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Sunday, July 5, 2015

Greek referendum: LIVE REPORT

Athens (AFP) - 15:07 GMT - Greece's flamboyant finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, has slammed Athens's creditors for raising the spectre of Grexit, pointing out no legal mechanism exists to force Greece out of the "irreversible" monetary union.He has vowed to resign if a 'Yes' prevails, and the pressure would be on Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to do the same.15:04 GMT - Officially in default - Greece was officially declared in default on Friday by the European Financial Stability Facility, which holds 144.6 billion euros ($160 billion) of Greek loans, days after becoming the first developed country to miss a debt payment to the International Monetary Fund.With its credit lifeline reduced to a trickle, the government has closed banks and capped daily ATM withdrawals to 60 euros ($67).The banks' liquidity is expected to dry up entirely within a day or two unless the European Central Bank (ECB) -- a major creditor -- injects funds quickly.14:37 GMT - WELCOME TO AFP'S LIVE REPORT on the referendum in Greece on creditors' proposals for extending the heavily-indebted country's economic bailout programme.Polls show opinion evenly divided between 'Yes' and 'No' with many believing neither result will provide a quick and clear solution to Greece's debt woes.Voting will close at 7:00pm (1600 GMT), with results expected a couple of hours later.Join the conversation about this story »


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