Karzai's Running Mate Survives Attack KABUL, Afghanistan - Campaigning for Afghanistan's first direct presidential election ended with a burst of violence Wednesday as attackers set off a bomb in a failed effort to kill interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai's vice presidential running-mate.    Despite persistent violence, the United Nations declared this hard-luck nation ready for Saturday's vote, a historic experiment with democracy after more than two decades of unrelenting ruin, from Soviet occupation to civil war to the repressive Taliban and the thunderous U.S...