World briefs 3/25/06

Iraqi president is optimistic on Cabinet

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's president issued a highly optimistic report Friday on progress among politicians trying to hammer out the shape of a new unity government. At least 51 more people, including two U.S. soldiers, were reported dead in rampant violence. President Jalal Talabani said the government could be in place for parliamentary approval by the end of the month, though he acknowledged "I am usually a very optimistic person." He spoke to reporters after a fifth round of multiparty talks among the country's polarized political factions.

New protest promised in Belarus despite raid

MINSK, Belarus -- The opposition promised to go ahead with a rally today, even though a police raid on its tent camp showed the regime is not relaxing its hard line against dissent. The U.S. and EU said they will impose sanctions on President Alexander Lukashenko. Helmeted riot police broke up the camp on Minsk's main square before dawn Friday, arresting hundreds of demonstrators who had been part of unprecedented round-the-clock protests in this tightly controlled former Soviet state. Protesters were loaded on to trucks and taken to jail; some who escaped or were freed said they were beaten by police. Opposition supporters holding flowers returned to the square at twilight Friday, but police seized some of them, pushed the rest of the small crowd down the street and prevented pedestrians on their way home from work from walking through the square.

Chirac walks out of EU meeting in protest

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- French President Jacques Chirac was not ready to hear a Frenchman speak English at the EU summit -- he walked out instead. When top business executive Ernest-Antoine Seilliere announced to the meeting of the EU's 25 government leaders that he would "speak in English, the language of business," Chirac had heard enough. Together with French Finance Minister Thierry Breton and Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, Chirac promptly quit the ballroom where European leaders were meeting and returned only after Frenchman Seilliere, the head of the UNICE business lobby, stopped speaking. Typically officials at EU gatherings speak in their native tongue, and their remarks are translated.

-- From wire reports