Afghans brave threats to choose new leader
KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghans braved threats of violence and searing heat Saturday to vote in a presidential runoff that likely will mark the country’s first peaceful transfer of authority, an important step toward democracy as foreign combat troops leave.
The new leader will be challenged with trying to improve ties with the West and combatting corruption while facing a powerful Taliban insurgency and declining international aid.
Abdullah Abdullah, who emerged as the front-runner with 45 percent of the vote in the first round, faced Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, an ex-World Bank official and finance minister. Neither garnered the majority needed to win outright, but previous candidates and their supporters since have offered endorsements to each, making the final outcome unpredictable.
Palestinians, Israelis searching for 3 teens
JERUSALEM – A group abducted three teens, including an American, who disappeared in the West Bank, Israel’s prime minister said Saturday, as soldiers searched the territory to find them.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again blamed the Palestinian Authority for the Thursday night disappearance of the teens. Palestinian officials say they are assisting Israeli forces, who pored over surveillance footage Saturday and arrested more than a dozen Palestinians.
There have been at least three claims of responsibility for the abduction, though none could be immediately verified.
The Israeli military identified the teens as Naftali Frenkel, 16, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19. Israeli television station Channel 10 named Frenkel as the U.S. citizen that officials earlier mentioned. They were reportedly hitchhiking home when they were abducted.
Strong blast kills eight in Syrian town near Iraq
BEIRUT – A strong explosion struck a weapons market Saturday in an eastern Syrian town near the border with Iraq, killing at least eight people and wounding many others, state media and activists said.
The explosion in the eastern town of Mayadeen came amid heavy fighting in the coastal province of Latakia and the southern region of Daraa, where opposition fighters captured an army post on a hill overlooking wide areas in the province where the anti-government uprising started more than three years ago.
Syrian state TV said the blast in Mayadeen killed 30 people and wounded many others, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said eight people were killed and 21 wounded, including some who are in critical condition.
Ruling junta lifts curfew in Thailand
BANGKOK – The generals who seized power in Thailand last month disrupted one of the country’s most lucrative industries – the go-go bars that were forced to close early because of a curfew.
Now the junta has lifted the curfew, giving a green light for Bangkok’s red-light districts and other evening activities to roar back to life. For the first time in a month, Saturday night freedom returned to the Thai capital.
Bars featuring pole dancers are not the only nightlife in Bangkok, but they are the most notorious. The lifting of the curfew Friday was part of a more general campaign by the junta to “return happiness to the people” of this politically polarized country.
Associated Press
