News archive of September 2014

 Regulation to allow for the repayment of enterprises’ arrears in as many as 120 installments over two years

By Evgenia Tzortzi and Dimitra Manifava

...

As Supreme Court prosecutor Efterpi Koutzamani ordered a preliminary investigation into five mayors who are refusing to cooperate with the government over civil service evaluations on Monday, the union representing local authority workers, POE-OTA, called on employees to occupy city and town halls in protest at the proposed reform.

Depositors at troubled Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) have demanded that the bank be open before October 5, the date of early elections for Parliament in Bulgaria.

They have also insisted that Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Governor Ivan Iskrov step down immediately.

Health Minister Makis Voridis on Monday ordered an investigation into how a male nurse, who is a father of two, died at a psychiatric hostel for minors in Pallini, northeast of Athens, following a violent brawl between two patients over the weekend.

The fifth, and probably final, review of Greece’s economic reform progress by the troika is set to begin with Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis to meet foreign envoys on Tuesday morning while Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his coalition partner Evangelos Venizelos will meet later in the day to discuss strategy in an increasingly tense political climate.

The swearing-in ceremony of Ashraf Ghani as Afghan President has marked the first democratic transfer of power in the country.

"I am not better than anyone from among you. If I do any good, give me your support. If I go wrong, set me right," Al Jazeera quoted Ghani as saying at the event.

A 47-year-old soccer fan who was undergoing treatment at a military hospital in Athens after sustaining serious head injuries during a scuffle at a soccer match on the island of Crete earlier this month died early Monday morning.

EU states' foreign ministers have given the green light to an arrangement between Russia and the EU under which integration with Ukraine will be postponed for a year.

Concerns about the increasing political risk of repeat elections and regarding the assessment that the country’s creditors are set to start on Tuesday sparked another sell-off on Monday at the Athens bourse, which was only contained toward the end of the session after the benchmark flirted with a new year-low below the 1,050-point mark.

A 55-year-old man from Lambrino, Xanthi, northeastern Greece, was expected to face a prosecutor on Monday on misdemeanor charges after he was arrested for allegedly shooting and killing two dogs with a hunting rifle that belonged to his 27-year-old son.

Early reports suggested the suspect killed the dogs and subsequently buried one of them in his yard.