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stability.
• U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made the announcement shortly after arriving in the country for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
• "We see this as a powerful commitment to Afghanistan's future," she said at a news conference in the grand courtyard of Kabul's Presidential Palace. "We are not even imagining abandoning Afghanistan."
• Clinton insisted that progress was coming incrementally but consistently to the war-torn nation after decades of conflict. "The security situation is more stable," she said. Afghan forces "are improving their capacity."
• At the news conference, Karzai welcomed Clinton to Kabul and thanked the U.S. for its continued support.
• ___

• WOLFEBORO, N.H. (AP) -- Mitt Romney's large family is at the center of his life -- and of his presidential campaign.
• His five sons, five daughters-in-law and 18 grandchildren -- "a bevy of Romneys," as he dubbed them -- were front and center on Independence Day as the Republican presidential candidate paraded his family down Main Street in this quaint resort town where the entire clan vacations.
• "My family's so big it takes two risers!" Romney exclaimed after he reached the end of the parade route and held a campaign event in a field overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee. As he spoke, he was flanked on two raised platforms by all of his sons and many of the grandchildren.
• While a handful of family members sometimes accompany Romney on the campaign trail, the annual family vacation provided a rare opportunity for him to showcase all the members of the group he invokes so often. They now number 30 in all, and his wife, Ann, laments that's it tough to get them in one place at the same time.
• At a time when nontraditional families have become more common -- and when even the Romneys watch "Modern Family," a popular sitcom that centers on unconventional family arrangements -- the Romney brood stands out. Mitt and Ann Romney have been married for more than 40 years.
• ___

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