Skirmishes in Athens as general strike sweeps Greece

Thousands marched as a crippling general strike against pension reforms swept Greece today, with hooded youths lobbing firebombs at riot police in scattered skirmishes in the capital.
Some 40,000 people from all walks of life joined protests in Athens and another 14,000 demonstrated in Thessaloniki for the 24-hour industrial action, police said, as riot officers in the capital fired tear gas in response to the Molotov cocktails.
A journalist was hospitalised after being beaten on the sidelines of the demonstration. Police detained two people at the end of the protest, but not in relation to this incident.
It was the broadest protest since the arrival to power of leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras just over a year ago.

Today's general strike -- the third in as many months -- has stopped train and ferry services and grounded dozens of flights.
The pensions overhaul, a key part of Greece's latest economic bailout, has sparked a major backlash against embattled Tsipras.

The widespread opposition has led to the rare sight of white-collar staff marching alongside workers.
Lawyers, notaries, insurers and engineers have joined the protests en masse in action the media have dubbed the "necktie movement".
"They have massacred my generation. We can no longer get married or have children," said Dina, a 32-year-old who owns an underwear shop and was marching in Athens, referring to five years of austerity cuts under Greece's successive economic bailouts.

Tsipras is accused of breaking his promise to eliminate austerity when he came to power last year.
"The pledges were hot air," read black balloons carried in the protest.
One group marched behind a banner in Chinese opposing the imminent privatisation of the Piraeus port authority by Chinese shipping giant COSCO.
Many traders shut their shops in solidarity, petrol stations were closed and taxis pulled off the streets. Hospitals were also operating on an emergency footing.
Farmers have formed protest hubs at dozens of locations on national highways, intermittently blocking traffic with tractors, continuing demonstrations that have been going on for two weeks.