A suicide bomber killed the cousin of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was also a campaign official for one of the candidates in the nation’s bitterly disputed presidential elections.  Hashmat Karzai was an influential power-broker in the Kandahar region.

Authorities say the bomber was a well dressed man who was not invited to Karzai’s Eid al-Fitr party but managed to get in anyway.  He had explosives hidden in his turban, which he set off when he moved in to hug Hashmat Karzai.  No one else was killed, and the motive isn’t clear.

Hashmat Karzai was a close ally of presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani, who won the election according to provincial results.  But the count is challenged by the other candidate Abdullah Abdullah.  The new president was supposed to have been sworn in by 2 August, but that seems unlikely.  Even though a United Nations team is reviewing the ballot results, US Secretary of State John Kerry is urging Ghani and Abdullah to set aside their differences and form a unity government.