This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
 
NATO leaders will meet Sunday and Monday in President Obama's hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Afghanistan will be the top issue at the meeting of the twenty-eight member North Atlantic Treaty Organization.  
 
The United States last hosted NATO leaders in nineteen ninety-nine. That was two years before al-Qaida launched attacks on the United States. Those attacks led to the first use of the common defense provision of the North Atlantic Treaty of nineteen forty-nine.
 
As a result, for more than ten years now, the coalition has directed its attention on Afghanistan. The United States and NATO have about one hundred thirty thousand troops serving in the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF.