BBC: Greece is expected to grind to a halt for the second time in a month as hundreds of thousands of state and private workers stage a general strike.
The stoppage is in protest at the country's austerity measures.
The head of the employers' federation has accused the strikers of trying to make Greece into a charity case.
More groups of workers are staging industrial action and officers from the police, fire and customs services are planning to join the street protests.
Greece's links to the outside world have been severed.
Air traffic controllers have closed the country's airspace for 24 hours and ferries are stuck in harbours as maritime unions join the strike.
The government says it sympathises with public anger over the tax rises and wage cuts, but it is refusing to water down the measures. >>> Malcolm Brabant, BBC News, Athens | Thursday, March, 11. 2010
