Greek MPs pass austerity bill as Athens police clash with protesters

Five years into the worst crisis to hit their country in decades, Greek MPs voted by a large majority in the early hours of Thursday morning to accept draconian austerity as the price of further bailout funds but at great personal cost to prime minister Alexis Tsipras. The threat of Athens being forcibly ejected from the eurozone appeared to focus minds with more MPs voting in favour of austerity reforms than at any other time in the crisis. Earlier, there was sporadic violence in central Athens as riot police fired teargas and fought running battles with anti-austerity protesters armed with molotov cocktails.