Haiti

Students, doctors protest president

Medical students and doctors marched in a protest against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as a radio station reported that the death toll rose to eight from a shooting at an anti-government march earlier in the week.

The march Wednesday, part of a wave of anti-government demonstrations that have roiled the Caribbean nation since September, drew about 2,000 people.

The nation has been in turmoil since Aristide’s Lavalas Family party swept 2000 elections that some observers said were flawed.

Guinea

Longtime leader claims re-election victory

Guinea’s ailing President Lansana Conte was declared the victor in presidential elections boycotted by this West African nation’s opposition, securing a landslide victory with more than 95 percent of the vote, according to results released Thursday.

The lone challenger, Mamadou Bhoye Barry, won just over 4 percent of the vote in Sunday’s poll, Territorial Administration Minister Moussa Solano announced.

The victory gives Conte, who has ruled this West African nation since a 1984 coup, seven years more in power.

Spain

Militants reportedly planned attacks

Two suspected Basque militants arrested for plotting to bomb a Madrid train station on Christmas Eve had also intended to attack a railway line in northeast Spain, part of a plot to spread panic during the holiday, media reported Thursday.

Police arrested the two men Wednesday, uncovering a 44-pound bomb already set on a train heading from San Sebastian to Madrid, set to explode in the capital’s bustling Chamartin station.

The two alleged members of the Basque terror group ETA were Gorka Loran, 25, and Garikoitz Arruarte, 24.