Top Story: Despite low turnout and as many as 50 deaths in dozens of Taliban attacks, observers, politicians, and commentators hailed the Afghan election a success. Both incumbent and frontrunner Hamid Karzai and his main rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, claimed victory, in spite of U.S. requests to abstain from calling the election before official results are released, in around two weeks.
For more comprehensive coverage, breaking news and commentary, from Washington and on the ground in Afghanistan, visit the AfPak Channel.
To Watch: China plans to tighten capital requirements on banks to slow a sudden rise in stock prices.
Europe
- The Lockerbie bomber returned from Britain to a hero’s welcome in Libya, accompanied by President Muammar Qaddafi’s son.
- Suicide attacks killed four in Russia’s restive North Caucasus region.
- An opposition party in Germany has called for the removal of the country’s troops from Afghanistan.
- In a book coming out next month, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge says he was pressured to raise the U.S. terror alert level for political reasons.
- The United States plans to close down its “Cash for Clunkers” stimulus plan early, as it has run out of funds.
- Mexico’s anti-kidnapping chief has been suspended after a botched rescue killed four. The country is currently battling a fierce drug war with the cartels.
- Caster Semenya, an 18-year-old South African runner, will take home the 800-meter gold from the Berlin world championships, despite questions over her sex.
- Fighting in Somalia’s restive capital, Mogadishu, escalated, killing 22.
- New reports suggest hundreds of former rebels from Burundi are joining militias in Congo.
- After a series of deadly suicide bombs in Baghdad, officials reconsider the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraqi cities.
- Embattled Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to signal some flexibility on the nuclear issue.
- A delegation of diplomats from North Korea arrived in South Korea to pay condolences on the death of former President Kim Dae-jung, who died this week.
- Fighting between Keren rebels and troops in Myanmar intensified, with the miiltary reclaiming much of the country’s border with Thailand.
- The United States said it planned to keep around 600 special-missions troops in the Philippines, despite calls to move them to Afghanistan.
SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images
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