50,000 take part in general strike against new cuts

Greek workers walked off the job on Wednesday for the first general strike since the country's coalition government was formed in June, as the prime minister and finance minister hammered out a package of 11.5 billion euros ($14.87 billion) in essential spending cuts.

More than 50,000 people took to the streets for the first of two planned demonstrations in a strike seen as a test of public tolerance for more hardship after two years of harsh spending cuts and tax hikes.

Politicians in Athens have struggled to come up with more punishing austerity measures that would be acceptable to its rescue creditors, with disagreements arising between the three parties that make up the coalition government. Greece's creditors have demanded more fiscal reforms if they are to continue handing out rescue loans preventing the country from a messy default.

Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and Prime Minister Antonis Samaras agreed on the new 11.5 billion euros austerity package for 2013-14, along with another 2 billion euros in improved tax collection, a finance ministry official said on Wednesday morning.

Wednesday's strike halted flights for hours and shut down everything from schools, ferry services and hospitals to shops, gas stations and customs offices. Police deployed across the center of Athens to prevent demonstrations from turning violent, as they often have in the past.

Greece has been dependent on international rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund since mid-2012 in a financial crisis that has hammered the euro currency used by 17 European nations.

On Tuesday, thousands of Spanish protesters clashed with police in Madrid as the government prepared a new round of unpopular austerity measures for the 2013 budget to be announced on Thursday.

They gathered in central Madrid and formed a human chain around parliament, surrounded by barricades, police trucks and more than 1,500 police in riot gear.

Police fired rubber bullets and beat protesters with truncheons, first as protesters were trying to tear down barriers and later to clear the square. Police said at least 22 people had been arrested and at least 32 injured, including four policemen.

As lawmakers started to leave the parliament in official cars or by foot, a few hundred people were still demonstrating in front of the building. Most dispersed shortly afterwards.

The protest, promoted over the Internet by different activist groups, was rowdier than recent marches called by labor unions. Protesters said they were fed up with cuts to public salaries and health and education.

"My annual salary has dropped by 8,000 euros and if it falls much further I won't be able to make ends meet," said Luis Rodriguez, 36, a firefighter who joined the protest.

AP-Reuters