In pictures: Judges, pensioners join Greeks' austerity protests
The head of Greece’s Association of Judges and Public Prosecutors, Vassiliki Thanou, reads aloud a speech during a protest of judicial officials at the country's Supreme Court building, in Athens, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012. Judges and prosecutors are threatening to cut court hours in response to pay cuts expected as part of a massive new austerity package demanded by Greece’s rescue creditors.THANASSIS STAVRAKIS/The Associated Press
Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras leaves the Prime Minister’s office after a meeting in Athens Sept. 5, 2012. Greece’s shaky governing coalition is scrambling to finalize the new austerity package ahead of another inspection Friday by bailout creditors.JOHN KOLESIDIS/Reuters
Pensioners take part in an anti-austerity rally in front of the Health Ministry in Athens Sept. 4, 2012, below a banner that reads ‘No.’ About 200 pensioners took part in the rally; they pushed past police lines to enter the building and occupy the lobby for about 20 minutes.JOHN KOLESIDIS/Reuters
Pensioners applaud as they take part in an anti-austerity rally in Athens. Earlier this week, pharmacists and doctors stopped extending credit to the state EOPPY health fund, with whom more than nine in 11 Greeks are insured. As a result, people registered with EOPPY have to pay the full price of medicine and health services.JOHN KOLESIDIS/Reuters
A boy plays an accordion in front of a shuttered building in central Athens, where many businesses are closed, Sept. 3, 2012. Greece’s debt load is unsustainable and cannot be cut to the targeted 120 per cent of national output by 2020 without drastic changes to the country’s austerity program, Greek think-tank KEPE said on Tuesday.JOHN KOLESIDIS/Reuters
A poster urges private and public sector employees to protest, as a man walks in front of a closed shop in central Athens Sept. 3, 2012. A report this week by Greece’s main GSEE labour union found that after nearly three years of financial crisis, Greeks on minimum wage have seen their spending power reduced to 1979 levels, while those earning an average salary have been pushed back to the equivalent of the early 1980s.JOHN KOLESIDIS/Reuters
Pensioners take part in the anti-austerity rally in Athens. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s government has pledged to step up reforms and push through austerity cuts promised in return for a bailout that spared the country from bankruptcy.JOHN KOLESIDIS/Reuters
A man stands in front of a building with a graffiti that reads ‘I'm being tortured’ in central Athens Sept. 3, 2012. The GSEE report warned that unemployment could reach 29 per cent in 2013 if a planned batch of new austerity measures is implemented.JOHN KOLESIDIS/Reuters
Two men walk through a shopping arcade, where most of the shops are closed due to Greece’s financial crisis, in central Athens on Monday, Sept. 3, 2012.Petros Giannakouris/The Associated Press