Clashes in Greece, parliament expected to approve bill (Reuters)

ATHENS (Reuters) - – Greek police clashed with protesters outside parliament in the early hours of Thursday ahead of a decisive vote expected to approve a final austerity bill needed to avert default.

The government of Prime Minister George Papandreou, which won a first vote on Wednesday by 155 to 138 votes, expects to pass the second and final bill of tax hikes, spending targets and privatizations agreed as part of an EU/IMF bailout.

Riot police fired teargas. Hundreds of officers wielding batons chased black-clad youths who hurled stones, wrecked shops and set fire to buildings.

Lawmakers passed a first bill on Wednesday to enact the austerity plan and must vote on Thursday on a law to implement it. The measures have been demanded by international lenders in exchange for keeping Greece afloat.

"I expect that the MPs who backed the mid-term plan will also vote for the implementation law," government spokesman Ilias Mosialos said in a television interview.

Both bills laying out the 28 billion euro ($40 billion) austerity plan must be passed for the European Union and International Monetary Fund to release a 12-billion-euro loan tranche of a 110-billion-euro bailout which the government needs to stay afloat.

They are also needed for talks on a planned second bailout of about the same size that will include some 30 billion euros in private-sector participation. Locked out of bond markets, Greece needs the extra cash to avert default and keep the debt crisis from spilling over to the rest of the euro zone.

Papandreou, who reshuffled his cabinet earlier this month to secure support for the bills, said he was determined to push through reforms.

"Today, I am more determined than ever," Papandreou said. "Now is the time to tackle everything that that is wrong, with everything that hurts us, that holds us back."

Thursday's vote enables individual budget measures and creates a privatization agency. The conservative New Democracy opposition, which voted against the first bill, said it would support some of the measures in the second.

"We will reject it in principle. However, we will support the privatizations mechanism as well as the articles on spending," said New Democracy deputy Yannis Vroutsis.

Parliament resumes debate on the second bill at 9:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) and the vote is not expected before 2 p.m. (1100 GMT). Before the debate, it had not yet been decided whether more than one vote would be needed to pass it.

Implementing the measures will be hard for the government, which has fallen behind the opposition in opinion polls and faced heated criticism from its own deputies during the parliament debate.

Unions, which paralyzed the country for 48 hours earlier this week, have vowed to oppose privatizations and other austerity steps. Anger among the Greek population was underlined by violence which erupted on Syntagma Square outside parliament as Wednesday's votes on the first bill were being counted.

Doctors working with the demonstrators said they had treated at least 25 people for minor injuries and hundreds with respiratory problems at the adjacent Syntagma metro station. At least 40 police officers were hurt, the police union said.

Hooded youths and police fought battles into the night, choking the city center with tear gas and smoke from petrol bombs. The protesters set fire to the post office in the building where the Finance Ministry is located, and tried to set ablaze a bank. Across the square, the luxury King George Hotel was evacuated.

Analysts said the real challenge for Greece will come after the bill is voted on and the international money secured.

"The implementation law will also pass, without problems," said Costas Panagopoulos, head of ALCO pollsters. "The real question is whether Papandreou will use this vote to move forward with these crucial reforms."

(Additional reporting by Harry Papachristou; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Aussie parliament condemns Malaysia refugee deal (AP)

CANBERRA, Australia – Prime Minister Julia Gillard said her government will forge ahead with a proposed refugee swap deal with Malaysia despite the Australian parliament condemning the policy in a rare show of defiance Thursday.

Australia wants to send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia in return for Australia resettling 4,000 registered refugees from among the 93,000 languishing in that Southeast Asian nation, which has not signed the U.N. Convention on Refugees and has been criticized for their harsh treatment.

The aim is to deter asylum seekers from coming to Australia by boat.

A motion condemning the policy was passed by the House of Representatives with the support of two key lawmakers whose support Gillard's Labor Party relies on to stay in power. The Senate passed the same motion in May.

The Greens party lawmaker Adam Bandt, who proposed the motion Thursday, said it is the first time in the 110-year history of Australia's federal parliament that both chambers have condemned a government policy. That claim could not be immediately verified Thursday.

But while embarrassing for the government, the motion does not force the government to change it plans.

Gillard's government commands a single-seat majority in the House of Representatives with the support of Bandt and three independent lawmakers. But her fragile government does not need to pass laws to implement the deal with Malaysia so does not need the parliament's endorsement of the plan.

Gillard said the policy was necessary to stop an increasing number of asylum seekers from paying people smugglers to bring them by boat from transit points in Malaysia and Indonesia.

"I intend pursuing the discussions of the Malaysia agreement to finality and then I intend to implement it because I intend to break the business model of the people smugglers," she told Parliament.

The plan, first announced last month, has been criticized by rights advocates including the U.N. human rights commissioner.

The government has promised that the deal will have the endorsement of the U.N. refugee agency UNHRC.

Australia has sent a delegation to Geneva to discuss details of the plan with UNHCR officials.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen played down media suggestions that the visit could indicate that UNHCR support for the deal is collapsing.

"It's singularly unsurprising that there might be a meeting in Geneva as well as a meeting in Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere as we sort out finer details," Bowen told Sky News television on Thursday.

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Aussie parliament condemns Malaysian refugee deal (AP)

CANBERRA, Australia – Prime Minister Julia Gillard said her government will forge ahead with a proposed referee swap deal with Malaysia despite the Australian parliament condemning the policy in a rare show of defiance Thursday.

Australia wants to send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia in return for Australia resettling 4,000 registered refugees from among the 93,000 languishing in that Southeast Asian nation, which has not signed the U.N. Convention on Refugees and has been criticized for their harsh treatment.

The aim is to deter asylum seekers from coming to Australia by boat.

A motion condemning the policy was passed by the House of Representatives with the support of two key lawmakers whose support Gillard's Labor Party relies on to stay in power. The Senate passed the same motion in May.

The Greens party lawmaker Adam Bandt, who proposed the motion Thursday, said it is the first time in the 110-year history of Australia's federal parliament that both chambers have condemned a government policy. That claim could not be immediately verified Thursday.

But while embarrassing for the government, the motion does not force the government to change it plans.

Gillard's government commands a single-seat majority in the House of Representatives with the support of Bandt and three independent lawmakers. But her fragile government does not need to pass laws to implement the deal with Malaysia so does not need the parliament's endorsement of the plan.

Gillard said the policy was necessary to stop an increasing number of asylum seekers from paying people smugglers to bring them by boat from transit points in Malaysia and Indonesia.

"I intend pursuing the discussions of the Malaysia agreement to finality and then I intend to implement it because I intend to break the business model of the people smugglers," she told Parliament.

The plan, first announced last month, has been criticized by rights advocates including the U.N. human rights commissioner.

The government has promised that the deal will have the endorsement of the U.N. refugee agency UNHRC.

Australia has sent a delegation to Geneva to discuss details of the plan with UNHCR officials.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen played down media suggestions that the visit could indicate that UNHCR support for the deal is collapsing.

"It's singularly unsurprising that there might be a meeting in Geneva as well as a meeting in Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere as we sort out finer details," Bowen told Sky News television on Thursday.

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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.

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Nigeria's new parliament sworn in after April polls (AFP)

ABUJA (AFP) – Nigerian lawmakers elected in watershed polls in April were formally sworn in to parliament Monday facing the key task of enacting legislation on long-delayed oil sector reforms.

The 109 senators were the first to take the oath, followed by 360 members of the House of Representatives.

"This, indeed, is a new dawn ... for our great country," said senate president David Mark, who retained the post, becoming the first to hold the position for two successive terms.

A deputy chief whip in the last parliament, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal a northerner, was elected speaker of the house of representative, beating his rival, Mulikat Adeola-Akande, from southwest Nigeria.

The National Assembly has the responsibility for ?very critical legislation that will propel Nigeria to the world's 20 most advanced economies," Mark told the senators.

Topping the agenda of the new 469-member National Assembly will be passing legislation to overhaul Nigeria's vital oil industry.

Uncertainty over the sweeping legislation, which has been years in the making, has chilled investments in new projects in Nigeria, one of the world's largest oil producers, with energy firms unclear on what the new rules will be.

The overhaul is aimed at allowing Nigeria's government to collect more revenue from lucrative offshore projects as well as restructuring the state oil company, widely seen as corruption-ridden.

Government officials had pledged the law would be passed before the end of the last parliament.

Mark said this session of the National Assembly "has to be truly transformational in all ramifications. Our budgeting system needs a radical change."

?Nigerians complain that their democracy is too expensive," Mark said.

"We as representatives of the people must initiate legislation that will reduce the cost of governance at all levels thereby freeing resources to attend to the basic needs of the people,A? he said.

Despite the country's oil wealth, the majority of Nigerians live in poverty with basic services such as electricity and drinking water in erratic supply.

Nigerian lawmakers are meanwhile considered some of the highly paid in Africa.

The swearing-in of the new parliament took place as the outgoing speaker of the House of Representatives and powerful politician, Dimeji Bankole, was under arrest on allegations of corruption linked to house funds.

The anti-graft police arrested Bankole late Sunday fearing he was planning to flee the country ahead of questioning over alleged misappropriation of tens of millions of dollars of parliament funds.

Bankole lost his parliamentary seat in the April elections.

The polls were seen as a test of whether the Africa's most populous country was capable of holding credible elections.

While judged as the fairest election since the end of military rule in 1999, the country was hit by deadly post-vote riots which left 800 dead in the mainly Muslim north.

The election also exposed a regional and religious divide in the country of more than 150 million people.

One of the first tasks of the upper house will likely be to vet cabinet nominees expected to be submitted by President Goodluck Jonathan this week.

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Pakistan's parliament condemns U.S. raid

Bin Laden's compound is undergoing intense analysis, and U.S. officials say he enjoyed a support network in Pakistan.The Pakistani parliament threatens to cut off access to a facility used by NATO forcesA joint session of parliament adopts the resolution The resolution demands an immediate stop to drone strikesIt also demands an end to raids by U.S. troops within Pakistan's borders

(CNN) -- Pakistan's parliament threatened Saturday to cut off access to a facility used by NATO forces to ferry troops into Afghanistan, signaling a growing rift that began when U.S. commandos killed Osama bin Laden during a raid on a Pakistani compound.

A resolution adopted during a joint session of parliament condemned the U.S. action. It also called for a review of its working agreement with the U.S., demanded an independent investigation and ordered the immediate end of drone attacks along its border region.

Failure to end unilateral U.S. raids and drone attacks will force Pakistan to "to consider taking necessary steps, including withdrawal of (the) transit facility" used by the NATO's International Security Assistance Force, according to the resolution.

U.S. lawmakers have questioned how the world's most wanted terrorist managed to live in plain sight for years in Pakistan -- near the country's elite military academy -- without being detected.

Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officials have said there is no evidence that any active members of Pakistan's military or intelligence establishment knew about or actively protected the al Qaeda leader.

Publicly, leaders in both countries have downplayed a rift.

But the unanimous resolution made clear there was a growing dissatisfaction among Pakistani lawmakers.

The resolution also ordered a review of its counter-terrorism cooperation agreement with the United States.

The government is deeply "distress(ed) on the campaign to malign Pakistan, launched by certain quarters in other countries without appreciating Pakistan's determined efforts and immense sacrifices in combating terror," the resolution said.

It also said more than 30,000 Pakistani civilians and more than 5,000 military personnel had been killed in its fight against terror "and the blowback emanating from actions of the NATO/ISAF forces in Afghanistan."

Anger over U.S. drone strikes has mounted during the past year after it stepped up efforts along the Pakistani-Afghan border.

On Friday, a suspected U.S. drone strike killed four suspected Islamic militants in the Datta Khel region of North Waziristan, according to two Pakistani intelligence officials. They said an unmanned aircraft fired four missiles at a militant's vehicle on the border area.

The demands by the Pakistani civilian government come as new details emerge about the raid on bin Laden's Abbottabad compound.

Members of the U.S. Navy SEAL team that attacked the compound were wearing helmet-mounted digital cameras that recorded the mission, a U.S. military official told CNN on Friday.

The official described the digital recording as hazy, fast-moving and subject to poor lighting in the rooms. The source also said it is hard to get clear images from the footage.

"This is not movie-quality stuff," the official said.

An official familiar with the material seized from the compound said Friday that Navy SEALs recovered a stash of pornography. The official would not discuss exactly where it was found, what it was or whether it is believed to belong to the al Qaeda leader or to someone else living at the site, such as bin Laden's couriers or his son.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Bin Laden's compound is also undergoing intense analysis, and U.S. officials say he apparently enjoyed a support network in Pakistan that allowed him to stay in one location for the past several years. He had no escape plan or means to destroy his reams and gigabytes of documents in the event of an enemy assault, according to the U.S. sources.

Two U.S. lawmakers joined a public chorus for the release of photos of bin Laden's body after seeing the images themselves.

"These are very graphic, gruesome pictures," said Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Republican from Colorado. But seeing them "gave me a sense of finality and closure."

A conservative legal watchdog group has filed the first lawsuit seeking the public release of the video and photographs of the raid and its aftermath.

Judicial Watch is asking the Department of Defense to comply with a Freedom of Information request for the material, especially photos of bin Laden's body. The legal complaint to force compliance was made in federal court in Washington on Friday.

CNN's Reza Sayah, Barbara Starr, Michael Martinez, Pam Benson and Larry Shaughnessy contributed to this report.

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Japan's parliament passes tsunami recovery budget

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's parliament passed a $48 billion tsunami recovery budget Monday, but it will cover only a fraction of the cost of what was the most expensive disaster ever.

Mounting frustrations over the government's response and a still unfolding nuclear crisis, meanwhile, are threatening to topple the country's increasingly unpopular prime minister as more budgetary battles lie ahead.

The supplementary budget bill for the fiscal 2011 year that started in April was unanimously approved by parliament's upper house budget committee Monday morning and was made into law at the chamber's plenary session later in the day. The more powerful lower house had approved the plan Saturday.

The budget will cover the building of new houses for the more than 100,000 people who remain without proper shelter, the massive undertaking of clearing debris and rubble, reconstruction of fishing grounds, and support for disaster-hit businesses and their employers.

"I'm anxious to get the budget plan approved as quickly as possible so that we can reimburse funds for the projects immediately," Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said at the budget committee meeting.

Further outlays are expected to follow in the months ahead, he said.

The March 11 magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami, which wiped out large swaths of Japan's northeastern coastline, are believed to have caused an estimated $300 billion in damage, making it the most expensive disaster ever.

More than 26,000 people are dead or missing.

Though the new budget passed relatively smoothly, Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government is coming under growing pressure for its handling of the crisis and can expect greater opposition from rival parties in future budget negotiations.

"We support this budget plan just because of the urgent need to fund reconstruction projects," said Mikishi Daimon, an opposition lawmaker from the Communist Party.

Opposition leaders have called on Kan ? who was already unpopular before the disaster ? to step down for his handling of the aftermath, particularly his response to the subsequent crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

Polls show the public is also not satisfied with his efforts.

A poll released Monday by the Asahi, a major newspaper, found 55 percent of respondents have "few expectations" for Kan's Cabinet to handle the disaster response properly. Only 27 percent said they were "hopeful," according to the nationwide telephone survey conducted April 23 and 24 among 1,842 randomly selected households. A poll of that size would normally have a margin of error of plus- or minus-3 percentage points.

The budget does not include any government support for the massive compensation liability of the nuclear plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano made clear Monday that TEPCO bears unlimited liability because the tsunami and quake were "not impossible to foresee" and not an exception under the nuclear accident compensation law.

TEPCO spokesman Takashi Kurita said the operator was preparing to install an air purifier inside the Unit 1 reactor building to reduce radioactivity by 95 percent over the next few days ? a step to allow workers into the area for the first time since the crisis began so they can resume their primary goal of restoring cooling systems.

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