Karzai endorses Obama’s strategy

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that he was in “full agreement” with President Obama’s newly announced strategy for Afghanistan.

Karzai said he was especially glad that Obama explicitly endorsed two ideas Afghan officials have been stressing for several years: that the fight against Islamist terrorism must focus on militant safe havens in next-door Pakistan and that negotiations with Taliban insurgents are essential to ending the conflict in Afghanistan.

Obama’s strategy also calls for a major expansion of Afghan security forces and the deployment of 4,000 new U.S. troops to train them, on top of an additional 17,000 combat troops.

Vina del Mar, Chile

Cuba embargo to stay, Biden says

Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that the United States is not planning to lift its trade embargo on Cuba.

Biden, who was in the Chilean resort city of Vina del Mar for a summit of center-left leaders from Latin America and Europe, replied “no” when asked by reporters if Washington plans to scrap the decades-old embargo.

He and President Barack Obama “think that Cuban people should determine their own fate and they should be able to live in freedom,” Biden said after taking part in the Progressive Governance Summit.

From wire reports