(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Since last year, Greece has been the scene of near-daily street protests against the government's austerity measures, which have targeted salaries and pensions.
The beleaguered Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou dismissed his finance minister George Papaconstantinou on Friday in a cabinet reshuffle, which was intended to appease protesters and draw support for the administration's belt-tightening plans.
Papaconstantinou, who masterminded the government's five-year austerity scheme, was widely unpopular for enforcing spending cuts and tax rises as part of last year's 110-billion-euro international bailout deal.
Evangelos Venizelos, Prime Minister's main internal Socialist rival, has succeeded Papaconstantinou as Greece's new finance minister.
The European Union finance ministers are expected to endorse imbursement of a fifth installment from the 110-billion-euro rescue package approved for Greece in May 2010. If the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also agrees to pay its own share of the installment in early July, then Greece will receive a desperately needed 12-billion-euro help soon.
/106
