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Ukrainian opposition activists clash with riot police on July 4, 2012 during a protest in Kiev against a new language law. Several people were left covered in blood and broken glass littered the street. The police used tear gas in an apparent bid to bring the situation under control.

Efrem Lukatsky / AP

Opposition protesters spray tear gas against riot police in front of the Ukrainian House in central Kiev on July 4, 2012.

Efrem Lukatsky / AP

Blood is seen on a face of a riot policeman during a clash with opposition protesters in central Kiev on July 4, 2012.

Reuters reports — Police fired teargas and used batons to disperse hundreds of protesters in Kiev on Wednesday and Ukraine's parliament speaker offered to quit after the passing of a law to boost the status of the Russian language in the former Soviet republic.

Protesters, led by opposition members of parliament defending the role of Ukrainian as the only state language, had massed in front of a building where President Viktor Yanukovich was due to hold a press briefing.

"There are millions of us and they cannot pretend that nothing has happened," said Vitali Klitschko, the world heavyweight boxing champion who has founded his own opposition party - Udar (Blow), and took part in Wednesday's protest.

 Read the full story.

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Vitali Klitschko, center, heavyweight boxing champion and leader of Ukrainian political party UDAR, looks at blood on his hand as he walks away after police fired teargas in Kiev on July 4, 2012.

Anatolii Stepanov / Reuters

Riot police block opposition activists during a rally to protest against a Russian language bill in Kiev on July 4, 2012.

Sergey Dolzhenko / EPA

Supporters of Ukrainian opposition parties clash with riot police in downtown Kiev on July 4, 2012.

David Goldman / AP

From left: Ethan Eyman, 20, Marissa Koven, 17, and Adam Wyckoff, 20, sing along during a Yiddish class at Emory University in Atlanta in a photo taken on Nov. 10, 2011 and released on Dec. 21.

The Associated Press reports from ATLANTA:

David Goldman / AP

Elizabeth Friedman, 18, holds her textbook while singing along during a Yiddish class at Emory University.

A group of American college students stands in a semicircle, clapping and hopping on one foot as they sing in Yiddish: "Az der rebe zingt, Zingen ale khsidim!"

"When the rebbe dances, so do all the Hasidim," the lyrics go.

This isn't music appreciation or even a class at a synagogue. It's the first semester of Yiddish at Emory University in Atlanta — one of just a handful of college programs across the country studying the Germanic-based language of Eastern European Jews.

The language came close to dying out after the Holocaust as millions of Yiddish speakers either perished in Nazi concentration camps or fled to other countries where their native tongue was not welcome. Emory and other universities like Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and McGill University in Canada are working to bring the language back, and with it, an appreciation for the rich history of European Jewish culture and art.

"If we want to preserve this, we need to do so actively and consciously," said Miriam Udel, a Yiddish professor at Emory who uses song to teach the language. "The generation that passively knows Yiddish is dying out. There are treasures that need to be preserved because we'll lose access to them if we let Yiddish die." Read the full story.