On paper, the plan for the foot patrol looked perfectly safe. A stroll through a couple of villages. Introductions to a few village elders. A two-mile drive back to the guarded walls of the Afghan police headquarters.

• August 11, 2010

Israel's defense minister has told a investigation into a deadly raid on an aid convoy to Gaza that the flotilla was a "planned provocation." The comments follow a stern defense of the raid by Israel's prime minister.

• August 11, 2010

On the second anniversary of the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia, the government in Tbilisi has accepted Russian occupation of their provinces — for now.

• August 10, 2010

The Obama Administration plans to sell 84 F-15 Eagle jet fighters to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the next ten years for a total of $30 billion.

• August 10, 2010

The white fortress loomed above the fields, a crumbling but still imposing redoubt perched on a rock mound above a plane of golden rapeseed shimmering in the morning light.

• August 10, 2010

The International Assistance Mission (IAM) has confirmed that the aid workers killed last week in Afghanistan were volunteers with the Christian organization. One of the victims was a 35-year-old German woman.

• August 9, 2010

Afghanistan and expansion of Iran’s Chabahar port dominated discussions between visiting Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohd Ali Fathollahi and the Indian leaders on Friday.

• August 7, 2010

Kyrgyz troops fired blank rounds into a crowd trying to reach a mass demonstration outside parliament on Thursday, averting what the Central Asian state's security chief said could be an attempt to oust the government.

• August 5, 2010