Greek conservatives scrap plans to take clergy off state payroll

Greece's newly-elected conservative government on Tuesday scrapped plans to remove priests from the state payroll, reversing a decision by its leftist predecessor that aimed to carve a clearer distinction between church and state.Priests in the powerful Greek Orthodox Church have been treated as civil servants in Greece and their salaries - estimated at about 200 million euros annually - have therefore been paid directly from the state budget.The deal also foresaw a settlement of a decades-old d