Bomb blast hits Greek government ministry responsible for axeing 150,000 jobs



Blast in Public Sector Reform Ministry went off without warning

Hard-up Greek superyacht owners are 'torching vessels' in insurance fraud

Maderia is now the 'Greece of the Atlantic' with debt per person 50% higher than the rest of Portugal

Spain to consider forcing rich to pay for healthcare in austerity drive

Spanish likely to be next to follow Greece and take a bailout



A bomb exploded outside a Greek ministry responsible for axing 150,000 public sector jobs last night - apparently in protest at government spending cuts.

Windows were smashed and desks were damaged in the blast outside the Public Sector Reform Ministry in Athens.

The department are axeing 150,000 government posts by 2015 in an austerity drive.

Blast: An explosion ripped through the ground floor of the Greek administrative reform ministry in the early hours of the morning

The explosion happened just a day after protesters marching in memory of a man who killed himself over financial woes that he blamed on the government.

Demonstrators marched after a memorial service for Dimitris Christoulas, 77, a retired pharmacist who shot himself in the Greek capital's Syntagma Square.

His death has further galvanized Greeks angry over their leaders' implementation of tough austerity measures that are aimed at bringing the country out of its fiscal crisis.

Police said the bomb outside the reform ministry last night was made up of at least five gas canisters. No one was injured in the explosion.



Probe: Investigators look at the damaged building after a home-made firebomb exploded. No one was injured

A police spokesman said: 'There was no warning call and the risk of someone being injured was big, as the building is centrally located.'

The attack was the second in under a week. A similar bomb exploded at the office of former Prime Minister Costas Simitis last Tuesday.

Greece's coalition government, led by technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, denounced that attack as an attempt to destabilise the country ahead of national elections expected on May 6.



Clash: Workers from the Athens central groceries market confront riot police on Good Friday outside the Bank of Greece in some of the latest skirmishes in the Greek capital

As the country struggles with austerity, insurers have claimed that hard-up superyacht owners across Europe are torching vessels they can no longer afford and want to get rid of.

PORTUGUESE ISLAND OF MADEIRA THE 'GREECE OF THE ATLANTIC'



Madeira has been dubbed the 'Greece of the Atlantic' - because it has debts 50 per cent higher per person than the rest of Portugal. The island, with a population of 250,000, owes €6bn (£5bn) as a result of over-development. A drive to turn the island into a rival to the Canary Islands has failed - and now the inhabitants are counting the cost. Portugal has been forced to negotiate a €78bn (£64bn) IMF bailout. The European Union alone spent £2.9bn on the island before the financial crisis started as money is poured into redevelopment on an island that was still a dictatorship until 1974. The island has been ruled by President Alberto Joao Jardin since 1978 - and he secured another four-year term last October. He has overseen a huge programme of public sector spending and infrastructure building. He told the Sunday Telegraph: 'Madeira was very poor before, and the only way forward was increasing the public debt. 'If I hadn't done that, we'd still be saddled with the rest of Portugal's debts today anyway.'



Lloyds of London said they have faced an increase in insurance claims for yachts worth more than £1.6million.

A number of those claims have come from the port of Piraeus.

Loss adjusters Charles Taylor said they had seen 14 'suspicious' super yacht insurance claims in the last six months.

Director Nick Smith told the Telegraph: 'Yacht insurance fraud is a common problem in any country when bad times arrive.

'It happened to a significant degree in Britain from 2009 as yacht owners, lumbered with marine mortgages they could no longer afford, tried to get rid of them and make insurance claims.'



As Greece tackle their deficit, the Spain's economic minister said they should consider making rich people pay for their universal health coverage in an attempt to get public finances under control.

The ruling party quickly dismissed the suggestion - and said Luis de Guindos was only expressing his own opinion.



The centre-right government is desperate for ways to save money or increase revenue as it struggles to achieve tough deficit-reduction goals.

International investors are increasingly shying away from buying Spanish debt - pushing up the country's borrowing costs.

There are growing fears that Spain could be next in line for a bailout - after Greece, Ireland and Portugal.



Economy Minister Luis de Guindos suggested people who earn more than €100,000 (£82,500) should pay for their state healthcare.

With an average salary of just €20,000 (£16,500), few people earn that much.