GALLERY

Marine's sculptures inspired by rocks in a hard place

Gunnery Sgt. Gregory Miller, a Raritan, N.J., native and maintenance controller with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron, Regional Command (Southwest), built scores of stone sculptures around his unit's living area to pass the time and raise morale during his deployment. This gallery shows some of his amazing creations, including a model of Stonehenge, Abraham Lincoln, and the Greek amphitheater.

NATO warns of Afghan exit without security agreement

NATO won't be able to deploy its noncombat training and advisory mission in Afghanistan after next year unless President Hamid Karzai agrees to a bilateral security agreement with the U.S., the alliance's secretary-general said Monday.

Piled on top of security, fraud concerns in Afghan elections: Snow

Amid concerns about potential fraud and security problems marring Afghanistan’s presidential election, the potential stumbling block residents of this mountain village and others like it face can’t be fixed with monitors or electronic voter cards: For them, it is likely to be a three-foot blanket of snow and no means of transportation to reach far-away polling stations.

PRESENT-TRAUMATIC STRESS

'For some reason, I’m alive and he’s not'

First Lt. Joshua Fosher was 15 feet in front of him; Capt. Dusty Turner was about as far behind. The distance saved the two Americans from his fate. Yet they were casualties in a less obvious sense. The blast inflicted hidden wounds, physical and psychological, that lingered long after Kiepura returned to Poland in a metal box.

ANALYSIS

Karzai's hesitation on Jirga recommendation creates cloud of uncertainty

Mark Jacobson, former deputy NATO senior civilian representative in Afghanistan, said that if Hamid Karzai continues to obstruct the signing of the bilateral security agreement, “none of the work of the past 10 years will matter, as the Afghan security forces and the Afghan government cannot currently sustain itself without significant foreign aid and military assistance.”