About 11 percent fewer polling places opened than Afghanistan estimated it needed. Provinces expected to vote for President Hamid Karzai had the most problems. Could it tip the election?
Rather than demonstrate stability justifying an expanded American commitment in Afghanistan, the election underscored the challenges that the country faces.
AP - Bipartisan health care negotiators are aiming to cut the costs of their bill after getting an earful from voters, a participant in the closed-door talks said Friday.
AP - Both main candidates for Afghan president claimed to be ahead Friday after an election marred by violence, spotty turnout and fraud allegations — threatening U.S. hopes for Afghans to come together to combat the challenges of Taliban insurgency, corruption and poverty.
AP - The nation's largest Lutheran denomination took openly gay clergy more fully into its fold Friday, as leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gays and lesbians from serving as ministers.
A controversial bill that California legislators say would allow the early release of more than 27,000 inmates from crowded prisons will be taken up by the state Assembly on Monday. Consideration of the bill comes as California faces a mid-September deadline for reducing its prison population by about 40,000 inmates.
A regional airline owned by Delta was the reason Continental Airlines passengers were stranded overnight as their plane sat on a tarmac in Minnesota, federal transportation officials said Friday. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said a representative of Mesaba Airlines improperly refused requests by the plane's captain and crew to let passengers off the plane.
A Vietnam veteran and Bronze Star recipient who volunteered to return to the Army and serve in Afghanistan became the oldest U.S. service member to die in combat there, the U.S. military announced Friday.
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