Greek Debt, Europe Debt Crisis | featured news

China offered on Saturday to buy Greek government bonds when Athens resumes issuing, in a show of support for the country whose debt burden pushed the euro zone into crisis and required an international bailout.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded Greek debt by four notches to junk status. It follows Standard & Poor's, which put the debt-laden country in the speculative-grade camp almost seven weeks ago.

The European Union agreed on a 500 billion-euro ($670 billion) emergency fund in the early hours of Monday to protect highly indebted eurozone countries from the "wolfpack" of financial markets.

European debt problems sent another wave of pessimism through the markets.

The move by Standard & Poor’s on Tuesday deepened Europe’s debt crisis, and investors sold off government bonds amid fears of a default.