Lebanese Parliament postpones session as protesters block roads

A Lebanese Parliament session has been postponed after clashes erupted between riot police and protesters demanding an overhaul of the country's political system.

According to Aljazeera, hundreds of demonstrators gathered around the entrances of Beirut's Nejmeh Square early on Tuesday to form a human barrier in a bid to prevent the session, which, they said, failed to address the demands of Lebanon's weeks-long protest movement.

Security forces were heavily deployed in the area, with high walls of barbed wire blocking every road leading to Parliament, and lines of riot police five-men deep both behind and in front of the barricades.

Citing "exceptional conditions in particular security conditions," Adnane Daher, secretary-general of Parliament, said in a statement that the session had been postponed "to a date to be determined later". 

The planned session, which would have been the first since anti-government protests erupted last month, had previously been postponed from November 12 by Nabih Berri, the speaker of Parliament.