After more than a week of hard-line posturing by Afghan and American officials, Secretary of State John Kerry and President Hamid Karzai defied expectations and agreed on key elements of a deal that, if completed, would keep American troops in Afghanistan beyond next year.

The mission, known as MONUSCO, did not say whether the aircraft had been hit and no injuries were reported.

(29.09.) A second round of meetings were concluded on Tuesday. At the beginning of this week the M23 lauded the progress being made at the talks, but are now bemoaning the attack on their positions, which they accuse the Congolese government army FARDC of spearheading.

Panama’s latest attempt at resolving the standoff came in May, when the government contacted the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international body whose inspectors now are overseeing the destruction of Syria’s arsenal, to convince the U.S. to own the mess and fix it.

From major metropolises to small towns, America’s police forces increasingly resemble military units, thanks in part to billions of dollars in free equipment from the Pentagon.

The giveaways to date are valued at $4.2 billion, which the Department of Defense began distributing after Congress adopted legislation in 1997 authorizing the little-known 1033 Program. It appeared in fine print buried inside the National Defense Authorization Act (pdf).

Research shows keeping your software current has a big impact on cyber security, assuming the vendors are up-to-date as well

For 12 years, he took part in secret operations in Europe and the Middle East as an agent for Israel‘s intelligence agency, the Mossad. He played a key role in a high-profile assassination fiasco in the 1990s. He was required to manipulate and deceive. He experienced the acute loneliness of an undercover operative in situations where only he knew his true identity.