Afghan polls open in presidential run off election

KABUL Afghans lined up on Saturday to vote in a second-round presidential election despite Taliban threats as US-led combat troops wind down a 13-year war that has failed to defeat the insurgents. The run-off election will decide whether former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah or ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani leads the country into a new era with declining international military and civilian assistance. President Hamid Karzai is due to step down after ruling the country since 2001 when a US-led offensive ousted the austere Taliban regime for sheltering Al-Qaeda militants behind the 9/11 attacks.Afghan officials and international allies are hoping for a repeat of the first-round vote in April when the insurgents failed to launch a single high-profile attack and voter turnout was more than 50 percent. But the stakes are high with the Taliban issuing specific threats to target polling stations and widespread fears that electoral fraud could produce a contested result. In a sign of international concern UN head of mission Jan Kubis issued a stark warning to candidates supporters not to resort to the ballot-box stuffing that marred the 2009 election when Karzai retained power.