Afghan officials have declared Hamid Karzai the winner of the country’s disputed presidential poll after canceling a planned runoff election. The announcement came after Karzai’s main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the race on the grounds that the vote would not be free or fair. Abdullah had accused the Karzai government of refusing to make changes to the electoral commission that he said was needed to prevent another round of electoral fraud. On Saturday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Abdullah’s decision to withdraw from the election would not affect Karzai’s legitimacy.

Hillary Clinton: “With respect to Afghanistan and Dr. Abdullah’s decision, I think that it is his decision to make. Whatever went into that determination is obviously his choice. But I do not think it affects the legitimacy. There have been other situations, in our own country as well as around the world, where, in a runoff election, one of the parties decides, for whatever reason, that they’re not going to go on.”

In Pakistan, a suicide bomber killed thirty people near Pakistan’s capital earlier today. The attack occurred in the city of Rawalpindi outside a bank where people were lined up to cash their paychecks. Meanwhile, the United Nations has announced it is stopping long-term development work in northwestern Pakistan because of security concerns.