US Ambassador to Athens Daniel Speckhard, whose tenure is Greece is coming to an end in a few months' time, hosted his last reception at the US ambassador's official residence in Athens, on the occasion of the upcoming July 4 Independence Day celebration.

Sir Michael Llewellyn-Smith, a former British ambassador to Greece, spoke on Wednesday at a Constantine Karamanlis Institute of Democracy-sponsored lecture in central Athens, where amongst others, he defined what he called the characteristics distinguishing leaders.

Turnover in the Greek electronic secondary bond market rose to 118 million euros on Thursday, of which 98 million euros were sell orders and the remaining 20 million were buy orders. The 12-month Treasury bill was the most heavily traded security with a turnover of 80 million euros. The yield spread between the 10-year Greek and German benchmark bonds shrank to 775 basis points from 790 bps on Wednesday, with the Greek bond yielding 10.34 pct and the German Bund 2.59 pct.

A draft bill dubbed "Programme Clarity" prompted heated arguments when it was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, including an intervention by Prime Minister George Papandreou in defence of government measures that he said were imperative for rescuing the country.

Main opposition New Democracy (ND) spokesman Panos Panagiotopoulos on Monday emphasised that the 8th party congress showed that ND, under the leadership of Antonis Samaras, is being "renewed and reformed, and is ready to suggest a way out of the impasse created for the country by the ruling PASOK party."

Eleven bodies have been washed up on the banks of the Evros River in the last few days, authorities announced on Wednesday. Nine were found by fishermen during the last 48 hours, while two were found on Saturday.

Agriculture Minister Katerina Batzeli met on Wednesday with Argentine ambassador to Greece Jorge Alejandro Mastropietro for talks focusing on the recent difficulties faced by Greek canned peach exports to the large South American nation.

The European Commission on Wednesday approved an extension, until Dec. 31, 2010, of a series of support measures taken by the Greek and Polish governments to aid domestic credit institutions.

A draft bill dubbed "Programme Clarity" prompted heated arguments when it was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, including an intervention by Prime Minister George Papandreou in defence of government measures that he said were imperative for rescuing the country.

Main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Antonis Samaras addressed the last day of the party's 8th congress in a southern Athens indoor stadium on Sunday by emphasising that ND's goal is to relieve the country of the memorandum it signed with the EU and IMF.