News in English - 10/07/2014
-The Conference of Presidents of the Parliament decided that any final decisions for a referendum on the fragmentation of the Public Power Company will be taken at the special meeting of the Summer Session of the House on Friday.
The decision trigered strong reactions from the opposition parties.
The SYRIZA, the Independent Greeks Party, the Greek Communist Party and the Democratic Left party, will determine their position and decide whether or not to participate in the meeting, while denouncing the government for anti-parliamentary approaches and practices.
- The troika starts checking the progress of the Greek economy. In the afternoon the Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis is having a meeting with Klaus Mazouch of the European Central Bank, Declan Costello who will replace Mathias Morse on behalf of the European Commission and Rishi Gogial who will replace Paul Thomsen, who is expected in Athens later today. The budget and especially the developments related with court rulings on the special wage policy, the changes in the sectors of employment and insurance and in the debt management of the households and the businesses will be in the agenda.
- The European Court dismissed the appeal of Greece concerning a past decision of the European Commission which was ordering Greece to recover funds amounting up to 250 million euros which were paid to Greek producers on agricultural subsidies.
- 14 SYRIZA deputies submitted an amendment to solve the problems that have arisen with the promotion of students of the fourth grade in high-schools during this year's examinations. With this legislative initiative, the deputies are calling on the Minister of Education Andrew Loverdos, to restore the previous promotion examinations, which ware in force prior to the implementation of the new law for high-schools.
- Golden Dawn Party deputy Elias Kasidiaris was sent to jail after his additional plea for the accusations of gun possession and participation in a criminal organisation. Elias Kasidiaris claimed that the additional prosecution regards two shotguns, which he holds legally. The deputypresented the written authorization for the possession of the shotguns, stressing that they are used for hunting and not as weapons and emphasizing that the prosecution against him "is clearly political."
- The Pentagon announced that it has begun the destruction of the Syrian chemical weapons in the international waters south of Crete.
The Cretans decided to go on a nationwide week of action, which will include weekend blockade of the NATO base in Souda from the 19th to the 21st of July and an onboard protest with boats that will approach the «Cape Ray» ship, on which is the process of hydrolysis takes place.
In the mean time an unusual wave of anger against the president of PASOK Evagelos Venizelos has swept the island, because of his attitude towards the destruction of chemical arsenal near the island.
- The Israeli air force raids in Gaza Stripe and the Hamas rockets into Israeli territory are escalating. The death toll from the attacks has reached 77. Among the victims there are many children. In the meantime, the UN Security Council is meeting to discuss the ways of solving this new crisis.
- Ukrainian forces have launched fierce attacks against the pro-Russians in Donetsk and Louchansk. At least 30 pro-Russian militants have been killed so far. The Ukrainian government is rejecting the possibility of a ceasefire if the pro-Russians do not disarm.
- Hundreds of thousands of British public sector workers, including teachers, local government workers and firefighters, have gone on a 24-hour strike to protest against the wage freeze imposed by the government. The protesters marched through the streets of the major cities of Britain in one of the largest coordinated labor strikes in the last three years. This mobilization made the Prime Minister David Cameron promise that he will proceed to the limitation of the powers of the labor unions and the syndicates.
The weather
Showers are expected tomorrow in the northern and western regions of the country. In the rest of the country the weather will be fine. The winds will blow mild from west directions.
The temperature will reach 36 degrees Celsius in Attica and 32 degrees Celsius in Thessaloniki