Greek protesters block Parliament

Greek riot police officers confront a protester during a strike against government austerity plans in Athens on Wednesday.NEW: At least 25,000 people turn out to keep lawmakers from debating budget-cutting measuresNEW: Police and civilians are mildly injured in clashes, police sayUnions are holding a 24-hour strike and plan to support the protestsGreece is getting international help to deal with its budget deficit

Athens, Greece (CNN) -- Greek anti-government protests turned violent Wednesday, as protesters threw petrol bombs at the Ministry of Finance and police fired tear gas at protesters, police said.

Tens of thousands of protesters had vowed to form a human shield around the Greek Parliament to prevent lawmakers from debating new austerity measures Wednesday afternoon.

Between 25,000 and 27,000 demonstrators were on the streets of the capital by the middle of the day, police said. Two policemen and four civilians were mildly injured and 12 people were arrested, they said.

Labor unions are holding a 24-hour strike to protest the measures and will be marching to Parliament to join forces with the protesters.

The strike has brought public services to a grinding halt and kept most transport networks at a standstill, although flights have not been affected.

Rallies have also been scheduled to take place in other Greek cities.

On June 9, the Cabinet approved a tough five-year plan for 2011-2015 and introduced a bill in Parliament to put the measures into effect.

The government has said that the passage of these additional measures is essential to Greece's securing the fifth tranche of a 110 billion euro ($158 billion) bailout package that Greece signed with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to prevent the country from defaulting on its debts.

Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou has said the country hopes to secure a second bailout deal this month.

The search for a second bailout comes after it became evident that Greece is extremely unlikely to raise capital from private markets in 2012 due to the prohibitively high interest rates it would face.

Papaconstantinou has also indicated that European Union members may support calls to get the private sector involved.

Despite the harsh austerity measures that the Greek government has imposed, it is failing to close its budget deficit as quickly as hoped. The country is in recession amid its fiscal restructuring program.

The finance minister has defended the five-year austerity plan, saying it is needed to keep Greece solvent. The new measures will include a number of additional taxes and job cuts in the public sector by a further 20%.

Protesters have been gathering outside Parliament for more than three weeks as part of an ongoing peaceful demonstration against austerity measures, with some camping in the square facing Parliament.

They call themselves "The Indignants," a grass-roots movement which takes its name from the Spanish campaign of "Los Indignados" who have been holding similar mobilizations against austerity across Spain.

In a statement the group has said it would keep going until the politicians and technocrats it blames for what is happening in Greece "go away."

The credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Monday cut Greece's rating to just two notches above default, among the lowest in the world. The agency has said a default on some debt appears "increasingly likely."

Unemployment in Greece has skyrocketed to above 16 percent in May, a 40% rise since last year.

The European Commission has said Greece's economy was expected to shrink by 3.5% this year.

Prime Minister George Papandreou has pledged to continue with reforms no matter what the political cost. He has said that the alternative, a default, "would be a catastrophe."

The five-year austerity plan is expected to face a vote in Parliament in before the end of the month.

CNN

Protesters attempt to block Syrian army

Syrian refugees were crossing into Turkey ThursdayEarlier demonstrators tried to block the Syrian military from reaching restive townThe government claims at least 120 security forces were killed in Jisr Al-ShugurResidents fear a revenge attack by the Syrian military, protesters say

Yayladagi, Turkey (CNN) -- Syrian refugees were crossing the border into Turkey Thursday after demonstrators tried to stop soldiers from reaching the Syrian border town of Jisr Al-Shugur, where the government claims at least 120 security forces were killed.

"We tried to stop the tanks moving forward" to Jisr Al-Shugur messaged a Syrian student from the town of Saraqib, located less than an hour's drive from Jisr Al-Shugur.

The student, who asked not to be named to protect him from reprisals, said demonstrators were out until at least midnight on Wednesday, burning tires and trying to block a column of nine Syrian tanks from moving through Saraqib toward Jisr Al-Shughur.

Soldiers fired in the air to try to clear the way, a demonstrator said.

Meanwhile, locals described Jisr Al-Shugur as a "ghost town."

The protesters said tens of thousands of residents fled the town fearing a revenge attack from the Syrian military, after the Syrian government claimed "armed groups" killed at least 120 security forces in Jisr Al-Shugur within the last week.

At least 1,050 Syrian refugees have crossed into Turkey within the last 24 hours, reports the semi-official Anatoian Agency. Clusters of other Syrian civilians have been camping out along the border. Several of them told CNN by telephone that they were reluctant to flee their country.

On Wednesday, Turkish ambulances evacuated at least three Syrian men and women who arrived at one point along the border with bullet wounds, said Fadi Mustafa Soufi, a Syrian activist from Jisr Al-Shugur who has also been camping along the frontier.

A resident of the Turkish border village of Karbeyaz, who also asked not to be named, said Turkish officers have been temporarily housing refugees in a village wedding hall.

Refugees are then transferred to a tent city run by the Turkish Red Crescent, on the grounds of an abandoned tobacco factory in the border town of Yaylidagi.

There are at least 1,577 refugees currently housed there, the Anatolian Agency reported, adding that the Red Crescent is now planning to establish a second refugee camp.

Turkish officials have denied journalists permission to meet the refugees, while the Syrians are also confined to remain within the compound.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been fiercely campaigning ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled to take place on June 12, addressed the growing violence taking place across the border.

"It is out of question that we close the border at this point. The developments in Syria are saddening. We are watching in worry," Erdogan said at his party headquarters on Wednesday, according to Anatolian Agency.

"We hope that Syria changes its attitude towards the civilians to a more tolerant one and realize its steps for reform in a more convincing way for the civilians."

Meanwhile, inside Syria, there were signs that Jisr Al-Shugur was becoming a growing symbol of defiance for demonstrators around the country, who continue to call for the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, even though more than 1,000 people have been killed, according to international estimates, and more than 10,000 arrested since anti-government protests erupted less than three months ago.

"Please post in internet that our houses are opened for people from Jisr Al-Shugur," wrote the student protester from Saraqib. "We are all one side...for the sake of our country."

Journalist Rasha Qass Yousef contributed to this report

CNN

Former enemies live in peace in UN detention block (AP)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Once they were enemies, commanding armies locked in deadly struggles. But together behind bars as war crimes suspects, ethnic hatreds largely evaporate among the men whom Ratko Mladic has joined at a high security U.N. jail to await his trial on genocide charges.

There's table tennis and group classes in English or computing at the detention unit built within the high stone walls of a jail on the outskirts of The Hague, according to a former detainee and a one-time employee.

Mladic was kept in isolation Wednesday while authorities monitor how he adjusts to life in the unit, said John Hocking, the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal's top administrative official.

The former general charged with orchestrating Serb atrocities in Bosnia's 1992-95 war underwent medical checks after being flown to the Netherlands on Tuesday night, Hocking said, and there will be more tests in coming days.

Mladic's family says he had two strokes during his 16 years on the run from international justice. His Belgrade lawyer tried to block the extradition by saying Mladic was too ill to go on trial.

Mladic will make his first public appearance since being arrested when he goes to court early Friday to confirm his identity. A judge will ask him if he understands the 11 charges against him and if he wants to enter pleas.

Like his old ally and political boss Radovan Karadzic three years ago, Mladic may decline to enter pleas at his first appearance, instead opting to delay a formal response by up to a month.

Because their cases are so closely interwoven — they were indicted together in 1995 as the military and political architects of the Bosnian war's worst atrocities — it is unlikely they will be housed in the same wing of the detention unit.

While detainees whose cases are linked are often kept apart, there is no segregation along ethnic or religious lines at the detention unit.

"The most amazing thing was that those differences were not an issue at all," said the former detention unit employee, who agreed to talk to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of speaking about the closed unit. "Inside the unit, you saw no trace of the battles they fought outside that landed them there."

Ante Gotovina, a Croat general appealing his 24-year sentence for ethnic cleansing, reportedly passes his time painting portraits and scenes of fishing villages. Others take pottery and other crafts lessons.

The more energetic can play soccer and volleyball in a gym or even pump iron in a weight room — although many of the detainees are, like the 69-year-old Mladic, elderly and prefer more sedentary pursuits such as chess and cooking.

"We invited each other," Bosnian Muslim Naser Oric told Bosnian television in a 2006 interview after being released from the detention unit, where he spent three years.

Oric was freed after being given a two-year sentence for failing to prevent the murder and torture of Serb captives. His convictions were later overturned on appeal.

"We Muslims from Bosnia and Kosovo celebrated our religious holidays together with the Serbs and Croats," he said. "Croats also invited Serbs, Bosniaks and Albanians to celebrate Catholic holidays, and the Serbs again invited everybody for Serb Christmas."

For those, like Mladic, who are in ill health, the unit has its own medical center and doctor as well as access to a hospital in the jail and nearby civilian hospitals.

Nonetheless, several inmates have died during their trials or waiting for them to start. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was found dead in his cell on March 11, 2006, after a heart attack.

A panel of Swedish experts reviewed the functioning of the unit after Milosevic's death and the suicide a week earlier of another key figure in the Balkan wars, the Bosnian Serb regional leader Milan Babic. It concluded that life there was far more relaxed than in normal prisons and that inmates had few complaints about their treatment.

Because many are awaiting trial or are on trial, they are presumed innocent and treated that way. They are only locked in their 15-square-meter (45-square-foot) cells at night and can roam their wings during the day.

All the one-man cells have cable TV programming from the Balkans. The accused can subscribe to newspapers from home and get regular visits from family, lawyers and consular officials.

The tribunal says the medical regime is so good that many get healthier while in custody.

Oric said the rules are fairly strict and newcomers such as Mladic are given a list of regulations when they arrive, including how to interact with other prisoners.

"In the beginning, you only follow those rules," he said. "Later, you live them, because whether you want it or not, you have to communicate with the others. They are there, you can't ignore them."

Yahoo! News

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