NATO had planned to shrink that combined force to 230,000 next year, but U,cheap toms.S. military and Afghan officials have both suggested keeping the Afghan security forces at their higher "surge" numbers to deal with an expected Taliban onslaught as foreign forces leave. The "surge" refers to a temporary U.S.-led increase in troops in 2010, aimed at dealing a decisive blow to insurgents, and also to a parallel increase in numbers of Afghan security forces trained and armed by NATO. The concern for Afghans is that after the NATO drawdown, their green troops could be overrun, and the country plunged back into civil war. Americans worry that the Taliban would use the chaos to regain power, defeating the original purpose of the U.S. military action in 2001. Cash-strapped NATO members, including the U.S., must figure out who would cover the increased expense for maintaining the Afghan forces at the higher level from $4.1 billion annually for the 230,000 troops NATO had planned on, to an estimated $4.8 billion to maintain the surge-level forces. Fogh Rasmussen says he expects NATO members to make a decision "in a matter of months," likely by summer, as part of their calculations on how many NATO troops to deploy after 2014. U.S. and NATO officials are discussing leaving a residual force of between 8,000 to 12,000 foreign troops to advise and train Afghans after NATO combat operations end. The White House backs the plan for the Afghan forces, but it must first get through the domestic financial fallout of the automatic spending cuts that kicked in on March 1,http://www.diendanraovat247.com/showthread.php?p=165276#post165276, dictating mandatory across-the-board reductions in the U.S. federal budget,http://www.supersportunited.co.za/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1541604&PID=1786494#1786494, including defense and foreign aid. The NATO chief said he and Karzai also discussed signing a long-term security agreement between Afghanistan and NATO, after the U.S. and Afghanistan complete their bilateral security negotiations, possibly by November. "Once that is concluded, it could serve as a template for a NATO training mission," he said. Fogh Rasmussen added he thought it would be possible to have one agreement covering all nations taking part in the training mission, rather than each nation negotiating with Afghanistan separately. The agreements map out the legal status of foreign forces on Afghan soil,toms kids shoes. The NATO chief would not be drawn on Karzai's recent demand that U.S. special operations troops leave Wardak province, following his claims that Afghans linked to U,http://www.sodeng365.com/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=165394.S. commandos had carried out extrajudicial killings, renditions and torture there. U.S. officials privately denied the charges, while asking Afghan officials to share any evidence they had of such incidents,cheap toms shoes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the Afghan investigation into the allegations is still ongoing. An insider's guide to politics and policy, available on the iPad or as a PDF download.[标签:标题]
By NIRMALA GEORGE, Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) India's patent appeals office has rejected Bayer AG's plea to stop the production of a cheaper generic version of a patented cancer drug in a ruling that heal