Special Reports

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Public perception of the conflict in Afghanistan remains mixed, polls show, while Washington continues to deliberate over the appropriate strategy.

NEW YORK, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- The U.S. Justice Department announced the sentencing of a U.S. citizen charged with conspiring to export banned aircraft equipment to Iran.

JERUSALEM, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said world attention should focus on Hezbollah weapons rather than war crimes allegations in the Goldstone report.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- A U.N. team investigating the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto issued a request to speak to former President Pervez Musharraf.

ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- The Turkish government approached its Greek counterparts to discuss forming a strategic cooperation council to improve bilateral relations.

BAGHDAD, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- An Iraq Shiite cleric drew fire from religious conservatives over a decision to adopt secularism in a new political party competing in parliamentary elections.

TEHRAN, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Washington is using the alleged threat to national security from Iran as an excuse to increase its military spending programs, Iranian military officials said.

BERLIN, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- When the Berlin Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989, Mario Roellig sat in his West Berlin apartment and was sobbing in despair.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- The Pakistani military on Friday said it stormed Taliban strongholds in the tribal region along the border with Afghanistan as part of major military offensive.

LONDON, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Friday based his commitment to the global fight in Afghanistan in part on reforms in the Kabul government.

SANAA, Yemen, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Saudi forces reportedly bombed al-Houthi rebel strongholds along the shared border with Yemen in a sign of an escalating fight against a growing insurgency.

BANGKOK, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Thailand is considering breaking off diplomatic relations with neighboring Cambodia as a dispute heats up over Phnom Penh's hiring of a fugitive former Thai premier.

HOUSTON, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Oil field services company Halliburton announced it was awarded a drilling contract by Saudi Aramco for the Ghawar field, the largest oil field in the world.

CARACAS, Venezuela, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Severe shortages of electricity and water pose a growing risk to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian revolution that is powered largely by the country's petroleum revenues.

BOGOTA, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is once again under fire over the contents of a security pact that permits wide-ranging U.S. access to Colombian military bases as part of counter-narcotic and counter-terrorism operations in South America.