Karzai sworn in for second five-year term

AFGHANISTAN will control its own security within five years and prosecute corrupt officials, President Hamid Karzai pledged yesterday in an inauguration speech made under intense pressure to shed the cronyism and graft that marked his government’s first term.

As Karzai vowed to make the country safer, an explosion in violent southern Afghanistan killed two US service members, NATO said. Jilani Farahe, deputy chief of police for Zabul province said the blast was caused by a suicide car bomber detonating his explosives near the gate of a NATO base.

Karzai also said he wanted private Afghan and foreign security companies to stop operating in the country within two years.