Greece is in crisis, but it was hard to tell at Athens fashion week, which showcased spring and summer collections for 2012.

"Keep Greek Fashion in Your Hearts," was the motto, a hard ask in a country on the verge of financial ruin. But the models on the catwalk and the glitterati on the red carpet did their part. Gowns shimmered, lipstick glistened. Pink cocktails flowed, courtesy of the sponsors.

The Greek economy shrank 5.2 percent in the third quarter, official figures showed on Tuesday, highlighting the depths of the crisis as parliament debates approval of a new government to enact a debt rescue.

Athens is racing against time to adopt deeply unpopular reforms demanded by its European and IMF creditors before the release of bailout loans needed to avert bankruptcy in mid-December.

Greece's bickering politicians were to resume talks Thursday on a unity government to take the crisis-hit country out of economic paralysis as global pressure for a deal mounted to avert bankruptcy.

Greek President Carolos Papoulias has called a meeting of party chiefs for 0800 GMT with reports indicating that former European Central Bank vice-president Lucas Papademos would be given the reins of government.

The Olympic torch will visit famous sights such as Stonehenge on its journey around Britain before the London 2012 Games, organizers said on Monday.

The flame will also scale mountains, telescopes, take a ride on the train and a dash through a shopping center on its 70-day tour.

European ministers embarked Saturday on overhauling a rescue package for Greece, ahead of crunch French-German talks to resolve a row over a crisis that threatens to cause global recession.

Amid dire warnings that the debt crisis is endangering all of Europe, ministers said that banks had to take a greater share of the pain in a rescue package agreed in July but already seen as insufficient to solve Greek woes.

More than 200 international philosophers braved strikes and protests to come to Greece this month to join a forum and debate matters of the mind.

Topics on the program included "The Limits of Abstraction: Finding Space for Novel Explanation" and "Partial Realism, Anti-realism and Deflationary Realism: Can History Settle the Argument?"

Police clashed with protesters outside parliament Wednesday, firing tear gas as they came under attack with firebombs during a massive demonstration against austerity.

An Agence France Presse reporter saw some 200 youths attacking a steel barricade erected outside the parliament building as the street protest of some 70,000 people converged on central Syntagma Square in Athens.

Greek unions on Wednesday launched a two-day general strike in an all-out effort to block a new austerity bill that parliament must pass this week to forestall a state bankruptcy.

Most of the country's professional classes joined the walkout including civil servants, tax collectors, doctors, teachers, sailors and taxi owners while traders, petrol station operators and bakers also shut down their businesses in protest against the government's economic policies.

Europe's rescue fund cleared a major hurdle Thursday when German lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to beef it up, boosting markets as attention turned to a key international audit of debt-mired Greece.

Stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic greeted the news with relief as Chancellor Angela Merkel survived a vote that proved a hard-fought test of her political authority as the world looks to her to defuse the euro debt crisis.

European stocks fell and Wall Street rose in cautious trade on Wednesday amid doubts that Eurozone leaders were any closer to resolving the debt crisis before EU-IMF auditors were due to arrive in Athens.

After see-sawing during the session European stocks closed down with London's FTSE-100 index dropping 1.44 percent to 5,217.63 points.