The prospects of cutting Greek debt by up to half, as Mr Tsipras has demanded, appear remote.
12.11pm: Robert Wilson, from the University of Strathclyde's department of mathematics, raises an important point below the line: Simply decarbonizing electricity assuming no increases to demand appears to be a massive challenge.
Sales declined in April and May, company officials said on Tuesday, compared with March when demand appeared to be recovering.
Although sales in North America fell 3 percent in the quarter, to 12.8 billion kronor ($1.9 billion), Mr. Vestberg said American demand appeared to be solid.
Only recently has consumer demand appeared to ease a bit, the principal evidence being a decline in retail sales in April and May.
Softening global demand appeared to have little impact on the unexpectedly strong Purchasing Managers' Index, which rose by 1.4 points from August to 54.4, fuelled by robust export demand and rising employment in the sector.
The demands appeared severe enough to badly hamper American efforts — either through drone strikes or Pakistani military training — to combat militants who use Pakistan as a base to fight American forces in Afghanistan and plot terrorist attacks abroad.
The American economy came under pressure from abroad in September as weak global demand appeared to hold back factory output and a surge in gasoline prices dented consumers' spending power, government reports showed on Tuesday.
Funnily enough, though, until the past week or so, the level of demand appeared to be picking up, and most Wall Street economists have been busy revising up their estimates for first-quarter G.D.P. growth.
However, growth in peak demand appeared to stagnate by 2013, averaging 493 MW.
