news20091101bbc

[One-Minute World News] from [BBC NEWS]

[South Asia]
Page last updated at 11:23 GMT, Sunday, 1 November 2009
Abdullah pulls out of Afghan vote
{Dr Abdullah says his decision is "final"}
President Hamid Karzai's rival in the second round of the Afghan presidential election has announced in Kabul that he is withdrawing from the poll.

"I will not participate in the election," Dr Abdullah told supporters, saying his demands for ensuring a fraud-free election had not been met.

But he stopped short of calling for a boycott of next Saturday's vote.

Mr Karzai had rejected his demand that election officials who presided over the first round should be dismissed.

{{ANALYSIS}
BBC's Andrew North, in Kabul
All the indications I am getting are that there will be no run-off. In fact behind the scenes we know that talks have still been going on towards some kind of deal which could lead to the formation of a national unity government.
The international community - the United Nations which is leading the effort to organise the elections with the Afghans, the US and British militaries - do not want a one-man contest to go ahead which would mean putting their personnel's lives on the line.
What I am hearing is that there is pressure for the Afghan Election Commission to make an announcement and then for the Supreme Court to get involved, which would then lead to this process being brought to an end before there can be a run-off next Saturday.}

President Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omar said the withdrawal was "very unfortunate", but the election should go ahead as planned.

"The process has to complete itself, the people of Afghanistan have to be given the right to vote.

Earlier, the US said a pull-out would not invalidate the vote's legitimacy.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in the United Arab Emirates: "We see that happen in our own country where, for whatever combination of reasons, one of the candidates decides not to go forward."

But the BBC's Andrew North, in Kabul, says Abdullah Abdullah's withdrawal means this is uncharted territory, and it is unclear what will happen next.

Asked by reporters if he was calling for his supporters to boycott the vote planned for next Saturday, Dr Abdullah said: "I have not made that call".

There has been much speculation that there could be some kind of deal which would possibly see the emergence of a national unity government, our correspondent says.

While it is far from a done deal, talks are going on behind the scenes towards such a formation.

{Karzai camp reacts to Abdullah decision}

But Dr Abdullah said his decision had not been made "in exchange for anything from anybody, but only and purely in the interests of the people of Afghanistan and to give the people of Afghanistan a chance to move on."

The international community is known to be very reluctant for the run-off to take place.

Instead there is a desire for the legal institutions of Afghanistan to come up with measures to bring the electoral process to an end.

A statement from the Afghan Election Commission is also expected.

Below threshold

Hundreds of thousands of votes were discounted from August's first round of voting, which was marred by widespread allegations of fraud.

{{KARZAI V ABDULLAH}
Hamid Karzai:
> First popularly elected president of Afghanistan
> Opposed Soviet occupation in 1980s
> Critics say he has done little to rein in corruption
Abdullah Abdullah:
> Tajik-Pashtun, doctor by profession
> Senior Northern Alliance leader during Taliban rule
> Removed from Karzai's cabinet in 2006}

An investigation by the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) led to Mr Karzai's share of the vote dropping to 49.67% - below the crucial 50% plus one vote threshold needed to avoid a second round.

Dr Abdullah was adjudged in the end to have won about 31% of valid votes cast.

Emotion was clearly visible in Dr Abdullah's face as he announced his decision to pull out of the race to be Afghan leader on Sunday, our correspondent says.

The decision was given to his supporters at a meeting in a big tent in Kabul, where Afghanistan's first post-Taliban government was agreed eight years ago.

Dr Abdullah - a Tajik-Pashtun former eye surgeon - served as foreign minister in the short-lived government headed by the Northern Alliance, and continued as "foreign minister in exile" throughout the years of Taliban rule, which ended in 2001.

He continued in the role in the government that was formed by President Karzai after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, leaving it five years later.


[Americas]
Page last updated at 22:57 GMT, Saturday, 31 October 2009
Six bodies at US rapist's house
{Sowell admitted his identity as officers began fingerprinting him, police said}
Six bodies have been found at the home of a convicted rapist in the US city of Cleveland, Ohio, authorities say.

Police discovered the first two bodies on Thursday when they came to arrest Anthony Sowell, 50, on a rape charge.

A third was found a day later and police have now confirmed three more. The remains were recovered in the house and inside a grave dug in the backyard.

The suspect - who spent 15 years in prison for a 1989 rape - was arrested on Saturday not far from his home.

Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller said two of the bodies had been identified as black females, one of whom had died a violent death, the Associated Press reports.

Autopsies had been performed on all six, the coroner's office said, but no cause of death was announced.

{Police search the house of Anthony Sowell in Cleveland, Ohio}

Police chief Michael McGrath told a news conference that Sowell had offered no resistance when arrested, following a tip-off, while walking down the street on Saturday at around noon.

The suspect initially denied he was the man authorities were looking for, but admitted his identity as officers began fingerprinting him, police said.
Chief McGrath said the bodies were in "various states of being decomposed" and could have been in the two-storey house for up to six months.

{{It was such a disgusting sight... the stench from inside was overwhelming}
Lt Thomas Stacho}

He said Sowell had initially lived in the property with his aunt and uncle, but that his uncle had passed away and his aunt had gone to a nursing home about a year ago.

Police Lt Thomas Stacho told CNN: "It was such a disgusting sight."

"I can tell you I stood outside the home for about an hour yesterday, and the stench from inside was overwhelming," he added.

Neighbours told media that the suspect made a living from looking for scrap metal to sell.

"He was crazy," said Teresa Hicks, who has known Sowell since school. "Sometimes he would just go off if he didn't have his way."

Missing-person reports are being checked dating to June 2005, when Sowell was released from prison.

Crowds have been gathering outside Sowell's home, in the city's East Side, holding posters of missing loved ones.


[Entertainment]
Page last updated at 02:06 GMT, Sunday, 1 November 2009
Sick Sir Elton cancels more dates
{Sir Elton's tour dates were cancelled in July when Billy Joel fell ill}
Sir Elton John has been forced to postpone three concerts in the US this month because of ill-health.

A statement on his official website said the 62-year-old singer had a "serious case" of E.coli bacterial infection and influenza.

It added his doctor advised him to pull out of the gigs in Seattle and Portland where he was to appear with Billy Joel.

Sir Elton postponed a Dublin concert on Thursday after shelving gigs in London, Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle.

He is reportedly being treated at a hospital in central London.

Promoters say they are hoping to reschedule the European dates - part of his Red Piano tour - for December.

Details of plans to reschedule the US concerts, on 4 and 7 November at Seattle's Key Arena and 10 November at Rose Garden Arena, Portland, are yet to be announced.

Sir Elton and Billy Joel were forced to cancel US dates after Joel fell ill in July.

Joel was told to rest after coming down with "flu-like symptoms" and "extreme fatigue".

Sir Elton and Joel had been touring together for two months under the banner Face 2 Face, selling out arenas across the US.