A man sits on a mooring pillar in the port of Piraeus. Greece is upgrading port facilities at its largest harbour, to attract investors and tourists as it struggles to recover from recession. Piraeus port is among assets the government is considering privatising to raise funds to pay down public debt. (Reuters)

1. OUR SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY The 60th anniversary of the Athens News was celebrated at a small ceremony in the paper’s newsroom on Friday. The birthday cake was cut by Stephanie Horn (photo), widow of founder Yannis Horn, who said that the newspaper survived so long in no small part to her husband’s determination and stubbornness.

 

2. VESSEL INTERCEPTED A vessel containing undocumented migrants, which was spotted on Friday by a helicopter off the Messinian Gulf, was being towed to Pylos port after being incepted by the authorities. The number of passengers on board the vessel is yet unknown.

3. IN THE SHADOW OF ARGENTINA? Argentina's chaotic bankruptcy a decade ago triggered riots, looting and dozens of deaths. The prospect of that horror scenario playing out in Greece is focusing minds across Europe as the threat of default remains all too real. At best, if private creditors walk away from a voluntary debt restructuring, a disorderly default would shut Greek banks for days to give the government time to prevent a bank run by reassuring depositors that the lenders will not go bust. At worst, if EU partners also pull the plug, Greece risks a chaotic descent into an extended bank freeze, possible shortages of basic goods, violence and what central bank governor George Provopoulos called the "hell" of a euro exit.

 

4. IN MEMORY OF ANGELOPOULOS Αn international symposium dedicated to the work of acclaimed Greek film director Theodoros Angelopoulos, who died suddenly after a traffic accident on Tuesday, is being organised by the Megaron-Athens Concert Hall. The event will take place on May 31, and it had been originally scheduled for Angelopoulos to speak with German director Wim Wenders on filmmaking, the arts and the meaning of culture in the current crisis. Angelopoulos' 1995 film "Ulysses' Gaze" was also to be screened during the event.

 

5. TAXES Income tax revenues accounted for 20 percent of total budget revenues in the third quarter of 2011, rising steadily from 18.3 percent in the first quarter and 18.8 percent in the second quarter of the same year, Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Friday. The statistics service, in a report, said that revenues from taxes imposed on production and imports also raised their participation in total budget revenues from 30.7 percent in the first quarter to 31.3 percent in the second and 31.6 percent in the third quarter of 2011, while revenues from social insurance contributions fell significantly over the same period to 31.4 percent in the third quarter from 33.7 percent in the second and 38.1 percent in the first quarter.