World briefs 8/30/04

Attack alleged as cease-fire nears in Sudan

UM HASHAB, Sudan -- This small village of mud and straw huts lay ruined and abandoned Sunday, the ground charred, after residents said Sudanese soldiers attacked with a warplane and helicopters, driving farmers from their homes days before a U.N. deadline to end the violence in the ravaged Darfur region. African Union cease-fire monitors were investigating the claims of the government attack on Um Hashab, which rebel officials said came after Sudanese troops ambushed rebels nearby. The rebels say assaults by the government and Arab militiamen have continued in the past week, the latest on Sunday.

France seeks release of kidnapped journalists

PARIS -- President Jacques Chirac dispatched his foreign minister to the Middle East on Sunday to work for the release of two French reporters abducted in Iraq, vowing to spare no effort to free them from kidnappers demanding the France scrap its ban on Islamic head scarves in state schools. Chirac appealed to the kidnappers with an implicit reminder that France opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. But he did not directly respond to their reported demand that the ban on head scarves and other religious apparel be overturned within 48 hours.

Chechens vote in election to replace president

GROZNY, Russia -- Chechens battered by five years of war, terrorism and misery voted Sunday for a president in an election that the Russian government portrayed as a step toward stability, though critics cried fraud in a ballot that appeared certain to put a Kremlin-favorite in office. Little more than two hours after polls closed, acting Chechen president Sergei Abramov said preliminary results showed Maj. Gen. Alu Alkhanov, the republic's top police official and the Russian government's new choice, had already passed the 50-percent mark needed to win, with final results expected today.

Chocolate may improve blood vessel health

MUNICH, Germany -- There's more good news for chocolate lovers. Scientists have found that eating dark chocolate appears to improve the function of important cells lining the wall of blood vessels for at least three hours. The study, involving 17 healthy young volunteers who agreed to eat a bar of dark chocolate and then get an ultrasound, found that eating dark chocolate seemed to make the blood vessels more flexible, which helps prevent the hardening of the arteries that leads to heart attacks.-- From wire reports

Australian first Iraq invader to face elections

CANBERRA, Australia -- Prime Minister John Howard will become the first of three allied leaders who launched the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to face voters, having announced Sunday that Australians will go to the polls on Oct. 9. The date comes ahead of the U.S. presidential ballot, on Nov. 2, and British elections early next year. Howard, whose conservative coalition comfortably won a third, three-year term in November 2001 -- in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks in the United States -- declared Sunday that trust will be the dominant issue of the election campaign.

Queria calls for halt to Israeli settlements

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia on Sunday called on the world to press Israel to stop building settlements in the West Bank, a day before he was to leave for Cairo for talks about the future of the Gaza Strip. Qureia said the world needs to understand that such construction could doom peace prospects. "If you want a two-state solution [Israel and Palestine], there is no way to reach it without an immediate halt to settlements," he said.

Mayor bets political future on protest march

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico City's leftist mayor led more than 150,000 demonstrators in a march Sunday to protest efforts to impeach him, an issue his supporters say threatens Mexico's political stability and pits "those on the bottom" against "those on top." Protesters brought in by hundreds of buses from nearby states mingled with local supporters of Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leading contender in the 2006 presidential race who critics liken to Hugo Chavez, the populist president of Venezuela.

-- From wire reports