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U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Afghanistan under the cover of darkness Friday, for an unannounced visit during which he plans to meet officials and address his troops.

Obama is now at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul, where he is expected to hold talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The two had planned to meet face-to-face for a working dinner, but rough weather scrapped Obama's plan to fly from the U.S. base to Karzai's presidential palace.

The two were then to meet via secure videoconference instead, but that plan was ultimately scrapped in favour of a telephone call.

White House officials said the fact the two presidents won't meet in person is of little consequence, especially considering they met during the NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal last month.

During his whirlwind three-hour stay, Obama is also expected to hold a briefing with U.S. advisers and deliver a rallying speech to his troops before returning to Washington.

Speaking to reporters on the flight to Afghanistan, U.S. National Security aide Ben Rhodes said the visit has been in the works for more than a month.

"It's always tough to serve in harm's way but when you're away from loved ones in the holiday season it's particularly hard, and the president wanted the ability to come out and have some time with them," Rhodes said.

Since his election, Obama has had a frosty relatively frosty relationship with Karzai, compared to the one under the previous administration of George W. Bush.

Relations have been further strained in recent days, with the WikiLeaks release of classified documents revealing the private, often unflattering opinions U.S. state department officials have of the Afghan leader and his government.

Besides that political backdrop, Obama's clandestine jaunt comes amidst growing domestic and international pressure to end the unpopular war. It also comes just days before the White House National Security Council is due to submit to Congress its review of the U.S. military strategy there.

Besides measuring progress in Afghanistan, the review is also expected to evaluate the state of negotiations with the Taliban, as well as the success of efforts to eliminate terrorist safe havens across the Pakistan border.

Although it is not expected to contain recommendations for alternate policies, U.S. officials have said it might shape how resources are deployed in the region.

This trip is the commander-in-chief's second to the war-torn nation. When Obama last travelled to Kabul in March, he pledged that the partnership between Afghanistan and America would continue.

Just 2 months earlier, Obama ordered the deployment of an extra 30,000 troops there. He also said they would begin the long process of withdrawal by mid-2011.

But, following the NATO summit in Lisbon last month, Obama said the U.S. would follow their plan to withdraw combat troops by 2014.

The Mexican army has detained a 14-year-old suspected of working as a killer for a drug cartel, an army official said Friday.

The much-rumoured alleged young assassin nicknamed "El Ponchis" was captured late Thursday at the airport in Cuernavaca with his 16-year-old sister as they were trying to catch a flight to Tijuana, said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

The boy was brought to the office of the Mexican Attorney General's Office in Cuernavaca early Friday and told reporters there that he participated in at least four decapitations. The source said his sister was accused of getting rid of the bodies.

"I participated in four executions, but I did it drugged and under threat that if I didn't, they would kill me," said the teen, who appeared calm and showed no remorse.

No formal charges had yet been filed.

The sister told reporters that they planned to cross the border to San Diego, California, where their mother lives.

The two were suspected of helping the South Pacific Cartel headed by Hector Beltran Leyva, brother of Arturo Beltran Leyva, a top drug lord who was killed by Mexican marines in Cuernavaca a year ago.

Hector Beltran Leyva's fight for control the cartel has caused a major spike in violence in Morelos, a state just south of Mexico City, and in neighbouring Guerrero state, where the resort of Acapulco is located.

Rumours that have circulated for weeks of a killer named "El Ponchis" as young as 12 years old.

While Wikileaks fights to stay on the Internet, some students are being subtly warned that reading its leaks and posting commentary about them might threaten their future job prospects.

On Friday's Democracy Now broadcast, host Amy Goodman noted an email to students at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, from the university's Office of Career Services. The email said,

"The documents released during the past few months by Wikileaks are still considered classified documents. The State Department recommends that you DO NOT post links to these documents nor make comments on social media sites such as Facebook or through Twitter.

Engaging in these activities would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information, which is part of most positions with the Federal Government."

It is unclear if there will be ramifications for those who might have participated in such activity before the warning was issued. It is likely such emails are being sent to other students in similar programs.

This comes on the heels of an order given to U.S. State Department staffers. They have barred employees from reading the leaked WikiLeaks cables, whether at home or at work. The State Department's reasons for the ban was that many of the cables were classified and subject to security clearances.

In a new report, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) paints a misleading financial portrait of the DREAM Act. The report, entitled Estimating the Impact of the DREAM Act, claims that the bill would be a burden on U.S. taxpayers and would “crowd out” native-born students in the classroom. However, the available evidence does not support either of these dire predictions. In fact:

* Institutions of higher education overwhelmingly support the DREAM Act, which would likely increase school revenues as students who would not normally attend college start to pay tuition.

* The 10 states which, since 2001, have passed laws allowing undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition have not experienced a large influx of new immigrant students that displaces native-born students.

* Most DREAM Act students would likely enroll in community colleges, most of which have open enrollment, based on a philosophy that all qualified students should have the opportunity to learn. Historically, more than 80% of community college students hold full or part-time jobs, thus contributing to their own educations (and the tax base) even as they attend school. The American Association of Community Colleges estimates that state and local governments receive a 16% return on every dollar they invest in community colleges due to the increased earnings of college graduates.

* Legalizing DREAM Act students would increase beneficiaries’ earnings potential, as well as the U.S. tax base. A 2010 study by the UCLA North American Integration and Development Center estimates that the total earnings of DREAM Act beneficiaries over the course of their working lives would be between $1.4 trillion and $3.6 trillion.

CIS’s mischaracterization of the DREAM Act is not only inaccurate, but hypocritical as well. CIS frequently laments that so many immigrants to the United States have low levels of education, yet opposes a measure that would allow some of these immigrants to become more educated. What alternative to the DREAM Act does CIS propose? According to the Center for American Progress the cost to deport more than two million children and young adults who were raised in the United States would be $48.6 billion.

According to a recent report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, “not enough Americans are completing college… by 2018, we will need 22 million new college degrees-but will fall short of that number by at least 3 million postsecondary degrees, Associate’s or better.” The DREAM Act would help meet this need.