Hamid Karzai, Elected new Afghan leader
Afghan interim president, Hamid Karzai, has been elected the country's head of state. The meeting of the Grand Council, or Loya Jirga, gave Mr Karzai 1,295 votes out of a total of 1,575 ballots cast.
The two other candidates presented only a token challenge to Mr Karzai, who had won the support both of influential warlords and of the country's former king.
The new government will run the country for 18 months before general elections are held. Mr Karzai had been installed as interim leader of Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban.
