Greece

Greece is due to finish sending on Saturday its latest proposals to the country?s lenders in the hope that it will have a response by the beginning of next week and that talks in Brussels can resume with the aim of concluding a deal that would unlock another 7.2 billion euros in bailout funding.

The credit-rating firm DBRS on Friday downgraded Greece’s issuer rating to CCC from B, citing a “further increase in uncertainty over whether Greece and its creditors will reach an agreement on a program that restores macroeconomic stability and improves Greece’s cash position.”

The negative news was followed by Fitch Ratings, which affirmed its CCC grade for the country.

Greece’s far-left energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis on Wednesday praised the … Bolivarian Republic (socialist Venezuela) as an “example for smaller countries”!

 Industrialists say that Greece?s place in the eurozone in ?a non-negotiable national social contract?

By Chryssa Liaggou

A second shocking instance of dead horses surfaced on Friday when residents in the mountainous Papigo region of Ioannina prefecture, NW Greece, reported the discovery of two carcasses of wild horses.

His government’s first “100 days” in office was the focus of leftist Greek PM Alexis Tsipras’ address Friday at an Economist conference in the Greek capital, with few references made on ongoing and crucial negotiations with institutional creditors.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras?s mandate from the Greek people is the biggest stumbling block to a deal with the country?s creditors to help avert a default, according to Maltese Finance Minister Edward Scicluna.

The Finance Ministry said that all salary and pension payments due Friday were made on time, apart from the wages for employees at OPEKEPE, a government body responsible for paying out farming subsidies.

Russia?s foreign minister has urged the European Union to support the idea of a Moscow-backed pipeline that would bring natural gas across the Black Sea to Turkey and the rest of Europe.

Sergei Lavrov said on Friday the pipeline ? which could include Greece, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary ? would bring ?energy stability? to Europe.

Officials at the Greek Foreign Ministry were enraged yesterday at reports in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) that ex-US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had suggested Greece may have been involved in deadly incidents last weekend in the town of Kumanovo.

Eighteen people ? 10 Albanian militants and eight policemen ? died after gunmen raided in the town.