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Afghanistan

  • Talks between U.S. and Afghan officials have yielded a partial security agreement between the two countries. Secretary of State John Kerry and President Hamid Karzai held discussions Friday and Saturday on a deal to keep the U.S. military in the country beyond the 2014 pullout date for most U.S. and NATO troops.
  • The U.S. has said it wants to reach a deal by the end of October to keep some members of its military in Afghanistan. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Kabul meeting with President Hamid Karzai to work out an agreement, but two main points seem to be standing in their way.
  • Afghanistan hopes to reach an important milestone next spring with its first democratic transfer of power. Many familiar faces are vying for the presidency, including a number of powerful warlords. The race will be more about personalities and power bases than policies and political platforms.
  • The American military's Special Immigrant Visa Program is designed to grant those in Iraq and Afghanistan who help U.S. forces get visas, especially those whose actions put them in danger. But an interpreter who took up arms to save an American soldier and now faces Taliban death threats has been forced into hiding.
  • Staff Sergeant Ty Michael Carter received the nation's highest military honor. He feels privileged, but says "I would never tell any soldier or service member, 'Hey, go out and get the Medal of Honor', because of the amount of pain and loss and tears that has to be shed in order to receive it."
  • A military jury has sentenced Robert Bales, the U.S. staff sergeant who admitted killing 16 Afghan civilians in 2012, to life in prison without parole. During the punishment hearings held this week, Bales was confronted by family members of victims and people who survived the March 11, 2012, attacks.