KIEV, Ukraine – Lawmakers brawled, threw eggs at each other and set off smoke bombs in Ukraine's parliament Tuesday as the legislature erupted into chaos over a vote allowing the Russian navy to keep using a port on the Black Sea.

The Kremlin's influence has surged in Ukraine since the election victory of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, infuriating Ukrainians who resent Moscow's influence, and inflaming the violent passions that plague the politics of the former Soviet republic.

TALLINN, Estonia – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reaffirmed America's defense commitment to Europe Thursday as she joined NATO representatives to discuss the future of U.S. nuclear weapons on the continent.

Clinton was expected to spell out at a private dinner the Obama administration's view of how NATO should pursue the nuclear policy debate, which formally begins in this Baltic seaside capital and is due to climax in November when President Barack Obama and other NATO government leaders gather in Lisbon, Portugal, to endorse a rewriting of the alliance's basic defense doctrine.

BANGKOK – Thai security forces fired into a crowd of anti-government protesters during a clash just outside Bangkok on Wednesday as they tried to keep the Red Shirts from expanding their demonstrations from a base in the capital. One soldier was killed, and at least 18 protesters were hurt.

The troops appeared to be shooting live ammunition as well as rubber bullets in the confrontation along a major road connecting Bangkok with its northern suburbs that security forces had blocked with razor wire.

The Red Shirts, whose protests have paralyzed parts of the capital for weeks in their campaign to bring down a government they view as illegitimate, had announced that they were widening their demonstrations and dared the military to stop them as hundreds headed on motorbikes and pickup trucks to a planned rally in a suburb.