World/Nation Briefs May 2, 2012

Obama takes surprise trip to Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - On a swift, secretive trip to the war zone, President Barack Obama declared Tuesday night that after years of sacrifice the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan is winding down just as it has already ended in Iraq. "We can see the light of a new day," he said on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death and in the midst of his own re-election campaign.

"Our goal is to destroy al-Qaida, and we are on a path to do exactly that," Obama said in an unusual speech to America broadcast from an air base halfway around the world.

He spoke after signing an agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to cover the decade after the planned final withdrawal of U.S. combat troops in 2014. Obama said American forces will be involved in counter-terrorism and training of the Afghan military, "but we will not build permanent bases in this country, nor will we be patrolling its cities and mountains."

Obama's secret trip made its way to social media

WASHINGTON - It was the secret that bent but never quite fully broke.

The White House released a fabricated Tuesday schedule for President Barack Obama to conceal the fact that he was secretly flying to Afghanistan. It asserted that the president would be in the Oval Office all day meeting with Vice President Joe Biden, with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and with senior advisers. Only a handful of U.S. journalists were made aware of the journey.

But by mid-morning word was filtering out through the warp-speed social medium of Twitter that Obama was already in Kabul.

The first to tweet was the Afghanistan news site TOLOnews which reported: "United States President Barack Obama has arrived in Kabul to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai."

At least 6 dead in blasts in Afghan suicide attack

KABUL, Afghanistan - The Afghan government says at least six people have been killed in blasts in the capital early this morning.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi says a suicide car bomb exploded near Jalalabad road - one of the main thoroughfares of the city. He says the blast killed four people inside a civilian car, a passerby, and a security guard of a nearby building.

Romney: bin Laden death isn't for campaigning

NEW YORK - Republican Mitt Romney on Tuesday accused President Barack Obama of politicizing the death of Osama bin Laden a year ago but said it was "totally appropriate" for him to claim credit for ordering the U.S. military raid that ended with the terrorist leader's death in a hideout in Pakistan.

Obama's re-election campaign has used his decision to suggest that Romney would not have made the same call. Romney, the president's all-but-certain Republican challenger in the fall election, says he would have.

Marking the anniversary at a New York City fire house that lost 11 men on Sept. 11, 2001, Romney said he understood the president's desire to take credit for killing one of the world's most-wanted men.

"It's totally appropriate for the president to express to the American people the view that he has that he had an important role in taking out Osama bin Laden," Romney said after visiting the lower Manhattan fire station with Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor when terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center's twin towers and killed nearly 3,000 people.

Myanmar begins new era as Suu Kyi is sworn in

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar - Aung San Suu Kyi has taken the oath of office to become an official member of Myanmar's parliament.

The swearing-in ceremony in the capital Naypyitaw marks the first time the 66-year-old opposition leader has held public office since launching her struggle against authoritarian rule nearly a quarter century ago.

Suu Kyi's entry into the legislature Wednesday heralds a historic new political era for the Southeast Asian nation, cementing a risky detente between her party and the reformist government of President Thein Sein.

But her National League for Democracy party will occupy too few seats to have any real power in the ruling-party dominated assembly. There are fears the presence of the opposition lawmakers could simply legitimize the regime without any change.

Feds: Anarchists plotted to bomb Cleveland bridge

CLEVELAND - Five men described by federal authorities as anarchists angry with corporate America and the government were charged Tuesday with plotting to bomb an Ohio bridge linking two wealthy Cleveland suburbs.

The men were arrested Monday night after unknowingly working with an FBI informant for months, a strategy that federal investigators have used repeatedly in recent years to nab alleged terrorists.

"They talked about making a statement against corporate America and the government as some of the motivations for their actions," U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said in announcing the arrests with the head of the FBI in Cleveland, Stephen Anthony.

- Associated Press