Security forces fired tear gas to thin out the crowd, sending the demonstrators fleeing into side streets. Greece's beleaguered government is bracing for a 48-hour general strike as lawmakers debate a new round of austerity... (Associated Press) 
 
 Riot police take position outside the Greek Parliament prior of a demo in Athens on Tuesday June 28, 2011. Greece's beleaguered government is bracing for a 48-hour general strike as lawmakers debate a... (Associated Press) 
 
 The latest austerity measures must pass in two parliamentary votes Wednesday 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 European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund have said they will release $17 billion that Greece needs to pay its expenses through the summer if Parliament passes the measures. But even lawmakers from the governing Socialists have been upset over the latest measures demanded by international creditors, and Prime Minister George Papandreou has struggled to contain an internal party revolt. “The only way to avoid immediate default is for Parliament to endorse the revised economic program,” said Olli Rehn, the European Union’s top economic and monetary affairs official. Papandreou's new finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, said the government acknowledged the new cuts were "unfair" and that he hoped negotiations over a second bailout would be concluded by the end of the summer.
– Greek workers launched a 48-hour general strike today to protest government austerity measures as 20,000 demonstrators headed to Parliament and another 7,000 marched in the country’s second-biggest city. Some 5,000 police guarded Athens, and while the initial protests were peaceful, things are heating up. Young people threw rocks near Greece’s finance ministry, prompting tear gas from police; in central Athens youths burned garbage bins. Strikers range from actors to casino workers to doctors, the AP reports. With lawmakers considering a $40 billion austerity program, including new taxes on minimum-wage earners, “the government has declared war and to this war we will answer back with war,” said a protester. Meanwhile, the debate continues in Parliament as European officials push for the plan. "To those who speculate about other options,” noted one, “let me say this clearly: There is no Plan B to avoid default," the New York Times reports. But protesters argue the country’s debts aren’t theirs to cover. “We don't owe any money, it's the others who stole it,” said one.