Nation & World Digest

Karzai: Foreign troops needed for 10 more years

LONDON — Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned Thursday that foreign troops must stay in his country for another decade, as world powers agreed on an exit map including a plan to persuade Taliban fighters to disarm in exchange for jobs and homes.

Divisions emerged between the U.S. and its partners over Kabul’s willingness to offer peace to Taliban leaders who once harbored al-Qaida, instead of the more- limited deal for lower-ranking fighters emphasized by the Americans.

All agree that reconciliation means bringing on board what Mark Sedwill, NATO’s newly appointed civilian chief in Afghanistan, called “some pretty unsavory characters.”

Senator-elect: I won’t always side with GOP

BOSTON — Scott Brown says he has already told Senate Republican leaders they won’t always be able to count on his vote.

The man who staged an upset in last week’s Massachusetts Senate special election, in part by pledging to be the 41st GOP vote against President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that he staked his claim in early conversations with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Whip Jon Kyl.

“I already told them, you know, ‘I got here with the help of a close group of friends and very little help from anyone down there, so there’ll be issues when I’ll be with you, and there are issues when I won’t be with you,”’ Brown said.

Post-quake chaos hampers Haiti recovery, officials say

WASHINGTON — Haiti’s inept government, a lack of coordination by aid organizations and a history of U.S. policy failures are hampering international efforts to rebuild the quake-stricken island nation.

That was the judgment of officials who testified Thursday before a Senate committee and in a separate teleconference by relief organizations. The chaotic conditions since the quake risk an outbreak of deadly cholera, one official said.

Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince, was devastated by the 7.0 quake Jan. 12. As many as 200,000 people in the country are feared dead.

Paul Farmer, the United Nations deputy special envoy to Haiti, told the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Thursday that there was a mismatch between relief efforts and Haiti’s ability to absorb them.

Health-care gridlock continues in Congress

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s health-care appeal failed to break the congressional gridlock Thursday, dimming hopes for millions of uninsured Americans. Democrats stared down a political nightmare — getting clobbered for voting last year for ambitious, politically risky bills, yet having nothing to show for it in November.

The grim reality opened a divide between the rank and file and congressional leaders, who insisted health care would get done, even though last week’s special election in Massachusetts denied Democrats the 60-vote majority they need to deliver in the Senate. Many Democrats saw a problem with no clear solution.

Lawyer: 4 men only meant to embarrass La. senator

NEW ORLEANS — Four conservative activists accused of trying to tamper with a senator’s phones were just trying to record embarrassing undercover video of her staff ignoring phone calls from constituents angry that she supported health-care reform, one of their attorneys said Thursday.

The four, including activist James O’Keefe, known for posing as a pimp and using a hidden camera to target the community- organizing group ACORN, were arrested Monday after targeting Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office in a New Orleans federal building.

Attorney J. Garrison Jordan denied they were trying to disable or wiretap the phones in Landrieu’s office.

Dog rescued after floating 75 miles into Baltic Sea

WARSAW, Poland — A frightened, shivering dog was rescued after floating at least 75 miles on an ice floe down Poland’s Vistula River and into the Baltic Sea, officials said Thursday.

Now his saviors just have to figure out who really owns him. Four people have already claimed him, but so far, rescuers say there’s been no wagging tail of joy from the miracle dog they nicknamed “Baltic.”

The dog’s frozen odyssey came as Poland suffers through a winter cold snap, with temperatures dipping to below minus 4 degrees F.

The thick-furred male dog was found adrift Monday 15 miles out in the Baltic Sea by the crew of the Baltica, a Polish ship of ocean scientists carrying out research.

Combined dispatches