Afghan lawmakers say President Hamid Karzai has agreed to convene parliament on January 26, ending a political standoff that threatened to start a constitutional crisis.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has expressed "deep concern and surprise" over an order by President Hamid Karzai to delay the inauguration of the new Afghan parliament by a month.
Christian Caryl, chief Washington editor for RFE/RL, discusses potential political challengers to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accepted an invitation to visit Afghanistan extended by Hamid Karzai, who is in Moscow on the first state visit by an Afghan president since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
An order by President Hamid Karzai to delay the inauguration of Afghanistan's new parliament by another month has raised fresh complaints about his authority and his credibility, with critics suggesting he is trying to alter official election results to create a legislature that is more supportive of his administration.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due in Moscow at the start of a two-day visit to Russia.
President Hamid Karzai's office says that the inauguration of Afghanistan's new parliament has been delayed to February 22, amid allegations of fraud by some losing candidates.
A special tribunal set up in Afghanistan to rule on allegations of vote fraud after elections in September has asked President Hamid Karzai to delay the inauguration of the new parliament.
The Afghan Interior Ministry said the victims were traveling in a motorized rickshaw in the Khoshamand district of Paktika Province when their vehicle was blown up by the bomb.
A prominent Afghan journalist has been hospitalized in Kabul after an acid attack caused injuries to his face and hands. Abdul Razaq Mamoon, a writer and former television presenter, says the attack was retaliation for his latest book, which harshly criticizes the policies of neighboring Iran.
It is a dispute that has severely strained relations between Iran and Afghanistan; for weeks, more than 1,600 diesel fuel tankers bound for Afghanistan have been stranded on the Iranian side of the border without apparent explanation. Now, amid shortages and soaring fuel prices, the government in Kabul has approached Afghanistan's erstwhile foe, Russia, in a search for an alternative energy source.
Some 300 people protested for a second day in the Afghan city of Herat against Iran's weeklong blockage of fuel tankers seeking to enter Afghanistan.
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![Abdullah Abdullah is one of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's most vocal critics. "Nullification of the...elections was [Karzai's] aim right from the beginning," he says.](https://gdb.rferl.org/E1045599-AC47-42C7-8841-7A41A98EE644_w100_r1.jpg)
![Abdullah Abdullah is one of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's most vocal critics. "Nullification of the...elections was [Karzai's] aim right from the beginning," he says.](https://gdb.rferl.org/E1045599-AC47-42C7-8841-7A41A98EE644_w66_r1.jpg)
