NEW ORLEANS, May 6 (UPI) -- Defense attorneys are seeking probation for a former Army Ranger who pleaded guilty to killing a man while serving as a private contractor in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- An American defense contractor has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of an Afghan man who attacked a colleague, court records show.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Pakistani security forces say 27 militants, including 12 would-be suicide bombers, died in an airstrike in the Orakzai tribal area in the northwest region.

RAMADI, Iraq, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. military handover of the Sunni Anbar province was hailed as a milestone, but the underlying sectarian conflict in Iraq could erase those gains.

CAIRO, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Senior delegates from the Arab League said they planned to visit Baghdad next week to discuss the progress of national reconciliation measures.

KABUL, Afghanistan, May 30 (UPI) -- The Taliban is working with al-Qaida in Afghanistan and learning attack and media techniques from the terror network, Afghan and former Taliban officials said.

VERONA, Italy, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Two Italian tourists returned home to Verona Saturday after being freed by kidnappers in Niger following mediation by a son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Claudio Chiodi and Ivano de Capitani were abducted in an ambush in August in Niger's Agadim regio

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 16 (UPI) -- The Taliban has announced plans for a summer campaign of terror using a large numbers of young recruits in which "Afghan soil will turn red."

BAGHDAD, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- One of Iraq's leading Shiite politicians Friday said the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samara was the work of extremists and urged unity. Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, called the bombers "takfir