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Obama arrives in Ghana

ACCRA, Ghana, July 10 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama arrived in Ghana with his family Friday evening, welcomed by thousands of people angling for a glimpse of the first black U.S. president.

The visit is Obama's first as president to sub-Saharan Africa. He chose Egypt as the site for a major speech on Mideast policy this year.

The streets of the capital, Accra, were hung with banners and billboards showing Obama's picture. Emmanuel Tsawe plastered Obama posters on his 43-seat bus, Ghana News reported.

"It's a great moment for Ghana and Africa," Tsawe said. "We have to celebrate our own."

Obama's father was from Kenya, thousands of miles away on Africa's east coast. But Ghanaians claimed him as their own.

Obama is the third U.S. president to visit Ghana in little more than a decade. President Bill Clinton made the trip in 1998 and President George W. Bush, who has a highway named after him, in 2008.

Obama told the Web site AllAfrica.com he selected Ghana because of its history of stability and good government.

"Countries that are governed well, that are stable, where the leadership recognizes that they are accountable to the people and that institutions are stronger than any one person have a track record of producing results for the people," he said. "And we want to highlight that."

U.S. seeks 'amnesty' for 2 journalists

SACRAMENTO, July 10 (UPI) -- U.S. officials have asked North Korea to grant "amnesty" to two American journalists jailed there, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday.

The plea, implying guilt on the part of the two women, marks a shift from the U.S. stance the two journalists had been held on "baseless" accusations and should be freed on humanitarian grounds, The New York Times said.

"The two journalists and their families have expressed great remorse for this incident, and I think everyone is very sorry that it happened," Clinton said Friday in a session with State Department employees, the newspaper said. "What we hope for now is that these two young women would be granted amnesty through the North Korean system and be allowed to return home to their families as soon as possible."

The journalists -- Laura Ling, 36, and Euna Lee, 32 -- reporters for Current TV, based in San Francisco, were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor. At a trial, they had been accused of entering North Korea illegally and committing "hostile acts."

The shift in Clinton's tone came after Lisa Ling, the sister of Laura Ling, told KOVR-TV in Sacramento she and Lee had violated North Korean law, The Washington Post reported Friday.

The broadcast report quoted Lisa as saying: "We violated North Korean law and we need our government to help us. We're sorry about everything that happened but now we need diplomacy."

Human rights advocates in South Korea say the two women were reporting on North Korean women sold through human traffickers and refugees fleeing hunger in North Korea, the Times reported.

After weeks of keeping a low profile, Ling's family has changed strategy and launched a media offensive, The Sacramento Bee reported Friday. Lisa Ling, also a journalist, spoke to a crowd of more than 300 people who turned Thursday in Sacramento to call for the release of the journalists.

"She just needs the help of our government," Lisa Ling said. "Only through the government does she have the hope of being released."

Deadly day for British in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 10 (UPI) -- At least six British soldiers were killed Friday in Helmand Province, bringing the number of U.K. combat deaths in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion to 184.

The toll for the British military in Afghanistan is higher than in Iraq, where 179 soldiers have been killed, The Times of London reported. More soldiers were killed in ground operations Friday than on any day since military operations began.

Two British soldiers were killed Thursday.

"This is a very hard summer," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, responding to the recent deaths while attending the Group of Eight summit in Italy.

Brown said Britain and other countries must maintain their commitment in Afghanistan.

The number of British casualties in Afghanistan jumped upward in May as the Taliban began to use more powerful improvised explosive devices.

Admin. put off probe of Afghan killings

WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- Bush administration officials discouraged an investigation into a mass killing in Afghanistan, government officials and human rights workers say.

Hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war were killed by forces under Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, a warlord who was backed by the United States during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. An investigation into the killings was requested by the FBI, the State Department, the Red Cross and by human rights groups.

They told The New York Times the Bush administration would not investigate because Dostum was on the CIA payroll. The general also served in the government of President Hamid Karzai, who was supported by the United States.

The Obama administration has not addressed the issue yet, but State Department officials are working to keep Dostum from staying on as military chief of staff to the Afghan president, senior officials told the Times.

Dostum was reappointed to the post after a suspension for allegedly threatening a political rival. He is considered an important ally of Karzai, the Times said.