A man who stripped down to his underwear and crawled across a frozen river to rescue his trapped dog has been condemned by firefighters.
According to an eyewitness, the man fell into the River Stour, in Dedham, Essex, at about 10:00 GMT on Sunday but managed to climb out with the animal.
Fellow dog walker Paul Wenborne, who witnessed the incident, described it as a "foolish act of bravery".
An Essex Fire Service spokesman said: "This was extremely dangerous."
Fish porter Mr Wenborne, 52, of Rayleigh, Essex, said he was amazed at the man's actions.
'Stripped down'"I was with two friends and we couldn't believe what we were seeing," he said.
"He stripped down to his pants and started crawling across the ice.
"About a yard or so from the dog, he fell in but managed to get hold of the dog and put it on the ice.
"He then had to swim two or three yards and then crawl back on the ice to dry land.
"He put his clothes back on and carried on. It was a foolish act of bravery."
Essex Fire Service confirmed it was not called to the incident.
Last week, Essex assistant divisional officer Stuart McMillan issued a warning about icy lakes and ponds.
"Even though this ice appears to be strong it can be eggshell thin and anyone who falls through into the water below could get trapped under the ice and would only be able to survive for minutes in the freezing water," he said.
"The most common cause is people chasing their dogs out on to the ice, and I urge people not to do this.
"It isn't worth the risk. Dogs will normally make it safely off the ice and back to the shore - the same cannot be said for people."
www.bbc.co.uk
On Feb. 1 at the Lone Star Regional in Houston, Zach Garrison of Spring, Tex., set a new mark at 9 years, 2 months and 7 days. Will this stand forever?
Zach first watched his parents, David and Kristy Garrison, playing with his older sisters, Danielle and Samantha. Then, when he learned about Jeng, he decided he wanted to play bridge. So in 2010 his parents started to teach him and his younger sister, Sarah. At the beginning Zach couldn’t go to the bridge club because his hands were so small that he had difficulty getting his cards out of a duplicate board and sorting them.
With practice at home, though, he began to play with his mother in the 299er games at the Bridge Club of Houston. During one of those deals he was passing while the other three players were bidding. On the next round he placed the Stop card onto the table (which was supposed to mean that he was about to make a jump bid), then he passed. Afterward, when asked why he had used the Stop card, he said that he wanted his mother to stop bidding.
Zach started his serious run at the Life Master title with the 2011 Houston Regional. He studied all aspects of the game, finding them equally fascinating.
The diagramed deal was played last month during a Junior Fund game in Houston. It was sent in by North, Duane Friedrich of Houston.
After East opened one club, Zach (South) could have been expected to overcall one no-trump, but he passed. Then, when Friedrich (North) balanced with one diamond, Zach jumped to three no-trump.
West led the spade eight (second-highest from a weak suit, not treating the ten as an honor). East won with the king and returned a spade to dummy’s ace. (To hold South to nine tricks East had to shift to a low heart, a very hard play to find.)
Declarer ran dummy’s club nine, West taking the queen and returning a spade. Now South cashed the diamond winners to reach the position pictured above, at bottom.
On the diamond jack East threw the heart queen, and declarer discarded his low heart. Then, knowing exactly what he was doing, Zach played a club to the ten and exited with the heart king to endplay East.
Zach had taken two spades, five diamonds and three clubs. Plus 430 was a cold top.
An experienced expert would have been very happy with that play. For a 9-year-old it was wonderful.
Watch out for Zach Garrison in the future.
www.nytimes.com
Hackers have claimed responsibility for making the CIA website inaccessible on Friday - the latest attack on a US federal agency.
A Twiter post on a feed used by hackers' collective Anonymous said "CIA Tango down", a phrase used by the US Special Forces after killing an enemy.
Anonymous said in another tweet that just because it reported a hack, that did not mean it carried out the attack.
This would not be the first time the CIA website has been put offline.
In June 2011, a group affiliated with Anonymous, Lulz Security, temporarily brought down the agency's homepage.
The CIA site remained offline on Friday evening after several hours, and a spokeswoman said the agency was looking into the reports.
Hackers usually target such websites through a denial-of-service attack, which involves bombarding the site with traffic until its servers are overwhelmed.
There is no suggestion that the security of the CIA's actual computer systems have been compromised.
Earlier this month, Anonymous managed to intercept a conference call between the FBI and British police as they discussed legal action against hackers.
And following the shutdown of the Megaupload file-sharing website last month, a statement attributed to Anonymous claimed responsibility for shutting down the websites of the Department of Justice and FBI, among others.
www.bbc.com
Syria has "categorically rejected" an Arab League resolution calling for a joint Arab-UN peacekeeping mission to end the country's 11-month conflict.
Yusuf Ahmed, Syria's envoy in Cairo, said the plan "reflected the hysteria of these governments".
Russia said it was studying the proposal but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said violence must end before peacekeepers could be sent.
The UN General Assembly is set for a key debate on the crisis in Syria.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, who has been sharply critical of the actions of President Bashar al-Assad's government, is expected to address the assembly.
Earlier, the Arab League said it was ending all diplomatic co-operation with Syria, and promised to give "political and material support" to the opposition.
he league's moves come a week after a UN Security Council resolution on Syria, which would have endorsed a previous Arab League peace initiative, was vetoed by Russia and China.
The BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Cairo says the new resolution contains the toughest language on Syria by the Arab League so far and makes it much more likely that the issue will return to the Security Council.
The fact that they are considering these moves shows the extent of the Syrian regime's isolation, our correspondent adds.
But, he says, it remains to be seen whether Moscow will continue to lend its support to its old allies and trading partners.
The League's resolution also formally ends the observer mission it sent to Syria in December. It was suspended in January amid criticism that it was ineffective in the face of continuing violence.
The head of that mission, the controversial Sudanese General Mohammed al-Dabi, had submitted his resignation on Sunday.
Earlier, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri backed the Syrian uprising in a video message, telling the opposition not to rely on the West or Arab countries for support.
There have been reports that US officials suspect al-Qaeda involvement in two deadly blasts in the second city of Aleppo last week.
Meanwhile, fresh violence in the Syrian city of Homs was reported on Monday.
"Tank shelling has been non-stop on Baba Amr and the bombardment on al-Waer [district] began overnight," activist Mohammad al-Hassan told Reuters.
Following a brief lull in fighting, at least four people were killed in Baba Amr on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory on Human Rights said.
At least 35 were reported dead on Saturday.
Activists say more than 400 people have been killed since security forces launched an assault on opposition-held areas on the city this month.
Human rights groups say more than 7,000 have died throughout Syria since last March. The government says at least 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed combating "armed gangs and terrorists".
Syria restricts access to foreign media and it is not possible to verify casualty figures.
www.bbc.co.uk
Video game sales slumped in the US - their biggest market - in January.
NPD group said stores sold $1.14bn (£720m) worth of games over the month, down 34% on the previous year. It added that hardware sales were down 38%.
The consumer data provider linked the drop to a lack of major new releases.
Other analysts also pointed to worries about the economy and said this might have an impact on the upcoming launch of Sony's PlayStation Vita console.
NPD said that Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the month's best-selling title. It was followed by Just Dance 3, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and NBA 2K12.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 held onto its title as the top selling hardware platform for the sixth month running.
"While the lack of new launches was a major reason for software declines, games which launched in the last three months of 2011 also performed poorly in January 2012, down 31% in units compared to fourth quarter launches in January 2011," NPD analyst Liam Callahan added.
"As shoppers were not drawn to stores due to new launch activity, this potentially impacted additional software purchases made on impulse."
The video games news website, IGN, said it had noted a similar drop-off in activity in the UK market. It said sales should pick up when Mass Effect 3 goes on sale in March, but noted that shoppers were worried.
"You can't really deny that the economy is a factor," Keza MacDonald, the firm's UK games editor, told the BBC.
"The lack of big new releases is just a tiny bit of the picture. The fact people are buying less games shows up in the US, European and Japanese data.
"People are just buying fewer games because they have less money to spend. The data before Christmas was also not particularly strong."
Vita's challengeThe news comes as Sony prepares the global launch of its new PlayStation Vita games console. The device goes on sale across Europe, Australia and the Americas on 22 February.
Analysts at IHS Screen Digest have forecast 7 million units will be sold by the end of the year. They say that would be 25% less than what its predecessor the PlayStation Portable System achieved over its initial roll-out.
"I think there is a segment of the population - potentially a narrowing segment - which is still engaged by specialist devices such as handheld consoles," said the firm's head of games, Piers Harding-Rolls.
"But it is a very price-driven situation and part of that equation is definitely the content on offer.
"Sony has hit the mark with a strong line-up at launch which should drive strong initial sales, but there's the potential that demand will drop off quite significantly after the first few weeks."
Industry watchers note that the console will have to compete for attention with Apple's latest iPad which the Wall Street Journal suggests will launch in March.
"A lot of the market for handheld gaming was kids and that market has completely shifted to iPhones, Android phones and touchscreen tablets," said Ms MacDonald.
"The Vita is a nice bit of kit - it has gadget appeal - but I'm not sure it has mainstream appeal."
http://www.bbc.co.uk
Scientists have shown how some cells in the body can repel attacks from HIV by starving the virus of the building blocks of life.
Viruses cannot replicate on their own; they must hijack other cells and turn them into virus production factories.
A study, published in Nature Immunology, showed how some parts of the immune system destroy their own raw materials, stopping HIV.
It is uncertain whether this could be used in therapy, experts caution.
HIV attacks the immune system and can weaken the body's defences to the point that everyday infections become fatal.
However, not all parts of the immune system become subverted to the virus' cause. Macrophages and dendritic cells, which have important roles in orchestrating the immune response, seem to be more resistant.
Raw materialsLast year researchers identified the protein SAMHD1 as being a critical part of this resistance. Now scientists believe they know how it works.
They have shown that SAMHD1 breaks down the building blocks of DNA. So if a cell needs to make a copy of itself it will have a pool of these building blocks - deoxynucleoside triphosphates or dNTPs - which make the new copies of the DNA. However, they can also be used by viruses.
The study, by an international team of researchers, showed that SAMHD1 lowered the levels of dNTPs below that needed to build viral DNA and prevented infection. When they removed SAMHD1 then those cells had higher levels of dNTPs and were infected by HIV.
The report said: "By depleting the pool of available dNTPs, SAMHD1 effectively starves the virus of a building block that is central to its replication strategy."
It is possible for macrophages and dendritic cells to produce SAMHD1 as they are "mature cells" which do not go on to produce new cells.
Prof Baek Kim, one of the researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center, said: "It makes sense that a mechanism like this is active in macrophages.
"Macrophages literally eat up dangerous organisms, and you don't want those organisms to have available the cellular machinery needed to replicate and macrophages themselves don't need it, because they don't replicate.
"So macrophages have SAMHD1 to get rid of the raw material those organisms need to copy themselves. It's a great host defence."
Dr Jonathan Stoye, virologist at the Medical Research Council National Institute of Medical Research, was part of the team which determined the chemical structure of SAMHD1 last year and predicted that it would attack the dNTPs.
"We hypothesised that it works in this fashion and the paper tells us we were right. It is depleting cells of these dNTPs, in cells which are not proliferating (dividing)."
However, some cells do need to divide to boost numbers as part of the immune defence. Such as CD4 cells which are the prime target for HIV infection.
"Cells which are proliferating would be in trouble if we took dNTPs away," Dr Stoye said.
He added: "How we can use the anti-retroviral action of this protein is not clear to me."
www.bbc.com
On Sunday, the job of making the argument for job-creation measures now and budget austerity later fell to Jacob J. Lew, Mr. Obama’s chief of staff and until recently his budget director, who made the rounds of five television talk shows.
“There’s pretty broad agreement that the time for austerity is not today. We need to go on a path where, over the next several years, we bring our deficit under control,” Mr. Lew said on the NBC program “Meet the Press.” “Right now we have a recovery that’s taking root, and if we were to put in austerity measures right now, it would take the economy in the wrong way.”
“The challenge,” Mr. Lew added, “is how do you do two things at the same time? How do you put money forward for things like the payroll tax holiday, for things like getting a jump-start on infrastructure, for building schools, and make the decisions for long-term deficit reduction? The president has proposed a plan that would do that.”
That combination — temporary, immediate stimulus measures, together with spending cuts and tax increases that would take effect only after 2012, when the economy presumably is stronger — is one that many economists and business leaders endorse. But as Mr. Obama starts his fourth year in office, explaining the two-track approach continues to test him and his administration.
In his budget Mr. Obama again will commit to $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years, including $1.5 trillion in tax revenue from the wealthy and from closing some corporate tax breaks, and reductions in spending for a range of programs, including the military, Medicare, farm subsidies and federal pensions. But Republicans are sure to criticize the president’s proposals as heavy on gimmickry and double-counting, and reject his proposed tax increases.
For all the debate over deficits, Mr. Obama on Monday will highlight spending increases and tax cuts that he seeks, which are popular despite their impact on the federal debt.
He will start the year’s debate by releasing his budget plan outside Washington at Northern Virginia Community College, part of a statewide coalition of community colleges and employers that was among the first winners in September of federal grants to ensure that students are learning skills that businesses need. In his budget, Mr. Obama proposes to make that initiative an $8 billion multiyear effort.
The initiative is one of many — both temporary measures and programs intended to be permanent — that serve as a statement of Mr. Obama’s priorities in promoting government investment in infrastructure, manufacturing, education and job training, and innovation, even as he calls for considerable deficit reduction to counter the nation’s mounting debt.
Presidents of both parties typically do much the same, going into great detail about the budget’s winners and leaving the losers vague or unspoken. What makes Mr. Obama’s effort stand out is the sheer size of the proposed deficit reduction as the nation emerges from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, a crisis that resulted in lower revenue for the Treasury and large doses of temporary spending and tax cuts to keep the economy from collapse.
In Congress, Democrats and Republicans continue to negotiate over a package that would extend a temporary two-percentage-point cut in workers’ payroll taxes through this year, along with unemployment compensation for those out of work for more than six months and a delay in a scheduled deep reduction in Medicare reimbursements to doctors.
“I do believe this will be extended,” Representative Paul D. Ryan, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, said on the ABC program “This Week.” The two sides are split over how to offset the cost of the package, but lawmakers who worked over the weekend reported making progress.
The Obama budget request for fiscal year 2013, which begins Oct. 1, reflects the White House agreement with Congress last August to cut nearly $1 trillion over 10 years from annual discretionary spending, which covers most government programs but not the entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, whose costs, especially for the health programs, are driving the long-term projections of unsustainable debt.
In a summary of the budget released on Friday, the administration said “difficult trade-offs had to be made” to comply with the reduced levels of discretionary spending and still provide increases for the president’s priorities. But it did not disclose who got cut, only what was increased or newly created.
Congress is not likely to accept much of Mr. Obama’s budget, given Republicans’ opposition. Its value is more as a political document as he fights for re-election, contrasting his approach to the other party’s.
Mr. Obama will propose spending $476 billion over six years for transportation projects. Because federal fuel taxes will not cover the cost, he proposes to offset about half the cost with savings projected over 10 years from ending the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Republicans and some budget groups call that a gimmick, saying much of the money would not be spent anyway.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Lew countered, “I think that if we don’t lower the caps that permit that spending, there will be a natural process of seeing military spending grow.” He added, “I guarantee you that if we don’t take the action that’s been proposed, there will be leakage, and that money will end up being spent.”
Mr. Obama will propose $141 billion in spending for research and development over all, increasing nondefense research by 5 percent above the current level and maintaining his commitment to double the budgets of three federal research agencies.
Among new initiatives, Mr. Obama seeks a $5 billion competitive program to encourage states, school districts and teachers’ unions to coordinate in attracting and training more teachers, a new one-year tax credit for small businesses that increase their payroll, and tax incentives for manufacturers that bring jobs back from overseas or invest in depressed communities.
www.nytimes.com
Residents of the towns of Jaar and Azzan said two Saudis and one Yemeni were beheaded at dawn by the militant group Ansar al-Sharia.
A spokesman for the group later said none of those executed were Saudi citizens, but all three had been working for the intelligence services of the kingdom, a close ally of the United States.
A number of important figures in Al Qaeda' s wing in Yemen are Saudi militants wanted by the authorities in Riyadh.
The United States has been launching drone strikes against militants in the south. Last month, at least 12 people were killed in one such attack.
Federal prosecutors in the United States said Friday that Anwar al-Awlaki, a leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate who was killed in a drone strike last year, had personally directed and approved the 2009 attempt to blow up an airliner over Detroit.
Weakened by months of protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s government has lost control of whole chunks of the country, giving Islamist militants room to tighten their grip in the south.
In Aden late on Saturday, witnesses said, separatists set fire to a tent camp housing about 100 antigovernment protesters, in opposition to an election on Feb. 21 to replace Mr. Saleh. About 10 people were injured.
Last year, southern separatists joined protesters calling for Mr. Saleh to leave, but the two sides have since grown apart.
The separatists want to revive a southern socialist state that was united with the north in 1990. They fear that the election will not serve their goal.
Anti-Saleh demonstrators broadly back the vote as a step toward ending his 33-year rule.
Northern Shiite rebels have said they too will boycott the vote, in which acting leader Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi is the sole candidate.
Mr. Saleh is in the United States receiving medical treatment for injuries inflicted during an assassination attempt, but he has said he will return home before the vote, shedding doubt on his commitment to leave office in line with a Persian Gulf-brokered plan to end a year of political upheaval.
http://www.nytimes.com
You probably know the connection between cholesterol and heart health, but you may be surprised to learn that your cholesterol levels can affect your memory, too.
High LDL (bad) and low HDL (good) cholesterol levels cause plaque to build up in your arteries, which slows blood circulation throughout your body -- including your brain. That increases your risk of dementia up to 46%.
That makes managing your cholesterol a key strategy to prevent dementia and Alzheimer's disease. A heart-healthy diet, exercise, not smoking, and taking your cholesterol-lowering medication as prescribed will help lower your LDL cholesterol and boost your HDL. The lower your LDL cholesterol, and the higher your HDL (that's the good-guy kind that helps remove plaque from your arteries), the better your chances of dodging dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
www.realage.com
The boys, named Nasibullah and Azizullah, were described by officials from the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, as 12-year-olds who had been trained in Pakistani madrasas. The officials refused to give their names for security reasons.
Both boys appeared calm and outspoken at the news conference, and it was unclear if they understood the gravity of what it would mean to carry out suicide bombings.
Azizullah said he went to a madrasa in Quetta. The teachers told him, “ ‘You won’t be hurt; just go and carry out a suicide attack,’ ” he said.
There have been a number of children caught in the last two years with the intention of carrying out suicide attacks. Most have attended madrasas across the border in Pakistan and told to detonate the explosives near foreign soldiers or Afghan government security forces. The indoctrination is intense, with heavy pressure at the schools to engage in a holy war against the foreigners, said the intelligence officials in Kandahar.
Azizullah said that from the school, he was ferried across the border. He was arrested with a suicide vest in Kandahar, he said.
“Now I am requesting the government to forgive me and let me join my family. I won’t go back to the madrasa,” said Azizullah, who is from Gardez in Paktia Province.
The other boy, Nasibullah, has already been forgiven once. He said he was pardoned by Mr. Karzai during Ramadan last summer, but then returned to a madrasa in Pakistan where he was persuaded for a second time to carry out a suicide bombing.
Mr. Karzai follows the tradition of pardoning criminals during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, and in 2011 he pardoned a dozen children who had been arrested either for planning or attempting suicide attacks. The children were mostly under the age of 12 and one was only 8, according to Afghan and foreign news reports.
“The last time I was arrested by officials, I was sent to Kabul and I was brought before President Karzai,” Nasibullah said at Sunday’s news conference. “Mr. Karzai asked me what had happened. I explained that the Taliban wanted me to carry out a suicide attack and they put a vest on me and said ‘you can carry out a suicide attack,’ but I was arrested by policemen. Karzai told me, ‘Don’t worry son, we will send you back home,’ and so he pardoned me.”
Nasibullah, who officials from the intelligence directorate said was originally from Pishin in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan, said he was hoping for a second reprieve. “I am again arrested by officials and now again I am requesting from the government to forgive me,” he said. “This time I won’t go back to the madrasa.”
Singer Adele was the big winner at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, winning six prizes including record, song and album of the year.
She also made her live comeback at the ceremony, performing for the first time since having throat surgery last year.
Rock band Foo Fighters won five prizes, while rapper Kanye West scooped four.
The event saw heartfelt tributes to pop star Whitney Houston, who died on Saturday, while Amy Winehouse received a posthumous award.
Winehouse's parents accepted her prize for best pop duo/group performance for Body and Soul, her duet with Tony Bennett, which was the last recording Winehouse made before she died in July.
Adele won every award she was nominated for, including record of the year, song of the year and best short form music video for Rolling in the Deep. Her second album, 21, was named album of the year.
"This record is inspired by something that is really normal and everyone's been through it, just a rubbish relationship," she said.
"It's gone on to do things I can't tell you how I feel about it, it's been the most life-changing year."
The London singer was forced to cancel all live dates last year but earned a standing ovation after her return to the stage with Rolling in the Deep.
Accepting the trophy for best pop solo performance for her song Someone Like You, she said: "Seeing as it's a vocal performance, I need to thank my doctors, I suppose, who brought my voice back."
Her producer Paul Epworth, who also worked with Foster the People, Florence and the Machine and Cee Lo Green, was named best non-classical producer.
'Special record'Foo Fighters' awards included best rock album, best rock song, best rock performance and best hard rock/metal performance.
"This is a great honour because this record was a special record for our band," frontman Dave Grohl told the crowd.
"Rather than go to the best studio, we made this one in my garage with some microphones and a tape machine. It shows that the human element of making music is what's most important."
Kanye West's solo album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy earned three awards, including best rap song and best rap album.
The track Otis - from Watch the Throne, his collaboration with Jay-Z - was named best rap performance.
The prize takes West's total Grammy haul to 18. Neither he nor Jay-Z were present to pick up their awards.
Bon Iver, fronted by US singer-songwriter Justin Vernon, were named best new act, five years after their acclaimed debut album was released.
Their self-titled second LP also won best alternative album.
Other British victors included soul singer Corinne Bailey Rae, who scooped best R&B performance for Is This Love.
There was also success for Sir Paul McCartney, whose deluxe reissue of Wings' Band on the Run was named best historial album.
US dance DJ Skrillex won three prizes, while double winners included folk duo The Civil Wars, country star Taylor Swift and gospel singer Kirk Franklin.
Chris Brown - returning to the event for the first time since 2009 - won the trophy for best R&B album for F.A.M.E.
returning to the event for the first time since assaulting his then-girlfriend Rihanna before the 2009 ceremony.
Rihanna - the ex-girlfriend Brown assaulted before the ceremony three years ago - was also present, taking to the stage with British band Coldplay.
Also playing live were Bruce Springsteen, McCartney, the Beach Boys and Kelly Clarkson.
Jennifer Hudson gave a rendition of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You in a tribute to the late singer.
The ceremony also saw Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt sang a duet of A Sunday Kind of Love in tribute to Etta James, who died last month.
http://www.bbc.co.uk
Greek MPs have approved a controversial package of austerity measures, demanded by the eurozone and IMF in return for a 130bn euro ($170bn; £110bn) bailout.
The vote was carried by 199 in favour to 74 against.
Coalition parties expelled more than 40 deputies for failing to back the bill.
Tens of thousands protested in Athens, where there were widespread clashes and buildings were set on fire. Violent protests were reported in cities across the country.
Protesters outside parliament threw stones and petrol bombs, and police responded with tear gas. Scores of police and protesters were injured.
Prime Minister Lucas Papademos urged calm, insisting that the austerity package would "set the foundations for the reform and recovery of the economy".
"Vandalism, violence and destruction have no place in a democratic country and won't be tolerated," he said in a speech in parliament before the vote.
The bill passed parliament easily as the two largest parties in the coalition - Pasok and New Democracy - account for more than two-thirds of the deputies.
The austerity measures include:
Eurozone ministers must now ratify the measures at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday before bailout funds can be released.
The ministers rejected proposals put forward by the Greeks last week, which they said fell 325m euros short of the cuts needed.
The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says the public are increasingly angry with the austerity measures and feel that the impact is beyond the value of the bailout.
At least 80,000 people were reported to have joined demonstrations in Athens, with another 20,000 protesting in Thessaloniki.
Running battles with police continued in the capital until late on Sunday, although no new clashes were reported after the vote.
Protesters hurled flares and chunks of marble torn up from the square. Some had tried to break through a cordon of riot police around the parliament.
Several historic buildings, including cafes and cinemas, were set alight.
Ioannis Simantiras, 34, said the protesters were boxed in by police.
"Nobody could get away from the gas," he told the BBC.
"When it engulfed everybody, and everybody was choking the police drew back and opened up a corridor for us away from the parliament - that's when everybody made a run for it."
Violent protests also spread to other Greek towns and cities, including the islands of Corfu and Crete, according to state TV.
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the question was not "whether some salaries and pensions will be curtailed, but whether we will be able to pay even these reduced wages and pensions".
"When you have to choose between bad and worse, you will pick what is bad to avoid what is worse," he said.
Greece needs the bailout the make its next repayment on its huge sovereign debt.
If it cannot make the payment, it will default and in effect become bankrupt.
Analysts say such a "chaotic default" could endanger Europe's financial stability and possibly even leading to a break-up of the eurozone.
As part of the deal with international lenders, Greece will also be able to write off 100bn euros of privately held debt.
Earlier this week several ministers from the coalition government, including two from Pasok, quit in protest at the measures.
The leader of the far-right Laos party, the junior coalition member, announced his 15 deputies would not back the austerity measures.
George Karatzaferis complained that the measures amounted to Greeks being "humiliated" by Germany.
The eurozone bloc has demanded "strong political assurances" that the packages will be implemented regardless of which party wins a general election due in April.
http://www.bbc.co.uk
American singer and actress Whitney Houston has died in Los Angeles at the age of 48.
Police said she died in her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where she had been staying as a guest.
Houston was one of the most celebrated female singers of all time, with hits including I Will Always Love You and Saving All My Love For You.
But her later career was overshadowed by substance abuse and her turbulent marriage to singer Bobby Brown.
Ms Houston died on the eve of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. She had been due to attend a pre-awards party in the Beverly Hilton Hotel organised by her long-time mentor and record industry executive Clive Davis on Saturday evening.
He went ahead with the party, holding a minute's silence and telling the audience he was "personally devastated by the loss of someone who has meant so much to me for so many years".
The hotel was already teeming with reporters and celebrities when police received an emergency call from hotel security at 15.43 local time (23:43 GMT), Beverly Hills police spokesman Mark Rosen told the BBC.
Police were despatched, but paramedics who were already at the hotel because of the party attempted to resuscitate her, without success. She was pronounced dead at 15:55.
Mr Rosen said Ms Houston's entourage - comprising family members, friends and co-workers - had taken over much of the fourth floor of the hotel.
"There were a number of people on scene who were able to positively identify Ms Houston for us," he said, adding that her next of kin have been informed of her death.
Police investigators inspected the scene before Ms Houston's body was moved from the hotel to the coroner's office for an autopsy.
While the cause of death is unclear, Mr Rosen said there were "no obvious signs of criminal intent".
The US celebrity website TMZ.com reported that Ms Houston had been partying heavily on both Thursday and Friday nights.
She briefly took the microphone and performed a song while out in Hollywood on Thursday, and was seen drinking and chatting loudly with friends in the hotel bar on Friday, according to TMZ.
'Finest voice'
Houston's background was steeped in soul and gospel music.
Her mother was gospel singer Cissy Houston, she was cousin to singer Dionne Warwick and goddaughter to Aretha Franklin.
"I just can't talk about it now," Ms Franklin said in a short statement. "It's so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn't believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen."
Having grown up in New Jersey, Houston began singing in church and then in the night clubs of New York, and was a model before being signed by Arista Records.
At the height of her career in the 1980s and 90s she won many awards and enjoyed several number one singles and albums.
Artists from Mariah Carey to Christina Aguilera have tried to emulate her bravura performances, but none of them were as good as the original, music critic Paul Gambaccini told the BBC.
Houston also enjoyed success acting in blockbuster films such as The Bodyguard and Waiting to Exhale.
In recent years drug use took its toll on the star and her voice - once acknowledged as one of the finest in pop music - was badly damaged.
"She did have it all, but the record is there of the decline into drug use and the damage done from drug use," said Gambaccini.
Her marriage to Brown, with whom she had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, ended in divorce in 2007. The marriage had been a tempestuous one, with allegations of domestic abuse as well as drug addiction.
"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy,'' Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in a 2002 interview.
Ms Houston was strongly linked to the Grammys - having won six awards herself over the years. Organisers of Sunday's ceremony said she would be remembered in a special tribute by singer Jennifer Hudson.
Civil rights activist Rev Al Sharpton said that on the morning of the Grammys, "the world should pause and pray for the memory of a gifted songbird".
Country singer Dolly Parton - who wrote one one of her most memorable hits, I Will Always Love You - said in a statement: "Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston."
"I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song, and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, 'Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed'."
http://www.bbc.co.uk
