Crunch Greece debt talks resume to avert default

BRUSSELS: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras restarted critical talks with creditors in Brussels on Thursday in a frantic bid for a bailout deal to save Athens from defaulting next week and possibly crashing out of the euro.

Difficult talks that stretched late into the night on Wednesday failed to produce a breakthrough in the five-month standoff, as cash-strapped Greece’s negotiators rejected reforms demanded by its EU-International Monetary Fund (IMF) lenders.