Biden defends Obama's tax-cuts agreement with GOP

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Sunday defended President Obama's decision to extend tax rates for all Americans as part of wide-ranging interview on key national and international issues.

Mr. Biden said that Mr. Obama still thinks extending the rates for the country's highest wage-earners is "morally troubling" and that the president broke his 2008 campaign promise on the issue only to help the middle class.

"We couldn't get it done," he said in a pre-taped interview on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We had to make a decision."

However, Mr. Biden said the president will try over the next two years to end the extensions, which were part of a deal with Republicans that also provides tax credits to businesses and extends jobless benefits to millions of unemployed Americans.

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14 Afghan soldiers, police killed in two separate attacks

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A total of 14 Afghan soldiers and national police officers were killed in separate attacks targeting the Afghan National Army on Sunday, officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks on its official website, saying the two attacks were coordinated. In one of the attacks, two would-be suicide bombers in Kabul targeted Afghan National Army vehicles with firearms, said Khalil Dastyar, deputy chief of police in Kabul. Five soldiers were killed.

Police shot one of the would-be suicide bombers, at which point his bomb detonated, Dastyar said. The other would-be suicide bomber was shot and killed without his device going off.

In a second incident, three or four attackers targeted an Afghan National Army recruitment center in Kunduz province, killing four soldiers and five Afghan National Police officers, said Mohbiullah Saidi, a spokesman for the governor of Kunduz.

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