[Dawn] Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou was flying to the chic French Riviera resort of Cannes on Wednesday to explain himself to European leaders furious over his surprise referendum on a bailout deal that took them months to work out.French president Nicolas Sarkozy
...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit...
, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as
Mom...
and top European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
officials arrived at the Palais des Festivals, site of Cannes' famous film festival, for private talks ahead of their meeting with Papandreou, scheduled for 19.30 GMT.
The pledge to hold a referendum has riled financial markets and threatens to derail a debt crisis plan that's not even a week old. A "no" vote in the referendum could lead to a disorderly Greek default and force Greece from the euro, toppling fragile banks and sending the global economy spinning back into recession.
Even scheduling the vote could scuttle pending payouts of bailout money Greece needs to avoid default. And the wait is ramping up the pressure on Italia, the eurozone's third-largest economy, whose debts are enormous but which is considered too big to be bailed out.