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Central Asia

Women in combat: Good to go if they meet standards
Women in the military must have the same opportunities as men to take on grueling and dangerous combat jobs, whether loading 50-pound artillery shells ...
Prince Harry back in UK after Afghan deployment
Prince Harry returned to Britain on Wednesday after a 20-week deployment in Afghanistan, landing on a military plane in light snow at the Brize Norton ...
US Afghan commander cleared in Petraeus email case
A Pentagon investigation has cleared Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, of professional misconduct in exchanging emails with a ...
Army general defers plea at hearing on sex charges
An Army general brought back from Afghanistan to face court-martial on a series of sexual misconduct charges deferred entering a plea Tuesday. Brig.
Prince Harry's wartime role draws reprisal fears
Prince Harry's admission that he killed Taliban fighters while working as a helicopter gunner in Afghanistan drew intense British media coverage ...
UK's Prince Harry returns from Afghanistan
Capt. Wales is coming home to be Prince Harry once again. The Ministry of Defense revealed Monday that the 28-year-old prince is returning from a ...
Taliban attacks show Afghan insurgents' resilience
Taliban suicide bombers carried out a brazen attack in the Afghan capital on Monday, the second in less than a week and a sign that insurgents are ...
UN: Prisoners still tortured in Afghan custody
Afghan authorities are still torturing prisoners, such as hanging them by their wrists and beating them with cables, the United Nations said, a year ...
Official: Pakistan to free more Afghan detainees
Pakistan plans to release more Afghan militant detainees in an attempt to boost the peace process in neighboring Afghanistan ahead of the departure ...
Troops worry about defense, job cuts
The soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team have gone to war five times since 9/11, and 84 have been killed — including 13 during their ...
Judge orders sanity review in Afghan massacre case
An Army staff sergeant accused of massacring Afghan civilians must undergo an official sanity review before a mental health defense can be presented, ...
EU approves military training mission to Mali
European officials had a message Thursday for French forces fighting on the front lines of the battle against Islamist extremists in the troubled ...
US envoy says Taliban peace process stuck
The United States wants serious peace negotiations with the Taliban to begin, but it has not been possible to get the process under way, the American ...
Marine pleads guilty to urinating on Afghan corpse
A Marine who pleaded guilty Wednesday to urinating on the corpse of a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan will likely be demoted one rank under a plea ...
UK soldier dies from Afghanistan wounds
Britain's Ministry of Defense says a soldier injured in Afghanistan has died from his wounds at a U.K. hospital. The defense ministry says the soldier ...
1 killed in suicide attack on Afghan spy agency
Taliban suicide bombers attacked the gates of the Afghan intelligence agency Wednesday, killing one person and wounding dozens in a blast that ...
Young Afghan musicians to tour US
Not so long ago Fakira roamed the mean streets of the Afghan capital, hawking magazines for 13 U.S. cents apiece to support her poverty-stricken ...
US plays down Afghan threat to Central Asia
A senior U.S. diplomat has played down concerns among Central Asian governments that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan could foment regional ...
Afghan defense minister hopes US stays after 2014
Afghanistan's defense minister expressed optimism on Tuesday that the United States will not abandon his country after foreign combat troops leave at ...
Suicides in military rise, even as combat lessens
For U.S. troops, less combat is not translating to less stress. Members of the military committed suicide at a record pace in 2012 — almost one per ...
Senate GOP leader optimistic about Afghanistan
The United States should keep a residual force of about 10,000 in Afghanistan after combat forces leave at the end of 2014, the Senate Republican ...
Al-Qaida carves out own country in Mali
Deep inside caves, in remote desert bases, in the escarpments and cliff faces of northern Mali, Islamic extremist fighters have been burrowing into ...
Karzai: US troop immunity up to Afghan elders
The Afghan president said Monday that a meeting of the nation's elders should convene to decide whether U.S. troops staying in the country after 2014 ...