Greeks stage one-day strike over austerity cuts

The strike, called by two of the country's largest unions, is expected to shut down most public services and ground flights.

Greece is one year into an international bail-out of its foundering economy and there are fears a new rescue package may be needed.

The government has had to cut spending in order to qualify for the bail-out.

Many Greeks are angry over cuts to wages and pensions, job losses and increased taxes.

Wednesday's strike was called by the private sector union GSEE and the public sector union ADEDY.

Hospitals will be operating with skeleton staff only, schools will be closed, municipal transport will be disrupted and airports and docks will be largely closed apart from emergency services.

The government fiscal restructuring programme has combined with a lingering recession to push unemployment to about 15%.

Despite the spending cuts, the highly-indebted government needs to borrow money and is facing extremely high interest rates from private sector lenders.

A European Union mission is in Athens this week to review Greece's progress on meeting the terms of the €110bn joint EU-IMF emergency loans.

It has another two years to run and the mission's assessment will be key to deciding whether Athens will be offered better terms on the loans.