The Afghan presidential election appears headed toward a highly contested result after both current President Hamid Karzai and his rival, Abdullah Abdullah, claimed victory. A day after polls closed, the head of Karzai’s campaign team said initial results showed his candidate had won. That claim was immediately refuted: “I’m ahead,” said Abdullah. “Initial results from the provinces show that I have more than 50 percent of the vote. In some provinces it is well above 60 percent.” With both sides contesting the results, and without any official numbers, it is unclear who is leading. The vote counts will be forwarded to regional and provincial centers to be checked, and official numbers are not expected until mid-September. Afghan officials extended polls by one hour on election day to allow more citizens to vote after morning traffic to voting centers appeared low. Early counts put the total number of votes below the election of 2004, in which more than 70 percent of people participated. For weeks leading up to the election, the Taliban threatened violence against any Afghans who voted. At least 26 people were killed on election day in sporadic violence across the country.
The convicted Lockerbie bomber received a hero’s welcome as he landed in his home country, Libya, after the Scottish government released the prisoner on compassionate grounds. Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, 57, was given a life sentence in 2001 for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, which killed 270 people. Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill decided to release al-Megrahi after medical reports confirmed he was dying of prostate cancer and had less than three months to live. “Mr al-Megrahi did not show his victims any comfort or compassion. They were not allowed to return to the bosom of their families to see out their lives, let alone their dying days. No compassion was shown by him to them,” he said. “But that alone is not a reason for us to deny compassion to him and his family in his final days.” Many of the victims’ families reacted with anger and disgust, and President Barack Obama called the decision “a mistake,” as al-Megrahi was greeted by a jubilant crowd of thousands, many waving flags, in Libya. “Obviously the sight of a mass murderer getting a hero’s welcome in Tripoli is deeply upsetting, deeply distressing,” British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the BBC.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel threatened to impose energy sanctions on Iran for the first time if it does not cooperate on its nuclear program. “What is clear is that Tehran, whose president constantly questions Israel’s right to exist, must not get the atomic bomb,” she told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “If there is no progress, we would have to react with further sanctions.” Iran is dependent on much of Europe for its oil and gas needs because of its lack of refining capabilities. Merkel has shrugged off complaints by German business leaders that sanctions against Iran could have negative economic repercussions in Germany. “We must, as part of the international community, accept our part of the responsibility for the desired success of a diplomatic solution [with Iran],” she said. Three previous rounds of United Nations sanctions were focused solely on Iranian assets and travel related to the country’s nuclear program.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledged Friday to buy up diamonds as part of a $1 billion support scheme for the Russian diamond miner Alrosa. The state support is likely to help Alrosa—which produces about one-quarter of the world’s rough diamonds but has suffered from the global recession—to service about $3.6 billion in outstanding debt. “We understand that this sector, which gives serious revenues to the federal budget and regional budget, is in a difficult situation and needs support due to the global market situation,” Putin explained. “To support the sector, the state has agreed to significantly increase state purchases of diamonds.” Alrosa sells more than half its polished diamonds in the U.S. market, where demand has weakened substantially in the last year. De Beers, Alrosa’s main competitor, has also slumped in what it calls the “most difficult” economic environment in decades, but has estimated demand will pick up in the second half of the year.