Greek bill opens way for civil service layoffs

Published April 28, 2013

Associated Press

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  Public servants shout slogans during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundreds public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers vote on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)The Associated Press

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  A protester burns an effigy depicting a Greek worker during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundred public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers voted on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)The Associated Press

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  A protester (not seen) waves a labour union flag during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundreds public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers vote on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)The Associated Press

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  Public servants cast their shadows on a banner of a labour union during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundred public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers voted on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)The Associated Press

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ATHENS, Greece –  The Greek Parliament is debating, and will vote on by midnight Sunday, an emergency omnibus bill that will ensure continued disbursement of bailout aid by the country's creditors.

The bill contains many unrelated provisions, from the payment of owed taxes and social security contributions to the end of bakeries' monopoly in baking bread, but the most politically contentious one is the provision for the immediate firing of 2,000 civil servants by the end of May and a further 13,000 by the end of next year.

To shorten debate and to present the bill as a sort of confidence vote, the government has bundled 110 pages of legislation into a single article. Debate in committee lasted a single day and so will debate in the full Parliament.

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3rd of 11 escapees nabbed by Greek police

Published March 24, 2013

Associated Press

LARISSA, Greece –  Police in this central Greece city say they have caught a third prisoner who escaped along with 10 fellow inmates after gunmen attacked their holding facility as part of an escape plot.

A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to brief media on details of an ongoing investigation, told The Associated Press that police consider the arrested individual the mastermind of the escape.

The escape from the Trikala Holding Facility west of Larissa occurred Friday evening. It involved outsiders attacking the prison with machine guns and hand grenades. Two guards were injured, one seriously; he is still in intensive care.

All 11 escapees are Albanian nationals. Two were caught Saturday. All of the escapees were convicted of crimes such as armed robbery.

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Greek markets recover losses from Cyprus crisis

ATHENS, Greece –  Shares on the Athens Stock exchange rebounded Wednesday from heavy losses suffered over Cyprus' financial crisis, as a political spat erupted in Greece over whether the government is being too compliant with demands by its own rescue lenders.

Banking stocks rose nearly 5 percent, as the general share index closed up 0.8 percent higher at 930.73.

The market had slumped on Tuesday, with bank share loses nearing 10 percent, in the first trading session since it was announced early Saturday that Cyprus would raid bank deposits to fund its bailout.

Cyprus' parliament later rejected such a confiscation of deposits — touching off a political dispute in Greece, which is struggling to implement harsh austerity measures linked to its own bailout program.

The left-wing opposition in Greece called for the resignation of officials in their country's conservative-led government involved in handling the Cyprus crisis. The government ignored the demand.

"This is a message to our government, which votes 'yes' to everything and has destroyed the country by doing so," Zoe Konstantopoulou, a lawmaker from the left-wing Syriza party, told parliament. "Cyprus has taught you a lesson: that the word 'no' also exists in our vocabulary," he said.

Greece has been surviving for the past three on rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund in return for draconian deficit-cutting measures that have hammered public support for the country's mainstream political parties along with its economy — putting nearly 1 million people out of work.

"Cyprus' parliament's decision has exposed the Greek government which advocates that that there are no other alternatives ... And it shows that there is room for negotiation," prominent Syriza lawmaker Rena Dourou, who is on a fact-finding trip to Cyprus, told The Associated Press.

"We have consistently held the view that Europe's crisis is systemic and concerns its integration — and that's how it should be dealt with."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she regretted the decision by Cypriot lawmakers to reject the plan to contribute to the bailout package by seizing people's bank savings, but the vote was applauded in Greece.

"Cyprus dares to say no to Germany," the conservative daily Eleftheros Typos headlined, while an opinion poll for private Alpha television found 75.6 percent of Greeks backed the "no" vote in Cyprus.

"Cyprus has shown that it is much better at negotiating than we are in Greece," said Dimitris Mardas, an associate professor of economics at the University of Thessaloniki. "They haven't taken any unilateral action, but they are looking for a better outcome. So politicians here could learn something from them."

Greek government officials argued that Greece's bailout packages worth €240 billion ($310.7 billion) could not be compared with that proposed for Cyprus, worth some €10 billion ($12.9 billion).

"The causes of the crisis in Cyprus and the crisis in Greece are not the same," said Greek government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou. "We must be realistic and look for solutions. Politics — it must be remembered — is the art of the possible."

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