Detainees in Afghanistan still being tortured, U.N. reports

KABUL, Afghanistan — Suspected insurgents continue to be tortured at numerous Afghan detention facilities, the United Nations reported...

Charity helps foreign troops take Afghanistan pets home

KABUL, Afghanistan — She was just an ordinary brown mutt, a stray, but Pvt. Conrad Lewis loved her.

Pakistan cleric, government reach accord

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The firebrand cleric who led a massive street rally aimed at bringing down the Pakistani government called off...

Afghanistan national security agency attacked by suicide bombers

KABUL, Afghanistan — A team of suicide bombers attacked a compound belonging to Afghanistan's spy agency Wednesday, killing at least...

Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf ordered arrested

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Tahirul Qadri, the fiery Islamic cleric leading a large antigovernment protest in the heart of the capital,...

Pakistan 'Long March' protest draws tens of thousands to capital

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Tens of thousands of protesters led by a firebrand Islamic cleric descended on the Pakistani capital Monday in a...

Karzai tells Afghans that nation will be secure when U.S. leaves

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday sought to reassure an anxious public that security will not be...

America's go-to man in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province

TARIN KOWT, Afghanistan — A shy boy with filthy hands and a shabby tunic approached the great man, bowed and tried to kiss his hand.

Pakistani cleric testing his political voice with massive march

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The "Arab Spring" seems a long way from Pakistan's winter of discontent.

Karzai faces an altered landscape in talks with Obama

WASHINGTON — Battling a potent insurgency and waning support in Washington, Afghan President Hamid Karzai will meet President Obama on...

Pakistan kiln laborers hemmed in by debts they can't repay

MULTAN, Pakistan — The mounds of clay are so heavy that they have warped Shahbaz's creaky wooden cart. The 10-year-old boy's spindly...

U.S. force in Afghanistan to be slashed, officials say

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to slash U.S. forces in Afghanistan by more than half during the next 16 months, a...

'Zero Dark Thirty' renews pressure on CIA over torture claims

WASHINGTON — Nearly a decade after the last Al Qaeda detainee was waterboarded, Americans still know little about what the CIA did...

McChrystal takes blame for Rolling Stone article

WASHINGTON — Speaking out for the first time since he resigned, retired Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal takes the blame for a...

Cosmetic surgery catches on in a more open Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Shoqofa never liked her nose. She thought it was too wide.

Afghan army recruits say they'll be ready to go solo

KABUL, Afghanistan — Rahmatullah, an illiterate young man with a wispy beard and remnants of teenage acne, may represent the last,...

Fereshta Kazemi takes a risky stand for acting in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Coarse mud was clinging to Fereshta Kazemi's high-heeled boots as she tottered on a slippery footpath. No one...

On Location: 'Zero Dark Thirty's' compound challenges

First-time feature production designer Jeremy Hindle admits to some dicey feelings while taking director Kathryn Bigelow on an initial walk-...

Afghanistan Taliban appears to be softening stance

KABUL, Afghanistan — Recent pronouncements by the Taliban have raised the possibility that the insurgents may be softening their...

Hard feelings on both sides as U.S. winds down its Afghan role

SUROBI, Afghanistan — Col. Babagul Aamal is a proud veteran of 28 years in the Afghan National Army. Short and fit, with a thick black...

In Pakistan, new tax chief plans to get evaders to pay up

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The man hired to go after a nation of tax evaders jabs his finger at his laptop screen as he scrolls through a...

U.S. force in Afghanistan may be smaller than expected after 2014

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans on keeping 6,000 to 9,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014, fewer than previously...

Letting go in Afghanistan as mission winds down

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Fifteen U.S. soldiers huddle in a circle. A blue Toyota packed with explosives has been reported somewhere...

U.S., Afghan forces rescue American doctor from Taliban

KABUL, Afghanistan — American and Afghan forces rescued an American doctor who had been kidnapped by the Taliban in eastern...

Slaying of Afghan polio program worker raises questions

KABUL, Afghanistan — In her small village of Kalota, north of Kabul, the young woman named Hanisa was known to be headstrong and...

Afghanistan's displaced dread the coming winter

PARWAN-A-DUH CAMP, Afghanistan — Winter is descending on the Shakur clan.

Review: 'The Black Tulip' shows Afghanistan's triumphs, tragedies

Made under challenging circumstances, "The Black Tulip" is an earnest melodrama about Afghanistan's tumultuous recent past, told through the...

Ex-Navy SEAL who wrote Bin Laden book gets warning from Pentagon

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon formally warned a former Navy SEAL who has written a first-person account of the raid that killed Osama...

Kandahar shootings: Youngest survivors recall night of terror

Looking gravely across a courtroom in Afghanistan, 7-year-old Zardana raised her hand Saturday and swore to testify truthfully about the...

Pakistanis fear becoming isolated

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — As U.S. frustration with Pakistan's six-month blockade of Afghanistan-bound supplies became painfully apparent...

U.S. troops posed with body parts of Afghan bombers

The paratroopers had their assignment: Check out reports that Afghan police had recovered the mangled remains of an insurgent suicide...

Osama bin Laden, born to privilege, dies a pariah

Osama bin Laden, a scion of one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families, became the grim apostle of a strain of Islamic radicalism that...

Army sergeant sentenced to 30 days for private's suicide death

WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Army Sgt. Adam Holcomb was sentenced to 30 days in prison Tuesday and was reduced in rank for assaulting and maltreating...