Hundreds of demonstrators lit fires and clashed with police in Turkey early Sunday, but the streets were more peaceful following two days of fiercest anti-government protests for years, Reuters reported. Protesters set fires in the Tunali district of the capital Ankara, while riot police fired tear gas and pepper spray to hold back groups of stone-throwing youths near Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's office in Istanbul. Istanbul's central Taksim Square, where the protests have been focused, was quieter after riot police pulled back their armored trucks late on Saturday. The unrest was triggered by protests against government plans to build a replica Ottoman-era barracks to house shops or apartments in Taksim Square. Protests, however, morphed into a larger show of defiance against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).
