BBC News with Marian Marshall
Ten American missionaries have been charged with kidnapping in Haiti, after they tried to take a group of Haitian children out of the country. The Baptist missionaries were arrested last week at the border with Dominican Republic. Nick Davis reports from Port-au-Prince.
The five men and five women have been detained since Friday when they were stopped at the border with the neighbouring Dominican Republic. Today it just decided there was enough evidence for a criminal case against them. They’ve each been charged with child kidnapping and criminal association. The
maximum
sentence could be nine years in jail. One of them, Laura Silsby, spoke to the BBC as she was about to be
driven away
from the court and said “I feel good. I’m trusting God”. Under Haitian law the case will be decided in closed court and the decision could take up to three months.
The top US Commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has said the security situation there is no longer
deteriorating
. Speaking at a NATO meeting in Turkey, he said the next 18 months offered a unique opportunity for international troops to bring stability to Afghanistan. From Istanbul, Jonathan Head reports.
General McChrystal has chosen his words for maximum effect. He said that while the situation remained serious and that Afghanistan had not yet
turned the corner
, he felt more optimistic than he did last summer. A planned joint offensive in Helmand province this month, which showed the Taliban that cooperation between the international and Afghan forces was improving.