Karzai rival quits presidential runoff
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai's rival Sunday withdrew from the Nov. 7 runoff election, saying the runoff would be as fraudulent as the first round of voting.
A "transparent election is not possible" because election officials hired by Karzai are not impartial, Abdullah Abdullah told a Kabul news conference.
Karzai had agreed to the runoff after an independent panel of election monitors rejected nearly one-third of his votes from the first round of voting in August.
"I want this to be an example for the future so that no one again tries to use fraud to abuse the rights of the Afghan people," CNN quoted Abdullah as saying Sunday.
Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar called Abdullah's decision "very unfortunate." The Nov. 7 vote, however, should go ahead to show the election process in Afghanistan works, Omar told CNN.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Saturday said the legitimacy of the election would not be affected if Abdullah withdrew, The New York Times reported Sunday.
"When President Karzai accepted the second round -- without knowing what the consequences and outcome would be -- that bestowed legitimacy from that moment forward," Clinton said in Jerusalem.
Typhoon leaves 14 dead, four missing
MANILA, Philippines, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Typhoon Mirinae killed at least 14 people in the Philippines before moving toward Vietnam and weakening, officials said Sunday.
Another four people were missing in the Philippines after the typhoon moved into the South China Sea, weakening to a tropical storm that was expected to weaken further before reaching Vietnam Monday, CNN reported.
Most of the dead and missing were in the Southern Luzon and Bicol regions, where the storm dropped as much as 5.8 inches of rain and crushed thousands of homes and other buildings with trees and debris, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said Sunday.
The typhoon was the fourth to hit the Philippines in a month. Typhoons Ketsana, Parma and Lupit left more than 850 people dead. Tens of thousands of people are still living in evacuation centers throughout the 7,000-island nation, authorities said.
Bombings threaten Iraqi government
BAGHDAD, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Recent bombings in Baghdad that killed 153 people and wounded at least 500 are eroding support for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, authorities said.
Many of the bodies from last Sunday's back-to-back bombings of government buildings were unrecognizable, rendering officials unable to say how many were men, women and children.
Maliki's government goes to the polls in January with each new terrorist attack eroding support his party has gained during the last two years, Baghdad residents and officials told The Sunday Times of London.
"They want us to vote for Maliki in the coming elections," said Mohammed haj Abdullah, whose daughter and grandson were killed in last Sunday's bombings and whose son-in-law was killed in an earlier bombing. "How can we and why should we? He cannot even protect his ministries. How in Allah's name can he protect us?"
More than 60 members of the Iraqi security force were arrested in the wake of last Sunday's bombings and Maliki and his ministers are expected to face questions in Parliament, The Times reported.
Parents split over letting son die
LONDON, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- British parents disagree whether their severely disabled 1-year-old son should be allowed to live or die, court officials said.
The baby, known publicly only as Baby RB, suffers from congenital myasthenic syndrome, an incurable muscle condition that leaves him unable to move his limbs effectively or breathe without artificial support, The Sunday Times of London reported.
The condition has not affected his brain and he can see and hear.
Britain's High Court Monday will consider a request from a hospital and the boy's mother to remove him from a ventilator and let him die because his quality of life allegedly is too low, court records say.
The boy's father opposes the move and wants doctors to perform a tracheotomy, cutting a hole in the boy's neck to deliver more air to his lungs, The Times reported.
If the hospital and mother's request is approved, it would be the first time a British court rules life support can be stopped for a child not suffering brain damage, against the will of a parent.
The parents, in their 20s, are "amicably separated" and have been keeping a bedside vigil at the hospital, the father's lawyer said.
