Under the labour reserve program, public sector employees, who have to be dismissed, will go on a year paid leave during which they will receive 60% of their gross salary.

Greek GDP continues to decline rapidly. Unemployment is rising and lenders are threatening that they are not going to pay the sixth tranche of the bailout if the supervisory Troika's report on the progress of the reforms in the country is not positive. According to unnamed sources, new measures will have to offset the deviations.

Over the next two days, the protests scenes will take place in Thessaloniki. The police have turned the city into an impregnable fortress for fear of collisions during the expected mass protests.

The general meeting of the Union of Taxi Owners decided to go on 48-hour strikes until the PASOK government gives up its plans to offer cheaper taxi licenses.

The Parliament approved the decision despite the far-rights' fierce response. The mosque in Athens will have no minaret and will take only 350 people, but the Muslim Association is satisfied with the first step in this direction.

Like the Greek state, local media are in poor financial condition too. The first in the list of troubled companies are the private television Alter and the newspaper Eleftherotypia. The losses in the media sector reach € 54 million in total.

An analyses by Royal Bank of Scotland forecasts the failure of the troubled Mediterranean country in December and a dramatic shock on the global stock exchanges.