Police intervene in Greece strike riot

Riot police fired tear gas at youth hurling rocks near the Greek finance ministry yesterday, trying to quell the anger unleashed by a general strike as parliament debated new cost-cutting measures.

The latest austerity measures must pass in two parliamentary votes today and Thursday if Greece is to receive bailout funds from the EU and the IMF that will keep it from becoming the first eurozone nation to default on its debts.

The clashes with police came at the start of a two-day general strike called by unions furious that the government's new $40 billion austerity program will slap taxes on minimum-wage earners and other struggling Greeks. The measures come on top of other spending cuts and tax increases that have sent the Greek unemployment rate soaring to more than 16 percent.

Hooded youth ripped up paving stones and set trash bins on fire in central Athens as police gave chase and fired tear gas and stun grenades. Earlier, about 20,000 people had marched peacefully in two separate demonstrations, while another 7,000 protested in the northern city of Thessaloniki without incident.

Everyone from doctors and ambulance drivers to casino workers and even actors at a state-funded theater were joining the strike or holding work stoppages for several hours.

Hundreds of flights were canceled or rescheduled as air traffic controllers walked off the job for four hours in the morning -- and were holding another walkout in the evening. Strikes by public transport workers snarled traffic across the capital, while other protesters blockaded the port of Piraeus.

"The situation that the workers are undergoing is tragic and we are near poverty levels," said Spyros Linardopoulos, a protester with the PAME union at the Piraeus blockade. "The government has declared war and to this war we will answer back with war."

Lawmakers began debating the latest austerity measures Monday and were continuing yesterday. The package and an additional implementation law must be passed so the European Union and the International Monetary Fund release the next installment of Greece's $156 billion bailout loan.