Source:
The GuardianHooded youths on the fringes of a major anti-austerity protest in Athens have thrown rocks and firebombs in violent clashes with police at the Greek parliament. At a rally of more than 20,000 in Syntagma Square, police responded with teargas to push the protesters away from barricades erected to protect the parliament building where the government is seeking support for new cutbacks required to avoid a debt default.
Other demonstrators who had been part of the previously peaceful gathering also clashed with the violent groups of hooded youths, trying to eject them from their rally.--snip--"What can we do? We have to fight, for our children and for us," said Dimitra Nteli, a nurse at a state hospital who was at the protest with her daughter. "After 25 years of work I earn €1,100 a month. Now that will drop to €900. How can we live on that?"Her 26-year-old daughter, Christina, said the situation in Greece had led her to leave for the UK to study conflict resolution.
"I have no job here. There are no prospects," she said.
--snip--With its credit rating slashed, Greece is being kept afloat by the bailout, but will need extra support to cover funding gaps next year as high interest rates will prevent it from tapping the bond market,
contrary to what the original bailout agreement had predicted.On Monday night,
Standard & Poor's cut Greece's rating from B to CCC, dropping it to the very bottom of the 131 states that have a sovereign debt-rating.
That suggests Greece's creditors are less likely to get their money back than those of Pakistan, Ecuador or Jamaica.It is an astonishing low for Greece. As recently as January 2009, the country still had a stellar A rating despite a hefty debt burden.Read more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/15/greece-general-strike-parliament-clashes
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