ATHENS, Greece

Strikes, riots disrupt city as parliament tackles finances

Hours of rioting outside Greece’s parliament left 46 people injured Tuesday, on the eve of a vote by lawmakers to adopt more painful austerity measures – a condition for bailout funds needed to prevent a potentially disastrous default.

At least 14 people were arrested, authorities said, as youths clashed with riot police on-and-off for more than 10 hours and into the night, leaving the city center filled with tear gas and strewn with smashed-up marble paving stones. Unions had begun a 48-hour strike that shut down services and staged mass rallies through the capital in another day of chaotic protest.

The new austerity measures must be passed in a two-part vote today and Thursday if Greece’s international creditors are to release the next (euro) 12 billion batch of the country’s (euro) 110 billion bailout fund – and prevent a default that could drag down European banks and shake the European and world economy.

“Voting these measures is required to maintain our credibility in the (bailout) process,” Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said. “Voting for these measures, regardless of any reservations, is an important, brave act of political responsibility.”

NEW YORK CITY

Pawlenty calls on GOP to resist ‘isolationist’ feelings

Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty is calling on Republicans to resist “isolationist sentiments” he said would endanger U.S. interests around the world.

In a speech laying out his foreign policy positions, the former Minnesota governor’s remarks on Tuesday were aimed squarely at his chief GOP rival Mitt Romney and others in the party who have advocated a swift drawdown of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

“America already has one political party devoted to decline, retrenchment and withdrawal. It does not need a second one,” Pawlenty said in an address to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Pawlenty devoted most of the speech to the Middle East and the citizen uprisings throughout the region.

He launched a scathing attack on President Barack Obama, saying Obama had not followed a coherent strategy to respond to the events in places like Egypt, Libya and Syria. He said Obama had been too slow to speak out on behalf of pro-democracy demonstrators and had coddled dictators.

TRENTON, N.J.

Legislation tightens state worker pensions, benefits

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday signed landmark legislation that increases pension and health contributions paid by a half-million teachers, police and other public workers and removes the issue from collective bargaining for four years.

Christie said public employee benefits have been more generous than the state can afford and need to be scaled back. The latest actuary figures show the pension and health care systems $110 billion short of their eventual liabilities.

The Republican governor said the legislation achieves two main goals: helping New Jersey taxpayers and ensuring that health and retirement benefits are still secure for public workers in future years.

“New Jersey has become a model for America,” Christie said.

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