Vote Fraud | featured news

The embattled head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan on Sunday defended himself against allegations from his former American deputy that he chose to ignore evidence of fraud in last month's disputed elections and acted in a biased manner towards President Hamid Karzai.

The White House session yields no announcements. It comes as the top U.S. official at the U.N. mission in Afghanistan is dismissed in a dispute over the handling of Afghan vote fraud allegations.

Peter Galbraith, the top American U.N. official in Afghanistan, was being recalled after a dispute over the handling of fraud allegations in the election.

Afghanistan's election fraud watchdog said on Sunday it is probing 567 allegations of abuse it considers serious enough to affect the outcome of the Aug 20 vote, more than double the number announced two days ago.

The parliament speaker says a commission found no evidence of sexual assault.

A day after vowing to investigate allegations that election protesters were sexually abused in Iran's prisons, the parliament speaker dismissed the charges as false.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sought to put the turmoil over the disputed presidential elections behind him and declared on national television that the contests were clean, fair and were the start of a new era.

The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on Saturday.

Supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad celebrated Tuesday after Iran's highest electoral authority proclaimed the validity of its disputed election, paving the way for the incumbent to begin a second term despite claims of fraud.

Iran began recounting some of the votes cast in its disputed presidential election Monday in an apparent attempt to placate opposition protesters.

A conservative candidate in Iran's disputed presidential election said Wednesday that he was withdrawing his complaints about voting fraud for the sake of the country, state television reported.