Striking civil servants occupied the Transport Ministry building in Athens early yesterday, forcing international debt inspectors to reschedule a meeting where they were to discuss reforms, including new licensing laws for taxis.
Greek Transport Minister Yannis Ragoussis’s morning meeting was delayed to the evening after the debt inspectors, collectively known as “the troika,” arrived to find the building under occupation and protesting employees in the courtyard.
A similar meeting on Thursday with Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos was moved to a different government building in central Athens because of an occupation of that ministry.
Protesting employees continued their occupation yesterday morning, guarding the entrance where the words “They shall not pass” had been spray-painted across drawn-down metal shutters, and Venizelos again met the debt inspectors in another building.
The inspectors from the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission returned to Athens this week after suspending their review earlier this month over missed targets and delayed implementation of reforms. Their approval is critical for Greece to receive the next 8 billion euro (US$10.84 billion) installment of its 110 billion euro bailout loan package agreed on last year.
Without the next batch of loans, Greece has said it has only enough funds to last it through the middle of this month, after which it will be unable to pay salaries and pensions.
Mired in a deep recession and faced with growing anger on the streets, the government has been unable to meet all the targets set out in its bailout agreement. Other EU countries, faced with the possibility of a messy Greek default that would drag down the euro and damage their banks, approved a second, 109 billion euro bailout for Greece on July 21. However, the details remain to be finalized, and some have suggested the plan needs to be reworked.
In a rush to ensure approval of the sixth batch of bailout loans, the government this month announced a series of new measures, including a new property tax, pension cuts and the suspension of 30,000 civil servants on partial pay by the end of the year.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
‘GRAY ZONE’ PRESSURE: Beijing’s activities are intended to create the deceitful impression that China has jurisdiction over the area around Taiwan, the CGA said Taiwan’s rights over its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone must not be violated by any country, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that it will not accept any unprovoked actions. The council issued the remarks in response to the China Coast Guard conducting maritime enforcement drills near eastern Taiwan and claiming to fully exercise China’s maritime administrative law enforcement authority. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has been closely monitoring the situation and is taking concrete steps to defend the nation’s sovereignty and secure its waters, the council said. China has no sovereign rights over the waters off eastern
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