Karzai Defies Legislators' Call to Sack Minister

Afghanistan's government is at the breaking point, as President Hamid Karzai continues to defy the legislature's wishes to remove the country's foreign minister. Four months into the standoff, the New York Times reports, the president's opponents have threatened either to boycott Parliament or quit government altogether.

During the drafting of Afghanistan's constitution Karzai pushed for a strong executive branch. But since March a sprawling new coalition of opposition parties—headed by the Northern Alliance that fought the Taliban until 2001—has pushed for greater parliamentary powers as Karzai's popularity drops. One coalition member said that if Karzai continued to defy their wishes, then "definitely Parliament will collapse." (More Hamid Karzai stories.)