Greek pension reform to be fair, viable – PM

June 25 (Reuters) – Greece’s pension reform will be fair and is needed to make the system viable, Prime Minister George Papandreou told parliament ahead of a cabinet meeting meant to agree a pension reform plan.

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“Today we want to succeed on two fronts, to have a pension system that is viable … and fair,” the Prime Minister said on Friday.

Opinion polls show a very large majority of Greeks oppose the pension reform and unions will stage a general 24-hour strike on June 29.

The cabinet meeting is meant to agree on a major overhaul of the debt-choked country’s ailing pension system and to ease labour rules to make it easier to fire staff, key requirements of a 110-billion euro EU/IMF bailout programme. (Reporting by Tatiana Fragou and Ingrid Melander)

Greek PM announces activation of EU/IMF aid package

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Friday asked for the activation of an EU/IMF aid package aimed at pulling the euro zone member out of a debt crisis.

“It is imperative that we ask for the activation of the mechanism,” Papandreou said while visiting the remote Aegean island of Kastellorizo.

(Reporting by Dina Kyriakidou; Editing by Ingrid Melander)

Greek police arrest suspected leftist guerrillas

ATHENS, April 11 (Reuters) – Greek police arrested seven people suspected of belonging to one the country’s most militant guerrilla groups and taking part in bomb attacks, Revolutionary Struggle, officials said on Sunday.

“They have been arrested and will be led to the prosecutor on charges of participating in a terrorist organsiation,” police spokesman Thanassis Kokkalakis told a news conference.

Kokkalakis said police found a wealth of evidence at the residence of two of the people arrested, including a hard disk which had pamphlets claiming past attacks by Revolutionary Struggle as well as handwritten texts about past and intended “terrorist” attacks.

(Reporting by Dina Kyriakidou; Writing by Ingrid Melander)

Athens bombing kills one, injures two: police

(Reuters) – A 15-year-old boy was killed and his mother and sister injured late Sunday after a bomb exploded outside a building in central Athens, police said.

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Bomb attacks by militant leftist groups are frequent in Greece and usually target police, public buildings or businesses. Sunday’s explosion was the first in years to kill someone. Urban violence increased in the country after the police shooting of a teen-ager in December 2008.

“A bomb exploded, we have one dead, a man who was dismembered, and two injured, a woman and her daughter,” a police official said.

Police later said the dead person was a 15-year-old teen-ager and that the injured women, were his 44-year-old mother and 11-year-old sister.

“The woman, who was slightly injured, and the girl, whose injuries were more serious, have been taken to hospital,” said the police official who declined to be named.

Police said the victims were Afghan immigrants.

The bomb, which went off outside an association for business management, also damaged cars and adjacent buildings. Police cordoned off the area and anti-terrorism police were investigating the scene.

“There was no warning, there was nothing,” a second police official said.

Several suspected members of guerrilla groups have been arrested in recent months.

Self-proclaimed guerrilla group Fire Conspiracy Cells claimed responsibility on March 22 for three small-scale bomb attacks against police and a far-right group.

Urban violence last caused the loss of human life in June 2009, when Rebel Sect, another guerrilla group, claimed responsibility for the killing of an anti-terrorism policeman.

(Reporting by Harry Papachristou and Renee Maltezou; Editing by Ingrid Melander and Paul Casciato)

Greece must do more to cut deficit – EU’s Rehn

ATHENS, March 1 (Reuters) – Greece needs to take further steps to tackle its budget crisis and must meet its debt reduction goals despite the pain, EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Monday. “I am asking the Greek government to announce new measures in the coming days,” Rehn told reporters following a meeting with Greece’s finance minister George Papaconstantinou.

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Papaconstantinou said the two men had discussed reforms to the pension system, the budget and the statistics service.

“The government will do whatever it takes (to cut the deficit),” Papaconstantinou said. “If necessary, it will take additional measures.”

(Reporting by Ingrid Melander and Lefteris Papadimas; writing by Paul Hoskins)

ECB’s Stark in Athens with Rehn to meet Greek officials

ATHENS, March 1 (Reuters) – European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Juergen Stark was in Athens on Monday with the European Union’s Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn to meet Greek officials on the country’s fiscal crisis.

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A Reuters reporter saw Stark inside the Greek finance ministry building with Rehn.

Greece has until March 16 to convince EU finance ministers and the executive European Commission that proposed measures to cut its budget shortfall by four percentage points this year to 8.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) are sufficient. (Reporting by Ingrid Melander)