KABUL —  Afghanistan’s election commission has canceled Saturday’s presidential runoff and proclaimed President Hamid Karzai victor of the war-ravaged nation’s tumultuous ballot.

Independent Election Commission chairman Azizullah Lodin announced Karzai as the victor during a news conference in Kabul on Monday.

President Hamid Karzai had already effectively secured a second term when his only challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the race Sunday because he said the vote would not be free or fair. The first round was marred by massive fraud.

Meanwhile, the U.N. chief made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Monday as international pressure mounted for a quick resolution to the country’s electoral turmoil following the withdrawal of President Hamid Karzai’s only challenger.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was to meet with the two men “to assure them and the Afghan people of the continuing support of the United Nations toward the development of the country,” the statement said.

A deadly attack last week on a Kabul guest house where U.N. election workers were staying has raised questions about whether the U.N. might scale back in Afghanistan. Militants stormed the compound before dawn, killing five U.N. staffers and three Afghans.

The U.N. kept operating after an August 2003 truck bombing at its headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 22 people, including mission chief Sergio Vieira de Mello, but after a second bombing it shut down operations in Iraq in late October 2003 for years.

Ban will also meet with U.N. staff and security officials, the statement said.

Taliban threats of more violence and the difficulty of organizing and securing the balloting mean that officials are likely looking for a way to end the process without sending people back to the polls this week.

Karzai has said the runoff should go forward as planned, but there is no clear article in Afghanistan’s constitution or electoral law to address the situation. The chairman of the Independent Election Commission, Azizullah Lodin, said Sunday that he would have to meet with constitutional lawyers before deciding how to proceed.

Repeated calls to election officials on Monday were not returned.

It has been more than a month since the Aug. 20 balloting that aimed to strengthen the Afghan government but instead undermined its credibility both at home and with key allies like the United States.

The vote was characterized by rampant ballot-box stuffing, and fraud investigators threw out nearly a third of Karzai’s votes. That move dropped Karzai below the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright, forcing the runoff vote.

A bevy of international figures, including U.S. Sen. John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, were involved in convincing Karzai to accept the runoff vote.

U.N. and U.S. representatives were still involved in negotiations with the two about a power-sharing deal as recently as Sunday morning, according to a Western diplomat who was familiar with the talks but spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

The U.S. and the U.N. have both issued statements calling for a quick resolution now that Abdullah has bowed out.

Abdullah has said his decision not to participate in the runoff is final. But in a sign of how much the situation is in flux, a spokesman said Monday that they could be open to still having a second round if it is delayed to put in safeguards to prevent fraud.

“Lots of opportunities have been missed and election day is very close,” Fazel Sancharaki said. “If President Karzai accepts Dr. Abdullah’s conditions we are thinking of a second date for the election.”

The trial of a man accused of killing popular Little Rock, Ark., anchorwoman Anne Pressly is set to begin Monday, after being postponed nearly two months.

Curtis Lavelle Vance is accused of beating Pressly, 26, a rising star on the local morning news scene, into a coma and raping her in her apartment in October 2008 after a break-in. The face so many in her hometown had come to know was crushed beyond recognition. Five days after the attack, Pressly’s brain stem ruptured and she died.

Vance, 28, of Marianna, Ark., is charged with capital murder. He pleaded not guilty to the attack. If convicted, Vance could face the death penalty or a life sentence.

Police said Vance did not know the anchorwoman prior to allegedly beating her to death.

Pressly’s parents hope that a trial will answer the questions that keep them up at night.

“What kind of monster are you that would take the life of an innocent child?” asked her mother Patti Cannady. “What fills you with rage and hatred and no respect for human life? Why did you have to hurt my child and take her life?”

Police: DNA Linked Second Rape Case to Anne Pressly’s Alleged Killer

As reported on “20/20″ in December 2008, the investigation into Pressly’s murder may have helped solve a second crime.

Ginnie Springs
is far from Florida’s popular tourist attractions, nestled in a
beautiful, lush setting among centuries-old cypress trees in the
rolling hills of Northern Florida not far from the Georgia border. One
of hundreds of natural springs in this area of the state — they’re
part of the massive, intricate Florida Aquifer that supplies most of
the state’s drinking water — it features some of the most amazing cave
and cavern diving in the world.

My guide for my expedition for “Good Morning America Weekend” was Wes Skiles, a legendary underwater photographer
and videographer who grew up near High Springs, Fla., the closest town
to Ginnie Springs. Skiles first dived the spring four decades ago when
he was just a teenager.

An international group of scientists has decoded the DNA of the domestic pig, research that may one day prove useful in finding new treatments for both pigs and people, and perhaps aid in efforts for a new swine flu vaccine for pigs.

Pigs and humans are similar in size and makeup, and swine are often used in human research. Scientists say they rely on pigs to study everything from obesity and heart disease to skin disorders.

“The pig is the ideal animal to look at lifestyle and health issues in the United States,” said Larry Schook, a University of Illinois in Champaign biomedical science professor who led the DNA sequencing project.

Researchers announced the results of their work Monday at a meeting at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, U.K., one of the organizations involved in the research. They’ll spend the meeting discussing ways to use the new information, Schook said.

A year after President Obama’s election, recent Gallup poll numbers on race show that 40% of Americans believe race will always be a problem, up from 30% who said that a year ago. Roughly the same number of people said that back in 1963.

Last November, when the president won in a land slide, that number was at an all time low of 30%.   Reverend Al Sharpton told me that we haven’t lost symbolism of electing the first African-American President but structural inequality persists and the numbers show, “we’ve sobered up to the reality.  We learned he can’t walk on water, but he’s still the best political swimmer in national politics.”