This comes a day after the Iraqi parliament approved a crucial election law after weeks of deadlock.

Officials said the law was passed too late for the original intended poll date, 16 January, to be kept to.

Faraj al-Haidari, the head of the electoral commission, said the date would have to be rubberstamped by the presidency council.

The electoral law – which had to be in place at least 90 days before voting – was approved by 141 of the members of parliament.

The election is seen as crucial to strengthening Iraqi democracy and correspondents say a greater delay could have affected US plans for a pullout.

Debate over the electoral law centred around the northern, oil-rich city of Kirkuk whose ethnic profile has changed since the US-led invasion.

On Sunday MPs managed to compromise, agreeing that in such provinces where there were disputes over the electoral roll, the results would be provisional.

They also decided that electoral lists printed on ballot papers would include names of politicians standing for office – as opposed to showing only their political parties.

The UN had warned that it could not guarantee to endorse the poll if the reform bill was not passed.

There are fears that violence may intensify in the r

Source: BBC

Nine ethnic Uighurs have been executed for their involvement in July’s deadly ethnic rioting in China’s northwest Xinjiang region, according to local media.

The executions followed a final review of the verdicts by the supreme people’s court as required by law, the state-run China News Service reported on Monday.

“The first group of nine people who were sentenced to death recently have already been executed in succession, with the approval of the Supreme Court,” Hou Hanmin, a spokeswoman for the Xinjiang government, said.

The nine defendants were accused of committing murder and other crimes during the riots that left nearly 200 people dead.

State media also reported that another 20 people had been charged in relation to the deaths of 18 people in the riots.

Last month, 21 people were convicted for their roles in the unrest, with 12 sentenced to death.

In the worst ethnic violence in the region in decades ethnic Uighurs attacked Han Chinese in the capital after taking to the streets to protest against an earlier attack on Uighur workers at a factory in southern China that left two dead.

Simmering tensions

In September, a series of alleged needle stabbings by Uighurs stoked fresh protests led by Han Chinese.

Dilxat Raxit, a Uighur activist based in Germany, condemned the executions as politically motivated.

“We don’t think they got a fair trial, and we believe this was a political verdict,” Raxit, a spokesman for the World Uighur Congress.

“The United States and the European Union did not put any pressure on China or seek to intervene and for that we are extremely disappointed.”

Energy-rich Xinjiang, strategically located in central Asia, has been struck in recent years by bombings, attacks and riots, which Beijing blames on Uighur separatists.

The estimated eight million Turkic-speaking Uighurs have long complained of religious, political and cultural oppression by Chinese authorities, and tensions have simmered in Xinjiang for years.

Many Uighurs also resent the massive influx of Han Chinese settlers who have in some areas reduced them to a minority in their own land.

Rights groups and Uighur activists have accused Beijing of grossly exaggerating the threat from separatists to justify harsh controls.

Source: Al Jazeera

The governing coalition is believed to have agreed to a number of concessions, ending the deadlock that has existed since June’s parliamentary elections.

Mr Hariri is expected to formally announce the deal shortly.

The BBC’s Natalia Antelava in Beirut says the concessions made by Mr Hariri are believed to give the opposition control of ministries it had been seeking.

Reports say the new arrangement will allow Mr Hariri’s alliance to nominate 15 ministers, with Hezbollah taking 10 portfolios. The remaining five ministers would be picked by President Michel Suleiman.

Disputes

Mr Hariri – who is also backed by the US – led what many described as an anti-Syrian coalition to victory in the elections five months ago.

Syria was a significant political player in neighbouring Lebanon for nearly 30 years until the death of Mr Hariri’s father, Rafik, in 2005.

Saad Hariri has spent the time since then trying to broker a deal with the opposition to join a unity cabinet. But he has faced a number of disputes over details, specifically the division of ministerial portfolios.

One of the sticking points centred on demands by Michel Aoun, a Christian leader and Hezbollah ally who is seeking to keep the telecommunications ministry.

It is not yet clear if his demands are among the concessions agreed to by Mr Hariri.

Our correspondent said Mr Hariri is now expected to give the list of names to Mr Suleiman, and once those are approved, the government will be formed.

There had been growing international concern over the deadlock and its impact on regional security and the Lebanese economy.

Source: BBC

PRLog (Press Release)

Following up on President Barack Obama’s promise to improve U.S.-Islamic ties, Clinton outlined specific projects toward that end. U.S. aid will support Middle East business and job creation, help civil society organizations use digital technology, and improve women’s education.

At a gathering of Arab officials in Marrakesh, Morocco, Clinton outlined a $76 million project to increase economic opportunities in Yemen, a $30 million program to help unemployed youth in Jordan, and a 2010 conference in Washington to connect innovators in the Middle East with American business leaders.

The programs are relatively small, but reflect the U.S. desire to encourage economic development in the Middle East, especially the cultivation of human resources. “We are committed to building ladders of opportunity to help develop the enormous talent that resides in the people of this region,” said Clinton.

SOS Children’s Villages Cares for Vulnerable Children across the Middle East

The international charity SOS Children’s Villages has been working since 1969 to provide opportunities for orphaned and abandoned children in the Middle East to develop healthy, productive lives. With 500 villages in 132 countries, SOS trains local women to run SOS households within SOS Children’s Villages.

These SOS mothers care for children in Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon.

Queen Noor, Honorary Ambassador of SOS Children’s Villages-Jordan, recently stated, “A strong tenet of SOS is to respect every child’s right to dignity, love, security and the freedom to practice any faith, whether Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, or other. SOS is a prime advocate for tolerance, gender equality, diversity, and cultural understanding.”

The president of Yemen has ruled out a truce in the escalating conflict with Houthi fighters in the north.

Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday that the Yemeni military would not ease their attacks on the Houthis “until we bring this tyrannical, traitorous and mercenary group to an end”.

“The war just started two days ago, and what has been happening in the past six years was just … training for the army units,” he said.

“The war will never stop no matter how much money or martyrs it costs.”

Saleh’s statement came on a day heavy clashes were reported at the Saudi-Yemeni border between Saudi government forces and Houthi fighters for the fifth straight day.

Saudi Arabia, which the Houthis accuse of providing support to Yemen’s military, has become increasingly concerned about the violence along its southern border since it flared up in August.

There have been claims that Iran, the predominantly Shia rival of Saudi Arabia, a Sunni kingdom, for power in the region, has been providing assistance to the Houthis.

‘Saudi shelling’

Saudi commanders said troops were shelling suspected Houthi positions.

Smoke could be seen rising above the Jebel al-Dukhan peak that marks the frontier, near the border town of Khubah.

A medical official said seven Saudis, four of them female civilians, had been killed and 126 people wounded since the fighting erupted on Tuesday.

The Houthis claimed on Friday to have captured some Saudi soldiers.

Mohammed Abdel-Salam, a spokesman for the Houthis, told Al Jazeera that the men were seized after Saudi ground forces crossed into Yemeni territory.

If such a ground incursion were proved true, it would indicate a deepening involvement by Saudi Arabia in a battle that is being viewed as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Abdel-Salam said the captured soldiers would be interviewed but ”will be treated with respect”.

He called for an end to the “unjust Saudi aggression” and for Riyadh to stop Yemeni forces from using bases inside Saudi territory to attack the Houthis.

Saudi Arabia has not commented on the claim, but has previously said that its operations against the fighters have been limited to air raids and artillery strikes.

Regional co-operation

Khalid al-Dakhil, a political analyst at the King Saud University, said that it is impossible for Riyadh to ignore the conflict between the Houthis and the Yemeni government.

“The Houthis seem to be very determined in pinning down the Yemeni army, and the Saudi government cannot afford to just sit [idly] by and watch what is happening. They have to support the Yemeni government”, he told Al Jazeera.

“The co-operation between Yemen and Saudi Arabia runs for a long time now, even before the Houthis.

The Yemeni army launched an offensive against the Houthis in August [EPA]

“I don’t think the Houthis have any chance of succeeding in the end. They will be isolated, they will be squeezed between two armies and I think eventually they will run out of any luck.”

Hundreds of people have died in northern Yemen since the country’s army began its offensive against the Houthis on August 11.

The fighters, concentrated mainly in the Saada and Amran provinces, are known as Houthis after their late leader, Abdul-Malik’s brother Hussein Badr Eddin al-Houthi, a Zaidi leader who was killed by the Yemeni army in September 2004.

An offshoot of Shia Islam, the Zaidis are a minority in a predominantly Sunni Arabian peninsula but form the majority in northern Yemen. Only a small minority of Zaidis are involved in the Houthi uprising.

The Yemeni government accuses the Houthis of seeking to restore an imamate overthrown in a 1962 coup that sparked eight years of civil war.

The Houthis insist they are fighting to defend their community against government aggression and marginalisation.

Focused on infiltrators

The Saudi Press Agency reported on Friday that the kingdom’s attacks were “focused on infiltrators in Jebel al-Dukhan and other targets within the range of operations within Saudi territory”.

“The entry of the gunmen to Saudi territory, the aggression against border patrols … and presence on Saudi soil is a violation of sovereignty that gives the kingdom every right to take all measures to end this illegitimate presence,” it said, citing an official source.

Saudi government officials said on Thursday that at least 40 Houthi fighters had been killed as Saudi forces recaptured an area close to the border which had been seized by the Yemeni group.

At least one member of the Saudi security forces was killed and 11 others injured as the Houthis crossed the border.

A government adviser in Riyadh told the AFP news agency on Thursday that there had also been air raids in Yemen, but the government in Sanaa denied that Saudi fighter jets had crossed in its territory.

Iranian ‘connection’

Sanaa said on October 28 that it had arrested five Iranians on a boat loaded with weapons allegedly destined for the Houthis.

But the group denies receiving any help from Tehran, which has offered to mediate in the conflict.

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the Houthis’ leader, told Al Jazeera that there was no way for Iran to get weapons to his men in the far north of Yemen. “Weapons are largely available in Yemen,” he said.

He said his fighters had also seized arms from the Yemeni army, including those taken from captured security posts.

Al-Houthi said his group had no ambitions to target territory in Saudi Arabia. ”Saudi Arabia has always co-operated with Yemen, but this co-operation has now taken a new shape,” he said.

Source: Aljazeera

A Russian human rights group says Chechen security officers have kidnapped the head of a rights group in Moscow and flown him to Grozny, Chechnya’s capital.

The Memorial group said Arbi Khachukayev, who heads Law, an organisation critical of Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed leader, was detained on Thursday and bundled onto a flight.

Chechnya’s interior minister said Khachukayev was detained for alleged involvement in an armed assault, the RIA news agency reported.

The Law group has exposed alleged human rights abuses committed by forces loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen president.

Svetlana Gannushinka, a human rights worker, told Britain’s Guardian newspaper it was “not clear whether he’s [Khachukayev] a hostage or a defendant”

“As soon as I found out about his kidnapping I faxed the office of the interior ministry at Vnukovo airport. They didn’t answer,” she said.

Ongoing attacks

A string of Kadyrov’s critics and political rivals have been murdered in recent years in Russia, Austria and Dubai.

Earlier this year, two human rights advocates were abducted in Chechnya and killed.

The bodies of Zarema Sadulayeva and Alik Dzhabrailov were found in Grozny, in August, a day after being abducted from their offices by masked men.

Their murders came a month after the death of Natalya Estemirova, one of the best known activists in Chechnya and head of the Memorial group, who was abducted in Chechnya and found in neighbouring Ingushetia.

Ongoing attacks against human rights activists has led Memorial and other human rights organisations to suspend their operations in Chechnya.

Last month, a Moscow court ordered Oleg Orlov, head of Memorial, to retract his accusation that Kadyrov was responsible for Estemirova’s death.

Source: Aljazeera and agencies

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has said he will not seek re-election at presidential elections he has called for January saying he had had enough after years of frustration fighting for an independent homeland.

“I have told our brethren in the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organisation] … that I have no desire to run in the forthcoming election,” Abbas said on Thursday in a speech broadcast live from his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

“This decision is not a kind of compromise or a manoeuvre,” he said, adding that he was not willing to debate the issue, rejecting moves to dissuade him from standing down.

The 74-year-old leader who replaced Yasser Arafat five years ago as the Palestinian president said: “We’re at cross roads. We have made lots of sacrifices in order to be able to have a right to a state.

“Since the Oslo agreements in 1993, all these agreements are based on land and on peace and an end to Israel occupation of 1967.

PROFILE

Mahmoud Abbas

“We’ve pledged with Israel to reach a two-state solution but month after month we’ve seen nothing but complacency and procrastination.”

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said Abbas’s decision would have “serious implications on Palestinian politics [and] also the prospect of peace and stability in the region”.

She said reactions were pouring in from followers of Abbas’s Fatah movement.

“They’re beginning to speak … and we understand they’re planning to march to the president’s office and express their support,” our correspondent said.

‘Pivotal role’

Abbas criticised the US for ”favouring” Israel but said the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is “still possible and achievable”, adding that the US can play a “central and pivotal role” to achieve peace.

His decision not to take part in the elections comes days after Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, visited Israel to try to kickstart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process which has stalled over Israel’s refusal to halt settlement activity in the occupied territories.

Clinton said on Thursday she looked forward to working with Abbas in “any new capacity”.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, PJ Crowley, spokesman for the US state department, said Washington would continue to push for a peace agreement, although he also acknowledged that the US and the Palestinian president have had their disagreements over illegal Israeli settlements and the conditions for peace talks.

“We certainly will continue our efforts and we certainly would encourage president Abbas to continue his lifelong efforts in pursuit of peace and a resolution that would lead to a Palestinian state,” Crowley said.

“We still think that’s possible and we’re going to search for a variety of ways to get that.”

Israeli position

Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland, reporting from Jerusalem, said Israel was not expected to immediately react to Abbas’s decision.

“The official position of the Israeli side is that this is an internal Palestinian matter and, therefore, Israel won’t be making any comment at all,” our correspondent said.

“But in a way it really takes the heat off Binyamin Netanyahu [the Israeli prime minister]. Afterall, it was only under a week ago that the US secretary of state was here again supposedly trying to act as some kind of intermediary to get the whole peace process moving again.

“And very much it’s been a position of Netanyahu that Israel has been ready to talk; it’s been the Palestinians standing in the way of talks although that might be rather a disingenuous argument. Now he [Netanyahu] can say, ‘Look, we’re ready to talk but there’s no partner on the Palestinian side’. So it really does take the heat off the Israelis.”

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Awad reporting from Gaza said the Hamas leadership in the territory considers Abbas’ decision as an internal matter for Fatah and the PLO, and that the actual problem was their lack of support for the principles of resistance.

She said a Hamas official told Al Jazeera that Hamas was not happy specifically with the position Abbas and his party had taken with regards “Palestinian reconciliation, and the negotiation track that they have chosen in dealing with the Israelis and achieving the two-state solution”.

Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said: “At the end of the day it’s not the presidency. It’s the question of the Israeli government continuing settlement activity, fait accompli policies, dictation.

“And nineteen years after trying to achive a two-state solution, maybe the president has come to his moment of truth…”

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said Abbas’ announcement was “a game changer for Palestinian politics and the peace process”.

Abbas decree

Fatah supporters protested in Ramallah against Abbas’s decision[AFP]

Abbas recenty issued a decree announcing  presidential and parliamentary polls, but the Hamas-run interior ministry in the Gaza Strip ordered Palestinians not to take part in the elections.

The interior ministry said in a statement the election had been called “by figures who do not have the right to declare it”.

Abbas has of late been facing heavy criticism for defending a decision to delay the endorsement of a UN report on Gaza war crimes at the UN Human Rights Council.

Although the council later passed a resolution adopting the report, Abbas continues to be criticised by Hamas, a rival Palestinian faction in control of the Gaza Strip, which has called on Palestinians to reject his leadership.

The rift between Fatah and Hamas has derailed a unity deal the two factions have been pushing forward under the auspices of the Egyptian government.

After the storm that was generated by the October 2 delay of the vote on the Gaza war report, Hamas said it had asked Egypt’s intelligence chief to put off the reconciliation deal until November.

Souce: Aljazeera

The United Nations General Assembly is debating a UN-sponsored report which says Israel committed war crimes during its military assault on the Gaza Strip.

The Goldstone report, which accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes, has already been endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council, which sponsored the fact-finding commission.

The draft under debate at the UN calls on both Israel and the Palestinians to investigate accusations of human-rights violations during the 22-day conflict in December and January.

The resolution, if adopted, would call upon Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, to take the report to the UN Security Council.

Forty-three speakers were scheduled to take the floor during the debate called by the Arab UN group on Wednesday, with the backing of the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

A vote on the non-binding resolution was expected on Thursday.

Offensive conduct

In depth

Video: Interview with Richard Goldstone Timeline: Gaza War Analysis: War crimes in Gaza? Goldstone’s full report to the UN rights council Key points of the Goldstone report UN inquiry finds Gaza war crimes ‘Half of Gaza war dead civilians’ PLO: History of a Revolution ‘Israel has to be accountable’ Al Jazeera is not responsible for external websites’ content

Most of criticism in the report, compiled by a fact-finding panel led by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge, was directed towards Israel’s conduct during the offensive, in which human rights organisations say about 1,400 Palestinians – many of them women and children – were killed.

Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were killed over the course of the war, Israel said.

Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, reporting from the UN in New York, said: “The Palestinians put forward this resolution with several co-sponsors knowing that they have the support to have it passed in the General Assembly.

“This is really an attempt to keep the Goldstone report alive. The resolution endorses the report and also attempts to force it upon the Security Council, by getting the secretary-general involved.”

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian observer to the UN, said the report concluded that the Israeli military onslaught “was planned in all of its phases as a deliberately disproportionate and systematic attack aimed at punishing, humiliating and terrorise the Palestinian civilian population”.

‘One-sided mandate’

Mansour warned that efforts by Israel and its supporters to discredit the UN report and its authors would not deter Arab states from following up the recommendations “in all relevant international forums, including the Security Council and the International Criminal Court, until the realisation of justice with the accountability of the perpetrators of these crimes and violations”.

Gabriela Shalev, Israel’s UN ambassador to the UN, hammered Wednesday’s debate as “yet another campaign against the victims of terrorism, the people of Israel”.

“The Goldstone report and this debate do not promote peace. They damage any effort to revitalise negotiations in our region. They deny Israel’s right of self-defence,” she told the assembly.

“From its inception in a one-sided mandate, the Gaza fact-finding mission was a politicised body with predetermined conclusions,” she added.

Danny Ayalon, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, held a special meeting with foreign ambassadors to Israel on Tuesday to try to convince their countries to vote against the report.

US House vote

The US House of Representatives on Tuesday dismissed the report as being “irredeemably biased” against Israel.

The house voted in favour of a non-binding resolution calling on Barack Obama, the US president, to maintain his opposition to the report.

Goldstone last week sent a letter to the US House of Representatives saying that the text of the US resolution had “factual inaccuracies and instances where information and statements are taken grossly out of context”.

He offered several rejections and clarifications of the ideas expressed in the resolution.

In response to Goldstone’s criticism, three parts of the resolution were amended on Tuesday to clarify that Goldstone had sought an expansion to the commission’s mandate so that his team could investigate claims that Hamas had violated international law during the Gaza war.

The Goldstone report accused Israel of using “disproportionate force” and of deliberately targeting civilians.

The report called for cases to be referred to the ICC in The Hague if Israel and Hamas do not investigate the war crimes allegations against them within six months.

Hamas has agreed to hold such an investigation, but Israel has not.

Source: Aljazeera

Security forces in the Chinese province of Xinjiang have said they will “strike hard” against crime and disorder.

Officials vowed to “root out” crime and “change the face of the public security” in the western province, after deadly unrest earlier this year.

Nearly 200 people died in July’s rioting between ethnic Uighurs and members of the majority Han group.

A total of 21 people have been found guilty of involvement in the unrest and 12 people have been sentenced to death.

The Xinjiang authorities, quoted in state media, said the “strike hard and rectify” campaign would run until the end of the year to “further consolidate the fruits of maintaining stability and eliminate security dangers”.

They said they would “root out places where criminals breed, and change the face of the public security situation in these areas”.

The Xinhua news agency said local police would continue to hunt down suspects in the riots and “keep a close eye on clues and cases involving terrorism and explosions”.

Swift justice

The violence in Xinjiang erupted on 5 July, when protest by ethnic Uighurs left at least 197 people dead and another 1,700 injured. Two days later, groups of Han went looking for revenge as police struggled to restore order.

Most of those killed were Han, according to officials, and Urumqi’s Han population had demanded swift justice.

Last week, the death sentences against 12 people were upheld by an appeals court.

China says it is facing a separatist uprising from Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, but critics say Beijing is exaggerating the threat to justify its tight control of the province.

Source: BBC

Hamid Karzai, the re-elected Afghan president, has vowed that his government will represent all his countrymen.

“Today I would like to say that no one will see themselves distant in this process and all of us will be a part of the Afghanistan government,” he said in a low-key victory speech on Tuesday.

Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) declared Karzai the winner on Monday after Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister and Karzai’s only rival in the presidential runoff scheduled for November 7, withdrew from the race.

“The democratic process would have been better if our colleague Abdullah Abdullah had participated in this process and the second round had taken place,” Karzai told reporters.

“… it did not happen, but again we are happy the constitution was respected … it went in the right way.”

‘Conciliatory tone’

Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from Kabul, the Afghan capital, said that Karzai had set “a very conciliatory tone” in his speech.

In depth

Your views: What now for Afghan democracy? Video: Abdullah pulls out Blogs: John Terret on Obama’s call to congratulate and cajole Karzai Blogs: James Bays on what next for Afghanistan Video: Afghans dismiss runoff vote Inside Story: The election runoff

“Special mention of Abdullah Abdullah, who he mentioned had got about half a million votes, actually it was closer to one million,” he said.

“Is he going to offer an olive branch to Dr Abdullah and his supporters and offer them some seats in his cabinet? That is certainly what he has ben urged to do by members of the international community.

“But Hamid Karzai has made many promises to those who supported him in that first round on August 20. Sources tell Al Jazeera that he has promised a lot of positions already to many people who backed him.”

Said Azam, an Afghan political analyst, told Al Jazeera that he thought it was unlikely that Karzai would offer a post to Abdullah himself.

“I think that the role that Karzai is expecting from Dr Abdullah is that of opposition leader rather than being part of his government,” he said.

“I think he does not assume that Dr Abdullah would accept a post in his cabinet and he is also not ready to offer him a role.”

Abdullah has previously ruled out joining Karzai in any national unity government, but there are believed to have been negotiations between representatives of the two sides over a possible role for the challenger’s supporters in the new administration.

Taliban claim

Meanwhile, the Taliban said that the outcome of the election, which has been marred by violence and widespread fraud, showed that the real decisions about Afghanistan were made by the United States and its allies.

“The cancellation of the second round of elections has shown that the decisions about Afghanistan are made in Washington and London, even though the announcement took place in Kabul,” the group said in a statement.

“What is surprising is that just two weeks ago in the election they said the votes belonging to puppet Karzai were all fraudulent, and not acceptable.

“But now with these fake votes, they have selected Karzai, and immediately Washington and London have sent Karzai messages of congratulations.”

Barack Obama, the US president, was among the world leaders who congratulated Karzai on his re-election but also called on him to tackle corruption.

“I emphasised that this has to be a point in time in which we write a new chapter based on improved governance, a much more serious effort to eradicate corruption [and] joint efforts to accelerate the training of Afghan security forces,” Obama said after phoning Karzai.

‘Stain’ of corruption

During Tuesday’s news conference, Karzai said: ”Afghanistan has been defamed by corruption. Our government has been defamed by corruption.

“We will strive, by any means possible, to eradicate this stain.”

Washington is currently considering its options in Afghanistan, with General Stanely McChrystal, the US and Nato commander in the country, believed to be calling for up to 40,000 additional troops to be deployed.

The discovery of widespread fraud in the first round on August 20 resulted in Karzai’s share of the vote falling below the 50 per cent threshold needed to avoid a runoff.

Ballot-box stuffing and distorted tallies led to more than one million votes in favour of the incumbent being thrown out.

The validity of the electoral process and the independence of the IEC have both been called into question.

Abdullah cited the government’s refusal to accept his demands for changes to the IEC for his decision to boycott the runoff.

Source: Aljazeera