whatever else it has done, it has certainly ruffled a lot of feathers across Europe and around the world.

Elizabeth Alcock asked Greece expert, Emmanuel Sigalas from the Institute of Advanced Studies, what he thinks is likely to happen next.

Meanwhile, in Cannes, world leaders are turning the heat up under Italy. If things are bad for Mr Papandreou in Greece, they are hardly better for Mr Berlsuconi in Italy. Just like Mr Papandreou, Berlusconi is coming in for a hammering both from other world leaders and at home - and the Italian government is almost as precarious as the Greek one, with many analysts saying it could fall at any moment. Gennie Johnson asked our Rome correspondent, Josephine McKenna, why the spotlight is turning on Italy, despite the chaos in Greece.

Mars 500 project ends

In Moscow, the team of cosmonauts who have been locked away underground for a year and a half as a part of the Mars 500 project have emerged. The experiment was designed to find out how people would cope mentally and physically with long duration space flight, such as a trip to Mars. Karen Percy reports on the project and how the cosmonauts feel about returning to normal life.

The Freedom Theatre

The Freedom Theatre is a youth theatre from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. It helps young Palestinians to channel their difficult emotional experiences creatively and contructively. They are performing their play "What Now?" tonight at the Dschungel in the Vienna Museumsquartier, and John Cummins went to meet them.

Reporter 12-ost

Entries for the Die Presse Reporter 12-Ost competition close on Monday. The winner will have the opportunity to go on a foreign assignment with Foreign Desk correspondent, Wieland Schneider. Elizabeth Alcock talked to the winner of Reporter Ost-11, Paul Haller, about his report on Romanian beggars in Austria.
You can find details on how to enter the competition at the Die Presse website