KABUL: An Afghan election watchdog ordered ballots from more than 200 polling stations to be invalidated on Monday after an inquiry concluded there had been rigging on those polling stations.Investigations into fraud in Afghanistan's elections have cut President Hamid Karzai's share of the vote to 48 percent, below the threshold for outright victory, a US election monitor said on Monday.Democracy International said figures released by Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) showed that almost 1.3 million votes cast in the August 20 poll were invalid, cutting Karzai's share of the vote from about 55 percent in the preliminary result.Following investigations into alleged fraud, the vote for Karzai's main rival Abdullah Abdullah rose to almost 32 percent, from the 28 percent he won according to official preliminary results, Democracy International said.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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