U.S. officials have made no final announcement about how many troops might remain in Afghanistan after 2014, although they have said as many as many as 12,000 U.S. and coalition forces could remain to train and advise Afghans and continue counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida and other extremists.

The Afghan government would have to approve any such decision, but months of negotiations over a bilateral security agreement have been troubled with disagreements over handing over detainees and anger over alleged misbehavior by American troops.

Karzai has made many statements about the issue but gave his first specific statement about bases at a ceremony at Kabul University.

"We are giving the bases, nine bases they want from Afghanistan in all of Afghanistan," he said.

But in return, Afghanistan wants a U.S. commitment to boost its security, strengthen its armed forces and promise long-term economic development.

"It is our condition that they bring security and bring it quickly and strengthen the Afghan forces and the economy," he said. "When they (the U.S.) do this, we are ready to sign" a partnership agreement.

U.S. Embassy spokesman in Kabul, David Snepp, declined to discuss details of the agreement, citing a policy of not commenting on specifics during the ongoing negotiations.

"However, as President Obama has stated, the U.S. does not seek permanent military bases in Afghanistan. We envision that the BSA (Bilateral Strategic Agreement) will address access to and use of Afghan facilities by U.S. forces in the future," he said.

Karzai did not refer to "existing" bases in his comments, saying only that the U.S. has requested nine bases in the country.

A senior U.S. official familiar with the talks told The Associated Press earlier that the U.S. and Karzai are at odds over his request that the United States guarantee it would side with Afghanistan if neighboring Pakistan poses a threat. So far the U.S. is refusing, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

The negotiations over a strategic agreement have been protracted and at times acrimonious, reflecting Washington's relationship with Karzai, who has often had strong words of criticism for Washington. In March, when it appeared that the agreement was about to be signed, Karzai made a statement that suggested that the United States and the Taliban were benefiting each other and even in collusion to keep U.S. troops in the country, though the U.S. has been fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan for two decades.

As a result, the U.S. put the agreement on hold.

Some Afghans who are familiar with the Afghan president that his tough talk is a negotiating ploy to get more from the United States, particularly in relation to neighboring Pakistan. Tensions between the two countries have escalated dramatically in the last two weeks, with both sides accusing each other of unprovoked attacks.

During his speech marking the 80th anniversary of Kabul University, Karzai warned Pakistan against sending its forces across the border or trying to force Afghanistan to accept the disputed Durand partition line the 19th century demarcation between present day Afghanistan and Pakistan as the international border.

"We want a civilized relationship with Pakistan but if any neighbor wants Afghanistan under its shadow ... it is not possible," said Karzai. "If there is any attack or any violation to force Afghanistan to accept the Durand Line, the Afghan nation will never accept it and will never recognize the Durand Line. Impossible."

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Kathy Gannon is AP Special Regional Correspondent for Afghanistan. Follow her at www.twitter.com/kathygannon

Twitter, which announced Gaylor's hiring in a tweet on Thursday, is expected to be the next big IPO to emerge from Silicon Valley. But executives have kept quiet about the company's precise plans.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Gaylor led "technology execution efforts" at Morgan Stanley, including equity and debt securities issues, as managing director of mergers and acquisitions at its global technology group.

She has also advised on high-profile deals such as Amazon.com Inc's purchase of Zappos and Google Inc's acquisition of AdMob.

"Look forward to joining and focusing on M&A + strategy," Gaylor tweeted on Thursday. "Pointed north ... let the migration begin!"

(Reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Arlington County Police said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski of Arlington faces a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery following an alleged assault about 12:30 a.m. Sunday in the Crystal City area of the county.

A police report says that the 41-year-old Krusinski was drunk and grabbed a woman's breast and buttocks. Police say the woman fought him off and called police.

Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck says Krusinski did not know the woman involved.

Susie Doyle, a spokeswoman for the Arlington County Sheriff's Office, said Krusinski was released Sunday on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond. An arraignment is scheduled for Thursday.

A working phone number for Krusinski could not be found Monday and court records did not list an attorney.

Air Force spokeswoman Natasha Waggoner said Krusinski was removed from his post in the sexual assault unit after the Air Force learned of his arrest. He started in the post in February.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has spoken with Air Force Secretary Michael Donley about the matter and "expressed outrage and disgust over the troubling allegations and emphasized that this matter will be dealt with swiftly and decisively," Pentagon press secretary George Little said in a statement Monday.

The spokesman said Hagel has been trying to raise the Pentagon's focus on sexual assault prevention and response, and will soon announce new steps to address "this vile crime."

"Sexual assault has no place in the United States military," Little said. "The American people, including our service members, should expect a culture of absolutely no tolerance for this deplorable behavior that violates not only the law, but basic principles of respect, honor, and dignity in our society and its military.Secretary Hagel is firmly committed to upholding the highest standards of behavior in America's armed forces and will take action to see this through."

An Air Force website says the "Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program reinforces the Air Force's commitment to eliminate incidents of sexual assault through awareness and prevention training, education, victim advocacy, response, reporting and accountability."

The website continues: "Sexual assault is criminal conduct. It falls well short of the standards America expects of its men and women in uniform."

Krusinski's arrest comes as the military continues to wrestle with how best to handle reports of sexual assault and other sexual misconduct.

Outrage over an Air Force officer's decision to overturn a jury's guilty verdict in a separate sexual assault case has prompted Republicans and Democrats to join forces on ambitious legislation to change the military justice system.

Lawmakers have interpreted Hagel's recent proposal to essentially strip commanding officers of their ability to reverse criminal convictions of service members as an opening to revise the decades-old Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Congress repeatedly has challenged the military's lack of resolve in fighting sexual assault in its ranks, an offense considered far more prevalent than the reported cases of 3,192 in 2011, the most recent figure available. Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that because so few victims report the crime, the real number is closer to 19,000 assaults.

Also, the Air Force recently said it had disciplined five former commanders at a Texas base for not reporting problems quickly or taking appropriate action in what has turned into the military branch's worst sex scandal.

The confirmation came as the 18th military trial in the scandal started Wednesday. A former wing commander, a former group commander and three former squadron commanders, as well as a senior noncommissioned officer, were disciplined last fall after an investigation into instructor sexual misconduct at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, officials said. In some cases, they said, a commander was not informed of problems in a timely manner and at other times a commander didn't take appropriate action after knowing about a problem.

The collapse stirred memories of a fatal fire at a garment factory in November that killed 112 people and raised an outcry about safety in the nation's garment industry.

Workers in the Rana Plaza building said it had developed such severe cracks the day before that it had been reported on local news channels. They hesitated to enter the building Wednesday morning, said Abdur Rahim, who worked in a garment factory on the fifth floor.

But a manager from the factory assured them there was no problem, so they went inside, he said.

"We started working. After about an hour or so the building collapsed suddenly," he said. He next remembered regaining consciousness outside the building.

Tens of thousands of people gathered at the site, some of them weeping survivors, some searching for family members. Firefighters and soldiers using drilling machines and cranes worked together with local volunteers in the search for other survivors from the building.

An enormous section of the concrete structure appeared to have splintered like twigs. Colorful sheets of fabric were tied to upper floors of the wreckage, presumably so those inside could climb down and escape.

An arm jutted out of one section of rubble. The lifeless body of a woman covered in dust could be seen in another. A firefighter carried the body of what appeared to be a teenager from the area.

Rahim said his mother and father, who worked with him in the factory, were trapped inside.

"I have no idea what is going on," he said.

Among the businesses in the building were the Phantom Apparels Ltd., New Wave Style Ltd and New Wave Brothers Ltd. Garment factories. It also housed a bank and shops.

Health Minister A.F.M. Ruhal Haque said that by Wednesday afternoon 70 people had been confirmed dead in the collapse at the building in the Dhaka suburb of Savar. Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder said another 600 survivors had been rescued.

Reports indicated the death toll could rise.

"We had sent two people inside the building and we could rescue at least 20 people alive. They also told us that at least 100 to 150 people are injured and about 50 dead people are still trapped inside this floor," said Mohammad Humayun, a supervisor at one of the garment factories.

The collapse happened about 8:30 a.m. and since garment factories in the area routinely work 24 hours a day, it appeared likely that the four housed in the building were staffed at the time.

The November fire at the Tazreen garment factory drew international attention to the conditions workers toil under in the $20 billion-a-year textile industry in Bangladesh. The country has about 4,000 garment factories and exports clothes to leading Western retailers. The industry wields vast power in the South Asian nation.

Tazreen lacked emergency exits and its owner said only three floors of the eight-story building were legally built. Surviving employees said gates had been locked and managers had told them to go back to work after the fire alarm went off.

The factory made clothes for Wal-Mart, Disney and other Western brands.

Now, an Australia-led research team has demonstrated a novel idea for chasing down the massive marine mammals. To search for , the group dropped sonar buoys in the Ross Sea west of Antarctica, and listened for whale calls. They triangulated the whale's location from their calls, and then sailed to the right spot.

During the research cruise, the scientists photographed 57 blue whales, collected 23 skin biopsy samples and stuck on two satellite-tracking tags. They also spotted 11 pygmy blue whales and eight humpback whales, among a total 720 cetacean species (the group that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises).

"In many respects our expectations of what we could achieve have been exceeded," the scientists wrote on the expedition's blog.

The deep, resonating song of Antarctic blue whales travels hundreds of kilometers across the Southern Ocean, Brian Miller, of the Australian Antarctic Division and the lead marine mammal acoustician of the mission, said in a statement. The team returned with 626 hours of recordings, with 26,545 blue whale calls analyzed in real time. []

The whale'swill transmit never-before obtained data on how the whales feed near the edge of the Antarctic ice, marine biologist Virginia Andrews-Goff of the Australian Marine Mammals Center said in a statement.

The International Whaling Commission estimates the population of Antarctic blue whales is between 400 and 1,400 individuals. The leviathans were slaughtered to near extinction in the early 1900s by whalers, who took some 340,000 whales, according to a statement from the Australian government.

Researchers worldwide have usedfor decades, including blue whales, humpback whales and right whales. This is the first time that scientists have located whales for tagging and identification by identifying their positions with sonar, the statement said.

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