Police are clashing on a downtown Moscow square with demonstrators trying to hold a second day of protests against alleged vote fraud in Russia's parliamentary elections. Hundreds of police had blocked off Triumphal Square on Tuesday evening, then began chasing a demonstrators, seizing some and throwing them harshly into police vehicles. The Interfax news agency reported that among the detained was Boris Nemtsov, a leader of the liberal opposition. Tuesday's rally followed a surprise Monday protest by thousands. Read More

Several thousand people protested Monday night against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his party, which won the largest share of a parliamentary election that observers said was rigged.It was perhaps the largest opposition rally in years and ended with police detaining some of the activists. A group of several hundred marched toward the Central Elections Commission near the Kremlin, but were stopped by riot police and taken away in buses. The total number of those detained was not immediately available. Read More

Seeking to restore confidence in the euro, the leaders of France and Germany called for changes to the European Union treaty so that countries using the euro would face automatic penalities if budget deficits ran too high.Stock prices rose and borrowing costs for European governments dropped sharply. Investors viewed the Franco-German proposal — which will be debated at a European Union summit Friday — as an important first step in an emerging plan to save the euro. Read More

Russians cast their ballots with muted enthusiasm in national parliamentary elections Sunday, a vote that opinion polls indicate could water down the strength of the party led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, despite the government's relentless marginalization of opposition groups. Although Putin and his United Russia party have dominated Russian politics for more than a decade, popular discontent appears to be growing with Putin's strongman style, widespread corruption among officials and the gap between ordinary Russians and the country's floridly super-rich. Read More