/Spc. Ryan Hallock/AP
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales in 2011 at Fort Irwin, Calif.
The story that Rafiullah and Haji Mohammad Naim told McClatchy is the first public account by survivors in their village of the March night when a man shot and killed 17 people in two Afghan villages. U.S. officials have accused Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales of the massacre. » read more
Roman Lyskowski/MCT
An old "campesino," wih his ever-present cigar, is photographed in January 2012 in Trinidad, Cuba.
The elderly cigar maker sits at a rustic table next to a tobacco field and a barn filled with hanging rows of aging tobacco and meticulously selects the brown leaves, rolling the most tender ones carefully for the center of the worlds most celebrated tobacco product: the Cuban cigar. » read more
McClatchy found errors and embellishments in the Marine Corps' Medal of Honor nomination for Dakota Meyer, whose deeds have been retold in a book and numerous news reports.
Chimpanzees at a federal primate facility are at the center of an impassioned debate between the National Institutes of Health and the animal-rights community.
An ongoing McClatchy probe reveals troubling flaws in the nation's military justice system, from an error-ridden crime lab to botched death penalty cases and ethical conflicts.
The U.S. program to spend billions of dollars on Afghanistan's facilities is failing. Corruption, nepotism and mismanagement hobble the reconstruction.
Read McClatchy coverage of Afghanistan and South Asia from correspondents in Kabul and Islamabad, as well as our national security team in Washington.
Scientists studying water contamination at Camp Lejeune have learned of another source of leaking fuel near a drinking well that served thousands of Marines and their families.

CEO Elon Musk with the SpaceX Dragon capsule on display at the Hawthorne, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp. If successful, it will be the first time a private company will dock with the International Space Station. The launch is scheduled for Saturday, May 19, 2012. (Brian van der Brug / MCT) | More top photos from McClatchy