France, Russia, Others Still Oppose War

French President Jacques Chirac said Friday that France would oppose a new United Nations resolution that would allow the United States and Britain to administer postwar Iraq.

Speaking at a European Union summit, Chirac said he would "not accept" a resolution that "would legitimize the military intervention (and) would give the belligerents the powers to administer Iraq.

"That would justify the war after the event," Chirac told reporters.

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Friday the U.S.-led war on Iraq could destabilize the former Soviet republics.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also said war would impede efforts to resolve the standoff over North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program.

Police clashed with 30,000 anti-war demonstrators Friday outside the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, setting off an exchange of gunfire that killed two people and injured dozens. Similar outrage over the U.S.-led assault on Iraq spilled into streets in cities around the world.

The protest in San'a, Yemen, was the most violent there since price-hike riots six years ago.

Hundreds of police ringing the embassy tried to stop the crowd with tear gas and water cannons before firing automatic rifles into the air. Protesters kept up their push, picking up stones and tear gas canisters and hurling them at police lines. Crowds shouted, "No American and no British Embassy on Yemeni land!" and "Death to America! Death to Israel!"

Riot police fired rubber bullets at a smaller crowd in Bahrain, while water cannons and tear gas were used in Egypt and Jordan.

In Cairo, 10,000 people chanted anti-U.S. slogans as they gathered under tight security after Friday's weekly prayers.

"Islam is being raped. I feel terrible," said Um-Mohammed, an Egyptian woman demonstrating outside the venerable Al-Azhar mosque.

At the EU summit, British Prime Minister Tony Blair had urged his 14 colleagues to support a new U.N. resolution to authorize a post-Saddam Hussein "civil authority in Iraq."

Chirac said he had held a one-on-one meeting with Blair on the margin of the EU summit to discuss "the way ahead" in rebuilding their relations within the EU and between one another.

"Mr. Blair and I shared that same spirit," Chirac said.

He said he told Blair that while France opposed the war, it "had not released any kind of criticism against Britain" in recent weeks over British support of Washington.

The French leader said he hoped the war would lead to the "least amount of destruction and lost lives as possible," adding that, in his view, "there was only a minority in favor" of the war in Europe.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, in an address to the lower house of parliament, argued that the Bush administration had exaggerated its support from the "coalition of the willing."

"This coalition is a made-up thing, which in reality only consists of the United States and Britain," Ivanov said.

Aside from Spain and Australia, Ivanov said the coalition members "were either silent or signaled indirectly that they don't oppose such actions."

A foreign occupation of Iraq without permission from the U.N. Security Council would be illegitimate, Ivanov said. But he also told lawmakers the war should not derail the anti-terrorist coalition formed after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Street demonstrations of anger was not confined to the Muslim world.

More than 150,000 people demonstrated in Athens, Greece, and police fired tear gas at small groups of protesters hurling rocks and gasoline bombs at officers guarding the glass-and-marble U.S. Embassy. Ten people were arrested.

A four-hour nationwide strike called in opposition to the war brought Greece to a standstill and helped swell the ranks of demonstrators. Schools and universities closed to let students protest. The strike shut down airports, delaying or canceling dozens of flights. Consumer unions called for a boycott of American products, from clothes to movies.

Demonstrators also took to the streets in Australia, Japan, Malaysia, India, Thailand, China, and other countries across Asia.

In Tokyo, at least 11,000 people took advantage of warm spring weather and a national holiday to march for peace. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi backs U.S. efforts to disarm Saddam Hussein and has promised to provide aid for refugees and help rebuild Iraq after fighting ends.