Across Asia: Afghanistan

Taliban revels over runoff

The Taliban say the canceled runoff election in Afghanistan proves that their efforts to derail the vote with threats and attacks were successful.

The militant group issued a statement yesterday ahead of a speech by President Hamid Karzai on his recently declared victory. A first round was marred by fraud and Karzai won a runoff vote by default after his only challenger dropped out saying that the election could not be free or fair. According to a statement posted on the Taliban website, "Our brave mujahidin were able to disrupt the entire process."