WORLD IN BRIEF
A U. N. peacekeeper stands guard as officials carry ballots from a polling station in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in the first vote since a revolt in 2004.
(By Joe Raedle -- Getty Images)
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Preval Camp Claims Lead in Haitian Vote
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- A spokesman for former president Rene Preval said Wednesday that unconfirmed early results showed him with a wide lead in the country's presidential race -- even though many ballots were still being carried in from remote polling places by plane, truck and mule.
The claim from Preval's team could not be verified, and the first official results were not expected to be released until 20 percent of the vote was counted, said a spokesman for Haiti's electoral council. Final results might not be available until Friday.
But some polling stations posted unconfirmed local results outside. These showed strong early support for Preval, 63, who is widely supported by Haiti's poor masses. At a large polling center near the huge slum of Cite Soleil, unconfirmed results taped to columns inside showed Preval winning about 90 percent of the votes there.
Across the capital in Petionville, home to many of Haiti's wealthiest citizens as well as the poor Haitians who serve them, Preval took slightly more than 70 percent of the vote at another polling station, according to posted results.
Tuesday's election was the first since the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a bloody revolt two years ago.
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ASIA
· KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan hailed decisions by the United States, Russia and Germany to cancel vast debts, including $108 million in U.S. loans made before the 1979 Soviet invasion, but analysts said Kabul will remain dependent on foreign aid for years as it recovers from a quarter-century of war.
· BEIJING -- North Korea will resume six-party talks on its nuclear activities only if the United States drops threatened sanctions, a North Korean official said as talks with Japan over the abductions of Japanese citizens ended in rancor.
EUROPE
· The Church of England has voted to sell its stock in companies "profiting from the illegal occupation" of Palestinian territories by Israel. The measure passed Monday in London by the church's General Synod, and supported by the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, singled out the U.S. firm Caterpillar Inc., which makes bulldozers used by Israel to demolish houses. According to British reports, the church owns about $3.8 million worth of Caterpillar stock.
On Wednesday, the synod voted to commemorate next year's 200th anniversary of Britain's abolition of slavery by apologizing to descendants of slaves for its role in the injustice and to urge governments to fight slavery's modern equivalent: human trafficking.
· SARAJEVO, Bosnia -- Former Bosnian Serb official Momcilo Mandic was charged with aiding war crimes fugitives, abuse of office, fraud and organized crime, the state court said.
AFRICA
· UNITED NATIONS -- The Security Council gave the United States another 30 days to try to resolve the Eritrea-Ethiopia border dispute before considering any U.N. troop redeployment, U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton said.
-- From Staff Reports and News Services
