Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, told Iraqi officials last week that if their country doesn't agree to a new pact governing American forces in Iraq, it would lose $6.3 billion in aid for construction, security forces and economic activity and $10 billion a year in foreign military sales.

Merchant fleets want to hire armed guards such as Blackwater, but some worry about increasing violence.

A military commander testified that the building where two New York Army National Guard officers died in an explosion was the only structure on the base in Iraq that wasn't properly protected from ground-level attacks.

When it comes to fighting terrorism, John McCain and Barack Obama share some common ground. Both promise to intensify cooperation with other nations, boost U.S. intelligence-gathering and bolster homeland defenses.

Fearing political division in the parliament and the country, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki won't sign the just-completed agreement on the status of U.S. troops in Iraq, a leading lawmaker said Friday.

At age 14, Ahmad Razaq has worked more jobs than he can count. He has painted houses, cleaned office buildings and supervised a janitorial crew. Lately he spends his days washing cars for a few dollars a week outside a dingy hotel in Baghdad.

A lawsuit accusing Blackwater Worldwide of failing to protect four guards killed and mutilated in Iraq four years ago is headed back to arbitration.

A Pakistani judge Friday extended the detention of an American who police say was caught entering a militant-infested region near the Afghan border. The detainee's mother and other relatives live in North Carolina.

A draft agreement by U.S. and Iraqi negotiators that calls for withdrawing American troops by 2012 appears to be facing obstacles in Iraq that could kill the deal before it's implemented, lawmakers in Baghdad said.

The puppy adopted by an American soldier in Iraq but refused a flight to the U.S., is alive, the military said Tuesday, giving hope to an animal rescue group that is trying to take it to the United States.

Haj Ali's family had been home for less than a month when a makeshift bomb blew off part of his garage. The message was clear: Go back to wherever you came from.

Pakistan's efforts to combat terrorism suffered a major blow Friday when a suicide bomber attacked a tribal gathering that was part of an emerging anti-Taliban movement, killing at least 30 and injuring 100.