Afghan parliament to convene as standoff ends

AFGHAN lawmakers set aside a demand for President Hamid Karzai to scrap a controversial court probing election fraud yesterday, paving the way for parliament to convene in days after weeks of in-fighting.

Karzai on Saturday abandoned a decision to delay the opening of the assembly by a month, bowing to international and domestic pressure after lawmakers threatened to convene the assembly with or without him yesterday as scheduled.

The standoff threw the government into chaos at a time when insurgent violence is at its worst since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban government by US- backed forces.