President Barack Obama flew into Jordan warning Syria could end up as an enclave of extremism, and pledged $200 million in fresh aid to help deal with the refugee crisis swamping its border.

On the final leg of Obama's Middle East tour devoted to reassuring Israel he will deal with the threat of a nuclear Iran and to keeping long-shot Palestinian hopes of a state alive, he held talks with King Abdullah II in Amman.

Jordan's struggle to help 400,000 new refugees meant attention quickly focused on Obama's own policy on the bloody violence threatening to splinter Syria, and his desire to keep America out of another Middle East conflict.

Obama admitted he was worried about what would come next in Syria, after President Bashar al-Assad is forced from power -- a scenario the US believes will eventually unfold.

"They're very good about exploiting situations that, you know, are no longer functioning. They fill that gap," Obama said.

Obama's reluctance to arm opposition groups in Syria, fearing they are, or could transform into, extremist Islamist foes with links to Al-Qaeda has dogged him on his four-day stay in the turbulent region.

On Friday, a Jordanian journalist asked him why superpower America had no plan to end the killing in Syria, prompting Obama to defend US diplomatic efforts to isolate Syria and to note hundreds of millions in US aid.

He said he would ask Congress to provide $200 million in budget support for Jordan this year as it cares for Syrian refugees.

"This will mean more humanitarian assistance and basic services, including education for Syrian children so far from home, whose lives have been upended," he said.

At least 120,000 Syrian refugees are in the sprawling northern border camp of Zaatari alone, and Jordan has repeatedly complained that the growing numbers of Syrians, expected to reach 700,000 this year, are draining its resources.

Obama warned during his visit that opened Wednesday that the use of chemical weapons by Syria's armed forces would be a game changer that would invite international action.

The United States on Friday demanded that the Syrian regime allow full access to UN weapons inspectors and cooperate with a probe into claims that chemical arms may have been used in the conflict.

"We support an investigation that pursues any and all credible allegations of possible use of chemical weapons," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told inspectors.

"And we demand the full cooperation of the Assad regime in letting the investigators in and letting them go wherever the trail leads them," she said, adding they should have "free and unfettered" access.

The US president wrapped up his first visit as president to Israel and the Palestinian territories earlier on Friday by giving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he feuded in his first term, a hug, and a visit to Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

He also pulled off an unexpected coup, engineering a deal to restore diplomatic relations between estranged US allies Israel and Turkey, concluded in a tarmac telephone call at Tel Aviv airport before he took off for Jordan.

Netanyahu apologised to Turkey and his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla and announced a full resumption of diplomatic ties as well as compensation to end a near three-year row.

Obama cautioned the deal, though important, should not spark too much euphoria.

"You know, this is a work in progress. It's just beginning," he said.

"There are obviously going to still be some significant disagreements between Turkey and Israel not just on the Palestinian question but on a range of different issues."

He also visited the grave of Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, then paid his respects at the grave of murdered Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin, where he placed a stone from the grounds of Washington's Martin Luther King memorial.

Touring Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, he said the haunting site showed the barbarism "that unfolds when we begin to see our fellow human beings as somehow less than us."

After a brief meeting with Netanyahu, Obama set off for Bethlehem, travelling by motorcade, not helicopter, after a sudden sandstorm swept the city.

The change of plan gave Obama an unscheduled experience of the eight-metre-tall (26-foot) wall which loops around the West Bank city.

As the huge motorcade wound through the steep, narrow streets, crowds of onlookers watched in silence, with no sign of the enthusiasm which usually greets the convoy.
Some held up signs of protest reading: "No return no peace."

Inside the cavernous, dark interior of the church, he was briefly shown around by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, then had his picture taken with a group of children waving US and Palestinian flags.

In a powerful direct appeal to young Israelis on Thursday, Obama declared the two-state peace solution was very much alive and their only hope of true security, urging them to try and see the situation through Palestinian eyes.

One of Afghanistan's greatest minds in the field of medical sciences died Thursday evening at the age of 85 after a battle with an illness.

Dr. Sayed Alef Shah Ghazanfar, born in the Kalangar district of Logar province in 1927, was one of the chief innovators for Afghanistan's medical services.

Having studied at the American University of Beirut for eight years and in the United States for two years, Dr. Ghazanfar endeavored to improve the training of the young medical doctors of Afghanistan.

He donated the set up and equipment of the biochemical laboratory at Kabul University's medical faculty following his research in Beirut. He also freely set up the serum-making facility of Ali Abad Hospital which provides serum to all hospitals of Kabul, and donated an air-purifying machine that was long used in the operating theatre of Ali Abad.

Dr. Ghazanfar, who wrote more than 40 medical science books in his lifetime, is also attributed with laying the foundations of Afghanistan's public health system, nursing schools, and was a strategist and consultant for medical services across the country.

Following a heart attack in 2009, he lost his sight.

In July 2009, Dr. Ghazanfar was given the Higher Government Medal of Sayed Jalaluddin Afghan in recognition of his work by the former Minister of Public Health Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatemi and former Minister of Higher Education Dr. Mohammad Azam Dadfar.

Further recognition came after the Kabul Institute of Medical Sciences and the library at Kabul Medical University was named after him.

Dr. Ghazanfar was remembered by former students not only for his intellect but for his kind and warm manner. He was also well-liked for his tendency to "stray" from the curriculum in his lectures, telling students his personal reflections and experiences with anecdotes of sacrifice, patriotism and kindness.

President Hamid Karzai ushered in the new school year with the ringing of the first bell and a speech calling on the Taliban to abandon the practice of targeting schools for political ends.

The forced closure and arson of schools is hostility against the children of Afghanistan without any Islamic justification, Karzai said Saturday.

"If the Taliban are committed to Islam, the religion's edict on education is clear – that is, to learn from the cradle to the grave. And if they call themselves Afghan, then an Afghan's child has the same right to education as a Pakistani's," Karzai said in his address to those gathered at Amani high school in Kabul.

Karzai spoke of his respect for teachers and how he would have preferred to be one instead of being a president for the last decade.

"I would have been younger if I, Hamid Karzai, was a teacher and not a president for the last ten years. I would have been more calm and could have served this nation better," he said, adding that teachers are a foundation for society.

The president also pointed out the challenges Afghanistan's education system has faced.

"Our schools, over the past ten years, have been attacked. In Kandahar, acid was thrown on girls. In Takhar, there were attempts for poisoning girls, and in other places schools were burnt or shut down," he added.

The Minister of Education Farooq Wardak said, however, that he does not believe it is the Taliban who is attacking schools.

"Whether they burned the schools or not, it will be blamed in their [Taliban] name. They should stop those who are doing this," he said.

According to statistics from the Persian year 1391 (22 March 2012 to 21 March 2013), more than 3 million children were stopped from going to school because of the violence and there are still more than 450 schools closed in nine provinces of Afghanistan.

Mostly insurgents have been blamed for the issue.

More than 1.5 million new students are expected to start school in Afghanistan this new Persian year 1392, bringing the total number of the country's students to 10.5 million.

An Afghan woman and her child have been killed by a Taliban shooting in southern Helmand province Saturday morning, local officials said.

The incident took place in Helmand's Sangin district when Taliban insurgents opened fire on a civilian vehicle, the head of provincial governor's office Moahmmad Lal Ahmadi told TOLOnews.

The reason for the insurgents shooting at the civilian vehicle is not yet clear, he added, saying that police are investigating the attack.

After the attack, many Sangin residents began protesting, calling for justice from the government.

The protestors took the bodies of the mother and child to the provincial capital Lashkar Gah and criticised the government over the poor security in the district.

"There is more security force check posts in the district, but they are taking care of them, not the residents," one resident told TOLOnews.

Ahmadi responded: "We can say to the residents of the district with confidence that the security forces have several programmes to improve security in the district and such an incident will not happen again."

Sangin is considered one of the more insecure districts in the province with insurgents frequently targeting local security forces and government personnel.

The head of Afghanistan's parliamentary defence committee on Saturday said that he does not believe the US will transfer all control of Bagram prison and its detainees to the Afghan government.

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Afghanistan's Parliament will again summon 11 government ministers whose ministries did not spend more than 50 percent of their development budgets in 2011, the Speaker of the Lower House said Saturday.

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Saffron exports ballooned to more than 2.8 tonnes in the past year – a 95 percent increase on the previous corresponding period, government officials said Saturday.

Persian year 1391 (22 March 2011- 21 March 2012) saw an improvement in the product packaging and better marketing, which were key towards almost doubling the export of the spice, according to the Export Promotion Agency of Afghanistan (EPAA).

"There has been an increase in 1391 compared to that of 1390, for packing, process, and the marketing carried out," said Sayed Azim Mustafa Hashimi, head of the EPAA's Raisins, Fruits, and Vegetables department.

Afghanistan's saffron is mainly exported to Italy, Australia, Canada, and China, the department officials said.

The product secured first place for its quality from among 16 other countries last year in a saffron fair in France.

Top news in this Bulletin:

President Hamid Karzai ushered in the new school year with the ringing of the first bell and a speech calling on the Taliban to abandon the practice of targeting schools for political ends.

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Saffron exports ballooned to more than 2.8 tonnes in the past year – a 95 percent increase on the previous corresponding period, government officials said Saturday.

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Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf returned home on Sunday after more than four years in exile, defying a Taliban death threat to contest historic general elections.

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President Hamid Karzai will fly to Qatar within days to discuss peace with the Taliban and the opening of a political office for the group, Karzai's office said Sunday.

Karzai will also use the visit to further Afghanistan-Qatar relations and meet the country's officials, Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi told TOLOnews.

The Taliban office has been planned for some time and was formally acknowledged as a step forward for peace negotiations during the UK, Afghanistan and Pakistan trilateral summit three months ago.

"President Karzai's trip is the result of an invitation from the Qatari Emir and will involve discussions about mutual cooperation and the (Taliban) peace process", Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said at a press conference on Sunday.

Karzai's trip comes after recent speeches where he accused the US of holding secret talks with the Taliban without Afghan involvement.

The new US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, who was in Kabul at the time, dismissed Karzai's accusations. And the Taliban has denied any talks with the US since last year.

The Challenges for the Peace Talks

Around 18 Taliban members who have shown a desire to negotiate with the Afghan government or join the peace process have recently been killed, Aimal Faizi had told TOLOnews last week.

"Over the past month, a number of Taliban who were wanting to join the peace process and had maintained relations with the Afghan government and High Peace Council were recently caught and put in prison, and about 17 or 18 of them were killed after being tortured," said Aimal Faizi, blaming outsiders.

"The peace process is being sabotaged and it will continue to be [sabotaged]. Some countries do not want the process to be carried out," he added.

The High Peace Council said the deaths and arrests are a sign of the disarray of the peace process both inside and outside Afghanistan, warning that the disorder will end up harming those causing it.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said that Karzai will open the political office for the Taliban during his visit. This is not correct: he will only be discussing the plans to open the office.

At least 20 Taliban insurgents including seven commanders have been captured by Afghan security forces in southern Kandahar province, local officials said Sunday.

The arrests took place in the Grandai area of Panjwai district during a security forces operation, provincial spokesman Jawid Faisal said.

"The Taliban were trained in Pakistan and they have returned back to Kandahar to carry out attacks in the Panjwai district. The security forces were aware of this since three days ago and they launched a military operation and arrested them with their weapons in a house," Faisal said.

"The primary investigations show that seven of them were commanders of the insurgents. They were arrested without any clashes in very technical operation as they surrendered to the security forces," he added.

The Taliban has not yet commented about the raid.

Panjwai district is considered insecure in the province with insurgents frequently targeting the local Afghan security forces.

Bagram prison will be fully transferred from US military control to the Afghan government on Monday after an agreement between the two countries was finalised Saturday, according to the US Department of Defence.

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An Indian logistics company has signed agreements with Afghan agricultural cooperatives to export as much as 4,000 tonnes of fruits from Afghanistan to India, officials of Afghan agriculture ministry said Saturday.

According to the ministry, the Indian company IG International will export 800 tonnes of apples, and more than 3,000 tonnes of pomegranates and grapes to India via an Iranian port. The company is also interested in opening a branch in Kabul to facilitate trades with Afghan farmers.

"The company is planning to open a branch in Kabul. It's intending to take Afghanistan's fruit to India via Iran," said Abdul Qayoum Basam, head of the ministry's private sector development department.

IG International's interest in exporting Afghanistan's fruit came after they visited an agricultural business fair in the Badam Bagh area of Kabul city.

Following the agricultural fair, a number of the Afghan farmers and traders who participated said they had received more work during those days.

"It's fairs such as this that create opportunities for people and traders to come and make these agreements with us... Most of the people coming here are from companies," one of the participants told TOLOnews.

The agricultural fair, which was open over Nowruz, is said to have had more than 100,000 visitors.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan's former foreign minister said Saturday that Pakistan must not interfere in Afghanistan's affairs, that it must be treated as an independent country and that Pakistan should have a supportive role.

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Bazaars set up on Afghanistan's borders are avoiding customs tax and damaging local industry, the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) said Sunday.

The border bazaars are normally dominated by traders from the neighbouring country and sell products at low prices that Afghan traders struggle to compete with, according to Azarakhsh Hafezi, head of the ACCI's international relations.

"We don't have sufficient produce to sell in these small bazaars, therefore we do not obtain the benefits," Hafezi said.

In particular, Iranian traders are taking advantage of selling their produce exempt from Afghan taxes – sometimes selling it for 22 percent less than their Afghan counterparts, he added.

The ACCI believes Iran is seeking to increase such border bazaars after losing many customers on the global scale and Afghanistan increased customs tax on imported goods. It also warned that this situation means there will be higher risk of unhealthy competition and smuggling of goods.

Afghanistan's main corruption sources at the government level are its income channels with around double the national income misappropriated in the past year, according to the independent anti-corruption watchdog.

The Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) said Sunday that corruption is on the rise with a study of the last six months showing that most of it stems from the national sources of income, mainly customs.

"Unfortunately, the largest amount of corruption is in departments from where the national incomes are collected, especially customs," said Sima Ghani, head of the committee's secretariat, at a press conference in Kabul.

The MEC said the corruption within government organisations is actually on the rise, suggesting that there is a lack of commitment to fight the issue which has dogged the Afghan government.

"Each year, about 200 percent of the [national] income is embezzled," Ghani added, indicating that the national income of around $1.5 billion per year has been eclipsed by the $3 billion believed to have been embezzled.

The Ministry of Finance admitted the existence of the graft in the government but rejected the amount.

"It is correct. We admit there is corruption in customs because there will be theft and embezzlement where there is money, but it is not the amount the corruption monitoring committee has said. It is not acceptable," said Najibullah Manali, adviser at Ministry of Finance.

The MEC said it will release a report this week reflecting the inspections it has carried out regarding the implementation of President Hamid Karzai's Decree 45, adding that it has sent 36 more suggestions to government organisations and the international community Sunday.

Karzai issued Decree 45 last July to fight corruption and bring administrative reform within the government departments after the international community tied the promise of its financial aid to the condition that more is done to combat graft.

The MEC was formed in March 2010 by Karzai's Decree 61. It is wholly independent from the government of Afghanistan and the international community and is comprised of six senior anti-corruption experts - three members appointed by the Afghan government and three appointed on the recommendation of the international community.

Private security companies in Afghanistan are involved in drug smuggling and human trafficking, the parliamentary homeland security committee said Sunday, calling for an end to the practices.

"There is still illegal activity being done by some security companies and their operations must be stopped. There are two [private] companies operating in security in Farah and Herat provinces and they must be disarmed," said Mohammad Naiam Lalai Hamidzai member of homeland security committee, adding that the company in Herat is named Aria.

Another member Shekaba Hashimi said: "In some situations, private security companies are involved in smuggling drugs and [trafficking] humans. And sometimes they are causing insecurity. These activities are really making me concerned."

Gen. Abdul Jamil Junbish, Deputy Minister of the Interior and head of the Afghanistan Public Protection Force, was summoned to parliament Sunday to answer questions on the matter.

Junbish said the process of shutting down private security companies is still ongoing until the APPF – the government's solution to replace private security – recruits and trains sufficient staff. Therefore, the government has permitted some private companies to continue.

He said that when the APPF began there were around 52 active private security companies. Of these, 20 have been disarmed and no longer operate, with many of the employees of the now working for the department of public protection.

The other 32 private security companies are only operating in monitoring sector and their responsibilities will be soon handed over to the APPF, he said.

"In terms of equipment, we are ready to take on the security of the supply convoys on the highways but our soldiers and officers still need more trainings and their training is continuing going on," Junbish parliament.

Junbish responded to questions of the fees for APPF security services on highways explaining that convoys are charged US$175 per vehicle for every 50km. This money goes to the government treasury, he said.

The series of landslides Saturday evening over the highway between the capital city Kabul and eastern Nangarhar's Jalalabad city has blocked the road, officials said Sunday.

The first landslide happened in the Darunta area of Kabul's Surobi district, 200 meters from Darunta tunnel, according to Laghman province officials.

A second landslide took place in Kabul province's Mahipar area.

According to deputy provincial governor of Laghman – which borders Kabul and Nangarhar – the incident has created problems for travelers.

"This is a big highway, and there are some problems. [But] we are redirecting the vehicles from Char Bagh to Nangarhar. There are no serious issues," said Jamiatullah Hamidi, Laghman deputy governor.

Travelers can also reach Jalalabad via the road through Qarghaee district of Laghman province.

The government is working to clear the road quickly in order to ensure the problem does not grow.

"This is a highway with economic value – most of the vehicles are coming to Kabul and Jalalabad from Torkham (port) and that is how the goods reach Kabul. If this road is constantly closed, the price of food materials will increase," said Mohammad Zaman Vaziri, commander of 201 Selab army corps which overseas Afghanistan's east.

None of the incidents so far have caused harm to people, officials said.

The son of power broker Khwaja Mohammad Nabi, a former Jihadi leader in the central Parwan region, has been arrested with three others for their involvement in three civilian deaths during Nowruz.

Afghan National Police arrested the four men following a clash over the new year holiday which led to the death of three civilians and the injury of three more, officials said Sunday.

"Ferdaws, son of Khwaja Nabi has been arrested. Four [in total] have been arrested for (their links to) the incident," provincial governor Abdul Basir Salangi said.

"Their case will be sent to the attorney tomorrow," he added, saying he had also proposed the matter be reviewed by the National Security Council.

The clash which led to the civilian deaths allegedly broke out between Ferdaws, police, and the guards of MP Mirrahman Rahmani after the police started to search Ferdaws' car.

Parwan provincial council officials said Ferdaws has been disturbing the people for a long time but the police had failed to react.

Although the arrest has now happened, Salangi said there are still some concerns over the police failure to act sooner and their apparent inability to prevent such incidents.

"There has been – for a long time – complaints around and inside the city of Parwan on the disturbances and even killings by Ferdwas, son of Khwaja Nabi," said Abdulzahir Salangi, deputy head of Parwan provincial council.

"We expected the police to do something, but they didn't do anything," he added.

Other provinces in Afghanistan have witnessed similar situations in recent times where men in power and their relatives commit crimes and civil disturbances but they are not restrained by police.

Two former police chiefs in central Baghlan province were ordered to be arrested for a shooting incident within the national security forces on October 25, 2012. Three army officers were killed. However, the two police chiefs have still not been detained.

A similar complaint has been made in Uruzgan province of Commander Shujaee for reports of his abuse of civilians but there have been no serious attempts to stop him, according to local residents.