Update: The Taliban peace talks story appears more nuanced than originally reported: There may be at least three strands to the talks, some of the contacts going back for more than a year. They have one thing in common however: No strand is close to any breakthrough. The U.S. apologizes to Pakistan over the airstrike, but still the truck torching goes on. Media has covered the delay in the IEC releasing the preliminary results, but the U.S. and others are taking a pragmatic view, recognizing the complexity of an election with so many candidates and the need for a thorough and transparent complaints process.
We’ve updated our election map to illustrate the number of polling centers that were planned and then closed, illustrating the security problems in Ghazni and in the north.
