Police break up protest

Riot police in Georgia’s capital city Tbilisi unleashed water cannons and fired rubber bullets yesterday to try to disperse demonstrators outside the parliament who had tried to storm the building. Nearly 70 people — 39 police and 30 civilians — were treated in hospitals for injuries in the night of clashes. The unrest was sparked by the appearance of Russian legislator Sergei Gavrilov as part of an assembly of legislators from Orthodox Christian countries. Gavrilov has supported independence for the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, over which Georgia lost control in a 2008 war with Russia. He is also a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a figure despised by many Georgians.