The protests come on the eve of a general strike and amid spiralling tensions between Athens and its triumvirate of foreign lenders, "the troika", which have propped up the Greek economy to the tune of €240bn (£200bn) since May 2010.
The Greek economy minister, Yannis Stournaras, was steeling himself for a dressing down – even though he is chairing the session in Greece's capacity as current EU president – amid evidence of spiralling tensions between the debt-crippled nation and its international creditors.
They are more likely to see conflicts coming, to try to head off spiraling tensions.
The works confront the viewer with that spiraling tension between physical presence and digital representation, something that anyone who is familiar with the power and release in the swipe of a finger over an iPhone screen can relate to.
Spiralling political tensions led the Emir to suspend the National Assembly for one month on 18 June, but this was superseded two days later by a ruling by the Constitutional Court that annulled the February election and reinstated the parliament that had been dissolved in December 2011.
The spiraling tensions in Georgia come at an awkward moment for the Bush administration, which has described warm American relations with President Vladimir V. Putin in Moscow is one of its major foreign policy achievements.
Tensions spiraled last month after Japan's prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, announced that the Japanese government would buy the islands instead.
When tensions spiralled into violence and the government faltered in its response, young Zande men decided to take up arms.
Tensions spiraled that year after President Salva Kiir, from the Dinka ethnic group (South Sudan's largest), sacked his deputy Riek Machar, who is from the second largest community, the Nuer, accusing him of plotting a coup.
Paddy Ashdown, the former high representative and EU special representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, warned that the country was on the edge of "disintegration," blaming spiraling ethnic tensions, the lack of EU interest in the area, and the Bosnian Serb pressure toward secession following Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia in February.
So, could Russia now accept a Bosnia-style mission to protect civilians and keep sectarian tensions from spiraling out of control?
