The uncertainty over the makeup of Karzai’s administration after the flawed presidential election last year compounds the many problems facing Afghanistan. In the latest violence, gunmen opened fire Sunday on a local government convoy, killing six people, including a district chief. Also, international forces killed two Afghan civilians in separate checkpoint shootings.

Karzai’s spokesman said Sunday that it was not likely the president would have a cabinet in place before a Jan. 28 international conference in London.

– Associated Press

FRANCE

Party leader seeks law on Muslim veil

The head of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party said Sunday that he wants a law to ensure that Muslim women who wear face-covering veils do not acquire French nationality.

Xavier Bertrand, head of the conservative UMP party, said the full veil “is simply a prison for women who wear it” and “will make no one believe” a woman wearing it wants to integrate.

A top UMP lawmaker last week filed legislation to ban the veil, and a parliamentary committee studying the issue for the past six months is to turn in its report by month’s end on whether a law is needed.

Britain’s right-wing U.K. Independence Party called Sunday for a ban on face-covering Muslim veils in public places. But the government says forbidding the veil would violate British values of tolerance.