Minsk  - Thousands marched against Belarus' authoritarian regime on Wednesday, as opposition groups held rare public gatherings throughout the former Soviet republic.

More than 4,000 demonstrators gathered in the capital Minsk, some carrying the flag of the European Union, banners proclaiming "Independence!" and the banned red-white-red flag of 1918 Belarus.

The marches came on a semi-official Belarusian holiday known as Will Day that marks the short-lived independent Belarusian republic formed in 1918, and destroyed by invading Soviet troops months later.

Amsterdam  - Eight years after so-called "polder model" politics was officially carried to its grave in the Netherlands, the economic crisis has revived the typically Dutch socio-political tradition of compromise and pragmatism.

Wednesday the labour unions and employee organisations deliberated on the government's proposal for measures to fight the economic crisis.

Washington, Mar. 25: Republican Senator John McCain''s daughter, Meghan has revealed that she is a great fan of President Barack Obama and his policies.

She told CNN''s "Larry King Live" Tuesday night, that her support was for her father''s campaign opponent, President Obama.

"He''s our president and when the election was over and when President Obama won, all negative feelings were gone," McCain said on the CNN show. "I support the president."

New Delhi, Mar 25: The Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) will announce the seat-sharing arrangement with its new allies, the Communist Part of India (CPI), The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Wednesday for the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Orissa.

"The joint candidate list will be published tomorrow," senior BJD MP Pyari Mohan Mohapatra told reporters Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.

Johannesburg - Health Minister Barbara Hogan called on the South African government to apologize for refusing the Dalai Lama a visa to attend a peace conference, local news reported.

"Just the very fact that this government has refused entry to the Dalai Lama is an example of a government that is dismissive of human rights," SAPA news agency quoted Hogan as saying.

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday said that there should be no more severance payments or bonuses to executives of French firms who have performed badly.

"There must be no more 'golden handshakes'. There must be no more bonuses or rewarding of free shares or stock options in a company that receives state aid, that undertakes massive job cuts or resorts to putting large numbers of its employees on short-time work," Sarkozy said in an address in the northern city of Saint Quentin.