Greek protesters clash with riot police

Hundreds of protesters have clashed with riot police in Athens, the Greek capital, as thousands of demonstrators rallied against new spending cuts being pushed by the government.
Small groups of youths threw stones and petrol bombs at police cordons, and smashed the windows of a luxury hotel on Syntagma square, outside the parliament building on Wednesday.

Police responded to the violence with tear gas.
Protesters chanted "thieves, traitors" and asked "where did the money go?" as they amassed in central Athens.

"I feel rage and disgust," Maria Georgila, a 45-year old public sector workers and mother of two, told the Reuters news agency.
"These are very tough measures and they won't get us out of the crisis. I can't believe they have no alternative."

Alan Fisher, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Athens, said: "There is undoubtedly anger on the streets ... we've also seen people wearing entirely black, putting on masks and goggles."

According to police, 20,000 people turned out for the demonstration, organised by two major unions, although local media put the figure at 40,000.

Another 20,000 people demonstrated in Greece's second city of Thessaloniki, authorities said.

Junk status
The government on Wednesday is debating fresh austerity measures that would extend beyond its term in office.
It has to pass a 2012-2015 austerity programme worth $40.5bn by June-end or face being cut off from rescue funding by European countries and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The measures including a five-year campaign of tax hikes, spending cuts ans sell-offs of state property.

However some politicians in the governing party have publically criticised the new cuts, with one of them defecting on Tuesday, reducing Prime Minister George Papandreou's parliamentary majority to five.
With its credit rating deep in junk status, Greece is being kept afloat by a $159bn EU-IMF rescue loan program and will need additional support to cover financing gaps next year.
To meet its commitments, Papandreou's Socialists abandoned a pledge not to impose new taxes and drew up a four-year privatisation programme worth $72bn. This has fuelled ongoing protests against austerity by public utility employees and other affected groups.
US-based financial services company, Standard & Poor's, slashed Greece's rating to CCC on Monday, dropping it to the lowest of 131 states that have a sovereign debt rating.
This indicates that Greece's creditors may have less chance than Pakistan, Ecuador or Jamaica of getting their money back.
This is a surprising low for Greece as the country still had a stellar A-rating despite a hefty debt burden in January 2009