Karzai Calls Clinton, Backs Off

A day after accusing the US of "vast fraud" that nearly denied him a second term, Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to back off. The 25-minute phone call came as the Obama administration labeled his comments "genuinely troubling" and dispatched its ambassador to Afghanistan to "clarify what he meant."

"President Karzai reaffirmed his commitment to the partnership between our two countries," a State Department spokesman said, indicating that Clinton told Karzai that they should focus on common aims for stabilizing Afghanistan. "Suggestions that somehow the international community was responsible for any irregularities in the recent election is preposterous." (More Hamid Karzai stories.)