Iran claims it shot down U.S. drone

Iran's military shot down an unmanned American spy plane over its eastern territory, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Sunday. | 12/04/11 16:04:35 By - David Goldstein

Few grand hopes for major Afghan meeting

A high-level international conference opens Monday in Germany where representatives of more than 90 countries and organizations gather to discuss the future of Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign military forces. | 12/03/11 17:25:23 By - Ali Safi

Taliban attack targets U.S. agency in Kandahar

Taliban insurgents crashed a truck filled with explosives into a checkpoint outside a neighborhood housing international offices in Kandahar, in the latest attack targeting the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. | 10/31/11 05:31:18 By - Habib Zohori

Iraq's Maliki lashes out at Sunni province seeking autonomy

Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki Saturday lashed out at politicians

seeking regional status for the mostly Sunni Salahuddin province, charging that they were seeking a "safe house for Baathists," the banned party of the late dictator Saddam Hussein. | 10/30/11 12:14:15 By - Laith Hammoudi

Afghans wonder, too, about strategic pact with India

The wide-ranging "strategic partnership" that Afghanistan signed with India this month would seem only logical: South Asia's economic heavyweight cementing its longstanding political, cultural and trade ties with the region's neediest nation. But this is Afghanistan, and nothing is that simple. | 10/26/11 00:31:47 By - Shashank Bengali

At least 19 dead in Egypt church protests

A march by Coptic Christians turned deadly when protesters clashed with government forces in central Cairo, leaving at least 19 people dead and more than 200 injured in one of the bloodiest days in Egypt since the fall of Hosni Mubarak. | 10/09/11 19:33:31 By - Mohannad Sabry

Tunisia's Islamists back moderate form of Sharia law

Tunisia's main Islamist party, eyeing gains in upcoming elections, supports a moderate form of Sharia law that would combine "democracy, which is a Western product, with Islam, which is our own heritage," the party's leader told McClatchy. | 10/09/11 15:30:28 By - Ipek Yezdani

Afghan air force receives first three Cessna planes

Ferry pilots from Aviation Dynamix delivered the first three Cessna 182T aircraft to the Afghan Air Force on Sunday. | 09/22/11 13:39:25 By - Molly McMillan

U.N. showdown looms as Palestinians press statehood

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reaffirmed his determination Monday to seek full United Nations membership, spurning the latest attempt by White House negotiators to avoid having to block the move and inflaming anti-American anger in the Middle East. | 09/20/11 13:43:49 By - Lesley Clark, Sheera Frenkel and Jonathan S. Landay

Mother of anti-Gadhafi militant finally talks about her family's fight

This is the price Zeinab Suleiman paid for her family's fight against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi: five dead sons, two more in an Iraqi prison, a slain brother, three fatherless granddaughters, and too many arrests and raids to count. | 09/20/11 06:46:55 By - Hannah Allam

Pakistan search for energy could run afoul of U.S. Iran sanctions

Pakistan's power supply network is in deep crisis, pounding the economy and making life miserable for average Pakistanis. But one of the solutions that Pakistan has proposed to fix the problem, a natural gas pipeline from Iran, faces objections from the United States. This week U.S. officials warned Pakistan not to depend on Iran. | 09/19/11 07:07:38 By - Saeed Shah

New telescopes in Chile will push astronomy's boundaries

For years, the clear skies above the Atacama Desert have made northern Chile a paradise for astronomers, and the powerful telescopes here have captured some remarkable images from the distant corners of the universe. | 09/19/11 07:03:20 By - Gideon Long

Yemeni troops open fire on demonstrators, killing dozens

At least 24 demonstrators were killed in Sanaa on Sunday, as gunmen opened fire on demonstrators calling for the ouster of longtime president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The attacks, which came amidst a tense, protracted stalemate in the nation's ongoing political crisis, made Sunday Sanaa's bloodiest day in months. | 09/18/11 17:10:35 By - Adam Baron

Libyan prisons grow as rebels pursue their enemies and questions arise about the missing

The last time Hussein Ibrahim Saleh saw his brother Jamal was more than one month ago. On Saturday, Saleh received confirmation that his brother was body number 531 in a cemetery for fighters loyal to former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi in Misrata, 120 miles east. | 09/18/11 13:21:52 By - David Enders

Admiral prepares Guantanamo for 9/11 tribunals

In the few weeks since Rear Adm. David B. Woods took charge At Guantanamo Bay, he has looked in on the men accused of killing two of his Naval Academy classmates, walked the camps where President Barack Obama’s closure order has faded in the Caribbean sun and presided over a somber ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of America’s 21st Century Day of Infamy. | 09/16/11 06:54:18 By - Carol Rosenberg

U.S. drone kills another al Qaida leader in Pakistan

A U.S. missile strike in Pakistan has killed al Qaida's operations chief for the country, U.S. officials said Thursday, further shredding the terrorist group's upper ranks as it struggles to cope with the death of its founder. | 09/15/11 17:51:29 By - Saeed Shah and Jonathan S. Landay

Palestinian anger rising against U.S. over U.N. resolution

Palestinian shopkeeper Fadi Bin Masraf was busy this week, putting away stacks of merchandise that feature the U.S. flag as part of imitation-designer American brands. | 09/14/11 17:47:06 By - Sheera Frenkel

Some Chinese named in WikiLeaks cables nervous, but so far unharmed

When the WikiLeaks website released its full set of 251,287 unredacted U.S. State Department cables two weeks ago, it lifted the curtain on hundreds of Chinese who've met with American embassy officials over the years. That sudden unveiling has left both the cables' sources and observers of Beijing wondering whether the Chinese government will crack down. | 09/14/11 14:54:47 By - Tom Lasseter

Palestinian search for U.N. membership puts U.S. in bind

Palestinian leaders will ask the U.N. Security Council for full United Nations membership, Palestinian officials said Tuesday, despite a U.S. vow to veto the move and fears that it could deal a fatal blow to the moribund peace process. | 09/14/11 07:37:00 By - Sheera Frenkel and Jonathan S. Landay

Bill Richardson leaves Cuba without U.S. subcontractor Alan Gross

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, in a stunning setback, says he will leave Cuba on Wednesday without even meeting seeing a U.S. government subcontractor jailed in Havana for nearly 22 months. | 09/14/11 06:49:46 By - Juan O. Tamayo