U.S. ends command in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan – American and NATO troops closed their operational command in Afghanistan on Monday, lowering flags in a ceremony to mark the formal end of their combat mission in a country still mired in war 13 years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime for harboring those responsible for Sept. 11.
The closing of the command, which oversaw the day-to-day operations of coalition combat forces, is one of the final steps in a transition to a support and training role that begins Jan. 1. But with President Barack Obama’s recent move authorizing U.S. forces in Afghanistan to carry out military operations against Taliban and al-Qaida targets, America’s longest war will in fact continue for at least another two years.
Obama’s decision to give American forces a more active role than previously envisioned suggests the U.S. is still concerned about the Afghan government’s ability to fight. And agreements signed by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to allow U.S. and NATO troops to remain in the country are seen as a red line by the Taliban.
U.S. braces for torture report release
WASHINGTON – American embassies, military units and other U.S. interests are bracing for possible security threats related to Tuesday’s planned release of a report on the CIA’s harsh interrogation techniques, the White House says.
The report from the Senate Intelligence Committee will be the first public accounting of the CIA’s use of torture on al-Qaida detainees held in secret facilities in Europe and Asia in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The committee is expected to release a 480-page executive summary of the more than 6,000-page report compiled by Democrats on the panel.
6 dead after plane crashes in Maryland
GAITHERSBURG, Md. – A small, private jet slammed into a house Monday, killing a woman and her young sons inside the home and three people on the aircraft, authorities said.
The jet crashed around 10:45 a.m. in Gaithersburg, a Washington, D.C., suburb, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Chief Steve Lohr said during a news conference.
Authorities quickly said all three people in the plane had been killed, but it took hours for fire crews to sweep the home and confirm that three people were inside. The mother and her two sons, a 3-year-old and a 1-month-old, were found in a second-floor bathroom; she was lying on top of her young sons in an apparent effort to shield them from the smoke and fire, said police Capt. Paul Starks. Her husband and a school-age daughter were not home and were accounted for, police said.
Calif. drought not tied to climate change
WASHINGTON – Don’t blame human-made global warming for the devastating California drought, a new federal report says.
A report issued Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said natural variations – mostly a La Niña weather oscillation – were the primary drivers behind the drought that has now stretched to three years.
Study lead author Richard Seager of Columbia University said the paper has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. He and NOAA’s Martin Hoerling said 160 runs of computer models show heat-trapping gases should slightly increase winter rain, not decrease.
“The conditions of the last three winters are not the conditions that climate-change models say would happen,” Hoerling said.
Associated Press
