10 things you need to know today: April 8, 2012

1. U.S. AND AFGHANISTAN REACH DEAL ON NIGHT RAIDS

Afghanistan and the United States signed an agreement on Sunday which would hand responsibility for carrying out night raids in Afghanistan over to Afghan forces. The agreement, which "clears the way for the two countries to move ahead with a more comprehensive long-term partnership," would still allow continued American involvement. The night-raids deal was the second of two contentious issues that the countries had to resolve. The other, for which a deal was signed March 8, involved the handover to the Afghans of the main United States detention facility in Parwan. [New York Times]

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The Syrian government refuted reports that Damascus would remove its troops from cities and suburban areas by April 10, saying that it wants "iron-clad assurances" that antigovernment troops would stop fighting before implementing a troop pullback of its own. Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said he would not allow a repeat of past events in which the government pulled its forces back only to see rebels rearm and take control of "entire neighborhoods." [Voice of America]

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Mali's military junta to quickly sign an accord it had reached on Friday with West African leaders in order to transfer power back to civilian leaders following the country's March 22 coup. Military coup leader Amadou Sanogo has said the junta is stepping aside for an interim government of national unity in return for amnesty and the lifting of sanctions. [Voice of America]

NBC New President Steve Capus told Reuters that the decision to air an edited call from George Zimmerman to police moments before he shot Trayvon Martin was "a mistake and not a deliberate act to misrepresent the phone call." In the version that NBC News aired, Zimmerman says that Martin is black without being prompted. The unedited call log revealed that the police dispatcher had asked Zimmerman for Martin's race. Capus also said that the producer who edited the audio has been fired. [Reuters]

The Miami Marlins' new manager Ozzie Guillen has come under fire for saying in an interview that he "respects" Fidel Castro. "I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? Many people have tried to kill Fidel Castro in the last 60 years, yet that [SOB] is still there," Guillen told TIME magazine. The Marlins organization issued a statement shunning Castro as a "brutal dictator," and Guillen later apologized. [Miami Herald]