Greek police teargas youths in 2nd week of protests

By Renee Maltezou and Daniel Flynn

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek police fired teargas at small groups of protesters who threw stones and firebombs in central Athens Monday in a second week of anti-government demonstrations since a policeman shot dead a teen-ager.

Youths outside Athens' main court and central police station clashed with riot police, while acts of vandalism against shops were reported in two northern cities in protests against the December 6 killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos. His death has triggered Greece's worst riots in decades.

The unrest, which has caused more than 200 million euros (178 million pounds) worth of damage, has fed on anger over political scandals, high youth unemployment and low wages, and the impact of a global recession on Greece.

In bond markets, the spread between Greek debt and German benchmark bonds -- a measure of perceived investment risk -- reached its widest point in nearly a decade Monday, at more than 2 percent. Analysts said the political crisis had compounded concerns due to the global economic downturn.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned there was a risk of social unrest spreading unless the global financial sector shared wealth more evenly. Copy-cat demonstrations have taken place in many European countries.

The scale of the Greek protests has tailed off sharply in recent days and Athens was peaceful Sunday, but students and police exchanged firebombs and teargas Monday and more rallies have been called for Thursday and Friday against education and pension reforms, privatisations and tax rises as the budget goes to parliament.

The conservative government only has a one-seat majority and trails in polls.

"It was expected this would continue for a second week," said Kiki Toudoulidou, 37, a teacher. "If the government was handling the situation in the right way, we wouldn't have reached this point."