president ashraf ghani speaking out as the taliban continues to overthrow the afghan government.onor powell has more from kabul. >> reporter: rob, as the trump white house debates options in afghanistan, afghan president ashraf ghani wants advisers to remain in the war-torn country. the u.s. spent $700 billion and lost thousands of lives here. while american combat operations ended in 2014, the fight against the taliban is far from over. afghan troops continue a deadly fight against insurgents, with an eye towards afghan's long-term prosperity, afghan president ashraf ghani wants american businesses to be part of developing afghanistan's rich mineral resources. >> we want a partnership that the way we've worked and fought shoulder to shoulder, we would be able to develop this country, we don't want to be a burden on you. >> reporter: the pentagon estimates afghanistan has more than a trillion dollars worth of mineral wealth. much of this is years if not decades from making it to market, and corruption is rampant and hindrance to economic growth. afghanistan's infrastructure is im

the afghan president, ashraf ghani, visited dozens of the injured in a local hospital.t followed lasted for five hours. translation: when i came out of the mosque after prayers, three people with army uniforms and an army vehicle started shooting at us. islamic tradition requires that burials take place as soon as possible and the bodies of many of the victims have already been placed in coffins. the assault on the army base is a shocking reminder ofjust how tough the ongoing battle in afghanistan is. last month, an afghan army helicopter landed special forces troops on the roof of the military hospital in kabul after it was stormed by gunmen disguised as doctors. around 50 people died in that attack. 2.5 years after the international combat mission in afghanistan ended, and the taliban now controls more than a third of the country. and with casualties amongst the afghan forces running at almost 7,000 a year, there are questions about how long the afghan army can continue to defend the ground it still holds. justin rowlatt, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news, still to c

mcmaster met with afghan president ashraf ghani and other top afghan leaders in the country's capital kabul over the weekend, only days after the u.s. dropped its most powerful non-nuclear bomb on afghanistan. the attack was carried outut wih a 21,600-pound bomb call the massive ordnance air blast, or moab, nicknamed "the mother of all bombs." afghan officialsls say it killed nearly 100 isis militants when it was dropped on achin district in nangarhar province. the guardian reports, hohowever, that parliamentarian from nangarhar says explosion killed at least to have c civilians, a teacher and his younson.n. over the weekekend, afghanista's former president, hamid karzai, called president ashraf ghani a "traitor" for coordinating thehe attack witith the u.s.s. milita. he also criticized thursday's attack saying -- "this is not the war on terror, but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as testing ground for new and dangerous weapons." tens of thousands of people took to the streets nationwide on saturday's tax day to demand president trump release his tax returns. crowds

now, he met afghan president, ashraf ghani, and u.s. commanders.y arrived just hours after his afghan counterpart resigned, following the deadliest taliban attack on security forces to date. anti-government protests in venezuela have entered their fourth week with demonstrators blocking main highways in the capital. the protesters are demanding the resignation of president niklas maduro, who they blame for the country's economic crisis. 21 people have been killed in the unrest over the past three weeks. firefighters in the u.s. state of maryland are battling a huge blaze at a multistory apartment complex. the building is located near the university of maryland. local media reports say that it was still under construction and had no residents. it's not yet clear how the fire began. all right. we're gonna take a 60 second break. when we come back, more world news plus all the business headlines. stick around for that. >> the whole dw on one app. for in focus global insights, anytime, anywhere. the news app for local heros. dw. made for minds. >> they

we first heard about it -- actually i want to say we heard about it from ashraf ghani years ago, before he became president, he warned me about "ghosts," so we started looking three years ago. sharyl: john sopko is the inspector general watching over the u.s. taxpayer billions spent to rebuild afghanistan. when you say "ghosts," what are you referring to? john sopko: what we're talking about are policemen, afghan policemen, afghan military, afghan civil servants who don't exist or they have multiple identi c by "we" i mean the united states and the international community. and we started finding out that we had no capacity to measure the number of soldiers, teachers, doctors, military people who we are paying their salaries. sharyl: for years, multiple audits have shown there's no way to prove that the money we send for salaries is going to a real live body. and the payroll numbers just don't add up. for example, sopko says, in june 2016, the supposed number of afghan military and police was 319,595. but an afghan official told ap "the best internal estimate" of the real number was "aro

afghanistan's president, ashraf ghani, has declared tomorrow a national day of mourning after visitingan army base struck by insurgent taliban fighters. the afghan government says more than 100 of its soldiers were killed or wounded yesterday when ten taliban attackers, many disguised as soldiers wearing army uniforms and driving army trucks, stormed the base in northern balkh province. the attack began as soldiers were leaving a mosque after friday prayers. it was the worst ever taliban attack on an afghan military compound. the first country to burn coal to generate electricity 135 years ago has become the first to wean itself from coal power completely for a day. britain went 24 hours without using any of its coal-fired power stations yesterday. instead, it used electricity generated by natural gas, nuclear power plants, solar panels and wind turbines. only two years ago, coal provided almost 25% of britain's electricity. britain plans to phase out coal power completely by 2025. >> sreenivasan: and finally this earth day, a new view of our relative place in the universe. you may rec

mattis, is in afghanistan on an unannounced visit to meet us troops and the country's president ashraf ghanicade. and the us astronaut peggy whitson has broken the record for the most days spent in space by an american. commander whitson already holds the record for the most spacewalks carried out by a female astronaut and is the first woman to command the international space station twice. president trump telephoned her on board the iss to congratulate her on surpassing the previous record of 534 days in space. now to the man hillary clinton hoped to follow into office. after lying low for the past few months president 0bama was back in the public eye today holding an event in chicago, not about politics, but instead aimed at getting the next generation involved in causes they care about. although he couldn't help having a little fun. so... what's been going on at while i've been gone? it is wonderful to be home. it is wonderful to be at the university of chicago and it is wonderful to be on the south side of chicago. cheering it is wonderful to be with these young people here. he has said

he met afghan president ashraf ghani but was very clear, had a message of no bending towards talks withiban. here's what he said. >> if the taliban wished to join the political process and work honestly for a positive future for the afghan people who have suffered long and hard, they need only to renounce violence and reject terrorism. it's a pretty low standard to join the political process. >> reporter: that's just never going to happen, really. i mean, they've already attempted diplomatic pressures with the taliban. they're winning, though, on the battlefield now, so the taliban talking is pretty unlikely, and they have key al qaeda-affiliated militants in their command structure, so asking them to denounce terrorism is a large call as well. what is on the table for a trump administration policy in afghanistan? the u.s. has tried the troop surge, they've tried talks, they've tried sending in more trainers to boost the afghan military. that could be the one option they'll try more of, but very few real choices for donald trump. john? >> nick paton walsh for us reporting, thank you ver

secretary mattis made that clear after meeting with president ashraf ghani and other leaders. >> 2017g to be another tough year for the valiant afghan security forces and the international troops who have stood and will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with afghanistan against terrorism. >> brangham: just three days before, taliban fighters, disguised as government troops, killed at least 140 afghan soldiers. offis believe the final death toll will be highe making this the single deadliest atta on an afghan base in years. it happened at a compound in northern balkh province. >> brangham: also today: at least four security guards were killed, when a suicide bomber hit a u.s. operated base in the east of the country. all this, amid reports that russia is funneling weapons to the taliban, something the top u.s. commander in afghanistan essentially confirmed. >> we had the overt legitimacy lent to the taliban by the russian that really occurred during late last year beginning through this process they've been undertaking. >> so you are not refuting that they are sending weapons? >>