GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee late Tuesday 28 June authorized the use of limited Nato air strikes in Libya, but said no to the use of ground troops. The Senate remains divided over the legality of President Barack Obama’s call for the US to actively participate in Nato’s Libyan campaign and the committee’s 14-5 vote is now likely to prompt a full debate in the Senate this week. At issue: whether the president needs the permission of Congress, under a 1973 law, the War Powers Resolution, that requires a president to obtain permission from Congress for hostilities lasting more than 60 days.

The Senate’s actions come a few days after the House refused to support Obama’s Libya programme.

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Update 17:00 Reports from Kabul say that the Electoral Complaints Commission has finalized its tally and, discarding fraudulent ballots, the new total vote for Afghan President Hamid Karzai gives him 48 percent, less than the 50 percent necessary to avoid a run-off. The new results have been communicated to the Independent Election Commission, which has not yet decided whether to accept them. Nor is it clear what the reaction will be in the president’s office. AP, New York Times

Pressure is mounting on Karzai to accept a run-off election between him and the runner-up in last August’s elections, or to agree to some sort of power-sharing deal. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has been holding talks with both sides, and John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was also in Kabul this past weekend, 17 and 18 October. The UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission has been witholding the results of its investigation into massive electoral fraud, which may rob Karzai of his first-round victory. Karzai won with 54 percent of the vote.

A run-off election must be held within two weeks by law, but winter is closing in quickly in Afghanistan and would greatly hamper the logistics of a new election. The US administration is debating whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan to fight an increasingly powerful Taliban insurgency. On Sunday, 18 October, a top aide to US President Obama said that the Afghan government needed to be “a credible partner” for the US to be able to deal with it. CBS News, Christian Science Monitor, Reuters