The runoff election planned for November 7 in Afghanistan was thrown into turmoil Saturday when President Hamid Karzai’s challenger was said to be pulling out of the race and handing the five-year term to Karzai. Abdullah Abdullah’s campaign spokesmen said he will announce his decision Sunday. But some analysts think the boycott is just a threat, and that Abdullah is trying to win a last-minute power-sharing deal with Karzai. "We don't want to boycott, but Mr. Karzai has not accepted any conditions, so he left us with no other choice," one member of Abdullah's political team told The Washington Post. "There is no guarantee that a second round would be free and fair. It would only create more problems than it solves." A canceled or marred election could throw the nation into chaos at a time when the Obama administration is deciding whether to send more troops to the area. Hillary Clinton downplayed a possible boycott, saying the elections would still be legitimate even if Karzai were the only candidate. It’s unclear if Karzai will run alone in the runoff, if the race will be postponed until the spring when there’s a viable challenger, or if the vote will be canceled and Karzai declared president.

Republicans everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief. Controversial candidate Dede Scozzafava caused a shakeup Saturday when she suspended her bid to run in New York's 23rd Congressional District's special election next Tuesday. A spokesperson for the liberal-leaning Republican attributed her dropout to spending: "She was unable to define herself where people didn't know her.” In a letter addressed to her supporters, Scozzafava admitted that recent polls showed her chances of winning were unlikely, and conceded that "you must be able to back up your message with money." Scozzafava has been outspent by her two opponents, Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman and Democrat Bill Owens. The state assemblywoman didn't endorse either of the remaining candidates on her way out, but granted her supporters the chance to shift their support.

The long and winding road continues. President Obama met with Pentagon officials Friday night to explore the option of sending fewer troops than requested to Afghanistan. The meeting, which included chiefs from the Navy, Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force, focused on the state of U.S. forces after eight draining years in two wars. It was the first time all leaders convened, and they will likely meet again before Obama reaches his final decision about how many troops to send to Afghanistan. Though the chiefs primarily support General Stanley McChrystal's request for approximately 44,000 additional troops, Obama now appears to be seeking a compromise between his military and civilian advisers, and appears committed to adding at least 10,000 to 15,000 troops. A recommendations meeting will come next week, but with other items on his agenda, it's unlikely the president will make any announcement until late November.

Someone just can’t stop making the news. Dick Cheney had some fighting words for the CIA for sending a spy’s husband to Niger to see if Iraq was seeking nuclear material. In 2004, as part of a probe into who leaked the identity of Joe Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, to a newspaper columnist, Cheney told the FBI that it was “amateur hour” at the CIA when it sent Wilson to Niger, though Wilson implied Cheney requested someone make the voyage to validate the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq. Cheney told the FBI investigators he had no idea who revealed Plame's identity. He specifically denied talking about her to Senior State Department official Richard Armitage, who was later found to be the source of the leak, and other senior administrators. Investigators said Cheney did not recall many of the events they wanted to question him about. The FBI recently released their interview notes after a lawsuit from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics group. Though the Obama administration initially sought to prevent the circulation of the notes, the court’s decision was never appealed.

Hillary Clinton urged Palestine and Israel to restart peace talks on Saturday, calling Israel’s concessions on the West Bank “unprecedented.” Palestinians say they won’t talk peace until Israel has entirely stopped settlement on the West Bank, a precondition the Obama administration has also called for. Now, the language has changed from a "freeze" on development to a "restraint." "I want to see both sides as soon as possible begin in negotiations," the secretary of State said in a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Both President Obama and I are committed to a comprehensive peace agreement." Palestine rebuffed the request for talks, pointing to the West Bank and Israel’s recent suppression of disturbances at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik, in jail on corruption charges in New York's Westchester County, has been moved to a special unit of his detention facility, and the judge presiding over his case indicated that it could be for psychiatric reasons. Following a conversation with the jailhouse psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Mahler, Judge Stephen Robinson told reporters "that there was more going on than simply Mr. Kerik being placed there because of his notoriety, status, or the circumstances of this case." Robinson said Kerik, once President Bush's nominee for secretary of Homeland Security, may be forced to undergo a court-ordered exam. The news could delay Kerik's trial for conspiracy and fraud, among other charges, which is scheduled to begin November 9.

President Obama used his Saturday radio address to promote his stimulus plan, which he said has already created or saved 1 million jobs. He warned, however, that job losses were still troublesome, but said the overall direction was positive and cited as evidence recent news that the economy grew 3.5 percent last quarter. "It is easy to forget that it was only several months ago that the economy was shrinking rapidly and many economists feared another Great Depression," the president said. He said unemployment would likely worsen before it got better, but that growth was a prerequisite to turning the situation around. "We will likely see further job losses in the coming days," he said. "But we will not create the jobs we need unless the economy is growing.”

State Department officials are running a clandestine operation in Yemen to resettle the nation’s Jews in America and Israel, The Wall Street Journal reports. In all, about 60 Yemeni Jews have resettled in the U.S. since July, and 100 more are on their way. Others will be sent to Israel while some will be left behind in Yemen in a “government enclave,” to protect them from mounting violence in the small Arab country. The impoverished nation has become unstable, and is a suspected haven for terrorists. Analysts say al Qaeda operatives are trying to form a stronghold there. The U.S. took a risk in removing the Yemeni Jews, since it might be criticized for favoritism at a time when many refugees around the world are suffering. But the State Department was seeking to prevent an embarrassment for its embattled Arab ally. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was trying to protect the Jews, but was failing due to internal fighting in his country. If there had been bloodshed, it might have affected the Obama administration’s ability to rally support for the nation. Last year, a prominent Yemeni Jew was gunned down outside his home.

Convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff didn't think much of the SEC, but even he was stunned that they missed so many opportunities to catch him. In a prison interview released by the SEC's inspector general, David Kotz, Madoff said investigators hassled him over minor email exchanges while failing to examine basic questions about how he conducted his business. In particular, he was stunned never to have been asked about his Wall Street central clearinghouse account: “If you’re looking at a Ponzi scheme, it’s the first thing you do,” he said. Madoff described being constantly worried that the jig was up whenever dealing with investigators and two close calls in 2004 and 2006 had him convinced he was going to jail—only they passed without incident. “That was the nightmare I lived with,” he said. “I wish they caught me six years ago, eight years ago.”

Police found the remains of six people at the Cleveland home of convicted rapist Anthony Sowell on Friday night, and found and arrested the man on Saturday under suspicion of murder. At least two of the bodies were women. One was found in the basement of the house, and two were in the backyard. Sowell moved into the house in 2005 after serving 15 years in prison for rape. Officials searched his home when they went to arrest him under suspicion for another rape, but couldn't find him there.

The bank death toll keeps rising. Nine more banks have been seized by regulators, bringing this year's total to 115, the most since 1992, when 181 banks failed in the aftermath of the savings and loan crisis. Illinois-based FBOP Corp., which failed to receive TARP money, was one of the nation's largest privately held bank holding companies. The nine banks represented nearly all of FBOP's assets, and the branches have been taken over by U.S. Bancorp, a Minnesota-based regional bank whose conservative strategy has kept it afloat. FBOP was incapacitated by bad loans and poor investments in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Banking executives see no end to the bank slaughter, though, and expect the pattern to continue well into next year.

The Dignitas Clinic in Zurich, Switzerland, has provided assisted suicide to hundreds of terminally ill patients—at times, more than a quarter of them from neighboring European nations. But the Swiss government has introduced bills that could curb foreigners' use of the clinic. The new regulations would effectively draw out the process of being approved for assisted suicide, which would mean visitors would have to spend much longer in Switzerland before being allowed to use the clinic. Critics say this could drive the clinic out of business—or drive people to engage in more traditional (and more gruesome) forms of suicide. “By cutting off assisted suicide for chronically or psychologically ill people who are capable of informed choice, the government will promote lonely suicides on train tracks,” said the founder of Dignitas.

Typhoon Mirinae, the fourth typhoon in a month, whipped through the northeastern province of Manila on Saturday. Winds reached a high of 93 miles per hour and the storm has left at least seven people dead. The typhoon comes on the heels of large storms in September and October that killed more than 900 people, and nearly 95,000 people are in temporary housing in the storms' aftermath. The weather disaster has left the country with floods, canceled flights, and electricity outages. Mirinae has now been downgraded to a tropical storm and appears to be heading toward Vietnam.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is usually known for commemorating history, but this time they may have created it. In celebration of the institution’s 25th anniversary, music legends from across the board were brought together for two nights at New York City's Madison Square Garden, in concerts that "succeeded in letting rock take an unpretentious look in the mirror," said the New York Post. During jam sessions that chronicled the history of rock, U2 played alongside Bruce Springsteen and Mick Jagger. Other performers included Lou Reed, Sting, Aretha Franklin, Metallica, and Crosby, Stills & Nash. For those unlucky fans who couldn’t afford tickets, an abridged version of the concert will air November 29 on HBO.

For the first time under its new policy, the Obama administration is attempting to prevent legal proceedings over wiretapping from the Bush era on Friday. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the decision in a California lawsuit challenging the warrant-less wiretapping program, initiated after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. According to Holder, the case could not move forward without “jeopardizing ongoing intelligence activities that we rely upon to protect the safety of the American people.” The new state secrets privilege allows the government to dismiss a lawsuit if hearing the case would endanger national security, as Holder suggests. Though the Bush administration put the privilege to use numerous times, the Obama administration recently announced a new internal review process, limiting these decisions to more senior Justice Department officials. In this case, presiding U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker has been given a classified description of why the Justice Department believes the case must be dismissed, and Walker will assess the claim. One lawyer pursuing a similar case against the government was disappointed with Holder’s decision, saying, “The Obama administration has essentially adopted the position of the Bush administration.” Last month, the administration said it would try to set a higher bar for invoking the privilege.

Ryan Seacrest got a genuine Halloween scare yesterday when a man showed up at the Comcast Entertainment Group building saying he "had business" with the American Idol host. Chidi Benjamin Uzomah Jr. was recently released from jail after serving 15 days for attacking a security guard who was walking Seacrest to his car last month. He was re-arrested by LAPD officers yesterday, and Seacrest has taken out a temporary restraining order against him. "His aggressive and violent efforts to come into physical contact with me are extremeley frightening to me," the TV host said. Uzomah was carrying a pocketknife at the time of his arrest, and is being held on $150,000 bail.

Weak ticket sales have doomed the Broadway revival of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, which will close Sunday after less than a week on stage. The David Cromer-directed production opened last Wednesday to mixed reviews and failed to start strong, grossing only $124,000 for preview performances in the week before opening. An executive involved in the production said that the lead producer was skeptical ticket sales would grow, and couldn't justify the costs of production. A planned partner production of Simon's Broadway Bound has been shelved as well. Emmy-winning actress Laurie Metcalf headlined both productions, which are based loosely on the 82-year-old Simon's life. His last hit, in the early 1990s, was Lost in Yonkers.

Handsome San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced Friday that he’s quitting the race to be the next governor of California. Though he was seen as a leading contender for the position, Newsom announced on Friday his withdrawal from the Democratic primary, citing responsibilities to both his family and San Francisco City Hall. “I have found it impossible to commit the time required to complete this effort the way it needs to—and should be—done,” Newsom said. Newsom has trailed State Attorney General and former Governor Jerry Brown in polls and fundraising, leaving him a clear path to the Democratic nomination. Although Newsom has been running for over a year, his campaign never got far off the ground and he reportedly told those close to him that he did not want to embarrass himself in the race to be California’s next governor.

Somali pirates demanded $7 million in ransom on Friday for British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler, whom they kidnapped last week. The pirates’ spokesman said the figure was “a little amount,” and was owed them for international anti-piracy patrol seizures. "When you consider the damage and all the people affected, we say the amount is not big,” the spokesman explained in a call to BBC. This marks the first mention of an exact ransom since the Chandlers were captured while on board their yacht off the Seychelles last Friday. Though the retired couple will likely be unable to pay that kind of money, the demand may lead to further negotiations. The Chandlers’ niece said the family was looking into the pirates’ demand while a Foreign Office spokesman said, “The Government isn't going to make any substantive concessions to hostage-takers, and that includes the payment of ransom." In a phone call to her brother earlier today, Rachel Chandler said the captors were “very hospitable” and assured him that she and her husband, Paul, were unharmed.

Thousands of Icelanders lined up for their last Big Mac, not lovin’ the fact that McDonald's will no longer be available on the financially troubled island nation as of Saturday. At the fast-food chain’s three Icelandic locations, customers waited at midnight to taste two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions on a sesame-seed bun for the final time. Earlier this week, McDonald's announced that its three restaurants in Iceland would shut down on October 31, amid soaring costs after last year’s collapse of the country’s banks. Since the fast-food chain’s announcement, the three locations have reportedly been packed with lines of people overflowing onto the streets.

A second wave of swine flu is sweeping the country and has left 114 children dead in its wake since April, leading federal officials to release the last batch of children's Tamiflu from its national stockpile. The death toll is at a record high since the CDC began tracking children's deaths five years ago, though officials did note that more than two-thirds of the deaths were compounded by underlying health problems. The government has an order in with Roche, the manufacturer of Tamiflu, though the shipment is not scheduled to arrive for another few months. An Indian company, the only other to make a World Health Organization-approved swine-flu drug, has offered to supply about one million doses of the children's medicine in four to six weeks. In the meantime, the CDC has come up with a homemade remedy for the shortage, instructing pharmacies to crack open adult tablets of the medicine and mix it with a child-friendly syrup.

In addition to being the deadliest period in the Afghanistan war for American soldiers, the last three months have seen a major increase in the number of wounded troops as well. More than 1,000 troops have been injured in the past three months, a number that accounts for one-fourth of the total number wounded since the war began in 2001. With an expanded offensive under way against the Taliban and militants perfecting deadlier techniques like roadside bombs, military officials are comparing the environment to Iraq in its worst days—in fact, less troops were wounded on average during the mid-2007 surge in the country. Improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, account for 70 to 80 percent of coalition casualties in Afghanistan.

Abdullah Abdullah, the chief rival to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, is expected to announce he will drop out of the Nov. 7 runoff election on Sunday, effectively handing Karzai another five-year term, The New York Times reports. Abdullah's campaign manager, however, says Abdullah hopes to delay the runoff vote until the spring, though he might change his mind about dropping out before Sunday, reports the Associated Press. Hillary Clinton was quick to state that Abdullah's withdrawal would not affect the legitimacy of the Nov. 7 runoff. Abdullah is still trying to decide whether he will publicly denounce Karzai, who he has accused to stealing the Aug. 20 election, or step down quietly. American officials worry a denouncement could lead to violence and undermine Karzai’s credibility with Afghanis. The White House has been scrambling to end the election’s deadlock for weeks, as President Obama has signaled he will not make a troop-increase decision unless the country has a credible government. Talks between Karzai and Abdullah, who were said to be considering a power-sharing deal, broke down on Thursday. Abdullah wanted the election system overhauled to prevent fraud. A U.N.-backed panel threw out a million ballots after the first round of voting.