World briefs for Monday, Jan. 25

AFGHANISTAN

Two NATO soldiers killed

Bomb strikes killed two NATO soldiers, a Briton and a Norwegian, while a rocket attack at the major international military base in southern Afghanistan wounded eight other international troops, officials said on Monday. The violence came three days before a London conference that is expected to focus on a government plan to reintegrate Taliban militants willing to lay down their arms. The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, said the Taliban could be part of a peace agreement if an influx of 37,000 foreign troops succeeds in bringing stability. The latest deaths bring the total of NATO forces killed this month to 37, compared with 23 in January 2009.

FRANCE

A plan for banning veils

A parliamentary panel will recommend on Tuesday that France ban face-covering Muslim veils in public locations such as hospitals and schools, but not in private buildings or on the street, the group's president said. The decision appeared to indicate that the 32-member, multiparty panel had heeded warnings that a full ban would be unfair, possibly unconstitutional, and could even cause trouble in a country where Islam is the second-largest religion. The study began after President Nicolas Sarkozy announced in June that such garb "is not welcome" on French territory. He has since pulled back from committing himself to a full ban. A 2004 law already bans Muslim headscarves in classrooms.

SRI LANKA

Rare presidential election

Sri Lankans began casting ballots in the nation's first peacetime presidential election in three decades, with the two men who ended a long and violent insurgency vying for the post. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, 64, and his former army chief Sarath Fonseka, 59, both claim credit for ending a civil war last May with Tamil Tiger rebels that killed 100,000 people and polarized the South Asian nation of 20 million.