Clinton makes unannounced stop in Afghanistan

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unannounced stop in Afghanistan early Saturday as part of a 13-day trip.  Clinton will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the presidential palace on the eve of the Afghan donor conference in Japan which kick off Sunday to pledge aid for Afghanistan.  She will also speak to staff at the US Embassy in Kabul.  During her trip, Clinton will meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, visit Egypt, and attend a conference of leading Asia-Pacific nations, the region of increasing strategic focus for the United States.  In Paris, the first stop of the trip, Clinton attended a meeting of the Friends of Syria, a group of more than 60 countries that aims to find a solution to the Syrian crisis.  Clinton will travel to Tokyo to attend the donor conference Sunday about providing future financial support for reconstruction and development in war-torn Afghanistan.  The conference will address Afghanistan's likely financial needs for the period starting in 2015, the time troops from the United States and other coalition members are expected to have withdrawn from the country.  At the start of next week, Clinton will make stops in Mongolia, Vietnam and Laos, a small communist-ruled nation in Southeast Asia that has not been visited by a US secretary of state in 57 years.  She will then spend the second half of next week in Cambodia, where senior officials from countries like China, Indonesia and Myanmar are attending meetings organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.