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Greeks 24-hour Strike Against Austerity

Today Greek workers stayed at home to protest austerity measures, in the biggest domestic challenge to Alexis Tsipras' government since he was elected in September and  accepted the unpopular terms of a third bailout when faced with the prospect of an exit from the euro zone.

The 24-hour strike is to shut down all public services, museums, schools and pharmacies, while public transport will be disrupted, ferries will remain tied up in port and hospitals will function with emergency staff, - The Reuters Agency reports.

More than a dozen domestic flights to small regional airports will be cancelled as civil aviation authority staff participate in the strike. Journalists will also walk off the job, cancelling all news broadcasts and online news updates.

The strike will be the people's "response to the dogmatic insistence in dead-end and destructive policies that have squeezed out workers and have led young people to lose hope", private-sector union GSEE said in a statement, according to France 24.

"We are fighting against government measures that perpetuate medieval labour relations ... we react to any austerity measure that downgrades our lives," said leading union GSEE.

The mobilisation was being held as senior representatives of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, the IMF and the European stability fund are holding a review of reforms pledged under the country's third bailout.

Recall that Greece in July accepted a three-year, 86-billion-euro ($93-billion) EU bailout that saved it from crashing out of the eurozone, but came with strict conditions.

Athens has since adopted a number of unpopular reforms but is now under creditor pressure to facilitate home loan foreclosures, - The USA News tells.

However, Economy Minister George Stathakis told in response to this strike that an agreement could be clinched by the end of this week.

"I believe we will have closed all the issues by Saturday," – The Minister told.

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