Russian opposition issues warning to Kremlin

October 24, 2012

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian opposition leaders urged President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to stop clamping down on dissent and warned they would ask Western governments to freeze assets of Russian officials involved in a spiraling crackdown on the opposition.

Alexei Navalny and other opposition activists who were elected to the opposition's Coordinating Council in a weekend online ballot accused the Kremlin of unleashing a campaign of "direct and forceful pressure against its opponents in rude violation of Russian and international law."

They pointed at what they said was the abduction of opposition activist Leonid Razvozzhayev from neighboring Ukraine as an example of the repression of dissenters. The opposition leaders warned that government officials and law-enforcement officers will face "imminent punishment for their crimes against Russian citizens."

They said the opposition will hold a rally in Moscow in support of Razvozzhayev and other jailed opposition members this weekend. "The Coordinating Council will demand the arrest of all foreign assets of the masterminds and perpetrators of the abduction, torture and illegal criminal repression against the opposition," the opposition leaders said in a statement.

Russia's top investigative agency formally charged Razvozzhayev on Tuesday with orchestrating riots. The agency said he had turned himself in, but Razvozzhayev and his supporters said he was kidnapped from Ukraine where he was seeking asylum, smuggled back into Russia and tortured into confessing that he organized riots.

Members of a Russian prisoners' rights watchdog, who spoke Wednesday after meeting with Razvozzhayev in jail, said unidentified abductors forced him to make "confessions" by threatening to kill him and his family.

Valery Borshchev and other members of the Public Observation Commission said the masked men who abducted Razvozzhayev kept him in handcuffs and leg chains in a basement for three days, denying him food, water, sleep and a toilet until he signed the confessions.

"They accompanied it all with threats, telling him that they know everything about his children and that his children and his wife will be dead," Borshchev said. Borshchev's colleague, Lidiya Dubikova, said Razvozzhayev looked anemic and his speech was slow, as if he had been drugged. Razvozzhayev told rights defenders that he feared the men who forced him to make confessions would return.

Amnesty International said Wednesday that the claims about Razvozzhayev's abduction and torture "are extremely disturbing" and urged Russia to "ensure such allegations are promptly, effectively and independently investigated."

Charges against Razvozzhayev stemmed from hidden camera footage aired earlier this month by a Kremlin-friendly TV channel. The documentary claimed that leftist leader Sergei Udaltsov met with a Georgian lawmaker to raise money for organizing riots in Moscow and several other Russian cities. Udaltsov rejected the charges and said the footage was a sham.

Udaltsov already was questioned last week and he fears arrest. One of his aides was arrested last week. Opposition and rights activists denounced the case against Udaltsov and other activists as a throwback to the times of Soviet-era repression. "The evidence of abduction and torture of Razvozzhayev is like a message from hell," gallery owner Marat Gelman wrote in his blog.

Putin has methodically raised the pressure on the opposition since he was sworn in for a third term in May. Protest leaders have faced interrogations, searches and criminal charges, and the Kremlin-controlled parliament churned out a series of repressive bills to discourage people from joining protests and to introduce new tough restrictions on non-government organizations.

On Tuesday, Russian lawmakers passed a new bill offering a new broad definition of treason, which rights activists say is so loose that it could allow officials to brand any dissenter a traitor. Earlier this month, Moscow declared an end to the U.S. Agency for International Development's two decades of work in Russia, saying the agency was using its money to influence elections — a claim the U.S. denied.

And despite an international outrage against the two-year prison sentence given to members of the Pussy Riot punk band for an irreverent anti-Putin protest at Moscow's main cathedral, two of them were sent to remote prison colonies this week. The third one was released after a court suspended her sentence.

Hungary opposition groups form electoral alliance

October 23, 2012

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian opposition groups say they are forming an electoral alliance meant to defeat Prime Minister Viktor Orban's governing Fidesz party in 2014.

Gordon Bajnai, Orban's predecessor, said the alliance will seek to make Hungary "a normal, democratic and European society" and integrate the disparate groups opposing Orban's right-wing government. Bajnai spoke to 30,000 supporters at a bridge in Budapest Tuesday.

Orban, speaking to an estimated 150,000 supporters at a separate rally outside parliament, against criticized the EU, saying it needs to be more decisive with the economic crisis. Orban said that while Hungary accepts rules applying to all EU members, "we cannot accept anyone telling us what we can and cannot do in our own country."

Both rallies were held to commemorate the 56th anniversary of Hungary's anti-Soviet 1956 uprising.

Russian opposition elects its leaders online

October 22, 2012

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin has had nothing but mockery for the protesters who have taken to the streets against him in unprecedented numbers. Russia's opposition, he said, is no more than a gaggle of Internet dwellers with "no unified program, no clear and comprehensible way of achieving their unclear goals, and nobody who can actually do something."

The opposition has set out to prove him wrong by formally choosing its leaders through an online election that ended Monday night. Nearly 82,000 voted in the election, which was intended to help the opposition present a more united front against the Kremlin and find a way to broaden its appeal as enthusiasm for streets protests fades.

Alexei Navalny, a charismatic corruption fighter who is a rock star among the protest leaders, won the most votes, confirming his leadership role among the diverse collection of liberals, leftists and nationalists who make up the anti-Putin opposition.

The elections will clarify "which people, which methods and which ideology have the most support," Navalny said in an interview. Navalny and his supporters dominated a three-week series of debates among the candidates, a process some of his rivals derided as his "coronation."

Navalny won nearly 44,000 votes in the election, while a sharp-tongued, larger-than-life poet, novelist and columnist Dmitry Bykov came second followed by Garry Kasparov, a former world chess champion turned opposition leader. Ksenia Sobchak, a glamorous TV host who became a face of Moscow protests, also made a strong performance, finishing fourth with more than 32,000 votes.

Throughout the weekend, thousands of Russians, many of them middle-aged or older, stood in long lines on a central Moscow square to register to vote. Those with better Internet skills registered online. They had to prove their identity either by transferring a token amount, under the equivalent of 50 cents, from their bank account or sending a photograph of themselves holding their passport.

Despite a heavy police presence and occasional visits from pro-Kremlin activists, the event was peaceful and festive, with classic Russian rock songs playing over speakers. The voting was supposed to end Sunday night, but was extended for a day after a barrage of hacker attacks took down the servers for most of Saturday.

Pressure on the opposition has increased since Putin began his third term as president in May. Protest leaders have come under criminal investigation, been called in for questioning and had their homes and offices searched.

This weekend, a leftist activist accused Russian security officers of kidnapping him in Ukraine and bringing him back to Russia, where he said he was tortured into confessing to organizing riots. Investigators said Monday that the activist, Leonid Razvozzhayev, had turned himself in. He is associated with leftist opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov, who is under investigation in the same case.

Also Monday, two members of the Pussy Riot punk band were transferred from a Moscow jail to remote prison colonies, their lawyer said. Earlier this month, an appeals court upheld the two-year prison sentences handed to Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova for an irreverent anti-Putin protest in Moscow's main cathedral in February. The court released a third member of the group by suspending her sentence.

Moscow has been the epicenter of the protest movement, which brought tens of thousands onto the streets for a series of rallies during the winter and spring, and nearly all of the favorites in the opposition election live in the capital. Nevertheless, the election indicates that the protest movement has wide support nationwide, with more than half of the registered voters living outside Moscow and St. Petersburg.

More than 200 people ran for seats on the 45-member Coordinating Council. Voters were able to choose up to 30 candidates from a general list and up to five from each of three separate lists of liberals, leftists and nationalists.

Nikolai Petrov, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the opposition has done well simply to get this far. "They started very positive and serious discussions about what protesters should do," he said. "If they can have fair elections a week after unfair federal elections, that's an achievement in itself."

The challenge for the Coordinating Council will be to tap into anti-Putin sentiment across the country. Many Russians express discontent with Putin's rule but say they see no viable alternative. Leonid Volkov, an activist who organized the election, said the opposition could use the know-how to vote on other issues in the future. "We have got a mechanism for honest and transparent election on the Internet, and we will maintain it," he said.

With few exceptions, opposition figures skipped the elections this month for governors, mayors and regional legislatures across the country, allowing the Kremlin party to sweep the board. Some within the opposition derided the decision to focus instead on electing the Coordinating Council, saying it distracted attention from what should have been real electoral work.

Syrian rebels capture air base near Damascus

November 26, 2012

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels captured a helicopter base just outside Damascus Sunday in what an activist called a "blow to the morale of the regime" near President Bashar Assad's seat of power, while the bombardment of a village near the capital killed at least eight children.

Activists said the children were killed when Syrian warplanes bombed the village of Deir al-Asafir just outside the Damascus. The village is close to suburbs of the capital that has been witnessing clashes, shelling and air raids between troops and rebels over the past months.

The Britain-based Syrian observatory for Human Rights said the bombardment of the village killed eight children. Another activist group, the Revolution Command Council said 10 children were killed when warplanes struck the village as they played outdoors.

An amateur video showed two girls lying dead in a street while the bodies of two bloodied dead boys were in the back seat of a car parked nearby. Several other wounded children were seen rushed for treatment.

Another video showed the bodies of two dead boys inside what appeared to be a makeshift hospital as others received treatment from injuries while lying on the floor. The activist videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting about the events depicted. Syria restricts the access of reporters.

Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with an uprising against Assad's regime, inspired by other Arab Spring revolts. It quickly morphed into a civil war that has since killed more than 40,000 people, according to activists. Hundreds of children have been killed since the crisis began, according to activists.

The air base takeover claim showed how rebels are advancing in the area of the capital, though they are badly outgunned, making inroads where Assad's power was once unchallenged. Rebels have also been able to fire mortar rounds into Damascus recently.

The director of the Observatory, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said rebels seized control of the Marj al-Sultan base on the outskirts of Damascus on Sunday morning. He said at least 15 rebels and eight soldiers were killed in the fighting that started a day earlier. The rebels later withdrew from the base.

Rebels appear to be trying to take over air bases and destroy aircraft in order to prevent the regime from using them in attacks against opposition forces around the country. The rebels have no protection against the attack helicopters and fighter jets that have been blasting their positions.

Rebels have been attacking air bases in different parts of Syria, mostly in the northern regions of Idlib and Aleppo. In the battle at the base outside Damascus, Abdul-Rahman and Damascus-based activist Maath al-Shami said rebels destroyed two helicopters with rocket propelled grenades and captured a tank. They say the base, which is on the eastern outskirts of Damascus, houses several radar positions.

"This is a blow to the morale of the regime, because it is close to the heart of the capital," said Abdul-Rahman, referring to the base that is about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from Damascus. Al-Shami said the rebels withdrew from the base after they captured some ammunition. He said they feared counterstrikes by regime aircraft.

An amateur video posted online showed rebels walking next to two destroyed helicopters. At least three other helicopters appeared undamaged. Black smoke billowed in the distance. Another video showed several radar posts on hills inside the large compound. Parked military trucks stood inside as rebels roamed freely.

The Observatory also reported violence in other parts of Syria, including the country's largest city of Aleppo in the north and the capital itself. It said rebels on Sunday captured a training base for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command near the Damascus suburb of Douma. The PFLP-GC is one of the Palestinian factions most loyal to Assad.

The PFLP-GC said in a statement late Saturday that the base was under attack. It said that thousands of activists and fighters who fought against Israel were trained at the base over the past 30 years.

Also Sunday, the Observatory said a bomb targeted a bus in the southern village of Othman, killing at least five people and wounding dozens. It said rebels and troops clashed in the southern region of Quneitra on the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said residents found 12 bodies in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, scene of heavy clashes between rebels and government troops over the past few days.

State TV said troops clashed with al-Qaida militants in Daraya, killing some of them and confiscating a mortar that they were using in their attacks. The station said that troops killed an al-Qaida affiliated Palestinian militant known as Abu Suhaib in the Damascus suburb of Hajira. It said his group was behind several bombings in Syria that killed and wounded dozens of people.

Assad's regime blames the revolt on a foreign conspiracy. It accuses Saudi Arabia and Qatar, along with the United States, other Western countries and Turkey, of funding, training and arming the rebels, whom it calls terrorists.

Bangladeshis mourn garment-fire dead, plan protest

November 27, 2012

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh held a day of mourning Tuesday for the 112 people killed in a weekend fire at a garment factory, and labor groups planned more protests to demand better worker safety in an industry notorious for operating in firetraps.

The national flag flew at half-staff in government buildings. The country's factories were closed as a mark of respect, and prayers for the dead were held in places of worship across the Muslim-majority South Asian nation.

Relatives and colleagues gathered near the site of Saturday's blaze, many wearing black badges as a sign of mourning. "I've lost my son and the only member to earn for the family," said Nilufar Khatoon, the mother of a worker who died. "What shall I do now?"

Some labor organizations planned rallies later Tuesday. About 15,000 workers protested Monday blocks away from the gutted factory, blocking traffic on a major highway in a suburb of Dhaka, the capital.

In a statement issued Tuesday the European Union deplored the loss of lives in the fire and urged the Bangladesh government to improve working conditions in garment factories. "The European Union has always been very clear about the need to improve working standards and safety in this sector," said the statement. European market is a major export destination of Bangladesh textiles.

The fire was the deadliest of many to hit garment factories in Bangladesh in recent years. The industry has grown from nothing to become the country's dominant exporter in little more than three decades, but factories often ignore safety in the rush to supply major retailers in the U.S. and Europe. More than 300 people have died over the past six years in Bangladesh garment-factory fires.

Wal-Mart said Monday that the factory, owned by Tazreen Fashions Ltd., had been making clothes for the U.S. retail giant without its knowledge. Tazreen was given a "high risk" safety rating after a May 2011 audit conducted by an "ethical sourcing" assessor for Wal-Mart, according to a document posted on the website of Tazreen's parent company, the Tuba Group.

Wal-Mart said the factory was no longer authorized to produce merchandise for Wal-Mart but that a supplier subcontracted work to it "in direct violation of our policies." The retailer said it stopped doing business with the supplier Monday.

"The fact that this occurred is extremely troubling to us, and we will continue to work across the apparel industry to improve fire safety education and training in Bangladesh," Wal-Mart said in a statement.

Survivors of the weekend fire said an exit door was locked, fire extinguishers didn't work and apparently were there just to impress inspectors, and that when the fire alarm went off, bosses told workers to return to their sewing machines. Victims were trapped or jumped to their deaths from the eight-story building, which had no emergency exits.

Maj. Mohammad Mahbub, fire department operations director, said investigators suspect a short circuit caused the fire. But he added that if the building had had even one emergency exit, "the casualties would have been much lower."

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, which has offered $1,250 to each of the families of the dead, urged investigators not to rule out sabotage. "Local and international conspirators are trying to destroy our garment industry," association President Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin said. He provided no details.

Investigator Mainuddin Sarkar said the government is "looking into all possibilities, including sabotage." Police said Tuesday they were questioning a woman accused of trying to set fire to another factory in the area on Sunday. Local police chief Habibur Rahman said police also arrested a man who the woman says paid her to set the fire, and that police were investigating whether the two are linked at all to the Tazreen fire.

Bangladesh has some 4,000 garment factories. The country earns about $20 billion a year from exports of garments, mainly to the U.S. and Europe.

Associated Press writer Al Emrun Garjan contributed to this report.

Syrian rebels take villages near Israel-held area

November 14, 2012

JERUSALEM (AP) — Syrian rebels control almost all the villages near the frontier with the Israel-held Golan Heights, the Israeli defense minister said Wednesday, bringing the conflict dangerously close to the Jewish state and raising the possibility of an armed clash with the region's strongest power.

During a tour of the Golan Heights, Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave a scathing assessment of Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces and said Israel will remain "vigilant and alert." "Almost all of the villages, from the foot of this ridge to the very top, are already in the hands of the Syrian rebels," said Barak, who was accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "The Syrian army is displaying ever-diminishing efficiency."

The civil war in Syria has renewed tensions over the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria in 1967. Despite hostility between the two countries, Syria has been careful to keep the border quiet since the 1973 Mideast war.

But in recent days, Israeli troops have fired into Syria twice after apparently stray mortar shells flew into Israel-held territory. On Wednesday, an Associated Press journalist said an Israeli helicopter was patrolling the border area, and gunfire could be heard. The source of the gunfire was not immediately clear.

While it is widely believed that Assad does not want to pick a fight with Israel, there are fears the embattled Syrian leader may try to draw Israel into the fighting in a bout of desperation. Israeli officials believe it is only a matter of time before Syrian rebels topple the longtime leader.

Israeli political scientist Dore Gold, an informal adviser to Netanyahu, said it's difficult to assess whether Israel is better off with rebels in control along the border. "The forces fighting the Assad government are made up of diverse elements. And to make a judgment whether Israel should be more or less worried, that would require having a very precise picture of what's going on there, which we don't," he said. "But it's no secret that among the Syrian rebels are forces that identify with al-Qaida, and are a cause of concern."

A buffer zone lines the Israeli border with Syria. Beyond the border on the Syrian side is a 75-kilometer (46-mile) stretch where no military forces other than U.N. forces are permitted. Israeli military officials said Barak's assessment depicted a situation that is not entirely new, and that rebels have held those villages for several weeks. It was not clear how many villages the rebels hold along the Golan Heights, which is about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from the Syrian capital of Damascus.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to discuss the sensitive information, said the situation is dynamic and could change easily, with the villages returning to Assad's hands.

Israeli experts said nothing prevents Assad's forces from entering the villages and retaking them, even ones in the U.N. zone. "Just like any other place, it is a battleground between the army and the rebels," said Itamar Rabinovich, the former chief Israeli negotiator with Syria.

He said Israel would likely continue to remain on the sidelines of the fighting because Israeli officials believe Assad will eventually fall and that any support for rebels would backfire. But privately, "Israel is rooting for the right kind of insurgents," he said, ones who follow a moderate line and have no links to Islamist extremist groups.

Moshe Maoz, professor emeritus at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, said the exchange of fire this week was "based on a mistake," and that if such incidents continued, they would be infrequent. "The Syrian army doesn't have any interest in provoking Israel," he said. "Syria has enough problems."

The violence in Syria, which has killed more than 36,000 people since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, threatens to inflame an already combustible region. The fighting already has already spilled into Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

On Wednesday, Syrian troops used aircraft and artillery to try to dislodge rebels from a town next to the border with Turkey, as Ankara warned it would retaliate against any airspace violations. An AP journalist in the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar saw Syrian airstrikes in the adjacent Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn, where rebels say they have ousted troops loyal to Assad.

Deadly airstrikes began several days ago, and many casualties were taken to Turkey for treatment. Local officials said as many as 30 people have died since Monday. The journalist also saw Syrian forces shelling a wooded area near Ras al-Ayn from where rebels had been firing.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the fighting in Syria into neighboring Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Another 11,000 escaped to Turkey last week following the surge of fighting at Ras al-Ayn, which is located in the northeastern Syrian province of al-Hasaka, an oil-producing region where the population is mostly Kurdish.

The proximity of the fighting to Turkey has raised fears of an escalation. Turkish media, including the Anadolu news agency, said several villages west of Ceylanpinar have been evacuated to protect residents from any spillover of the fighting in Syria. About 1,000 people left Mursitpinar, 110 miles (180 kilometers) from Ceylanpinar, after an appeal from the loudspeakers of local mosques.

Ismet Yilmaz, Turkey's defense minister, indicated that military force would be used in response to any incursions by Syrian aircraft. Last month, Turkish artillery fired on targets in Syria after Syrian shells landed inside Turkey and killed several civilians.

"The necessary response will be given to Syrian planes and helicopters that violate our border," Yilmaz said. A Turkish official in Ceylanpinar said the sound of shelling was heard through the night. Two rocket-propelled grenades hit houses on the Turkish side, but there were no injuries, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is barred by rules from being quoted by name.

The official later said a dozen wounded Syrians had been brought across the border, and one died during treatment. The official cited contacts in Ras al-Ayn as saying Syrian forces had entered the town.

A convoy of seven white jeeps and a truck was seen near the Syrian town, but it was unclear who was in the vehicles. On the Turkish side of the border, Turkish jets were heard overhead. At one point, sounds of jubilation were heard from Ras al-Ayn. One rebel shouted in Arabic: "The Syrian army fled. Did you see?"

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes carried out six airstrikes in al-Hasaka, including those at Ras al-Ayn. Regime fighter jets also targeted the rebellious suburbs of Damascus on Wednesday, the Britain-based Observatory said. Heavy clashes between rebel units and Assad's troops were ongoing in the northern city of Aleppo, the Observatory said. The group relies on reports from activists on the ground.

Although the conflict has been grinding on for nearly 20 months, neither side has managed to strike a blow that could tip the balance. Over the weekend, Syria's splintered rebel factions agreed to a U.S.-backed plan to unite under a new umbrella group that seeks a common voice and strategy against Assad's regime.

President Barack Obama said he's encouraged the opposition has formed a new, more representative leadership council, but the U.S. isn't ready to recognize the group as a "government in exile" or to arm it.

"We consider them a legitimate representative of the aspirations of the Syrian people," Obama said at a news conference at the White House. France was the first Western country to formally recognize the newly formed opposition coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

Obama said the U.S. wanted to make sure the group "is committed to a democratic Syria, an inclusive Syria, a moderate Syria." He also said the U.S. isn't considering sending weapons to the opposition because of concerns the arms might fall into the hands of extremists.

"We have seen extremist elements insinuate themselves into the opposition and one of the things that we have to be on guard about, particularly when we start talking about arming opposition figures, is that we are not indirectly putting arms in the hands of folks that would do Americans harms, or do Israeli harm or otherwise engage in actions that are detrimental to our national security," he said.

The outgunned rebel fighters want arms — including critical anti-aircraft batteries — from main regional backers such as the wealthy Gulf states and Turkey. Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoebi brushed off the new opposition group as a "desperate attempt" to undermine Syrians' morale.

Foreign ministers from the main Gulf Arab bloc — which includes key rebel backers Saudi Arabia and Qatar — met Wednesday in the Saudi capital Riyadh to discuss the crisis, according to the official Saudi News Agency. The talks were expected to bring in visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose nation is an important ally of Syria.

Associated Press writers Elizabeth A. Kennedy in Beirut, Lauren E. Bohn in Jerusalem, Mehmet Guzel in Ceylanpinar, Turkey, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Strike hits Greece in bid to derail austerity plan

November 06, 2012

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek trade unions launched a general strike and nationwide protests on Tuesday against a new package of austerity measures, to be voted on this week, which would condemn Greece to more years of hardship in exchange for rescue loans.

Flights to and from the country stopped for three hours at the start of a 48-hour strike that closed schools, halted train and ferry services, and left Athens without public transport or taxis while state hospitals ran on emergency staff.

More than 35,000 people marched in two separate demonstrations in Athens organized by labor unions. Another 20,000 gathered to protest in the country's second largest city of Thessaloniki. Police were on alert for potential violence, as most major anti-austerity protests over the past three years have degenerated into riots.

The demonstrations will culminate Wednesday, when lawmakers vote on a €13.5 billion ($17.3 billion) package of spending cuts and tax increases over the next two years. The outcome of the vote is far from certain due to disagreements in the five-month-old coalition government and a reluctance among center-left lawmakers to approve yet more austerity measures. But the rejection of the savings package would leave Greece facing the threat of a default on its mountain of debt that could force it to eventually exit the euro bloc.

This is the biggest political crisis Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has faced since he formed the coalition in June. His small Democratic Left coalition partner has said it will not back the measures, while a handful of lawmakers from the third coalition party, the Socialists, are expected to vote against the austerity package.

"The government's majority is narrowing and the general strike further puts pressure on MPs to vote against the government's plans," said Martin Koehring of the Economist Intelligence Unit. "On balance, however, we expect the package to be approved by MPs because the alternative would be the government running out of cash ... and facing default and potential euro exit."

The government combined has 176 of Parliament's 300 seats, and needs an absolute majority of those present to pass the bill. Without the Democratic Left, Samaras' conservatives and the Socialists control 160 votes — not counting dissenters.

The main opposition Radical Left Coalition has urged demonstrators to surround Parliament during Wednesday night's vote. "The new measures must not pass for they will turn the country into a financial and social desert," a party statement said. "They will lead us decades back, without medicine or state healthcare, without schools and universities, without a future, with endless armies of unemployed, suicides and desperate people."

The deeply unpopular measures include new deep pension cuts and tax hikes, a two-year increase in the retirement age to 67, and laws that will make it easier to fire and transfer civil servants. The country is suffering a deep recession set to enter a sixth year, and record high unemployment of 25 percent.

If Parliament rejects the package, Greece will lose access to the rescue loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund that have kept it afloat since May 2010. The country would then run out of money — as soon as by Nov. 16, according to Samaras — default on its debts and, most likely, abandon the 17-member eurozone. That would create hyperinflation as the new currency plummets in value, intensifying Greeks' misery.

A Greek exit from the euro would also have severe international repercussions, fueling fears that other troubled eurozone members could likewise leave the currency bloc. Sky-high interest rates have kept Greece out of international bond markets since 2010. However, the country retains a market presence through regular short-term debt issues — mostly bought up by domestic lenders that need the paper as collateral for vital European financing.

On Tuesday, Greece raised €1.3 billion ($1.6 billion) in a 26-week treasury bill auction that saw its borrowing costs ease slightly to 4.41 percent, from 4.46 percent last month. Demand was 1.7 times the amount on offer.

Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki contributed to this report.