Ukraine protesters demand parliamentary election

KIEV: Protesters clashed with police near Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday as they sought to force lawmakers to strip em–battled President Viktor Yanu–kovych of a raft of powers, in the latest bid to break months of political deadlock.

Police fired rubber bullets and hurled smoke bombs at protesters who threw stones and set two trucks on fire as they tried to break through heavily fortified police cordons around the parliament building, an Agence France-Presse reporter at the scene said.