World

KIEV — Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich called for an emergency session of parliament to end political crisis and violent unrest, in a sign he might be ready to soften his hardline stance and strike a compromise.

Yanukovich was due to hold talks on Thursday with opposition leaders including heavyweight boxer-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko, and anti-government demonstrators in the capital agreed to a truce with police until 8:00pm (1800 GMT) pending the outcome.

The parliamentary website said the special session would be held on Tuesday.

Underlining the level of mistrust between the government and opposition, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov accused protesters of trying to stage a coup d’etat, and dismissed the possibility of an early presidential election to resolve the standoff.

“All those who support this coup should say clearly, ‘Yes, we are for the overthrow of the legitimate authorities in Ukraine’, and not hide behind peaceful protesters,” Azarov said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“A genuine attempt at a coup d’etat is being carried out,” Russian news agency Interfax quoted him as saying.

Azarov told Reuters the government had no plans to introduce a state of emergency: “We don’t see the need for tough and extreme measures at the moment... But don’t put the government into an impasse,” he said.

“People should not think that the government lacks available resources to put an end to this. It is our constitutional right and obligation to restore order in the country.”

The protests against Yanukovich began in November, when he pulled out of signing a free trade deal with the European Union in favour of closer economic ties with former Soviet overlord Russia.

The unrest has swollen in recent weeks, and turned violent on Sunday when hard-core radicals broke away from the main protest area in the capital Kiev and clashed violently with riot police.

Three people have been killed on the side of protesters — two of them from gunshot wounds — and more than 150 police have been injured.

Outside the capital, thousands stormed the regional administration headquarters in Rivne in western Ukraine on Thursday, breaking down doors and demanding the release of people detained in the unrest there, UNIAN news agency reported.

Alarm abroad

The turmoil has caused alarm abroad, and on Thursday German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed anger over the Ukraine government’s crackdown on protesters.

“We are greatly worried and not only worried, but also outraged at the way laws have been pushed through that call these freedoms into question,” she told a news conference.

But Merkel added that it would be wrong for Europe to respond to the violence with sanctions at this stage.

French President Francois Hollande called on Ukrainian authorities to “rapidly seek dialogue”.

A European Commission spokesman said Yanukovich had spoken to President Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday and assured him he was ready to maintain political dialogue and saw no need to impose a state of emergency in Ukraine.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev urged the presidents of Russia and the United States to help broker negotiations, and said Ukraine was facing a possible “catastrophe”.

In what could constitute the first signs of a willingness to compromise, Yanukovich told parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Rybak that the “situation must be settled immediately”.

Rybak said the proposed emergency session of parliament could consider the opposition’s call for Azarov’s government to step down.

Rybak added that “questions linked to laws passed by parliament” could be discussed - apparently a reference to sweeping anti-protest laws rammed through parliament last week by Yanukovich loyalists.

Those laws served to boost mass demonstrations on the streets of Kiev at the weekend, and the opposition is demanding they be repealed.

The new round of talks between Yanukovich and Klitschko, former economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk and far-right nationalist Oleh Tyahnibok had been due to begin at 3:00pm, but were delayed at the last minute.

In an initial round of talks on Wednesday, Yanukovich refused to make any real concessions to opposition leaders’ demands for the dismissal of his government and repeal of the anti-protest laws.

SEOUL — South Korean regulators Wednesday vowed harsh corporate penalties for data theft, as angry customers swamped credit card offices for a third day after 20 million people had their financial information stolen.

“If an incident like this happens again, the company in question will be shut and its executives will no longer be able to work in this industry,” Shin Je-yoon, the head of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), told reporters.

Shin was reacting to South Korea’s largest-ever leak of private financial data that involved three credit card companies and at least 20 million clients — out of a national population of 50 million.

Credit card usage is particularly high in South Korea where the average adult has four or five cards.

The data was stolen by an employee from personal credit ratings firm Korea Credit Bureau who once worked as a temporary consultant at the three firms. He was arrested earlier this month.

The stolen data included names, social security numbers, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, home addresses, credit card numbers and even personal credit ratings.

Angry customers

Since Monday more than two million victims have cancelled their credit cards permanently or requested new ones.

“Now all my personal data is out there, including my home and office addresses and phone numbers and even my annual income and how many times I was behind on credit card payments in the past,” said Grace Choi, a Seoul office worker.

“I’m more than angry. I’ll join a class action suit if there is one,” she said.

Choi was one of hundreds of Lotte Card customers who packed the company’s branch in downtown Seoul to cancel their cards and request new ones.

Most waited for hours, berating harried staff who had been tasked with fielding complaints.

“I came here because their call centres were constantly engaged yesterday,” said Won Jong-hee, a Seoul housewife.

“They say there are some 500 people in line before me and I have to wait seven hours...this is ridiculous,” she said.

All special call centres run by the credit card firms were busy and some of their websites could not be accessed due to heavy traffic.

All three announced extended operating hours and vowed to remain open on weekends to handle cancellations.

Shin said the FSC would devise harsher punishments and heavier financial penalties on companies and their executives for future security breaches.

“For instance, we are thinking of about 5 billion won [$4.6 million] in fines, or even up to 1 per cent of their total sales,” he said.

The companies involved in the latest data leak — KB Kookmin Card, Lotte Card and NH Nonghyup Card — will face “the highest level of punishment legally possible”, he said, suggesting a possible three-month business suspension.

The companies would be banned from accepting new customers and offering cash advance services to existing clients during the suspension.

Shin sought to quell public concerns, saying the stolen data in the latest case had not been resold to a third party.

He also promised that the credit card firms would be forced to make good on a commitment to fully compensate clients for any financial loss resulting from the theft.

Many major South Korean companies have seen customers’ data leaked in recent years, either by hacking attacks or their own employees.

An employee of Citibank Korea was arrested last month for stealing the personal data of 34,000 customers.

In 2012, two South Korean hackers were arrested for stealing the data of 8.7 million customers at the nation’s second-biggest mobile operator.

In November 2011 Seoul’s top games developer Nexon saw the personal information of 13 million users of its popular online game MapleStory stolen by hackers.

In July the same year, personal data from 35 million users of Cyworld — the South’s social networking site — was stolen by hackers.

KIEV — Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich met opposition leaders on Wednesday in an attempt to defuse street violence in which three people were killed overnight, but tension remained high as his prime minister branded anti-government protesters “terrorists”.

The talks, the first concrete move towards negotiating an end to two months of unrest, ended after about three hours. But there was no immediate word from the presidency. Opposition leaders said they would give a report on their talks later to their supporters rallying on central Kiev’s Independence Square.

Two of the dead men perished from bullet wounds, Ukraine’s general prosecutor said, and the third died after plunging from the top of Dynamo football stadium while fighting with police.

They were the first protest-related deaths since the crisis erupted last November after Yanukovich ditched a trade deal with the European Union in favour of financial aid from Soviet-era overlord Russia to prop up Ukraine’s ailing economy.

The protesters, inflamed by news of the deaths, faced off again with riot police, whom they have battled in bloody clashes near the government headquarters since Sunday night.

Though repelled by forays of baton-wielding riot police, they continued to return to the spot, setting ablaze tyres and sending clouds of black smoke wafting into police lines.

Fifty people were detained overnight and 29 of them were officially charged with taking part in mass unrest, police said. A total of 167 police have been injured. There was no word on the number of civilians injured.

‘Against bloodshed’

Before going into the talks with boxer-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko, former economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk and far-right nationalist Oleh Tyahnibok, Yanukovich issued a statement deploring the overnight loss of life.

Urging people not to heed the calls of “political radicals”, Yanukovich said: “I am against bloodshed, against the use of force, against inciting enmity and violence.”

Yanukovich has so far stood firm against opposition demands for the dismissal of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov’s government and the prosecution of the interior minister, whom the protesters hold responsible for heavy-handed police tactics.

The meeting with Yanukovich marked a small victory for the three leaders who had sought his direct participation in talks.

But, with radical protesters slipping out of their control and ignoring their pleas for non-violent action, it seemed unlikely opposition leaders would be satisfied with a repetition of appeals from Yanukovich to rein in the demonstrators.

Taking a tough line that may still foreshadow a big police crackdown, Azarov told a cabinet meeting: “Terrorists from the ‘Maidan’ (Independence Square) seized dozens of people and beat them. I am officially stating that these are criminals who must answer for their action.”

He blamed opposition leaders for inciting “criminal action” by backing the anti-government protests, which he said destabilised Ukraine, a large country of 46 million people.

The Kiev demonstrations turned more violent on Sunday after harsher police tactics and the introduction of sweeping anti-protest legislation which the opposition says paved the way for a police state in the former Soviet republic.

Though hundreds of people continue a peaceful protest in an encampment on Independence Square, a smaller group of hard-core radicals have now effectively hijacked the movement by attacking police with petrol bombs, fireworks and cobblestones. Police have replied with rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas.

Azarov said that police deployed on the streets did not possess firearms and the interior ministry has denied that police have used guns during the crisis.

US revokes visas

In a move underlining Washington’s disapproval of Ukraine’s handling of the protests, the US embassy in Kiev said it had revoked the visas of several Ukrainians linked to police violence against the demonstrators in November and December.

It did not name the officials but said it was considering further action against those responsible for the current violence.

The European Union called on Ukraine’s government and opposition to “engage in a genuine dialogue”.

“I strongly condemn the violent escalation of events in Kiev overnight leading to casualties. The reported deaths of several protesters are a source of extreme worry,” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the EU could also take action against Ukraine after reports of the overnight deaths.

With the opposition calling for a fresh rally on Wednesday, many shops, businesses and bank branches said they were closing early out of fear of more unrest.

Even as Yanukovich and opposition leaders met, black-helmeted riot police launched another operation to push back protesters, using an armoured personnel carrier.

But the police operation stopped well short of Independence Square, crucible of the so-called “Euro-Maidan” protests.

Wednesday’s violence erupted ironically as Ukraine marked ‘National Unification Day’ — the day in 1919 which brought together that part of the country that had been under Russian rule with that which had been in the Austro-Hungarian empire.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — Pakistani fighter jets pounded militant positions overnight in the country’s northwest following a Taliban bombing campaign against security forces, military officials and residents said Tuesday. The strikes are likely to hamper the government’s efforts to hold peace talks with the militant group.

Also Tuesday, a roadside car bomb hit a bus of Shiite pilgrims returning from Iran, killing 20 and wounding over 30, in restive Baluchistan province, said a top security official.

There were conflicting claims about who was killed in the airstrikes which took place in North Waziristan, a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban as well as other militant groups.

A military official said the strikes targeted militants and killed 25 of them. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

But at least two residents reached by telephone in North Waziristan said civilians were among those killed in the airstrikes. They said many residents slept in the open out of fear their homes might be hit.

“How would the jet fighters know who is living where and who is a militant and who is a civilian in the dark of the night,” said Habib Dawar who lives in Mir Ali, one of the main towns in North Waziristan.

The area where airstrikes occurred is remote and dangerous for journalists to access, making it impossible to independently verify the conflicting casualty claims.

The overnight strikes came after two days of attacks claimed by the Pakistani Taliban that killed 34 security personnel. On Sunday, a bomb planted in a vehicle killed 26 troops inside an army compound in the northwest just before their convoy was to head into North Waziristan. Then on Monday, a suicide bomber killed 13 people including eight security personnel in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital Islamabad.

The violence has put pressure on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to show he’s doing something to address the violence that has plagued Pakistan for years. Sharif has repeatedly expressed his desire to negotiate with militants instead of using military force to subdue them, but so far the Pakistani Taliban have shown little desire to negotiate with Sharif’s government.

The Pakistani military in recent years has carried out several offensives against the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. But airstrikes like the ones hitting North Waziristan late Monday and Tuesday morning are considered rare for that area.

Pakistani intelligence officials say the strike killed at least five fighters in the village of Hamzoni, while four others were killed in a nearby Tappi village. They said 13 people killed in a mosque near the town of Mir Ali were believed to be Uzbek fighters.

The officials said that Adnan Rasheed, a top commander of Tehreek-e-Taliban, which is the formal name of the Pakistani Taliban, narrowly escaped one of the strikes. The intelligence officials also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

But angry residents insisted that civilians were also among the dead. One resident, Yar Mohamad, said women and children were among those killed.

A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Shahidullah Shahid, warned that they would be compelled to target the families of government and army officials if the authorities continued such strikes. He said no Taliban fighters were killed in the strikes.

Meanwhile, Baluchistan’s top security official Asad Gilani said a roadside car bomb hit a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims killing 20 people, including women, children and four paramilitary troops. He said the troops were escorting the Shiites’ convoy. He said 31, including women, children and members of the security forces, were wounded by the bomb and subsequent fire.

Police officer Mohammad Aslam says the bomber detonated explosives planted in a car along the road when the convoy of buses passed by in the Dren Garh area of Mastung district. Dren Garh is some 60 kilometers west of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.

Blame is likely to fall on Islamist militants, some of whom consider Shiites heretics and have claimed attacks on the sect in the past. Ethnic nationalist insurgents also operate in Baluchistan.

BANGKOK — Thailand Tuesday declared a 60-day state of emergency in Bangkok and surrounding areas to tackle mass protests aimed at overthrowing the government, but ruled out using force to end the rallies.

The move follows weeks of mass demonstrations that have paralysed parts of the capital and sparked several bouts of deadly violence, including grenade attacks and shootings.

The last time a state of emergency was imposed in Bangkok, to deal with opposition protests against the previous government in 2010, dozens of people were killed in a bloody military crackdown.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said there was no plan to give the army a leading role under the decree, which will come into force from Wednesday.

“That’s why we’re focusing on the police force, to avoid violence like in 2010,” she told reporters. “The authorities will start with negotiations.”

Yingluck is under intense pressure from demonstrators to step down after more than two months of street protests aimed at ousting her elected government and installing an unelected “people’s council”.

They accuse her of being a puppet for her brother Thaksin Shinawatra, a controversial tycoon-turned-politician who was ousted as premier in a military coup in 2006 and who lives in Dubai to avoid jail for a corruption conviction.

Yingluck’s supporters have accused the protesters of trying to provoke another coup.

It was not immediately clear how the government would implement the emergency decree, which enables authorities to impose a curfew, ban public gatherings of more than five people, detain suspects for 30 days without charge and censor media.

“We will not use force. We have no policy to disperse them (the protesters) and we haven’t announced a curfew yet,” said Labour Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, who will oversee its implementation.

Yingluck has called an election for February 2 but the main opposition party is boycotting the vote.

‘We will not stop’

The demonstrators have staged a self-styled “shutdown” of Bangkok since January 13, erecting roadblocks and rally stages at several main intersections, although their number has steadily fallen.

A defiant protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban — who faces an insurrection charge in connection with the protests, but has not been detained by police — vowed to keep up the rallies despite the state of emergency.

“We’ve been protesting for almost three months with no weapons and empty hands,” he said. “We will not stop.”

Dozens of people were wounded and one killed in grenade attacks by unknown assailants on opposition rallies on Friday and Sunday.

There have also been violent clashes between police and protesters storming state offices.

“You could see the emergency decree as a sign the government is a bit desperate in trying to control the violence of the last few days,” said Pavin Chachavalpongpun, associate professor at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Japan’s Kyoto University.

He said it was unclear if protesters would respect the new rules.

“It could go either way, but if you believe that they want to incite violence to create the conditions for an intervention (by the military) then they are more likely to try to push things further and defy the emergency decree,” he said.

The kingdom has been periodically rocked by political bloodshed since Thaksin’s overthrow.

The latest protests were triggered by a failed amnesty bill that could have allowed him to return without going to prison.

Thaksin has strong electoral support in northern Thailand thanks to his policies to help the rural poor, but he is reviled by many southerners, middle class and members of the royalist establishment.

Mass rallies by his “Red Shirts” supporters in 2010 sparked street violence that ended in a bloody crackdown by soldiers firing live rounds and backed by armoured vehicles. More than 90 people were killed and nearly 1,900 injured.

Suthep, who was deputy premier at the time, faces a murder charge linked to those deaths, as does the then-prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The military, traditionally a staunch supporter of the anti-Thaksin establishment, has shown signs of reluctance to play a significant role in handling the current protests, saying it wants to remain neutral.

But the army chief has also refused to rule out another coup.

BRUSSELS — EU foreign ministers Monday urged Ukraine’s government to annul legislation curbing the right to protest and deplored the violence in Kiev sparked by its “repressive package” of measures.

The laws rushed through parliament last week “significantly restrict... Ukrainian citizens’ fundamental rights of association, media and the press”, the ministers said in a statement issued after a regular monthly meeting.

The Kiev government must “ensure that these developments are reversed and that its legislation is brought (into) line with Ukraine’s European and international commitments”, they said.

EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton, who chaired the meeting, said Ukraine had been added to the agenda of the talks as all were “very concerned by the legislation”.

“It is absolutely vital that all sides engage in dialogue,” Ashton told a closing press conference.

Asked about reports that Washington was considering sanctions against Kiev and whether the European Union would take that course, Ashton was guarded in her reply.

“The US has been talking about what efforts it can make to support people in Ukraine,” she noted, while the EU continued to press the government to meet its commitments to its own people.

An offer to Ukraine to sign an “association accord” with the EU — ditched by President Viktor Yanukovych at the last moment in November under Russian pressure which triggerd mass protests — was still open, the foreign ministers noted.

The EU “remains committed to Ukraine’s political association and economic integration” and to signing the agreement “as soon as Ukraine is ready”, the statement said.

In Kiev meanwhile, radical opposition protesters battled police in new clashes after bloody fighting Sunday left more than 200 people hurt.

The clashes, the worst in Kiev in recent times, marked a spiralling of tensions after two months of demonstrations since Yanukovych dropped the EU deal.

A special commission set up by the Ukrainian leader was due to meet representatives of the opposition on Monday for emergency talks but it was unclear if this could help ease the crisis.

Going into their meeting, EU foreign ministers said the Ukrainian government was clearly at fault.

The curbs on protests amounted to the “most solid package of repressive laws that I have seen enacted by a European parliament in decades”, said Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt.

“I think what happened... was a consequence of that package of repression,” he said.

“I absolutely deplore the violence that occurred,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said, adding: “I believe it is a mistake to have” introduced the protest restrictions.

The fresh tensions in Ukraine come as the EU prepares for what is expected to be a difficult summit later this month with Russia.

EU ties with Moscow have been fraught, with President Vladmir Putin widely blamed for sinking the EU association pact with Ukraine, a former Soviet state, as part of efforts to undercut Brussels’ influence in Eastern Europe. 

BERLIN, Germany — The US intelligence service will continue to spy on foreign governments, President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast Saturday, although he assured Chancellor Angela Merkel that he would not let intrusive surveillance harm their relationship.

The frank admission comes a day after Obama curtailed the reach of mass US National Security Agency phone surveillance sweeps, but said bulk collection of data would go on to protect America from terrorists.

In Friday’s long-awaited speech aimed at quelling international furore over the widespread eavesdropping revealed by Edward Snowden, Obama also said he had halted spy taps on friendly world leaders.

But Obama told German television ZDF’s heute-journal that intelligence gathering on foreign governments will continue.

“Our intelligence agencies, like German intelligence agencies and every intelligence agency out there, will continue to be interested in the government intentions of countries around the world. That’s not going to change,” he told heute-journal.

“And there is no point in having an intelligence service if you are restricted to the things that you can read in The New York Times or Der Spiegel.

“The truth of the matter is that by definition the job of intelligence is to find out: Well, what are folks thinking? What are they doing?”, he said.

Nevertheless, Obama said he would not allow the surveillance to harm his relationship of “friendship and trust” with Merkel.

“I don’t need and I don’t want to harm that relationship by a surveillance mechanism that somehow would impede the kind of communication and trust that we have,” he said.

“And so what I can say is: as long as I’m president of the United States, the chancellor of Germany will not have to worry about this,” he added.

Obama pledged on Friday that his country’s National Security Agency (NSA) would not routinely spy on leaders of America’s closest allies, following global outrage at revelations of massive electronic eavesdropping.

Germany has been incensed to learn that the NSA was carrying out widespread spying, including listening in on Merkel’s mobile phone conversations.

The NSA allegations were especially damaging in Germany due to sensitivity over mass state spying on citizens by the Stasi secret police in the former communist East.

Norbert Roettgen, head of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee and a member of Merkel’s CDU Party, said Obama’s comments were “technical” and didn’t respond to “the real problem” of “transatlantic divergence” on matters of security and freedoms.

Germany’s confidence in Washington will not be restored unless “we sign an accord to protect, in a way that is judicially binding, the data of all citizens”, German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said in comments run by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday.

Efforts by Berlin to introduce a “no-spy agreement” with the US have so far fallen on deaf ears.

Obama is scheduled to visit Brussels on March 26 for an EU-US summit when the issue is likely to be broached by his European counterparts.

The European Union said Friday that Obama’s commitment to reform phone data collection was a step in the right direction, but called on the US president to enshrine the pledge in law.

“I agree with President Obama: More work will be needed in future. I look forward to seeing these commitments followed by legislative action,” said EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding

KIEV — Police and protesters clashed in the centre of the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Sunday after 200,000 massed for an opposition rally in a show of defiance against strict new curbs on protests.

The bloody clashes left over two dozen injured and further raised tensions in the almost two month-standoff between the opposition and President Viktor Yanukovych, which has seen protesters seize control of the centre of Kiev.

Police used tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon in a bid to disperse the hundreds of people who sought to storm police cordons near the Verkhovna Rada parliament in the capital, witnesses and AFP correspondents said.

Some demonstrators rocked police buses outside the Verkhovna Rada and set two of them on fire while the air filled with the stench of tear gas used against them.

Police said it was not aware of water cannon being deployed against the protesters, saying a fire-fighting truck was used to put down the bus fire.

Their faces covered by scarves or balaclavas, many of the protesters wielded sticks or even chains. They were met by helmeted riot police equipped with shields.

At least nine protesters were hurt and ambulances had a hard time getting through to the scene, an AFP correspondent reported. Police said 20 officers were hurt and 10 hospitalised.

The flames from the blazing police bus lit up the evening sky while the thud of smoke bombs and stun grenades echoed around.

In what amounted to a pitched battle, the protesters threw stones and sought to penetrate police lines whenever the tear gas and smoke cleared.

Opposition leaders including former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko and Arseniy Yatsenyuk denounced violence and called on the protesters to refrain from the use of force but their calls were ignored.

They also urged the president to call off the police.

“I call on President Yanukovych: find it in yourself not to repeat the fate of [Nicolae] Ceausescu and [Muammar] Qadhafi,” said the boxer turned politician, referring to the slain Romanian and Libyan dictators.

He urged the president to “call early elections so that the situation does not get any worse”.

Amid the chaos, Klitschko was sprayed with powder from a fire extinguisher leaving his eyes irritated, and face and clothes covered in white powder.

New mass rally mobilises 200,000

Earlier, some 200,000 people had filled Independence Square in central Kiev for a new mass rally against Yanukovych.

But protesters expressed frustration at the main rally over the lack of a clear programme from the opposition leaders after almost two months of protests over Yanukovych’s decision to ditch a pact with the EU under Russian pressure.

The opposition called the rally on Independence Square after Yanukovych on Friday signed off on tough new legislation banning nearly all forms of protest.

The new laws allow the authorities to jail those who blockade public buildings for up to five years and permit the arrest of protesters who wear masks or helmets.

Other provisions ban the dissemination of “slander” on the Internet and introduce the term “foreign agent” to be applied to non-governmental groups that receive foreign funding.

Many of the demonstrators at the rally wore pots and colanders on their heads while others sported ski, medical and carnival masks to mock the new legislation.

‘Politicians have not met expectations’

At the height of the protests last month, hundreds of thousands took to the streets calling for the president’s resignation and early polls.

In a sign of the protest movement’s growing impatience, the opposition leaders were jeered at during the main rally for their perceived inability to mount a stronger challenge to Yanukovych.

“Unfortunately, they have not answered a question about a main leader,” protester Ruslan Koshevarov said at the rally.

“There’s disappointment, the politicians have not met our expectations.”

Yanukovych’s arch nemesis Yulia Tymoshenko remains in jail, while the protest leadership appears riven by rivalries ahead of presidential election next year.

Critics say Yanukovych has followed in the footsteps of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who pushed through similar laws after returning to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012 amid huge protests against his decade-long rule.

In a sign of tensions, the president on Friday dismissed his chief of staff Sergiy Lyovochkin and will skip this week’s prestigious economic forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.