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Gas station owners and civil servants protest in Athens over fines and job cuts agreed in exchange for a 172 billion dollar bailout for Greece. It is hoped that the deal will avert a chaotic debt default.

Greek petrol station owners and civil servant workers protested on Tuesday against the new package of austerity measures agreed by the government.

The new European Union and International Monetary Fund rescue loan will cost 172 billion dollars.

This is the country's second rescue in less than two years and will allow a bond repayment to be met next month.

The ministers managed to persuade private bondholders to take greater losses and Greece to commit to deep cuts to avert a chaotic Greek default in March.

But the cuts have sparked mass protests in Greece.

According to the new austerity program some 15 thousand civil servants are to be cut in 2012.

The minimum wage, supplemental pensions, are also to be reduced while state entities and organizations are to close down, leaving more workers jobless.

Gas station owners protesting outside the Economy ministry in Athens, called for a reduction of taxes on gasoline and heating oil plus the protection of wages and pensions against further cuts.

The owners also said government was imposing large unsustainable fines on gas stations for the illegal trade of petrol.

[Michalis Kiousis, President, Federation of Gas Stations]:
"These fines are crazy and ridiculous. The fines for every single gas station in 2011 were 380 million euros. We must sell more than half of the gas stations in order to pay these fines. The shortcoming and mistakes of the system cannot be paid by these millions."

Since the first bailout program in 2010, wages, jobs, and bonuses have already been cut in the public sector, causing spending to dive and forcing thousands of businesses...