NEWS IN ENGLISH 03-12-2014
Nickos Romanos is currently the 24thday of his hunger strike, with doctors expressing serious concerns over his health.The Minister of JusticeCharalambos Athanasioustated that a new legislative framework is being prepared so that inductees and convicts who have successfully passed entry exams for courses in universities or technological institutes may have the option of distance learning.“From my side I continue, leaving behind any chance that I might step back and I answer with Fighting until victory or death.” Demonstrations in solidarity to hunger strikers Nickos Romanos,Giannis Michaelidis, Andreas Bourzoukos and Dimitris Politis have been for programmed today in Thessalonica and other cities.
Today the 3rd of December, International Day of People with Disability, riot police prevented protesters with disabilities from approaching the Finance Ministry headquarters. Some police officers actually immobilized the demonstrators’ wheelchairs in order to keep them away from the Nikis street Ministerial Office.
The Xanthi Regional Association of the Blind organized a sit in the central square of Xanthi protesting for cuts in social security benefits and tax reductions, the elimination of social structures, deprivation of healthcare, degradation and shrinkage of special education, the disorderly function of Disability Certification Centers and the constant threat of even more income cuts.
The European Courts have imposed a 10 million euro fine on Greece for not implementing a 2005 ruling on the country’s illegal landfills which had to be closed down and a further 14.52 million euros for every six months that the Greek government fails to address the ruling. The bi-annual fine will progressively be reduced depending on compliance.
The troika responded via email to the Greek government’s proposalsrequiring further clarifications, expressing reservations as to whether there will be effective tax collection and asking for alternative measures in case the proposed actions do not perform as expected. It should be noted that PM Antonis Samaras and Evagellos Venizelos have already signed these measures last spring, but postponed bringing them to Parliament because of the European elections, with the consent of the troika, and later because of the possible political cost they would have.
The national healthcare provider has threatened private clinics which have proceeded with retention of work claiming payment that it will terminate their contract. Doctors and diagnostic centers will also proceed with retention of work from the 8th to the 12th of December.
Conditions in public hospitals are unsafe for patients due to dramatic cuts in funding, claims Hellenic Medical Association. Shortages in medical and nursing staff, which is overworked to physical and intellectual exhaustion, combined with structural reforms in public hospitals, result in unsafe and undignified care for patients, they report.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
In UkrainePrime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said Wednesday that there had been an accident at a nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine.
The accident which occurred at a nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya in southeastern Ukraine poses no danger, Ukrainian energy authorities said on Wednesday, an assessment later corroborated by the French nuclear institute IRSN.
In Germany, almost 50% of long-haul flights from Frankfurt and Munich airports will remain grounded, as airline Lufthansa pilots strike for the second time in a week over retirement benefits. This is the 10th strike for the airline since April.
WEATHER
Weather will be rainy with storms until the afternoon in the islands of the eastern Aegean and the Dodekanese and during the early hours for the rest of the country. Southeastern winds are forecast with wind velocity reaching 7 on the Beaufort scale. Temperatures in Athens will reach 20C, in Thessalonica 13C.
Today the 3rd of December, International Day of People with Disability, riot police prevented protesters with disabilities from approaching the Finance Ministry headquarters. Some police officers actually immobilized the demonstrators’ wheelchairs in order to keep them away from the Nikis street Ministerial Office.
The Xanthi Regional Association of the Blind organized a sit in the central square of Xanthi protesting for cuts in social security benefits and tax reductions, the elimination of social structures, deprivation of healthcare, degradation and shrinkage of special education, the disorderly function of Disability Certification Centers and the constant threat of even more income cuts.
The European Courts have imposed a 10 million euro fine on Greece for not implementing a 2005 ruling on the country’s illegal landfills which had to be closed down and a further 14.52 million euros for every six months that the Greek government fails to address the ruling. The bi-annual fine will progressively be reduced depending on compliance.
The troika responded via email to the Greek government’s proposalsrequiring further clarifications, expressing reservations as to whether there will be effective tax collection and asking for alternative measures in case the proposed actions do not perform as expected. It should be noted that PM Antonis Samaras and Evagellos Venizelos have already signed these measures last spring, but postponed bringing them to Parliament because of the European elections, with the consent of the troika, and later because of the possible political cost they would have.
The national healthcare provider has threatened private clinics which have proceeded with retention of work claiming payment that it will terminate their contract. Doctors and diagnostic centers will also proceed with retention of work from the 8th to the 12th of December.
Conditions in public hospitals are unsafe for patients due to dramatic cuts in funding, claims Hellenic Medical Association. Shortages in medical and nursing staff, which is overworked to physical and intellectual exhaustion, combined with structural reforms in public hospitals, result in unsafe and undignified care for patients, they report.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
In UkrainePrime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said Wednesday that there had been an accident at a nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine.
The accident which occurred at a nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya in southeastern Ukraine poses no danger, Ukrainian energy authorities said on Wednesday, an assessment later corroborated by the French nuclear institute IRSN.
In Germany, almost 50% of long-haul flights from Frankfurt and Munich airports will remain grounded, as airline Lufthansa pilots strike for the second time in a week over retirement benefits. This is the 10th strike for the airline since April.
WEATHER
Weather will be rainy with storms until the afternoon in the islands of the eastern Aegean and the Dodekanese and during the early hours for the rest of the country. Southeastern winds are forecast with wind velocity reaching 7 on the Beaufort scale. Temperatures in Athens will reach 20C, in Thessalonica 13C.