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Nations pledge billions to rebuild Afghanistan

Afghanistan's interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai, right, seated next to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi whose country plans to donate $500 million in aid to Afghanistan.

(CNN) -- Answering interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai's pleas to assist the war-torn central Asian nation with actions as well as words, several countries pledged nearly $1.5 billion as a two-day Afghan reconstruction conference opened Monday in Tokyo.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed up to $500 million in aid over the next two years, $138 million more than any other nation or international organization. Germany, the United States and European Union also pledged several hundred million dollars apiece.

Organizers of the conference, which includes representatives from about 60 countries and groups, hoped to raise $5 billion for Afghanistan over the next 30 months. The country is reportedly down to its last $10 million. (Full story)

Meanwhile in Afghanistan, two U.S. Marines were killed and two others critically injured Sunday morning when their CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter crashed in a remote region of northern Afghanistan, Marine spokesmen said.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said there was no evidence of groundfire, noting that it was "very likely ... a mechanical failure."

The helicopter was one of two on a resupply mission to U.S. forces, said 1st Lt. James Jarvis of the U.S. Marines. The aircraft had just departed Bagram air base north of Kabul, heading for an undisclosed location, when one went down over snow-covered mountainous terrain. (Full story)

VIDEO Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf gives an exclusive interview with CNN's Tom Mintier Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) The U.S. Army relieves the U.S. Marines of Kandahar International Airport. CNN's Ben Wedeman reports (January 19) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) The guided missile cruiser USS Princeton returns to its home port in San Diego, California (January 19) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)    EXTRA INFORMATION Interactive: Aerial offensive crashes QUICKVOTE Is Osama bin Laden dead or alive? Dead Alive View Results    CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk  Marines killed Radio operator/navigator: Staff Sgt. Walter F. Cohee III, 26, of Wicomico, Maryland Helicopter mechanic: Sgt. Dwight J. Morgan, 24, of Mendocino, California

Latest developments

• British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has told representatives at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to ask for an explanation of U.S. Navy photos showing Afghan war detainees kneeling on the ground in handcuffs with masks over their mouths and noses. The U.S. government calls the detainees "unlawful combatants" rather than prisoners of war assigned legal rights under the Geneva Convention. (Full story)

• But Rumsfeld on Sunday defended U.S. handling of the detainees, saying it was unfair to suggest such "hard-core terrorists" were being treated inhumanely. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft echoed Rumsfeld's comments, calling the captives "terrorists" who are "uniquely dangerous." "When their detention was attempted previously ... they were violent, they killed an American citizen," Ashcroft told CNN, referring to the Mazar-e Sharif prison uprising in which a CIA operative was killed.

• John Walker, an American citizen captured in Afghanistan last fall while fighting for the Taliban, most likely will return to the United States within a week, U.S. government officials told CNN Saturday. Military personnel will likely fly Walker off the U.S. warship to Pakistan or Afghanistan, where he will be turned over to the FBI, officials said. (Full story)

• U.S. Marines on Saturday handed over control of the U.S. base at Kandahar International Airport to about 800 members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. The soldiers will settle into their new surroundings, established by the Marines last month, and prepare for what could be an open-ended mission -- an indication that the U.S. may maintain a presence in southern Afghanistan for some time.

• Two Marines suffered minor injuries while leaving their base at Kandahar's airport Saturday when exhaust from a C-17 transport plane hurled a metal pallet through a tent where several Marines were sleeping.

• A plane carrying 34 Afghan war detainees arrived Sunday at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, bringing the number of captives at the U.S. naval base to 144. A total of 283 prisoners remain in Afghanistan, not counting American Taliban fighter John Walker, who is being held on the USS Bataan in the north Arabian Sea, said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Ken McLellan.

• Companies involved in the World Trade Center cleanup are having trouble getting insurance covering long-term health risks, a group representing construction companies said Saturday. Insurance companies, hit hard by huge losses associated with the Twin Towers collapse, do not want to write coverage, said Louis Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers Association, whose 1,500 member construction companies employ about 150,000 workers -- 75 percent of the New York market.

• A Virgin Atlantic Airways flight with 357 passengers and crew aboard landed Saturday in Iceland after a threatening message was found scrawled on a bathroom mirror, an airport police spokesman said. The aircraft was bound for Orlando, Florida, from London's Gatwick Airport. (Full story)

• Spanish police Saturday arrested two men near Barcelona with suspected links to the al Qaeda terrorist network, a government official said. A Spanish judge had sought the suspects in connection with a terrorist crackdown in November that resulted in the arrests of eight men believed to have direct links to al Qaeda. (Full story)

• The guided missile cruiser USS Princeton returned to its home port of San Diego, California, on Saturday after a deployment to the Arabian Sea. The Princeton, which coordinated air defense for the U.S. fleet off Pakistan, has a crew of more than 400 officers and sailors.

• The Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill is set to reopen Tuesday. The building has been closed since an aide to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle opened an anthrax-laden letter in October. Daschle's suite of offices will remain closed until mid-March while it undergoes renovations, his press secretary said.