Taliban warns Afghans not to vote in runoff

Taliban warns Afghans not to vote in runoff

KABUL — Taliban militants threatened Afghans with violence Saturday if they vote in the Nov. 7 runoff presidential election, as President Hamid Karzai’s campaign ruled out any power-sharing deal to avoid another ballot.

Supporters of Karzai’s challenger, meanwhile, urged the country’s top three election officials to step down — alleging they were involved in rigging the first round of fraud-marred voting in August and should not be responsible for organizing the upcoming vote.

President Barack Obama’s administration is hoping the runoff will produce a legitimate government after massive ballot-rigging sullied the first-round vote Aug. 20. Another flawed election would cast doubt on the wisdom of sending tens of thousands more U.S. troops to support a weak government tainted by fraud.

The Taliban issued their warning on the first official day of campaigning for the runoff, denouncing the contest between Karzai and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah as “a failed, American process.”

Court sentences woman to 60 lashes over show

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A Saudi court on Saturday sentenced a female journalist to 60 lashes after she had been charged with involvement in a TV show in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex.

Rozanna al-Yami, 22, is believed to be the first Saudi woman journalist to be given such a punishment, but there were conflicting accounts about how the court issued its verdict.

Al-Yami, who worked as a coordinator for the program but has denied working on the sex-show episode, told The Associated Press it was her understanding that the judge at the court in the western city of Jiddah dropped the charges against her. They included involvement in the preparation of the show and advertising the segment on the Internet.

But she said he still handed down the lashing sentence “as a deterrence.”

Taliban chief’s hometown captured by military

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani soldiers captured the hometown of the country’s Taliban chief Saturday, a strategic and symbolic initial prize as the army pushes deeper into a militant stronghold along the Afghan border. An army spokesman said the Taliban were in disarray, with many deserting the ranks.

The eight-day-old air and ground offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region is a key test of nuclear-armed Pakistan’s campaign against Islamist militancy. It already has spurred a civilian exodus and deadly retaliatory attacks.

Charged in priest’s killing

MORRISTOWN, N.J. — A janitor was charged with murder Saturday in the slaying of a priest whose body was found in the rectory of his northern New Jersey church.

Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi said that 64-year-old Jose Feliciano stabbed and cut the Rev. Ed Hinds 32 times Thursday after the pair argued. Bianchi would not provide further details about the argument.

The 61-year-old Father Hinds was in his clerical robes when he was killed while in the rectory kitchen of St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Chatham. His body was found about 8 a.m. Friday after he failed to show up for Mass.

Feliciano, who had worked at the church for 17 years, was arrested Saturday. He also faces weapons charges.

SC diocese to lessen ties to national church

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. — The Diocese of South Carolina voted Saturday to distance itself but not completely split from the national Episcopal Church because of church positions on same-sex unions and ordination of gays.

Eighty-seven clergy members voted to pass the resolution after a nearly hourlong debate during a special convention in Mount Pleasant, Canon Kendall Harmon said, with 17 voting no. The vote allows leaders of the diocese to reduce its participation in the national church without severing ties completely, as some dioceses and parishes have.

25 die in Cairo train crash

CAIRO — A passenger train collided with the back of a second one just outside of Cairo on Saturday, destroying several passenger cars and killing at least 25 people, a police official said.

At least 55 others were wounded in the accident, which occurred in Girzah district of 6th of October province, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Associated Press