Armed Forces

Hundreds of Ethiopian soldiers were pulling out of the Somali capital Friday, witnesses said, amid fears that the troops' departure would allow Islamic insurgents to take control of more of the lawless country. Ethiopia has been propping up Somalia's weak government for two years but had vowed to leave by the end of 2008. Officials declined to give a date, saying only that the thousands of troops would be pulled out in stages.

A suicide bomber struck U.S. troops patrolling on foot Thursday in southern Afghanistan, killing at least two soldiers and three civilians and wounding at least nine civilians, officials said. The bomber hit the U.S. patrol on a busy street in Kandahar province's Maywand district, said district chief Naimatullah Khan. American victims were taken away by helicopter, Khan said, but he could not provide a number. Army Col. Jerry O'Hara, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed that U.S.

The government here has sent NATO headquarters a draft agreement that would give Afghanistan more control over future NATO deployments in the country -- including the positioning of some U.S. troops, officials said. The draft technical agreement would establish rules of conduct for NATO-led troops and require that additional NATO troops and their locations be approved by the Afghan government. The agreement also would prohibit NATO troops from searching Afghan homes.

In village after village, the pattern is the same. Sinister "night letters" threaten tribal elders considered loyal to the government. The local girls school is forced to close down -- or goes up in flames. Those bold or reckless enough to travel by road risk ambush, abduction or worse. Alarmed by the tightening Taliban grip on huge swaths of Afghan countryside, U.S.

The graves are dug, the wounded tended, but the battle over what happened in the Gaza Strip during Israel's 22-day offensive remains unfinished. International organizations, citing videos and witnesses, say Israel may have committed war crimes in Gaza's villages and city alleys. The Israel Defense Forces deny such allegations, issuing their own video clips and assessments.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker on Thursday warned against a hasty withdrawal of American forces from Iraq and offered a sobering assessment of the country despite what he called its "remarkable transition" in the last two years. Crocker, in his last meeting with Western journalists before retiring next month, spoke a day after President Obama reiterated his desire to end the American presence in Iraq, where about 140,000 U.S. troops remain.

Lorraine Melgosa hasn't developed the thick skin of someone who works with the bereaved. She almost always cries at funerals. On a crisp morning in this northwestern Nebraska town, her tears began when pallbearers slid the flag-draped coffin of Marine Cpl. Adrian Robles into Melgosa's 19th century horse-drawn hearse. She helped Robles' parents into the seat at the front of the carriage and stepped to the head of the mare harnessed to it.