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Obama, in Afghanistan, says he will make troop announcement soon

President class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Barack Obama made a surprise trip to Afghanistan on Sunday to visit U.S. forces who are wrapping up a 13-year mission and signaled that he intends to keep a small number of troops in the country for training and counter-terrorism operations. Cheers erupted among the hundreds of U.S. troops gathered in a Bagram hangar when Obama said that at the end of this year, "America's war in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Afghanistan will come to a responsible end." With Afghanistan immersed in a runoff election to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, Obama did not meet Afghan government officials nor travel to the capital Kabul. Karzai has long been out of favor with Washington over his refusal to sign a bilateral security agreement to allow U.S. troops to stay beyond 2014. Obama's fourth visit to Afghanistan came as he faces criticism at home over a foreign policy often derided as too passive in dealin

Yemen says security forces kill senior al Qaeda leader

Yemen's security forces on Sunday killed a senior al Qaeda leader wanted for attacks on local and foreign targets in Sanaa, the Yemeni government said, after a raid near the capital in which at least four other militants died. The government said in a statement that two officers also died when anti-terrorism units raided an al Qaeda hideout and a car bomb-making facility in Bayt al-Adhari and Bani Hakam districts, in the Arhab region, and fought a gunbattle with its occupants. Two officers were also wounded. Security forces also conducted two other separate raids in downtown Sanaa, the statement said, but gave no details. The raids were part of an escalating campaign against militants responsible for a wave of attacks across the country. "The forces exchanged fire with the wanted men who were holed up inside a house," a government official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters. "Five were killed and four were captured." The government statement, re

Irish PM's party slumps to second place in local polls

Irish prime minister Enda Kenny's ruling party looked set to slump to second place in local elections on Sunday, a surprise result that will complicate an austerity program to be completed this year to cut a still-high budget deficit. In a warning to other European governments implementing the last of harsh budget cuts, support for Kenny's Fine Gael party fell sharply since its exit from an international bailout in December, when it held a seven percentage point lead in opinion polls. With first preference votes in 134 of 137 local authorities counted, Fine Gael secured 24 percent of the vote compared to 36 percent at parliamentary elections three years ago to fall a percentage point behind main opposition party Fianna Fail. Support for Sinn Fein, once the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, also surged to 15 percent as it closed in on a tripling of its local government representation, while junior coalition party Labour saw its vote collapse. Kenny needs the sup

'Chocolate King' Poroshenko claims victory in Ukraine presidential poll

Petro Poroshenko, a billionaire chocolate manufacturer, claimed the Ukrainian presidency with an emphatic election victory on Sunday, taking on a fraught mission to quell pro-Russian rebels and steer his fragile nation closer to the West. A veteran survivor of Ukraine's feuding political class who threw his weight and money behind the revolt that brought down his Moscow-backed predecessor three months ago, the burly 48-year-old won 55 percent in exit polls on a first-round ballot marred by the reality that millions were unable to vote in the troubled eastern regions. Results will not be announced until Monday but runner-up Yulia Tymoshenko, on 13 percent, made clear she would concede, sparing the country a tense three weeks until a runoff round. Poroshenko, known as the "Chocolate King", has no time to lose to make good on pledges to end "war" with separatists in the Russian-speaking east, negotiate a stable new relationship with Moscow and rescue an class

Flemish separatists are big winners in Belgian election

A party that wants to dissolve Belgium was the chief winner of a parliamentary election on Sunday, setting the scene for months of deadlock before a new government can be formed. With about 80 percent of votes counted, the opposition N-VA (New Flemish Alliance), had secured a third of the votes from the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, the economic powerhouse in the north where some 60 percent of Belgians live. The center-right party, which captured 28.2 percent of the Dutch-speaking vote in 2010, has proposed transforming Belgium into a loose confederation of linguistically distinct regions, giving more power to regional governments. It was a sobering night for the socialists of Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, who lost voters to a newly created hard left party although they should remain the largest force in the French-speaking south of Belgium. "I hope it will be possible to form a majority which can take our country forward as soon as possible," Di Rupo said. Belgium

French far right in 'earthquake' win as Europe votes

Marine Le Pen's far right National Front scored a stunning first victory in European Parliament elections in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> France on Sunday as critics of the European Union registered a continent-wide protest vote against austerity and mass unemployment. Without waiting for the final result, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls went on television to call the breakthrough by the anti-immigration, anti-euro party in one of the EU's founding nations "an earthquake" for class="mandelbrot_refrag"> France and Europe. Anti-establishment far right and hard left parties, their scores magnified by another low turnout, gained ground in many countries although in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Germany , the EU's biggest member state with the largest number of seats, the pro-European center ground held firm, according to exit polls. A jubilant Le Pen, whose party beat President Francois Hollande's ruling Socialists in

Former army chief Sisi poised for victory in Egypt election

Egyptians vote in a presidential election on Monday expected to sweep former army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sisi into office, reviving strongman rule three years after a popular uprising raised hopes of democracy free from military influence. Sisi has been widely regarded as Egypt's de facto leader since he toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last July and cracked down on his Muslim Brotherhood in the bloodiest chapter of the country's modern peacetime history. He has acknowledged the scale of Egypt's problems, including an energy crisis and Islamist militant violence that has driven away foreign investors and tourists, hammering the class="mandelbrot_refrag"> economy . "The challenges present in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Egypt are so many," he told Reuters in an interview this month. "I believe that within two years of serious, continuous work we can achieve the type of improvement Egyptians are looking for. Sisi's sol