World briefs 12/22/03

Guinea's leader expected to win boycotted race

CONAKRY, Guinea -- Guinea's longtime leader Lansana Conte was expected to easily win another term as president in elections Sunday after an opposition boycott left a little-known parliamentarian as the only challenger for the post. Voting got off to a slow start in the run-down Atlantic Ocean capital, Conakry, with small numbers of people turning up at polling stations. A government ban on vehicular traffic -- an official effort to avert vote-rigging -- left the city's streets emptier than normal and forced people to walk to the polls. Final results are expected today.

Sudan government, rebels agree to share oil revenue

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The government and rebels have moved a step closer to ending Sudan's 20-year civil war after agreeing on how to divide the country's oil revenue -- a key stumbling block in the peace talks, the chief mediator said Sunday. Lazaro Sumbeiywo told The Associated Press the two sides had agreed in principle on how to share the oil revenue and were working to reach a full agreement on wealth sharing. Yasir Arman, spokesman for the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, or SPLA, said a joint committee was working to finalize a comprehensive wealth sharing agreement "anytime now."

Muslim women march against head scarf ban

PARIS -- Thousands of people, mainly Muslim women shouting "The veil, my choice," marched through Paris on Sunday against presidential proposals to ban Islamic head scarves from public schools and maybe at work, too. The protest, a cry of anguish from a rarely heard section of French society, was the first in Paris against President Jacques Chirac's announcement Wednesday that head scarves and other conspicuous religious symbols, including Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses, should be banned from schools to protect French secularism. Chirac urged parliament to pass the law before the 2004-2005 school year starts in September.

Explosion in eastern Afghanistan kills one

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A bomb ripped through a square lined by restaurants and shops in eastern Afghanistan, killing one man and injuring another, a security official said Sunday. No one claimed responsibility for the explosion late Saturday but officials routinely blame al-Qaida and Taliban forces for attacks in the area. The blast shattered windows in nearby buildings in Talashi square in central Jalalabad, the capital of Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province.The unidentified man died of shrapnel wounds, said Gen. Sayed Aghan Saqib, commander of an Afghan military brigade in the city, which is near the Pakistani border.

-- From wire reports