This Sunday's reading from the Letter of James urges us to "show no partiality." As top envoys for Afghanistan gathered in Paris Wednesday, claims of massive vote fraud in the recent elections called into question the Afghan government's claims of partiality and cast a pall over peace efforts.

U.S. special representative Richard Holbrooke joined counterparts from 26 countries and organizations for talks on Afghanistan's future after the August 20 vote, which has been mired in allegations of ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation. Afghanistan's election commission is investigating more than 2,500 complaints of irregularities.

With ballots from nearly half the polling stations reported, President Hamid Karzai was leading his main rival Abdullah Abdullah but was short of the majority needed to avoid a run-off.

The meeting comes two days after U.S. and NATO commanders in Afghanistan presented a gloomy assessment of the war, calling for a shift in strategy in the nearly eight-year campaign to defeat the Taliban.

Already 2009 has been a record-breaking year for the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan and questions are being asked over the fate of billions of dollars in international aid that has poured into the country.

Washington's relations with Karzai have grown increasingly strained while public opinion in the U.S. and Europe has turned cold over what many see as an ill-defined Afghan campaign.

Source: Articles by Dexter Filkins for the New York Times and Agence France Presse