Afghans vote in landmark election despite Taliban threat

Afghans braved the threat of Taliban violence Saturday to elect a successor to President Hamid Karzai in the country's first democratic transfer of power as US-led forces wind down their 13-year war. Long queues formed outside polling stations in cities across the country, despite cold, wet weather, as voters cast their ballots at around 6,000 centres under tight security. The Taliban have rejected the election as a foreign plot and urged their fighters to attack polling staff, voters and security forces, but only one incident was reported in the first few hours of voting. A blast killed one person and wounded two others at a school being used as a polling station in Logar province, south of Kabul, district chief Abdul Hameed Hamid Mohammad Agha said.

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