Afghan president to sign deal allowing US troops to stay after 2014, officials say

Newly inaugurated Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai is expected to sign a vital security deal Tuesday to allow American soldiers to remain in the country past the end of the year, officials say. 

A senior Defense Department official confirmed to Fox News that the new president will sign the Bilateral Security Agreement allowing for 9,800 U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan after 2014. The president also is expected to sign a NATO Status of Forces Agreement, which will allow a small NATO force to stay on as well.

John Podesta, a senior adviser to President Obama, also discussed the pact at a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. According to the White House, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham will sign the document on behalf of the U.S. president. 

The announcement comes after Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai was sworn in Monday as Afghanistan’s new president, replacing Hamid Karzai in the country’s first democratic transfer of power after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban. Karzai would not sign the security agreement with the U.S. 

Moments after Ghani Ahmadzai took the oath, he swore in his election challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, as chief executive, fulfilling a political pledge he had taken to share power and defuse election tensions that had threatened to spark violence between the country’s north and south.

In his first speech, Ghani Ahmadzai called on the Taliban and other militants to join the country’s political process and lay down their weapons. However, extremist violence Monday killed at least 12 civilians and police officers as foreign forces prepare to withdraw from the country at the end of the year.

“We are tired of war,” Ghani Ahmadzai said in a televised address. “Our message is peace, (but) this doesn’t mean we are weak.”

U.S. officials previously had said they expected Ghani Ahmadzai or an official in his government to sign the security agreement with the U.S. shortly after his inauguration. Both Ghani Ahmadzai and Abdullah said during their campaigns they would sign the deal. 

Fox News’ Justin Fishel and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Afghan president to sign deal allowing US troops to stay after 2014, officials say

Clash "kills seven Ukraine troops"

29 September 2014 Last updated at 17:57 Ukrainian troops have been battling pro-Russian rebels across the east of the country Seven Ukrainian soldiers are said to have died in a clash with pro-Russian rebels near Donetsk airport – in what would be the deadliest single incident for the military since a truce deal.

A tank shell hit the vehicle carrying the troops, an official said.

Three civilians were reportedly killed in other incidents.

Ukrainian activists earlier toppled a statue of Lenin in the eastern city of Kharkiv – a move likely to be seen as a provocation by pro-Russians.

Nationalist protesters had gathered around the statue on Sunday night for a “Kharkiv is Ukraine” rally. The governor of Kharkiv region, Ihor Baluta, then signed an order to dismantle the statue.

The mayor of Kharkiv, Gennady Kernes, said on a local government website that the monument would be restored, calling its destruction unlawful.

Pro-Russian demonstrators defended the statue in February, as similar monuments were being taken down in other parts of the country in a wave of protests that accompanied the removal of President Viktor Yanukovych.

Kharkiv has largely escaped the violence which subsequently swept through east Ukraine’s other regions, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Ukrainian flags flutter where Kharkiv’s statue of Lenin stood – until Sunday night

The latest deaths cast fresh doubt on a ceasefire agreed between the Ukrainian government and the rebels on 5 September.

The seven soldiers were killed in a vehicle near Donetsk airport, which the rebels have been trying to capture from the Ukrainian military.

“During the evening attack, the Ukrainian armoured transporter, with its crew and a paratroop unit, took a direct hit from a tank,” Ukrainian military spokesman Col Andriy Lysenko told reporters.

“Intensive fighting broke out. Our paratroopers sustained losses,” Col Lysenko said.

He said a total of nine soldiers had been killed and 27 wounded in the past 24 hours.

Separately, authorities in Donetsk told AFP news agency that three civilians had been killed over the same period. The city is a base for the pro-Russian rebels.

The OSCE security organisation, which is monitoring the ceasefire, confirmed there had been heavy shelling around Donetsk airport.

There was also heavy shelling of the eastern outskirts of Mariupol on Friday and Saturday, OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw told the BBC.

Just before the ceasefire took effect heavily armed rebels moved close to Mariupol, a strategic port city on the main route to Crimea.

Russia denies Western allegations that it has armed the rebels and sent troops into the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. About 3,200 people have died in fighting since April.

Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March – a move condemned by Ukraine and the West.

The European Union and the US later imposed sanctions against Russia over its role in the Ukraine conflict.

Last week, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the “most dangerous” part of the crisis in the east had passed, predicting that his peace deal with the pro-Russian rebels would hold.

‘Suspicious graves’

For several days Russian state television has reported on “mass graves” allegedly unearthed by rebels near Nizhnya Krynka, a village near Donetsk. At least four bodies have been found there, according to the Russian reports.

The television reports said Ukrainian army and national guard units had occupied the area and were suspected of shooting captives at close range.

Last week Anton Herashchenko, a Ukrainian interior ministry adviser, dismissed the mass grave allegation as “outright lies”.

OSCE spokesman Bociurkiw confirmed that “about half a dozen” bodies, some of them decomposed, had been seen by OSCE monitors at the site.

“We observed unmarked graves, it was not possible to establish gender, and there were shell casings nearby,” he said.

“We were not able to do a proper investigation because the OSCE doesn’t have the ability to do a forensic assessment,” he told the BBC.

“We had no way of establishing if they were shot or who put the weapons there.”

He also said the OSCE had been unable to check whether Russia was bringing more military equipment into Ukraine or taking it out. No inspection was carried out on Russian humanitarian aid lorries that entered the conflict zone, he said.

“We don’t have an inventory of what existed, so it’s very difficult to establish what if anything has moved. Equipment was also unmarked,” he said.

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Clash "kills seven Ukraine troops"

Mexico troops held over June killing

26 September 2014 Last updated at 18:43 Most of the bodies from the incident were found close to the walls of this warehouse in the village of San Pedro Limon Eight Mexican soldiers have been arrested over the killing of 22 alleged gang members in a shooting incident in June in the south-west of the country.

The seven soldiers and their commander are charged with military disobedience and breach of duty.

The arrests came after a witness said most of the victims were killed in cold blood.

The army had said they died in a firefight, but suspicions were later raised as only one soldier was injured.

The confrontation happened on 30 June in the village of San Pedro Limon in the municipality of Tlatlaya, about 240km (150 miles) south-west of the capital, Mexico City.

At the time, the authorities said the victims were probably members of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel.

But some of the bodies appeared to show bullet wounds at chest level, suggesting they had not been killed in a shootout.

Witnesses then said only one person died in the initial confrontation – the others were killed after surrendering to soldiers, our reporter says.

Last week, Mexico’s federal attorney-general’s office said it had not found evidence to corroborate that account.

Drug gang activities have led to an increase in violence across Mexico over the past decade

Criminal organisations are known to operate in the area, in the southern part of Mexico state. La Familia Michoacana is active in neighbouring Michoacan and Guerrero states.

‘War on drugs’

President Enrique Pena Nieto has promised to review the war on drugs policy of his predecessor, Felipe Calderon.

Critics said Mr Calderon’s decision to deploy the armed forces to combat the powerful drug cartels in December 2006 had led to a sharp increase in violence.

At least 60,000 people are estimated to have been killed in drug-related violence during his six-year term.

Despite that criticism, Mr Pena Nieto’s government has continued to fight the gangs.

In February, it managed to arrest Mexico’s most wanted drug lord – Joaquin Shorty Guzman – who had evaded justice for more than a decade.

Correction: A version of this story published earlier on 26 September said a soldier had been killed in the June incident. He was in fact wounded.

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Mexico troops held over June killing

Honduras troops take over at prison

3 August 2013 Last updated at 21:22 ET Security forces were guarding injured inmates taken to a hospital in Tegucigalpa, to prevent any attempt by gangs to free the prisoners Honduras has sent troops to take control of the country’s main prison near the capital Tegucigalpa after three inmates were killed in a riot.

Three security guards were also wounded in the clashes, officials said.

The move was aimed at ending “the reign of criminals in our prison system”, President Porfirio Lobo said.

It follows the release of a report, which said the government had given up on rehabilitating criminals and left prisons to be controlled by inmates.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said the country’s prisons were impoverished, overcrowded and corrupt.

Government figures show more than 12,000 people in Honduras are currently incarcerated in prisons that were built for just 8,000.

‘Cell-by-cell review’

A police spokesman said a riot broke out at the National Penitentiary after fighting erupted between gang members and other prisoners.

The prison, located north of Tegucigalpa, reportedly houses some 3,300 inmates.

Authorities were carrying out a “cell-by-cell review to find out what happened”, prison director Simeon Flores was quoted as saying.

After the clash, the authorities found hand grenades and firearms in the prison.

Hours later, the government ordered an immediate military takeover at the facility saying it should end the reign of criminals in the prison.

Security forces were also guarding injured inmates taken to a hospital in Tegucigalpa, to prevent any attempt by gangs to free the prisoners.

The violence occurred a day after a new report described the jail system in Honduras as “dehumanised, miserly, and corrupt”.

The Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said the jails were under the de-facto command of inmates – often belonging the country’s violent criminal gangs – who even set rules and enforce physical punishments.

The report also found that women shared prisons with men and were often victims of abuse.

“It is essential that the state take on this crisis in the prison system as one of its priorities, because the system has totally collapsed,” said commission spokesman Escobar Gil.

The report highlighted a lack of staffing, resources and organisation, saying the government had abandoned its responsibilities towards funding and rehabilitation programmes.

It called on authorities to deal with what it called a deep structural crisis.

The commission also criticised the government’s response to a fire, which killed some 360 prisoners at the Comayagua prison in February 2012.

The report urged further investigation into the cause of the deadly incident.

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Honduras troops take over at prison