World - McClatchy Newspapers

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Most of the Taliban fighters and all of their leaders apparently have escaped Pakistan's widely publicized six-week-old offensive in South Waziristan, forcing the army to begin pounding other parts of the country's lawless tribal area.

KABUL, Afghanistan — The television set crackles with breaking news: Terrorists have smuggled a nuclear bomb into Kabul and are preparing to take out the Afghan capital.

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — There was no rock star, just an actor who likes to play the bass guitar.

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — In one of the worst chapters of their casualty-marred deployment in Afghanistan, Canadian forces earlier this year lost 10 soldiers in 90 days to improvised bombs on one stretch of highway in Kandahar province.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani officials have arrested a retired Pakistani army major for his suspected role in an alleged plot that was hatched in the U.S. to assassinate the creator of controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, the Pakistani army said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama met Monday evening with his national security team to finalize a plan to dispatch some 34,000 additional U.S. troops over the next year to what he's called "a war of necessity" in Afghanistan, U.S. officials told McClatchy.

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai's pledge to root out political corruption in his second term faces a quick test from government attorneys, who've asked for new powers to pursue some of the country's top leaders.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama rolls out the red carpet Tuesday for India in the first official state visit of his presidency, but the stresses of a key relationship in a tinderbox part of the world will lie just beneath the glitz and glamour of a state dinner.

BAGHDAD — Iraq's pivotal national elections, originally scheduled for January, faced a likely delay of weeks or even longer after wrangling over a law setting terms for the polls broke down Monday.

More than 200 Afghanis waited in line for several hours, enduring a harsh, cool wind and blowing sand.

CAIRO, Egypt — The Yemeni-American imam who's been under renewed scrutiny after the deadly shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, preaches against alcohol, birthday parties, black magic and extramarital sex. He also supports armed struggle — jihad — against the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq, and has encouraged extremist insurgents in Pakistan and Somalia.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani government has some advice the Obama administration may not want to hear as it contemplates sending additional U.S. troops to neighboring Afghanistan: Negotiate with Taliban leaders and restrain India.

WASHINGTON — A retired State Department employee will spend life in prison without parole after he and his wife pleaded guilty Friday to serving as covert agents for Cuba for three decades.

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai began his second term Thursday under international pressure to select a Cabinet that can regain the trust of disillusioned Afghans, quash widespread government corruption and build a reliable military that can take charge of his country's defense.

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — President Barack Obama ended his trip to Asia on Thursday much as he'd begun it a week earlier, surrounded by U.S. forces as he sought to project an image of military unity ahead of a controversial announcement on troop levels for Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON — Army Lt. Col. Dominic "Rocky" Baragona was killed in Iraq on the very day that he was going home.

MAHMUD-I-RAQI, Afghanistan — Hamid Karzai may be Afghanistan's next president — the result of ballot rigging and his opponent's withdrawal from a runoff — but Afghanistan's elections are far from over.

SEOUL, South Korea — President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he was still weeks away from deciding how many more U.S. troops to send to Afghanistan and that he'd like to fire officials who'd leaked details of his deliberations to the news media.

BAGHDAD — Iraq's pivotal national elections were thrown back into turmoil and potential delay Wednesday after Vice President Tariq al Hashemi vetoed part of an election law and sent it back to parliament.

WASHINGTON — China's rebuff this week of President Barack Obama's call to stop controlling the price of its currency sparked renewed calls for legislation to allow U.S. retaliation against Chinese-made goods.

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — The morning air at Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan was crisp and clear, with a chill to it, and Sgt. Jeffrey Sherwood was excited.

BEIJING — President Barack Obama on Wednesday wraps up a three-day visit to China that's left him keenly aware of the limits of his administration's leverage over this economic powerhouse on issues from currency exchange rates to human rights.

KABUL, Afghanistan — On the eve of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's swearing-in for a second term , speculation is growing that he could be forced to step aside before he finishes his next five years in office.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao agreed Tuesday that U.S. and Chinese scientists and engineers will work together to speed the widespread use of electric cars, buildings that need far less energy and coal-fired power plants that don't pump out gases that cause global warming.

WASHINGTON — Any good will that Raul Castro enjoyed as Cuba's new leader has dissipated, according to a new poll, which found that more than four out of five of those surveyed in Cuba were unhappy with the direction of the country.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE NAWBAHAR, Afghanistan — The Taliban had set a trap for the tiny company of Afghan soldiers here, its handful of U.S. mentors and the American helicopters that they expected would rush in help.

BEIJING — President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao will meet Tuesday to talk privately about issues ranging from North Korea's nuclear threat to currency and trade disputes. U.S. policy advocates also expect the leaders to announce new joint projects on clean energy.

BAGHDAD — In a massacre that revived memories of Iraq's worst years of sectarian bloodshed, assailants dressed in Iraqi army uniforms savagely killed 13 men and boys late Sunday near the restive city of Abu Ghraib, according to Iraqi officials and villagers.