COUNTING is nearly complete in landmark Afghan legislative polls, with warlords and opponents of President Hamid Karzai faring relatively well, but women could hold the balance of power in the new national assembly.

MORE than 20,000 Afghans gathered in Kabul yesterday to remember Northern Alliance military commander Ahmad Shah Masood, slain by al-Qaida operatives two days before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.