Trying to boost its image, the military is funding a popular TV show starring soldiers; acting skills optional.

U.S. military officers are pondering the possibility that the Taliban are emulating the Tet Offensive, the series of attacks by North Vietnam in 1968 that failed to win the war but became a propaganda defeat for the U.S.

The U.S. is gathering information on alleged human-rights abuses by Assad's regime and is exploring ways to more directly target Syria's oil and gas revenue.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, after weeks of brinksmanship over Greece, gave ground, improving the chances that the struggling country will avoid a messy debt default this year that could threaten the stability of the euro currency area.

Several Saudi women, inspired by revolutions in the Middle East, got behind the wheel Friday to challenge restrictions against female drivers in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

Egypt's military rulers will consider demands from secular parties that a constitution be drafted before elections are held, a move that could delay the country's first postrevolutionary polls and bolster non-Islamist political parties.

A system for decontaminating highly radioactive water incorporating U.S. and French technology began full operations at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex.

Recent violent protests by migrant workers in China's Guangdong province is denting the image its high-flying Communist Party chief wants to project and sends a troubling message to China's leaders.

Yemeni officials said on Friday that President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is in Saudi Arabia being treated for severe injuries from an attack on his presidential compound, would return to Yemen soon, a claim Saudi officials denied.

Mexican crime groups have virtually taken over the pipeline system of Mexico's state oil monopoly, stealing growing amounts of fuel and gaining an important source of new revenue.

The appointment of veteran Socialist politician Evangelos Venizelos as Greece's new finance minister brings a heavyweight political operator to the country's talks with its European partners over a second aid package and promised economic reforms.

Federal prosecutors formally dropped criminal charges against Osama bin Laden following his death last month in a raid by U.S. forces.

Moroccan King Mohammed VI announced a series of constitutional reforms that he said will turn the North African country into a constitutional monarchy, though pro-democracy activists remain skeptical.

China said it had staged maritime defense exercises in the South China Sea, just after Vietnam conducted live-fire drills in the same disputed waters, adding to tensions in the region

The Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ship at the center of a diplomatic storm last year when Israeli soldiers boarded to stop it reaching Gaza and killed nine passengers, has pulled out of a repeat aid flotilla on June 25.

A Japanese recovery could give a boost to the U.S. economy, where the impact of the earthquake has been especially apparent.

Agriculture ministers of the Group of 20 countries are hoping to unveil ambitious projects next week to stabilize and sustain world food supplies, France's agricultural minister said.

A flooded river in eastern China is at its highest level in more than 50 years, as thousands of train passengers were stranded after landslides buried parts of a railway line in the southwest.

Italy signed an agreement with Libyan rebels meant to stem a stream of migrants fleeing unrest, prompting concerns at the United Nations refugee agency that people seeking asylum won't have proper protection.

Food prices will be up to 30% higher on average over the next decade as slowing grains production fails to keep pace with rising demand, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.