World - McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will leave the country for a four-nation tour of Asia starting Wednesday despite a host of domestic concerns, including the massacre at Fort Hood, a sharply rising jobless rate, his health care legislation stalled in the Senate and his Afghanistan troop decision still pending.

WASHINGTON — Taliban-led insurgents in Afghanistan have devised ways to cripple and even destroy the expensive armored vehicles that offer U.S. forces the best protection against roadside bombs by using increasingly large explosive charges and rocket-propelled grenades, according to U.S. soldiers and defense officials.

BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers blew another deadline Thursday as they continued haggling over an election law that's crucial to the country's political stability and to the Obama administration's plans for a speedy withdrawal of U.S. troops.

KABUL, Afghanistan — A week after pre-dawn attack killed five members of its Kabul staff, the United Nations on Thursday announced plans to scale back its operations in the city temporarily while it re-evaluates dangers in the country.

KARACHI, Pakistan — With paramilitary Rangers deployed to prevent terrorist attacks on the host hotel, Pakistani designers and models challenged firebrand mullahs and Taliban insurgents Wednesday by staging the country's first "Fashion Week" in Karachi.

CARACAS, Venezuela — A U.S.-mediated pact reached last week that aims to return deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to office and end the country's destabilizing political crisis is in danger of unraveling as Honduras' Congress takes its time to consider the deal.

WASHINGTON — German Chancellor Angela Merkel made an impassioned plea Tuesday to a joint session of Congress to work together on efforts to curb global warming and to help forge a binding climate-change deal at an international meeting next month.

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that he'd work to curb corruption in his next five years in office, but he gave no specifics about how that would be accomplished or which Cabinet members might be fired to clean up his administration.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has been quietly working with U.S. allies and Afghan officials on a package of reforms and anti-corruption measures that it hopes will boost popular support for President Hamid Karzai and erase the doubts about his legitimacy raised by his fraud-marred re-election.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — At least 35 people were killed Monday in a bombing near Pakistan's military headquarters in Rawalpindi, with army personnel among the victims.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai was vested with another five years in office Monday as an Afghan election commission canceled next Saturday's runoff and declared the incumbent the winner by virtue of the votes he gained in the first-round election in August.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- As he announced his withdrawal from the presidential runoff Sunday, Abdullah Abdullah refused to concede that his rival, President Hamid Karzai, could be the legitimate winner of Afghanistan's marathon election.

KABUL, Afghanistan-Challenger Abdullah Abdullah and Afghan President Hamid Karzai failed Saturday to agree on conditions for their Nov. 7 presidential runoff, setting the stage for Abdullah to drop out of the race, senior aides to Abdullah said.

KABUL, Afghanistan--Unless President Hamid Karzai agrees to urgent steps to combat fraud, challenger Abdullah Abdullah will not participate in the Nov. 7 presidential runoff, senior aides to Abdullah said Saturday.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- After three days of encounters with America-bashing Pakistanis -- who rejected her contention that the U.S. and Pakistan face a common enemy -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that "we're not getting through."

WASHINGTON -- Congress's law library is rebuffing calls from the chairmen of the House and Senate foreign relations committees to retract a report on the military-backed coup in Honduras that the lawmakers charge is flawed.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military on Thursday released the names of the seven soldiers from the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, based in Fort Lewis, Wash., who were killed Tuesday in a sophisticated Taliban attack in southern Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- In a rebuff to the United Nations, an Afghan commission named by President Hamid Karzai disclosed Thursday that centers rife with fraudulent votes during the summer's presidential election will remain open for the Nov. 7 runoff against challenger Abdullah Abdullah.

WASHINGTON — Without a new law requiring cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. could end up going empty-handed to the international climate talks in December.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday pressed her one-woman blitz on Pakistani public opinion, bluntly challenging the country to defend its territory from an onslaught by religious extremists and asking why Pakistan's powerful military was unable to find Saudi-born terrorist Osama bin Laden.

WASHINGTON -- The chairmen of the House and Senate foreign relations committees are asking the Law Library of Congress to retract a report on the military-backed coup in Honduras that they charge is flawed and "has contributed to the political crisis that still wracks'' the country.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Taliban insurgents Wednesday attacked a guesthouse used by the United Nations, killing five U.N. employees -- including an American -- and raising new concerns about terrorism and sabotage ahead of the Nov. 7 runoff election.

BAGHDAD -- Up against the clock, Iraqi politicians spent Wednesday hammering out the final sticking points of an election law they hope to present to parliament for a vote within days to avoid a risky and embarrassing delay of the January polls.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Amid devastating bombings directed at civilian targets in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began a drive Wednesday to advance Washington's policies in the troubled region by seeking to "turn the page" and convince skeptical Pakistanis that the U.S. aim is security and stability.

BAGHDAD -- Militants linked to al Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility Tuesday for a pair of powerful truck bombs that killed 155 people and wounded 600 in the latest insurgent assault on the fragile Iraqi government.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Eight American service members were killed Tuesday in insurgent attacks in southern Afghanistan, a focal point of the U.S. military campaign to combat the resurgent Taliban.

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi authorities said Monday that suicide bombers had used two large trucks -- a water tanker and a refrigerated food truck -- in attacks Sunday that killed at least 155 people and wounded nearly 600, the deadliest bombings since 2007.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Fourteen Americans died Monday in helicopter crashes in southern and western Afghanistan, one of the deadliest days for the United States in the Afghanistan war.