WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai plan to hold a news conference at the White House after they meet there Wednesday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday.

The Nangarhar Provincial Reconstruction Team, led by the U.S. Army, visits the markets of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar. The group visited the markets to assess the infrastructure needs and to evaluate the status of the local economy.
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Four police officers were killed Friday morning when militants attacked their checkpoint in northern Pakistan, authorities said.

Several armed militants opened fire about 5 a.m. at the checkpoint in Ghazi Kot, said Abid Ali, a Mansehra district police official. One police officer was severely injured.

"Terrorists who don't want peace in this area did this cowardly act," Ali said. "Terrorists don't know that these kind of acts can't demoralize us."

Ghazi Kot is 44 miles (70 km) north of Islamabad and near the Afghanistan border.

– Journalist Nasir Habib contributed to this report

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Decades ago, Afghanistan's air force was in full operation. Today, that air force is being rebuilt, with some of the same helicopters and some of the same pilots as well - including the first woman in the Afghan Air Corps and currently the only one.

The only time Capt. Latifa Nabizada left the force was to flee to Pakistan when the Taliban took over in the 1990s - a woman pilot was a prime target for them.

"I wanted to be a pilot since I was a child," she says. "I also, as a woman, felt it was a responsibility to serve my country. So I joined 20 years ago. ... I stayed in because it's the love of my life, and I still feel the responsibility to not give it up." FULL POST