KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's two presidential candidates signed a power-sharing deal Sunday, capped with a hug and a handshake, three months after a disputed runoff that threatened to plunge the country into turmoil and complicate the withdrawal of U.S. and foreign troops.

The incoming president — Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai — and Abdullah Abdullah signed the national unity government deal as President Hamid Karzai — in power since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban — looked on. The deal creates the new role of chief executive for Abdullah following weeks of negotiations on a power-sharing arrangement after accusations of fraud in the June runoff vote.

"I am very happy today that both of my brothers, Dr. Ashraf Ghani and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, in an Afghan agreement for the benefit of this country, for the progress and development of this country, that they agreed on the structure affirming the new government of Afghanistan," Karzai said after the signing.

The deal is a victory for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who first got the candidates to agree in principle to share power during a July visit to Afghanistan. Kerry returned to Kabul in August and has spent hours with the candidates in repeated phone calls in an effort to seal the deal.

A White House statement lauded the two leaders, saying the agreement helps bring closure to Afghanistan's political crisis.

"This agreement marks an important opportunity for unity and increased stability in Afghanistan. We continue to call on all Afghans — including political, religious, and civil society leaders — to support this agreement and to come together in calling for cooperation and calm," the White House statement said.

View gallery

Afghanistan's presidential election candidates Abdullah Abdullah, left, and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadza …

Jan Kubis, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, said the uncertainty of the past months took a heavy toll on Afghanistan's security, economy and governance.

An inauguration ceremony to see Ghani Ahmadzai replace Karzai as president and swear in Abdullah as chief executive -- a position akin to prime minister -- was expected within days. No official announcement on an inauguration timetable was immediately made. The election commission said it would release official vote totals later Sunday.

As talks dragged on, Abdullah's mostly northern supporters had threatened to form a parallel government or react violently to any outright victory by Ghani Adhmadzai, a former finance minister and World Bank official whose power base is in the country's south and east. Ghani Ahmadzai said he always maintained that ethnic politics in Afghanistan demand some sort of power sharing deal and not a winner-takes-all government.

Abdullah believes he won the first round of the election back in April with more than 50 percent of the vote, which would have precluded a runoff. But the official results showed him winning about 45 percent of that vote in a crowded presidential field of 10, not quite enough for an outright victory.

He also believes he won a June runoff with Ghani Ahmadzai. But official totals show Ghani Ahmadzai with about 55 percent of the vote.

View gallery

FILE - In this Friday, Aug. 8, 2014 file photo, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, from left, speak …

Though the White House statement said that "respect for the democratic process" it the only viable path forward for Afghanistan, the next Afghan government is more the product of negotiations than vote tallies. Though the vote recount gave Ghani Ahmadzai the win, the political deal he signed on to reduces the power of the presidency significantly.

Shekiba Hashimi, a lawmaker from the southern province of Kandahar, said she was happy not only as a member of parliament "but as a woman and a mother" that the candidates reached a deal and moved the country forward.

"We are in a very sensitive situation, not only from a security point of view or an economic or political point of view. The enemies of the Afghan nation were benefitting from this stalemate. Recent big and complex attacks in southern and southeastern provinces are examples," she said.

A power-sharing deal was almost sealed about a week ago, but Abdullah then demanded that no vote totals from the runoff be released.

U.N. and Afghan election officials spent weeks auditing the runoff results after allegations of fraud, a common occurrence over Afghanistan's last two presidential elections. But Ghani Ahmadzai's runoff vote total only dropped by about 1 percent after the audit. Abdullah's side maintained the fraud was so sophisticated it was undetectable.

The U.S. has been pushing for a resolution so the next president can sign a security agreement that would allow about 10,000 U.S. forces to remain in the country after combat operations wrap up at the end of the year.

View Gallery

Beirut (AFP) - In the Syrian stronghold of the Islamic State jihadist group, everything is black, activists say, from men's turbans to women's veils. Even the passports.

"Black IS flags are everywhere. Women are covered from head to toe in black burqas, and can only leave the house in the company of their fathers, brothers or husbands," said Abu Yusef, an activist from Raqa province, which IS considers its headquarters.

Asked what colour IS passports are, he laughed: "Black."

IS members parade on the streets with their weapons -- usually Kalashnikovs assault rifles or pistols -- while non-members are not allowed to own arms, he told AFP via the Internet.

They exert control over every aspect of life, with men and women controlled by separate security forces.

"The Khansaa brigade is composed of women IS members. They are armed, and have the power to stop and search any woman on the street," said Abu Yusef.

"Daesh's version of Islamic law is imposed by the men's Hesbeh brigade," he said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

View gallery

A grab from an Islamic State video identified by private terrorism monitor SITE Intelligence Group o …

IS also has "ministries for everything you can imagine: education, health, water, electricity, religious affairs and defence. All the ministries occupy ex-government buildings."

Education is based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law, and military training camps for young boys have been set up in Raqa, Abu Yusef said.

"There is even a consumer protection authority," he said.

- Jihadist-only coffeeshops -

Activists in Raqa have frequently complained that the jihadists have access to recreation but forbid it for others.

They post photographs online showing jihadist-filled coffeeshops in Raqa, while complaining that non-fighters are not allowed to enjoy public spaces.

View gallery

An image made available by jihadist media outlet Welayat Raqa on June 30, 2014, is said to show an I …

In Deir Ezzor, where locals tried in vain to keep IS out, none of the coffeeshops that are so popular elsewhere in the Middle East remain open.

"Nothing good or fun is allowed," activist Rayan al-Furati told AFP via the Internet.

"It is impossible to even imagine anyone smoking, or anyone selling tobacco products. It is impossible to see a woman without a full veil. And every day, when the muezzins call for prayer, everybody closes their shops and goes to the mosque, or else they face detention."

For the group's jihadists, however, life in IS-controlled parts of Syria is good, not least because of the benefits they get.

The lowest IS cadres are paid $300 (235 euros) a month, said Raqa-based activist Furat al-Wafaa, using a pseudonym to protect his identity.

"In the current circumstances, that's a lot of money," he said via the Internet.

View gallery

An image uploaded on June 19, 2014 by Al-Hayat Media Centre shows Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni, believed t …

Wafaa said the group's generosity does not extend to those under its rule.

"Daesh is not really a state. It gives its members all the services they want, but other citizens get no part in that.

"It's a mafia that rules through terror. And people are forced by hunger to join, because that's the only way to get a proper salary."

At the same time, IS collects taxes from the population.

"Even those too poor to pay have to comply. So people are joining because they face the choice of starving, or joining in the extortion," he said.

Shopkeepers impoverished by a nearly four-year war pay some $60 a month in tax to the IS, he said.

View gallery

An image posted by jihadist Twitter account Al-Baraka news on June 11, 2014 is said to show Islamic …

- 'Settler occupation' -

Deir Ezzor's Furati, meanwhile, likened IS to a settler movement that has displaced the local population.

"Just as Israel occupied Palestine with settlers, the same thing has happened here," said the activist, who like tens of thousands of residents recently fled Deir Ezzor for fear of persecution.

"You have foreign jihadists, even Americans, living with their families where we once lived," said Furati, using a pseudonym to protect family members still in the province.

The jihadists have kept the oil and gas fields, electricity plants and dams in areas under their control running.

They pay employees an extra salary to continue working, adding to their uninterrupted monthly wages from the Syrian government.

Furati said employees belonging to President Bashar al-Assad's minority Alawite sect had long fled when IS arrived in Deir Ezzor and other employees have been kept on.

"Those employees still working the oil and gas fields were given guarantees they wouldn't be harmed, and Libyan engineers were brought in to support them," he said.

But power cuts and water shortages in IS-controlled areas are endemic, activists say, adding to the woes of those living under their rule.

Nael Mustafa, another activist still living in Raqa, said there is no separation between the public and the private in IS-controlled areas.

IS forces have no qualms about raiding homes and searching phones and computers for evidence of what they consider immoral practices.

"They believe that everything belongs to God -- and therefore comes under their control," he told AFP.

JAMIE WEINSTEIN, THE DAILY CALLER
SEP. 20, 2014, 8:29 PM

Cherie Thurlby/US Secretary Of Defense PhotoRetired US Marine Corps General James Conway

The man who was the top Marine general from 2006 until his retirement in 2010 says President Barack Obama’s strategy to defeat the terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is doomed to fail.

“I don’t think the president’s plan has a snowball’s chance in hell of succeeding,” retired Marine General James Conway, who served as the 34th Commandant of the Marine Corps during the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration, said at the Maverick PAC Conference in Washington, D.C. Friday, according to a source in attendance.

Maverick PAC has described itself as a super PAC ”dedicated to inspiring the next-generation of conservatives, electing a new generation of conservative leaders, and sharing common goals and interests that will help shape the future of America.”

The source said Conway’s major concern was that the U.S. did not have a force on the ground in Syria it could rely on, like the Kurdish Peshmerga in Iraq. Though the Obama administration believes it can support what it says are moderate rebel forces in Syria to aid in the fight against ISIS, many critics warn that there may be no truly moderate force in the country of any significant strength. (RELATED: Expert Who Traveled With Syrian Rebels Says So-Called “Moderates” Are Muslim Brotherhood-Style Islamists)

The Commandant of the Marine Corps also serves as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During the 2003 Iraq War, Conway led the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Obama’s strategy to degrade and destroy ISIS has come under fire in recent days for other reasons as well, especially for preemptively taking off the table the possibility of using American combat troops to achieve the mission.

“You just don’t take anything off the table up front, which it appears the administration has tried to do,” retired Gen. James Mattis, who served as head of Central Command from 2010 until his retirement in 2013, told the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday.

“Specifically, if this threat to our nation is determined to be as significant as I believe it is, we may not wish to reassure our enemies in advance that they will not see American ‘boots on the ground,’” he added. “If a brigade of our paratroopers or a battalion landing team of our Marines would strengthen our allies at a key juncture and create havoc/humiliation for our adversaries, then we should do what is necessary with our forces that exist for that very purpose.”

Two Russian bombers came within miles of Canada’s coastline this week as President Vladimir Putin reportedly makes threats of a wider war across Europe.

The incident near Canada created some tense moments as two “Bear” bombers came within about 30 miles of Canada’s coastline in the Beaufort Sea, CTV reported. The bombers were detected in the early morning hours on Thursday by NORAD, and two Canadian CF-18s were scrambled to intercept them.

The Russian bombers turned back when they saw the Canadian planes, reports indicated.

The close call came after a separate incident in which six Russian aircraft, including MIGs and refueling tanks, came within about 40 miles of the Alaskan coast. The United States scrambled two F-22 fighter jets to chase away the Russian convey, which Moscow claimed was part of a military exercise.

The Kremlin denied entering Canadian or American airspace in either incident.

Both incidents take place after Russian President Vladimir Putin ramped up threats and rhetoric regarding Europe. After invading Ukraine to support pro-Russia rebels, Putin reportedly threatened to drop a nuclear bomb on Ukraine a few weeks ago if the fight continued.

This week, Vladimir Putin made more threats, this time setting his sights beyond Ukraine. The German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that Putin had a private meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, during which he flexed his nation’s military muscle.

“If I wanted, in two days I could have Russian troops not only in Kiev, but also in Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Warsaw and Bucharest,” Putin reportedly said.

The Russian bombers incursion toward Canadian and American borders also comes after America led the charge on sanctions against Russia. American President Barack Obama has called out Russia’s actions in Ukraine, and has led a number of sanctions meant to squeeze the nation out financially.

[Image via CTV]