Kabul Afghanistan

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UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has fired the top American official at the U.N. mission in Afghanistan.

U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said in a statement Wednesday that Ban decided to recall Peter Galbraith and end his appointment as the U.N.'s deputy special representative.

Diplomats said Galbraith disagreed with the head of the U.N. mission, Kai Eide, over how to deal with widespread fraud charges from the presidential election in Afghanistan.

Montas said the secretary-general reaffirmed his full support for Eide.

Afghanistan has a two-week window to realistically hold any presidential runoff vote before winter sets in, an election official said Thursday in a stark acknowledgment that a quick decision is needed on whether to hold new balloting.

Preliminary results from Afghanistan's Aug. 20 vote show President Hamid Karzai winning outright with 54.6 percent of the vote. However, a raft of fraud charges are currently being investigated. If enough votes are thrown out, Karzai could dip below the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff with leading challenger Abdullah Abdullah.

Delaying a runoff until spring could leave Afghanistan with a power vacuum at a time when Taliban attacks are increasing, and undermine support abroad for a war backing an apparently corrupt administration.

Daoud Ali Najafi, the chief electoral officer of the Afghan election commission, said the window for a runoff has narrowed to the last two weeks in October. Ballot papers and other materials have already been ordered and will be in place by the third week of October, a U.N. group assisting the commission has said.

Najafi said it would be nearly impossible to hold a vote after the end of October because entire provinces get closed down by winter snows.

Afghanistan has a two-week window to realistically hold any presidential run-off vote before winter sets in, an Afghan election official said Thursday, in a stark acknowledgment that officials must move quickly to decide whether a new vote is needed.

Preliminary results from Afghanistan's Aug. 20 vote show President Hamid Karzai winning outright with 54.6 percent of the vote. However, a raft of fraud charges are currently being investigated. If enough votes are thrown out, Karzai could dip below the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff with leading challenger Abdullah Abdullah.

Delaying a run-off until spring could leave Afghanistan with a power vacuum at a time when Taliban attacks are increasing, and undermine support abroad for a war backing an apparently corrupt administration.

Daoud Ali Najafi, the chief electoral officer of the Afghan election commission, said the window for a run-off has narrowed to the last two weeks in October. Ballot papers and other materials have already been ordered and will be in place by the third week of October, a U.N. group assisting the commission has said.

Najafi said it would be nearly impossible to hold a vote after the end of October because entire provinces get closed down by winter snows.

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The American soldier who went missing June 30 from his base in eastern Afghanistan and was later confirmed captured, appeared on a video posted Saturday to a web site by the Taliban, two U.S. defense officials confirmed.

The soldier is shown in the 28-minute video with his head shaved and the start of a beard. He is sitting and dressed in a nondescript gray outfit. Early in the video one of his captors holds the soldier's dogtag up to the camera. His name and Social Security number are clearly visible. He is shown eating at one point and sitting on a bed.

The soldier, whose identity has not yet been released by the Pentagon pending notification of members of Congress and the soldier's family, says his name, age and hometown on the video, which was released Saturday on a Web site pointed out by the Taliban. Two U.S. defense officials confirmed to The Associated Press that the man in the video is the captured soldier.

The soldier said the date is July 14. He says he was captured when he lagged behind on a patrol.

He is interviewed in English by his captors, and he is asked his views on the war (extremely hard), Islam ( wants to learn more it) and the morale of American soldiers (which he said was low.)

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