Daily Benefactor News – Top Story – Obama Makes First Trip To Afghanistan As President – More
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Obama Makes First Trip To Afghanistan As President – Reuters
Air Force One landed in darkness at Bagram airfield north of the Afghan capital, and Obama was whisked by helicopter to Hamid Karzai’s palace in Kabul, where he was greeted by the Afghan president and a band playing the U.S. national anthem.
U.S. officials said Obama would press Karzai to crack down on corruption and battle drug trafficking. He will also hear a briefing from the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Army General Stanley McChrystal, and deliver a speech to U.S. troops.
The president left Washington on Saturday night. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, speaking before the trip, said Obama wanted to get an “on the ground update” about the war from McChrystal and Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador.
National security advisor General James Jones told reporters on Air Force One that Obama would tell Karzai “in this second term that there are certain things he has to do as the president of his country to battle the things that have not been paid attention to almost since day one.”
In December Obama ordered the deployment of an extra 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan and set a mid-2011 target to begin withdrawal. About a third have so far arrived, participating in a major offensive in the south of the country last month.
The Obama administration has had an uneasy relationship with Karzai throughout Obama’s 14 months in office, reaching a nadir during a three-month Afghan election dispute last year.
Eikenberry wrote in a classified cable in November, later leaked, that Karzai was “not an adequate strategic partner.”
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South Korean Navy Ship’s Sinking Possibly Caused By Mine Explosion – Xinhua
Friday’s Navy ship sinking might have been caused by a mine explosion, South Korean media YTN quoted Cheong Wa Dae sources as saying on Saturday.
General of the South Korean Navy Lee Ki-shik said later Friday that the 1,200-ton warship Cheonan went down after the unexplained explosion ripped a hole in the ship’s bottom.
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Live On TV: Thai PM Vs. Anti-Government Protesters – Associated Press
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and leaders of anti-government protests failed to reach an agreement Sunday in nationally televised talks on how to solve the country’s political crisis and said they would try again the next day.
The talks marked a civilized pause after weeks of demonstrations and fiery rhetoric that prompted Abhisit to seek refuge at an army base. The two sides sat across a conference table from each other and shook hands.
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Palin Goes Hunting For Democrat Senator – The Australian
Sarah Palin has urged Nevada voters to retire their senator, Democratic majority leader Harry Reid, at a massive rally near the dusty desert outpost where he grew up.
The “Showdown in Searchlight” kicked off a 44-city, three-week US tour of political demonstrations by the Tea Party Express, a consortium of anti-tax, anti-Democratic groups.
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Overnight Bar Brawl Involving 100 People – WPTV
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating a nightclub fight involving at least 100 people. It happened around 2:30 a.m. at Tropical Heat Cafe located at 2800 Military Trail North.
According to PBSO, a fight started inside the club then continued outside where shots were fired into a crowd of people. It is not known whether anyone was hit.
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Armed Robbers Raid Swiss Casino – CNN
About 10 men armed with pistols and small machine guns raided a casino in Switzerland and made off into France with several hundred thousand Swiss francs in the early hours of Sunday morning, police said.
The men, dressed in black clothes and black ski masks, split into two groups during the raid on the Grand Casino Basel, Chief Inspector Peter Gill told CNN.
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Pakistani Army Kills 22 Taliban Near Border – MSNBC
Pakistani troops repulsed a Taliban attack Sunday on an army base and bombed two militant hide-outs close to the Afghan border, killing 22 insurgents in a region where the army is pressing an offensive, a government official said.
The fighting occurred in Orakzai tribal region where many militants are believed to have fled from a major operation in their former stronghold of South Waziristan.
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India Tests Two Nuclear Capable Missiles – Space War
India successfully tested two short-range nuclear-capable missiles from two sites off its eastern coast on Saturday, a defence ministry official said.
India, which tested nuclear weapons in 1998, has developed a series of nuclear and conventional missile systems as part of a programme begun in 1983.
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