Justice ministry website is taken down some hours after it was hacked and defaced by cyberactivists describing themselves as "Anonymous members from Greece and Cyprus"
Anonymous, the secretive internet activist group, hacked the website of the justice ministry on Friday morning, posting a video and text calling for the government “to stop ACTA [Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement] in Greece” within a fortnight.
If this was not done, the message from Anonymous continued, “we will do cyberwarfare by defacing 300 sites and all the media and websites” [sic].
Troika representatives tell the government that salaries and pensions must be slased by a quarter
3 Feb 2012
The troika has told the finance and labour ministers that the country’s labour system must be radically overhauled and that salaries and pensions must be cut by a quarter.
The demand was made at a meeting late on Thursday between troika inspectors, headed by the IMF’s Poul Thomson, and Evangelos Venizelos and Yiorgos Koutroumanis.
Lucas Papademos' coalition government should stay in power until October 2013 to help stabilise the economy, George Papandreou says
3 Feb 2012
Pasok leader George Papandreou says Lucas Papademos' coalition government should be allowed to see out parliament’s current four-year term and go to the polls in late 2013, to help stabilise the economy.
Papandreou told Pasok MPs: "What is best for the country would be to have a coalition government for another two years, a collaboration that would provide greater security and put us on a different course."
A government source says the government expects its 2011 budget deficit will be smaller than expected, at between 9.1 and 9.4 percent of GDP
3 Feb 2012
The government expects its 2011 budget deficit will be smaller than expected at between 9.1 and 9.4 percent of GDP, thanks to the emergency property tax, a finance ministry official said on Friday.
The development could help the government in its bailout talks with the EU and IMF.
The government had previously estimated that the deficit would be above 9.5 percent of GDP.
1. STRUGGLING ON REFORM The government struggled on Friday to agree tough labour reform that appeases both wary political leaders and irate lenders faced with a rising bill to save the country from bankruptcy. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is under pressure to wrap up parallel talks on a debt swap with private bondholders and negotiations with lenders on a 130bn-euro bailout to avert a chaotic default when bond redemptions come due next month.
Athens News | Greece in English, since 1952 Copyright 1995-2010 NEP Publishing Company SA, 181 Doiranis St., Kallithea, Athens 176 73, Greece tel 213-008-7150, fax 210-943-1110 Reproduction or modification in whole or part without express
written permission is prohibited.
