Social Issues

After a long wait, the new tax bill is expected to be presented in Parliament this week before being put to a vote. It includes numerous clauses aimed at dealing with a variety of outstanding issues.

A massive anti-austerity march in Madrid on Sunday ended in violent clashes between protesters and police.

According to reports of hospitals in Madrid, as cited by ITAR-TASS, a total of 85, including 50 police officers, were injured during the rally.

Supreme Court prosecutor Efterpi Koutzamani has ordered an investigation into whether a solicitor’s office had knowledge of or helped a recent uprising by prisoners at Domokos jail in central Greece.

There are allegations that lawyers were aware that there was going to be a protest against plans to build a maximum-security facility in Domokos.

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Justice and Public Administration Nikola Selakovic and French Ambassador to Serbia Francois-Xavier Deniau noted on Friday that Serbia needs the professionalization of civil servants who will then be capable of meeting the challenges of EU accession talks.

ZAGREB - The Serbian Democratic Forum (SDF) accused on Friday the Croatian government that its announcement that it would remove the refugee status from the people who fled Croatia during the 1990s war was intended to stop the return of Serb refugees and complete the ethnic cleansing.

Greek nongovernmental organization Praksis and the Hellenic Red Cross have inaugurated a new shelter in Patra aimed at providing relief to dozens of migrants sleeping on the streets of the western port city.

The project is funded in part by the governments of Norway, Ireland and Liechtenstein through the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

BELGRADE/OSLO - Serbia is firmly committed to taking part in police and military peacekeeping missions, State Secretary at the Serbian Interior Ministry Vladimir Bozovic said in Oslo on Friday at a UN international conference dedicated to the building up and development of police capacities in peacekeeping missions.

A close associate of independent MP Nikos Nikolopoulos is facing corruption charges after being arrested in Athens late on Thursday.

The man, whose name was not made public, allegedly posed as a high-ranking state official and took money from foreign migrants on the promise of supplying them with a residence permit.

BELGRADE - The Special Court of Belgrade placed on Friday head of the Labour Ministry Labour Inspection Dragoljub Peruaca in 30-day custody on suspicion of taking a EUR 15,000 bribe.

Peruaca was placed in custody at prosecution's request out of fear that he might influence witnesses during the investigation or repeat the crime, court spokesperson Dusica Ristic told Tanjug.

The government “increased anti-immigrant prejudice” by failing to estimate the number of Bulgarians and Romanians coming to UK after the work restrictions ended, UK MPs said.

The forecasts for a steep increase of immigrants from those two countries proved wrong, concluded a British parliamentary committee.