A major American newspaper is reporting that the U.S. government has intensified its covert war in Yemen in recent weeks, deploying armed drones and fighter jets to attack militant suspects seeking to undermine the shaky Sana'a government.
Citing U.S. officials, The New York Times said that after nearly a year-long pause in American airstrikes, the U.S. has accelerated its campaign in an attempt to keep militants linked to al-Qaida from consolidating power. The attacks are being led by the U.S. Defense Department's Joint Special Operations Command in close coordination with the CIA.
The report said that last Friday American jets killed a mid-level al-Qaida operative, Abu Ali al-Harithi, and several other militant suspects in a strike in southern Yemen. Weeks before, drones fired missiles aimed at Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born Islamic cleric that the U.S. has been trying to kill for more than a year. But he survived the attack.
The heightened campaign comes during a perilous period for Yemen, with President Ali Abdullah Saleh fleeing the country to Saudi Arabia for treatment of severe burns he suffered in last week's bomb attack on his presidential compound. He authorized American missions in his country in 2009, but placed limits on their scope and publicly has said that all military operations have been conducted by Yemeni troops.
The Times said the U.S. has carried out its attacks in the belief that Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula poses a greater threat to U.S. security than the militants hiding in Pakistan's mountainous tribal areas next to its border with Afghanistan. The Yemeni group has been linked to the attempt to blow up a transatlantic jetliner on Christmas Day 2009 and last year's attempt to blow up cargo jets with bombs hidden inside printer cartridges.
U.S. and Yemeni officials say President Saleh suffered injuries from the bomb attack on the presidential compound that are far more severe than first disclosed, raising doubts about his return to power. Saleh was initially said to have received a shrapnel wound, and his vice president was quoted earlier this week as saying the president would return to Yemen within days from Saudi Arabia where he is being treated.
But diplomatic sources say Saleh has burns on his his face, neck and chest. He also is believed to have suffered a serious head injury.
Yemen's prime minister, his two deputies, the heads of the two houses of parliament and the head of the ruling party's legislative bloc were all evacuated to Saudi Arabia with severe injuries.
Meanwhile, the unrest that has engulfed the nation for months shows no signs of ending, despite the president's absence.
Fresh fighting erupted this week in Yemen's second-largest city, Taiz, where armed opposition tribesmen have occupied a large area in the center of the town. Government forces also clashed with Islamist militants in the southern city of Zinjibar, more than a week after hundreds of militants seized control of the town.
Nearly 400 people have been killed since a popular uprising against Saleh began in January.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Pakistan security officials say Taliban militants have attacked a security checkpoint in South Waziristan, killing eight soldiers.
The officials say Pakistani forces killed at least 10 Taliban fighters in the resulting firefight.
Thursday's early-morning incident in the western tribal region near the Afghan border left at least seven soldiers wounded.
On Wednesday, Pakistani officials said U.S. missiles struck a militant training facility in a tribal region of North Waziristan, killing at least 23 suspected militants.
Intelligence officials say the missiles were fired from unmanned drone aircraft within minutes of each other.
The strikes took place in the village of Zoynarai in the Shawal area in the mountainous region close to the border with Afghanistan.
Wednesday's strikes came two days after U.S. missiles killed 18 militants in nearby South Waziristan. The United States has said the semi-autonomous region of northwest Pakistan is the headquarters of al-Qaida and Taliban militants leading the fight against the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan.
The United States does not officially confirm the Predator drone strikes, which are hugely unpopular among Pakistanis. But the CIA and the U.S. military are the only forces deploying the unmanned aircraft in the region. U.S. officials say the missile strikes have severely weakened al-Qaida's leadership.
The Pakistani parliament approved a resolution demanding the end of the missile strikes, but the U.S. has ignored it.
Another thousand Syrians have fled to safety in Turkey, which has vowed to keep its doors open for those seeking refuge from the violence in their homeland.
The Turkish government said the Syrians crossed the border overnight into the early hours Thursday, boosting the number of refugees to 1,600. They are looking to escape Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's weeks-long crackdown against anti-government protesters. Some refugees say that black-clad gunmen have opened fire against protesters without warning.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been a long-time ally of Mr. Assad, but he says Turkey will not "close its doors" to Syrians fleeing to Turkey. On Wednesday, he called on the Syrian government to be "more tolerant" of its citizens who are protesting.
Some of the Syrians who entered Turkey fled from the town of Jisr al-Shughour, 20 kilometers from the border, and nearby villages. For the moment, the Syrians are staying in tents set up by the Red Crescent in the southern Hatay province. Other Syrians have stayed behind, but pitched tents near the border.
Meanwhile, European members of the U.N. Security Council presented a revised resolution condemning Syria for its violent crackdown. Britain, France, Germany and Portugal introduced the new text Wednesday at a closed Security Council meeting in New York. U.N. diplomats said the draft, strongly backed by the United States, is aimed at winning more support for the proposal in the council.
But Russia's U.N. Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, repeated that Moscow would not support the resolution on the grounds that it would not promote dialogue or help put an end to the violence.
Earlier efforts in the council to respond to the Syrian protests failed to win consensus and were abandoned.
The draft resolution demands an immediate end to the violence and humanitarian access into Syria. It also calls for the Syrian government to initiate steps toward genuine political reform. Diplomats said there could be a vote by the end of the week.
Rights groups say at least 1,100 people have been killed in the Syrian crackdown against the anti-government campaign that began in March. More than 10,000 people have been arrested.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Government forces in Libya have carried out a heavy assault on the rebel-held city of Misrata on the same day that NATO vowed to keep up its air campaign against the embattled Libyan leader.
Witnesses say the port city came under heavy shelling Wednesday as thousands of pro-Gadhafi troops advanced from the south, east and west.
Doctors and rebel sources say the shelling of Misrata killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 25 others.
The violence came as NATO defense ministers, meeting in Brussels, vowed to continue their aerial operations against forces loyal to Libya's Moammar Gadhafi.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance is preparing for a Libya without the authoritarian leader. The NATO chief said Mr. Gadhafi's departure is no longer a question of "if" he goes, but rather "when" he goes.
A NATO statement said the alliance is committed to providing "all the necessary means" and "maximum operational flexibility" to sustain its military campaign in Libya. The NATO allies sought broader support and additional contributions to the effort.
NATO is operating under a U.N. mandate that calls for taking all necessary measures other than occupation to protect civilians and civilian areas from attack by Mr. Gadhafi's forces.
NATO warplanes attacked targets in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, overnight and on Tuesday, carried out daytime airstrikes that were some of the most intense since the coalition operation began in March.
However, the Libyan leader vowed Tuesday to continue fighting. He said in an audio broadcast that the Libyan people will not surrender.
Meanwhile, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says evidence shows that Mr. Gadhafi ordered mass rapes of women considered disloyal to his regime. The prosecutor said Wednesday investigators are looking into whether the Libyan leader provided soldiers with Viagra-like medicines in order to promote the rape of women.
Separately, the U.N.'s special envoy for Libya arrived in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi Wednesday for talks with opposition leaders. Jordanian Abdul Ilah al-Khatib came from Tripoli, where he reportedly held talks with officials from Mr. Gadhafi's government.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is traveling to the United Arab Emirates, where the 22-nation Libyan Contact Group holds talks on Thursday, including on how to assist the Libyan rebels opposing Mr. Gadhafi. The group agreed last month to set up a fund to provide the rebels with food, medicine and military supplies.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
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Speaking before the House of Commons, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Paris and London are presenting a resolution to the U.N. Security Council condemning Syria's crackdown on anti-government protesters and demanding humanitarian access in the country.
"There are credible reports of a thousand dead and as many as 10,000 detained and the violence being meted out to peaceful protesters and demonstrators is completely unacceptable. Of course, we must not stand silent in the face of these outrages - and we will not," said Cameron.
France has echoed that tough rhetoric. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has lost all legitimacy to rule his country.
The new push by London and Paris underscores a more robust collaboration between the two countries who have also led the NATO bombing campaign against the Libyan regime.
Meanwhile in Paris, Syria's ambassador to France, Lamia Shakkour, denied reports carried on international broadcaster France 24 that she had resigned to protest the violence in Syria.
Shakkour told France's BFM TV that France 24 carried "disinformation" and that she would file a lawsuit against the station. France 24 had broadcast a live interview with a woman who identified herself Shakkour and who announced her resignation. In a statement, the television channel said it could not rule out being manipulated or provoked.
Syria also faces international pressure for its alleged nuclear activities, with the United States and other members of the International Atomic Energy Agency pushing to bring Damascus before the U.N. Security Council for non-compliance.
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Reports of defections among Syrian security personnel are raising questions about how well the leadership can control the moral, religious and political factors influencing people in the country.
Elite forces of Syria's security apparatus are said to be converging on the town of Jisr al-Shughour, in the aftermath of what the government says was the ambush and killing of 120 of its forces by "armed gangs."
But witnesses in the region counter the official report, saying that the victims included soldiers who balked at orders to open fire on protesters, and were killed by government loyalists.
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Human Rights Watch researcher Nadim Houry says it is very hard to confirm these reports, because Jisr al-Shughour has been largely cut off from the rest of the world and access to residents who fled to neighboring Turkey has been restricted. But he says there have been precedents.
"Based on what we've seen in other towns where we have managed to do a lot more research, in southern Syria, in Daraa, for example, we know there have been some defections and in some cases some soldiers have come under fire from the security forces for defecting," said Houry.
Political observers believe some of these soldiers may have been shocked when they encountered ordinary people, rather than the thugs and terrorists the government said were behind the unrest.
Abdelaziz Sager is the chairman of the Gulf Research Center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
"The government may have deceived the people by not really providing the real information on security officers being directly involved and so it happened to be innocent people, peaceful demonstrations where people were demanding real, legitimate demands and they saw the oppression the government decided to use against them. This may be an important element [that] made them decide," said Sager.
For rank-and-file soldiers, those protesters are often very much like themselves, from middle, to lower-middle income families, with no connection to the minority Shi'ite Allawite leadership of the mainly Sunni country.
Assad's 'family business'
According to political analyst Sager, this collapse in keeping the country firmly under the control of the ruling Assad family can be pinned on the current generation led by President Bashar al-Assad.
Sager argues that the president's father, Hafez al-Assad, rallied Sunnis and even Christians under the Baath political banner of Arab nationalism - while also employing massive oppression. The current Assads have had to fall back on just oppression, but how far to use that, according to Sager, is a matter of debate and nervousness within what he calls "the family business."
"Some may want to go for reforms," he said. "Others may believe if you do reform, this is it, this will lead only to much more deterioration and more concessions. Others believe using a strong force, using the security method may work better and this is what we have seen now in the divisions and diversity between the approaches that each one with his background and his character is playing things. But, in the end, both know they are all losers. In the end, they know they lose - they all lose."
The continued protests in the face of the brutal crackdown - human rights observers believe some 1,300 people have been killed in the past three months - would seem to indicate the Assad family's options are becoming increasingly limited.
"The main factor for the government crackdown has been anyone protesting against the government or anyone who's not towing the line completely," said Human Rights Watch researcher Nadim Houry.
The risk of such a blunt tactic is that it only creates more opposition to the government, as the recent defections in the security forces appear to signal.
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NATO says it is committed to its military campaign against forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and is preparing for a Libya without the authoritarian leader.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday after a meeting of alliance defense ministers in Brussels that Gadhafi's departure is no longer a question of "if" he goes, but rather "when" he goes.
A NATO statement issued Wednesday committed to providing "all the necessary means" and "maximum operational flexibility" to sustain its military campaign in Libya. NATO allies sought broader support and welcomed additional contributions to continue their efforts, after NATO warplanes rocked the Libyan capital, Tripoli, overnight.
Intensified strikes
On Tuesday, NATO carried out daytime airstrikes that were some of the most intense since the coalition operation began in March.
NATO is operating under a U.N. mandate that calls for taking all necessary measures other than occupation to protect civilians and civilian areas from attack by Gadhafi's forces.
However, the Libyan leader has vowed to continue fighting. He said in an audio broadcast Tuesday that the Libyan people will not surrender and will stay in their country until the end.
Meanwhile, the U.N.'s special envoy for Libya arrived in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi Wednesday for talks with opposition leaders. Jordanian Abdul Ilah al-Khatib came from Tripoli, where he reportedly held talks with officials from Gadhafi's government.
Clinton to UAE
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is traveling to the United Arab Emirates, where the 22-nation Libyan Contact Group holds talks on Thursday, including on how to assist the Libyan rebels opposing Gadhafi. The group agreed last month to set up a fund to provide the rebels with food, medicine and military supplies.
In Brussels, where NATO is based, lawyers for Gadhafi's daughter filed a war crimes complaint against the alliance. In the complaint, Aisha al-Gadhafi accuses NATO of bombing a civilian target in late April in Tripoli.
Libyan officials said the attack killed one of Gadhafi's sons and three of his grandchildren. The deaths have not been independently confirmed.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Related video report by Laurel Bowman:
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Al-Qaida's second in command has issued a message eulogizing the terrorist group's leader, Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan last month.
In a 28-minute video posted Thursday on militant websites, Ayman al-Zawahri said bin Laden terrified the United States while alive and would continue to do so in death.
He also criticized U.S. forces for burying bin Laden at sea and urged the Pakistani people to rise up against their leaders, calling them "traitors."
Al-Zawahri - who is believed to be hiding somewhere in the Pakistan-Afghan border region - also urged Muslims around the world to continue bin Laden's jihad against the West.
Bin Laden was shot dead by U.S. special forces May 2 during a raid on his residential compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Pakistani officials say a pair of U.S. missile strikes has killed at least 20 suspected militants in Pakistan's tribal region of North Waziristan.
Intelligence officials say the missiles were fired from drones within minutes of each other Wednesday, with two of them hitting a vehicle and the other two a nearby compound. The strike took place in the village of Zoynarai in the Shawal area in the mountainous region close to the border with Afghanistan.
The identity of the those killed was not immediately known. But the Haqqani network and foreign militants are known to operate in the region, as well as a Pakistani warlord, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who is involved in the fight against Western forces in Afghanistan.
Wednesday's strikes came two days after U.S. missiles killed 18 militants in nearby South Waziristan. The United States has said the semi-autonomous region of northwest Pakistan is the headquarters of al-Qaida and Taliban militants leading the fight against the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan.
The United States does not officially confirm the Predator drone strikes, which are hugely unpopular among Pakistanis. But the CIA and the U.S. military are the only forces deploying the unmanned aircraft in the region. U.S. officials say the missile strikes have severely weakened al-Qaida's leadership.
The Pakistani parliament approved a resolution demanding the end of the missile strikes, but the U.S. has ignored it.
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President Barack Obama has expressed sorrow to Afghan President Hamid Karzai over civilian deaths that U.S.-led airstrikes recently caused in Afghanistan. U.S. Officials say Mr. Obama will decide "soon" how quickly U.S. forces will leave Afghanistan.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday the two presidents held a one-hour videoconference about the state of the war in Afghanistan.
Carney said Mr. Obama expressed sorrow over the civilian deaths. But he said the U.S. and Afghan leaders both noted that most civilian losses are caused by the Taliban.
The spokesman would not say whether Mr. Karzai asked the president to stop the airstrikes by U.S. Air Force Predator drones.
Mr. Obama has said he will begin withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan next month. Carney said a more specific date has not been established. "There was not a discussion of specific numbers. As you know and it remains the case, the president has not made a decision yet about the pace and scope. He is obviously going to be having discussions with his team in the coming days and weeks about that matter, and will make his decision soon, as he said the other day," he said.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Democrat Carl Levin, told reporters Wednesday he wants the president to withdraw 15,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year. About 100,000 American service members are in Afghanistan.
Starting Thursday, Senator Levin will lead confirmation hearings for Leon Panetta, the president's nominee for Defense Secretary.
The committee's top Republican, Senator John McCain, told a newspaper this week he hopes Mr. Obama will pull no more than 5,000 U.S. troops out of Afghanistan this year.
The president's goal is for Afghans to take total control of their country's security by the end of 2014.
At the same time, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has released a report which criticizes U.S. efforts to build a democracy in Afghanistan.
The two-year study shows that massive U.S. financial aid to Afghanistan has produced limited results in nation-building.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration welcomes the report, but does not endorse all of its conclusions. "It is important to note that Afghanistan has made significant progress, and the presumption that our assistance has contributed little, and that Afghanistan has made no progress is just simply wrong, and we disagree with that," he said.
Ryan Crocker, President Obama's nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, agreed at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that progress has been made.
He said U.S. aid has especially helped to improve education and health care in Afghanistan.
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American Football has supplanted baseball in recent years as America's favorite sport. But though men and women both enjoy it, it has traditionally been played almost entirely by men. The past few years, however, have seen the debut of a number of women's leagues - playing by the same rules and with the same level of contact as the men's sport.
When you think about American football, you envision it being played by heavily-padded big men making violent contact with each other. But Tarsha Fain, team captain of the Baltimore Nighthawks says, think again.
"I feel women can do anything a man can do," said Fain. "The same way they get out there and hit, we get out there and hit too."
Fain and team owner Tanya Bryan were part of the first ever women's World Championship tournament played last year. The U.S. team, with Fain playing and Bryan serving as team manager, won the gold medal.
"To be the first, the first time it was done, and be a part of it, no one else can ever say that," said Bryan. "So it's just a wonderful feeling and I'm so proud of that."
And the sport is growing. Perhaps a dozen women's professional leagues have been formed in the U.S. in recent years, though many of those have either merged or gone out of business.
Ghoncheh Mossanen is an offensive specialist. For Mossanen, who has played football for 28 years, the sport is her therapy. It is what she looks forward to the most.
"I feel the transformation when I go from putting on my gear and stepping on this football field. It's a huge mental transformation," Mossanen explained.
Mossanen moved to the U.S. from Iran as a child and still remembers the first time she ever played football in a neighborhood pickup game.
"I remember getting the phone call from my cousin saying 'come on out, we need one more person to play.' I didn't know what it was. I had never played the game and I remember going out there and just fell in love with it," she recalled.
Most of the other players on the team have also played since they were kids, often either informally or in non-contact leagues. But for team owner Tanya Bryan, football was a completely new experience.
"It's funny; I didn't even realize the sport existed for women," Bryan said. "And I got a phone call from a friend of mine and she said there was an opportunity to own a team in Baltimore. And I thought it sounded really exciting and I said yes, and four years later here I am."
When Bryan bought the team she did not expect to make money right away - though after four years, she is now breaking even. But she thought it was more important to give young women in the area the opportunity to play the sport.
"Most of the time as women growing up we're told not to be aggressive, not to be assertive," Bryan noted. "It's nice to have an outlet where you can come somewhere and let all of that out. You can be loud, you can hit somebody. You can just let it all go. It's really healthy and the team camaraderie is fantastic."
The teamwork is evident throughout their recent game against the Firebirds. After a slow first half, the Nighthawks scored and hung on for an 8-0 win, qualifying them for the playoffs.
"It's elation! I mean the team deserves it. We've been playing hard. It's amazing. Now it's our chance to make the championship," said Mossanen.
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Beijing's police do a remarkable job of silencing pubic displays of dissent, but occasionally the desperate find dramatic new ways of airing their grievances. This was the case on Friday June 3, when a small group of petitioners from Fujian province gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and appeared to attempt to commit suicide.
While there were scores of witnesses for Friday's protest, the details remain vague. Ming Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper, reports that Chen Jiafa was among a group of petitioners from Fujian who came to Beijing on June 3. The newspaper says Chen's daughter-in-law was beaten to death a few years ago. The report says the lack of justice in that case, despite repeated entreaties to local officials, prompted the group to take drastic measures to highlight their plight.
The group gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy bearing protest banners and a large photo - most likely of Chen's deceased daughter-in-law. The gathering stopped traffic and drew a crowd. Several people in the group tried to drink what reports say appeared to be poison. The Ming Pao newspaper reports that security guards knocked the substance away before they had finished. Witnesses watched plainclothes security agents drag prone petitioners across the street, away from a pile of broken bottles. The protesters were later whisked away by security officials. Ming Pao says they were all treated at a hospital, but their fate is unclear.
The newspaper Apple Daily, which publishes in Hong Kong and Taiwan, carried a similar account of the incident.
A witness's photo shows a protest banner, on yellow plastic with red lettering, carelessly wadded up on top of one or two of the inert bodies. A small girl in a bright pink jacket and an elderly woman who accompanied the group sit nearby.
A spokesman at the embassy who was reached as the incident was still occurring said only that he does not comment on security-related matters. Witnesses who spoke to VOA about the incident asked to not be identified for their safety.
The group's members were like many of the thousands of disgruntled citizens who come from all over the country to follow an age-old Chinese tradition of petitioning the central government. Often, they are protesting corruption and other injustices that they haven't been able to resolve in their communities. There is no good system in place for venting their frustrations at home, so they feel they have no other recourse but to appeal to China's highest level of government.
But once they come to the capital, many remain frustrated. Some are detained by local governments trying to prevent Beijing from interfering in local affairs. In recent years, top Chinese officials have publicly said the petitioners should be treated better.
Petitioners sometimes choose to demonstrate in front of foreign embassies in Beijing because they hope to get international attention. There are frequent reports of petitioner incidents occurring around Beijing although few involve such apparently drastic measures as group suicide. But, as is often the case with protests in China, despite a brief and sudden commotion, security agents handling Friday's incident quickly restored order. Within just moments, it appeared as if nothing had happened. And there is no way of learning if the petitioners will ever get the justice they sought.
Members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee are expressing skepticism about the success of nation-building in Afghanistan, as a two-year congressional report is released, citing only limited results from America's massive financial aid to the country.
One influential senator is calling on the president to withdraw at least 15,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a confirmation hearing for President Barack Obama's nominee to become the next U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker. The veteran diplomat has served in a number of countries in the region, including Pakistan, and was U.S. Ambassador to Iraq from 2007 to 2009.
The 61-year-old Crocker said he knows what he is getting himself into if he is confirmed.
"Thank you, Senator," he said. "I am under no illusions of the difficulty of the challenge. If Iraq was hard, and it was hard, Afghanistan in many respects is harder."
All of the senators on the panel recognized Crocker's stellar record, but most of them said they did not envy him taking this post in Afghanistan at a time when the president is coming under increasing pressure from lawmakers from both major political parties to reduce the extent of the costly U.S involvement in Afghanistan. Republican Senator James Risch of Idaho put it like this.
"What we are trying to give to the Afghan people, and have worked at for 10 years, and given them in blood, sweat and tears, you really, really wonder whether they want what we are trying to give them," he said. "And if they do not want what we are trying to give, it is not going to work."
Outside the Senate, Armed Service Committee Chairman Carl Levin called for Obama to withdraw at least 15,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2011.
The president has promised to begin withdrawing some of the estimated 90,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan this July, paving the way for a gradual end to military operations in the country by the end of 2014. He has not specified how many troops he would remove this year.
Crocker acknowledged that there are major challenges in Afghanistan, including government corruption. But he said the United States could never again allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for terrorists, from which they can attack the United States.
"As Secretary of Defense [Robert] Gates has noted, we walked away from Afghanistan once in 1989, with disastrous consequences," he said. "We cannot afford to do so again."
VOA's Ira Mellman discussed the report on Daybreak Asia with Michael Semple, Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
The hearing occurred the same day the Senate Foreign Relations committee released a report saying U.S. foreign aid to Afghanistan has only had limited success in promoting sustainable stability. Afghanistan has received more than $18 billion in U.S. foreign aid during the past 10 years - more than any other country, including Iraq.
The report cautioned that foreign aid can result in corruption, and can create an inflationary war-time economy. It warned that Afghanistan could suffer a severe economic depression when foreign troops leave the country in 2014, unless there is proper planning to phase out aid slowly, over time.
Even Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, who has supported the president's Afghan policy, made clear there are going to have be changes in the amount of U.S. aid and the number of U.S. troops deployed there.
"While the United States has genuine national security interests in Afghanistan, our current commitment in troops and in dollars, is neither proportional to our interest, nor sustainable in my judgment," said Kerry.
Crocker said U.S. financial aid to Afghanistan has produced some real results, citing education and basic health services. He said more than 7 million Afghan children are in school, and more than 2 million of them are girls, who were prohibited from attending school under the Taliban. He said in considering the hard financial realities, he would never do anything that would put at risk half of the Afghan population - women and girls.
Kerry said he expects Crocker to be confirmed quickly by the Senate so that he can take up his tough job in Kabul.
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Anti-government protesters in Yemen are urging the country's interim leader to form a transition council that would create a new government, while President Ali Abdullah Saleh recovers from serious injuries in Saudi Arabia.
Demonstrations continued on Wednesday outside of Vice President Abd al-Rab Mansur Hadi's residence in the capital, Sana'a. However, soldiers moved in and cleared out tents that had been set up by some of the protesters.
Meanwhile, Saudi officials say Saleh is in "stable" condition as he recovers from injuries sustained during a rocket attack on the presidential palace last week.
Yemeni officials initially said the president had shrapnel wounds. However, U.S. and Yemeni officials later said that President Saleh's injuries were more severe.
Robert Powell, Senior Middle East analyst with The Economist's Intelligence Unit, provides insights on the situation in Yemen in an interview with Susan Yackee:
On Tuesday, diplomatic sources said he had burns over 40 percent of his body, including his face, neck and chest. He also is believed to have suffered a serious head injury.
Anti-government unrest has continued in Yemen in the president's absence.
On Tuesday, there was more fighting in Taiz, Yemen's second-largest city. Also, government forces clashed with militants in the southern city of Zinjibar, more than a week after hundreds of suspected Islamic militants seized control of the town.
Nearly 400 people have been killed since a popular uprising against Saleh began in January. The president is facing increased calls to accept a peace deal put forward by the Gulf Cooperation Council that would end his nearly 33-year rule.
The top U.S. military commander has raised new concerns that Yemen's turmoil could provide an opportunity for al-Qaida to become more deeply entrenched in the country. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, says the group's Yemen branch (al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula) could become more dangerous as a result of Yemen's chaos. He commented during a Wednesday visit to Cairo.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
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Police in Nigeria say 11 people have been killed in bomb attacks that are suspected to be the work of a radical Islamic group.
Multiple bombs went off Tuesday at a police station and a church in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the scene of frequent violence in recent months.
Borno state police say the radical sect Boko Haram likely was behind the attacks. They say three of the group's members were among those killed.
On Monday, gunmen killed a prominent Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim Birkuti, in a town southwest of Maiduguri. Police blame Boko Haram for that attack as well.
Boko Haram is believed to be responsible for a series of attacks that have killed police officers, soldiers, political figures and clerics over the past year, mostly in Borno state.
The group is fighting to establish Islamic law across Nigeria. Its name in the local Hausa language means "Western education is a sin."
Borno Governor Kashim Shettima has said he is willing to negotiate with Boko Haram. So far, no one from the group has taken him up on the offer.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
At the start of a high-level U.N. conference on the global AIDS response, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the international community had gathered not to fight the disease, but to end it. Citing progress over the last 30 years since HIV and AIDS were first discovered, Ban said the goal now is to end the disease within the next 10 years.
It is an ambitious goal: zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. The U.N. chief said it is possible, but would require bold action.
"Today's historic meeting is a call to action," said Ban. "First, we need partners to come together in the global solidarity as never before. That is the only way to truly provide universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care by 2015. Second, we have to lower costs and deliver better programs. Third, we must commit to accountability. Fourth, we must ensure that our HIV responses promote health, human rights, security and dignity of women and girls. Fifth, we must trigger a prevention revolution, harnessing the power of youth and new communications technology to reach the entire world."
Ban said if the international community takes these five steps, AIDS can be stopped.
"We can end the fear," he said. "We can stop the suffering and death it brings. We can get to an AIDS-free world."
The executive director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé, noted how far the world has come in its understanding about HIV - the virus that causes AIDS - and the illness itself. He said 30 years ago this mystery disease was seen as a gay plague and there was great fear surrounding those who were infected. He said this image is part of the history of the AIDS movement, which, he said is the story of people breaking the conspiracy of silence, demanding equality and dignity, and of confronting society's wrongs.
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"It is the story of people's outrage and a passionate call for social justice," said Sidibé. "Over the past 30 years, AIDS has forged a social new compact between the global north and the south. And we mobilized unprecedented resources with your leadership and we managed to produce live-saving results for people."
Sidibé said this has led to great achievements in the fight against AIDS. New infections are down worldwide by nearly 25 percent in the last 10 years. In Africa, where the majority of the 34 million people living with AIDS live, more people are receiving antiretroviral treatment early, when it can have the greatest live-saving impact.
Overall, Sidibé said, there are 56 countries - 36 of which are in Africa - that have stabilized the epidemic and reduced the number of new infections significantly. He pointed to great strides in South Africa, India and China.
But even as developing countries have made progress, he warned that the value of life is not the same across the world. Sidibé noted that 1.8 million people die of AIDS every year in developing countries, while in developed nations, AIDS has become a treatable, chronic disease.
He said that while there are 6.6 million people receiving treatment in low- and middle-income countries, another 9 million are still waiting for treatment. In the global north, a new generation is being born HIV-free, while each year 360,000 babies are born with HIV in the south.
Sidibé told the 30 heads of state and government and other leaders gathered at the three-day conference that this is a defining moment. He said it is time to agree on a transformational agenda to end this epidemic.
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Two more people have died in Europe's worst E. coli outbreak in recent history, even as German health officials say the number of new infections is dropping.
At least 25 people have now died and more than 2,600 have been sickened since late May as a result of the mysterious bacteria. Nearly all the victims live in or visited northern Germany.
Health Minister Daniel Bahr said that despite the deaths, fewer new infections could signal that the epidemic is on the decline. Bahr made the statement Wednesday on public television, just before an emergency meeting with health officials.
E. coli and how it is transmitted
E. coli is an abbreviation for Escherichia, which is a large and diverse group of bacteria. Most strains are harmless, others can cause illness. Symptoms include stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting. The major source is cattle, but other animals, foods and liquids may spread contamination to people.
Shiga toxin-producing E. coli
This is a dangerous form of E. coli known by the acronym STEC. The best known strain of this STEC (also called 0157) was identified in 1982. Transmission and symptoms are similar to the most common form of E. coli.
EHEC
A very serious infection is enterohaemorrhagic E. coli known by the acronym EHEC. It produces toxins, known as verotoxins or Shiga-like toxins. It may lead to life threatening diseases such as hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS.
HUS
Scientists believe this is responsible for the European outbreak, originating from a potentially life threatening strain of STEC (0104). HUS afflicts the kidneys, blood and central nervous system.
On Tuesday, a top World Heath Organization official said the source of the deadly outbreak may never be known.
EU Farm Commissioner Dacian Ciolos has recommended a $220 million aid package to help farmers recoup some of their losses from unsold vegetables because of the E. coli crisis.
Overturning initial suspicions, German investigators have ruled out home-grown organic sprouts, as well as lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers from Spain. Spanish Agriculture Minister Rosa Aguilar is demanding full compensation from Germany for losses suffered by farmers in her country.
Spanish farmers whose revenue has been hard-hit by the outbreak, on Wednesday gave away some 30 tons of fruit and vegetables to people in Madrid.
Russia and some other countries have banned all vegetables from the EU.
E. coli symptoms include stomach cramps, diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and in extreme cases kidney failure and death.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
**VOA earlier referred to E. coli as a virus, we regret the error.
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Ronaldo's great football career with Brazil's national team has come to an end.
The three-time FIFA world Player of the Year was given an emotional send-off during Tuesday night's friendly match against Romania in Sao Paulo. Ronaldo had announced he was retiring in February after an 18-year career.
The 34-year-old striker made a cameo appearance in the game, won by Brazil, 1-0. He played from the 30th minute until halftime, when he was honored in a ceremony that recognized his contribution to the 'Selecao.'
Ronaldo represented Brazil in four World Cups - winning two of them - and he remains the competition's all-time leading scorer with 15 goals. Only the great Pele scored more international goals for Brazil than Ronaldo.
Players from both teams lined up near the sideline and applauded Ronaldo as he left the field at halftime. Visibly moved he put the Brazilian flag on his back, and with the ball in his hand, went around saluting the fans that packed the Pacaembu stadium.
There were banners remembering the matches in which he scored each of his 15 World Cup goals.
As a teenager, Ronaldo was a member of the squad that won the 1994 World Cup in the United States. His biggest moment came at the 2002 World Cup, after he recovered from one of the many serious knee injuries that plagued his career. He scored twice in the final against Germany to lead Brazil to its fifth world title.
In all, he scored 67 goals in 104 matches for Brazil, behind only Pele's 95 goals.
Professionally he thrived with some of Europe's top teams - Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and AC Milan - but it was with Brazil that he excelled the most. His last club was Corinthians, Sao Paolo's biggest team.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Frustration is building in Europe as the source of Germany's E. coli outbreak remains unsolved. U.S. health experts say tracking down a deadly germ can be a complicated task.
When they notice an unusual number of people coming down with food poisoning, the first thing public health officials do is try to find out what they all ate recently. E. coli usually takes three or four days to make a person sick, but it may take a week or more. And that presents the first problem.
"Can you tell me what you ate for dinner on May 30?" asks David Weber, professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He says people often do not remember everything they ate over the past week. And even if they do, they may not know all the ingredients, or where they came from. For example, he says, a tomato condiment called salsa was one of the suspects in a 2008 Salmonella outbreak in the United States.
"It's not just the salsa, but in the salsa are tomatoes, onions, peppers, spices. And then, which manufacturer made the salsa? Where did they get the tomatoes from? Who was the wholesaler? How many different growers provided tomatoes during that week to that wholesaler?"
Tracing the germ all the way back to the grower may help investigators figure out what went wrong and how to keep it from happening again. But whatever crop is causing the outbreak was picked some time ago. And by the time investigators get to the farm,
"That crop may be gone. It may even be plowed under," says Ben Chapman, a food safety expert at North Carolina State University. He notes that investigators have been focusing on fresh produce, but at this point, weeks after the outbreak started, they may not even be able to trace the offending item as far as the patient's refrigerator.
"It's pretty unlikely that you have a cucumber or a tomato or lettuce sticking around in your fridge six or seven weeks after being exposed," says Chapman.
Given all the complications, it may be surprising that investigators ever figure out the cause of an outbreak. But the science of epidemiology has gotten very good in recent years, and most of the time they do.
The U.S. state of Oregon's public health department is recognized as one of the nation's best. But sometimes officials there are stumped.
"There have been a couple where there's been, really, at the end of the day, no idea what the product was. It's clearly gone. The outbreak ends. It's very frustrating. But, whatever it was, it disappeared," says William Keene, senior epidemiologist for the Oregon public health department.
Meanwhile, European officials say the number of new E. coli cases appears to be slowing down. That may mean the outbreak will soon come to an end, with or without identifying the cause.
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Heavy rains, mudslides and flooding in Haiti have killed at least 23 people, just days into the six-month-long Atlantic hurricane season.
Haiti's civil protection agency said Tuesday most of the deaths occurred in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where a week's worth of torrential downpours has turned streets into rivers and forced people to flee to their rooftops.
But the rains have also inundated the crowded slums and tent camps where thousands of people remain after losing their homes during Haiti's devastating earthquake last year.
Video footage of flooding in Port-au-Prince
Aid agencies are warning the flooding could aggravate the cholera outbreak that has killed thousands since October.
Haiti's new president, Michel Martelly, is urging residents to keep calm as the storm passes over the battered nation, the Western Hemisphere's poorest.
The storm is sweeping across other countries in the Caribbean, and forecasters are warning of possible flash floods in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, as well as Cuba and Jamaica. In the Dominican Republic, more than 8,000 people have been evacuated.
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Enhancing trade, development and regional security will be key priorities for U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on an Africa tour later this week.
After a stop in the United Arab Emirates to discuss Libya, Secretary Clinton will start the Africa portion of her trip with a scheduled visit to Zambia's capital, Lusaka, Friday.
There, she will speak at the African Growth and Opportunity Act ministerial forum. The U.S. act, known by its acronym AGOA, provides preferential trade treatment, such as duty free entry, for some African products.
A Clinton spokesman said she would showcase what he called the "centerpiece" of U.S. trade policy with the continent.
J. Peter Pham, an Africa expert with the Washington-based Atlantic Council, says Clinton's participation is very meaningful.
"Any time senior level U.S. officials engage in Africa, it is very important because Africa suffers often from attention deficit in this town, in Washington," said Pham. "For our senior officials, with so many different challenges and crises around the world, unless there is a pressing calamity or some other disaster in Africa, Africa does not get that engagement."
Pham says he would like to see AGOA, in his words, "re-tooled" to encourage more U.S. investment in Africa and more imported African manufactured goods, beyond the prevalent energy sector.
Development expert Raymond Gilpin, with the United States Institute of Peace, shares these concerns, given that petroleum products account for more than 90 percent of the overall value of U.S. AGOA imports.
"Quite a significant amount of African exports to the United States are still non-AGOA," said Gilpin. "The lion share of AGOA trade is in the petroleum sector and not in the non-petroleum sectors where we would really want to foster sustainable and sustained economic progress as well. To that extent, it seems a significant constituency in Africa has not been as engaged as it should be. Hopefully, this meeting will also highlight that fact and try to sensitize the key constituencies a lot more, work with chambers of commerce, work with civil society and business groups and work with African governments so that they could feel a greater sense of ownership."
After Zambia, Clinton will visit Tanzania, which in 2008 signed a nearly $700 million, five-year compact with the U.S. government Millennium Challenge Corporation. The money is going toward reducing poverty and stimulating economic growth with investments in transportation, energy and water.
Her other stop will be Ethiopia, a long standing U.S. security ally in the volatile east of Africa. Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti says that visit will be important as well.
"We do have cooperation in various fields," said Mufti. "We have economic cooperation, defense, etc. So we would like to boost this relationship and hopefully this relationship could be strengthened in tandem with the regional stability that we are looking for."
Renewed violence between northern and southern Sudanese as well as the ongoing fighting in Somalia are shared U.S, Ethiopian concerns.
But the leader of the main opposition coalition known as Medrek, former President Negasso Gidada, says he is very disappointed that, as far as he knows, no meeting between Clinton and Ethiopia's opposition has been scheduled.
The opposition leader says internal African politics are also very important. He says, as long as there are serious shortcomings in democracy and human rights, other priorities, such as development and stability, are at risk.
"I think the embassy here should still try to arrange the program so that she meets with us, because it is really a pity if she does not," Gidada said.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has been ruling Ethiopia for 20 years, with opposition accusations he denies elections are not free and fair. Planned social media led protests against the anniversary of his rule last month failed to garner much support, amid fears of an internal security crackdown.
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Australia is suspending cattle exports to Indonesia after an outcry over video footage showing inhumane treatment of animals in Indonesian slaughterhouses. The ban could impact both countries.
Australia's Labor government has been under pressure to halt the export of cattle after television footage showed animals being beaten, eyes gouged and maimed prior to slaughter in some Indonesian abattoirs.
Following public outcry over the footage, Canberra is to impose a six-month initial suspension on shipments to Indonesia. Officials will also review the live export trade to all overseas markets, including the Middle East.
Australia's Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig says the ban will stay in place until the government is confident the abuse of exported animals will not happen again.
"This suspension will be in place until the government and industry establishes sufficient safeguards which provide a verifiable and transparent supply chain assurance up to and including the point of slaughter for every consignment that leaves Australia," he said.
Australia's cattle industry calls the decision an overreaction that could jeopardize trade worth $342 million per year.
Indonesia is Australia's largest live cattle market. Some 500,000 animals are exported there each year.
Queensland cattle producer Alex Stubbs says the suspension of trade will not just hurt the livestock industry.
"I don't want to go and predict doom and gloom but it's going to make it very, very hard for them and the economic fallout of this is yet to be seen. And once that happens, it has a multiplying effect. I just heard there where a helicopter pilot has just stood down three operators. Truckies are being told that, you know, forget it. So it has a multiplying effect through the community, not just the cattle industry itself," said Stubbs.
Indonesia's Agriculture Ministry says it will seek urgent talks with its Australian counterpart. Other Indonesian government officials have defended some slaughterhouse practices as part of Islamic slaughtering requirements, although some producers insist that it was against religious teachings to cause suffering to animals before they were killed.
Australia's ban on shipments to its giant northern neighbor comes at a time when Indonesia is seeking to limit imports of foreign livestock to promote domestic production. Other reports say Indonesia will look to ship live animals for slaughter from New Zealand, a country with a strong farming tradition.
Independent lawmakers and members of the Greens in Australia are expected to introduce legislation to parliament later this month to permanently stop all live exports to both Asia and the Middle East.
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A rising number of Syrians in the north are fleeing into neighboring Turkey amid fears of possible military retaliation for the killing of Syrian security force members amid an anti-government backlash.
News organizations say at least 130 more Syrians entered Turkey on Wednesday, raising the number who have crossed in recent days to at least 350.
Residents began to leave a region near the Turkish border after the Syrian government accused "armed gangs" of massacring 120 security force members, last week, and vowed to take decisive action. There were media reports of Syrian forces moving to fortify positions in the north on Wednesday.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Syria to take a more "tolerant" position towards its civilians as his nation faces the increasing tide of Syrian refugees.
Meanwhile, the United States says it is backing a draft United Nations Security Council resolution that condemns the Syrian government's "repression" of its citizens.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Wednesday the measure is designed to put additional pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Britain and France are the resolution's main sponsors.
Rights groups say at least 1,100 people have been killed in the Syrian crackdown against the anti-government campaign that began in March. More than 10,000 people have been arrested.
Also, the United States and its allies are drafting a separate United Nations resolution that says Syria has failed to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency on its nuclear program. Syria has failed to allow international monitors to inspect its facilities to determine if they are being used for military purposes.
Video: Protesters in Syria
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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