News in English - 24/07/2014
--- The opposition parties SYRIZA and the Independent Greeks have asked for the intervention of the justice authorities, after the death of a seriously ill 56-year-old woman, due to the power cut, owing to a debt.
In a statement, the Transmission System noted that its services, responsible for the power cut, had not been informed about the existence of the person who belonged to a vulnerable group.
On the other side, according to her family, the Company knew about the woman's situation as they had been informed months ago when arrangements were made for the payment of the debt.
--- All the problems will be addressed and solved. This is the conclusion from the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister's meeting today. The two men, among other things, discussed the issue of the evaluation of the civil servants, which has caused a lot of fierce reaction within the government recently. According to PASOK sources, the government must transmit both to our lenders and the society a message of stability and of meeting our commitments.
Meanwhile, the prime minister, talking to members of the New Democracy, in the side of the celebration of 40th anniversary of the restoration of democracy in the country, rejected the rumours about calling early elections.
--- SYRIZA will do "everything possible so that the country will get rid of the brutality of the memoranda" said the party leader Alexis Tsipras, in his message for the completion of 40 years since the restoration of democracy in the country.
Besides, SYRIZA is characterizing the evaluation of the civil servants as a "vehicle for the dismantling of the public sector". The main opposition party supports that, "the government does not care about the real problems of the public sector, but to satisfy the demands of our lenders for more layoffs".
--- The Civil Servants Union announced a strike on Monday July 28th, during the reviewing of the First Instance Court of Athens' decision for the strike against the evaluation and the layoffs of civil servants. The strike will begin at 11 am and will last until the end of the shift.
--- Τhe Government is required to return to the European Union 600 million euros, which were given as agricultural subsidies during the last decade, according to two decisions of the European Court of Justice. The decisions will have to be implemented until the end of September, thus creating a new financial gap.
--- The court imposed a fine of 30,000 euros to a 69-year-old man for the death of a dog owing to torture and malnutrition.
The man was arrested on July 6th because he tortured and mercilessly hit the dog to death with a peg.
--- The Swift Air aircraft, which was lost from the radar, crashed in Niger according to information. All 116 passengers are dead. According to the authorities, the plane crash was due to bad weather. The contact with the aircraft was lost 50 minutes after the takeoff from the airport of Burkina Faso.
The aircraft was close to the Algerian border when the pilot was requested by the control tower to change course because of low visibility and in order to avoid the risk of collision with another passenger aircraft. The loss of contact occurred after the turn-around.
--- While the American diplomacy is seeing some progress in the efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza, the bloodshed is continuing with the number of the dead now exceeding 700 on the Palestinian side and 34 on the Israeli side.
The UN Human Rights Commissioner is critisizing Israel, claiming that it has committed war crimes in Gaza, while the UN Secretary General lashed out at Hamas militants, who -as he says- had hidden rockets inside a UN school for refugees.
Weather
Showers or thunderstorms mostly in the afternoon are expected tomorrow. The winds will blow from northern directions and their intensity will reach 6 on the Beaufort scale.
The temperature will reach 33 degrees Celsius in Attica and 30 degrees Celsius in Thessaloniki.