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The Afghan soldier who killed four French troops last month bribed an Afghan army recruiter to forge his enlistment papers, deserted to Pakistan and then bribed his way back into the army a month before the shootings, McClatchy has learned.

Thomas Vitsounis was a teenager when Greece dropped its old currency, the drachma, and adopted the euro in 2001. He still remembers how proud he felt. Here was proof, he says, that his country had finally evolved from a backward Balkan state into a respected member of Europe.

Deficits matter.

Just ask the Europeans who've been forced to bail out spendthrift Greece to protect their own economies. Just ask Americans who are suddenly seeing the Euro-scare drag down the U.S. stock market.

A federal appeals court today ruled California's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional, upholding a federal judge's landmark ruling in a case likely destined for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bee political columnist Dan Walters hosted a live chat today on the federal appeals court ruling that California's same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional. Replay it here.

It's not every day that a federal appeals court cites late comedian Groucho Marx in a decision, especially one as important as overturning California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8.

As the 9th Circuit Court was striking down Proposition 8, the chairman of Goldman Sachs, probably the nation's most powerful investment bank, was taking an out-front stand in favor of same-sex marriage.

The fight over California's same-sex marriage ban has been presumed for years to be destined for the U.S. Supreme Court, and a lawyer for Proposition 8 backers confirmed today that they'll appeal this morning's decision "one way or the other."

In a landmark victory for gay rights advocates, a federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled California's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.

The gray wolf hit a major milestone on Dec. 21, when the Obama administration said the wolf's population in the Great Lakes region had grown to the point where the animals no longer required federal protection.

Gay activist Dan Savage and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum have wildly different beliefs, but on the Internet they appear forever tied in a cultural war in which words are the weapons of choice.

Under the health care overhaul, the federal government will start taxing itself and the states beginning in 2014. And that's giving state Medicaid directors heartburn.

The 2010 health law's biggest changes don't take effect until 2014, when states and insurers must be ready to begin signing up an estimated 32 million people in Medicaid and private insurance. But a successful rollout in two years hinges on crucial decisions that states must make — and take quick action on — this year.

U.S. health are spending in 2010 grew at the second-slowest rate in 51 years, as patients continued to postpone hospitalizations, fill fewer drug prescriptions and avoid doctor visits in the aftermath of the Great Recession, according to a government report released Monday.

The 200,000 new December jobs and the dip in the unemployment rate announced Friday are good news for President Barack Obama, whose chances of retaining the White House are lashed to improving the sluggish economy.

President Barack Obama is asking Congress for expanded power to streamline the tangle of agencies he oversees, a move he says would bring the federal government into the modern world.

A new top-secret U.S. intelligence assessment warns that Taliban leaders haven't abandoned their goal of reclaiming power and reimposing harsh Islamic rule on Afghanistan, raising doubts about the success of any peace deal that the Obama administration tries to broker between Kabul and the insurgents.

The Pentagon scrambled Thursday to assure Afghans that it would aggressively investigate a video that shows U.S. Marines urinating on the bodies of three Afghans, while Afghans' reaction varied from outrage to resignation that the video merely reflected behavior that they think is typical of American troops.

The Marine Corps said Wednesday that it was investigating the authenticity of a video that appears to show four uniformed Marines urinating on dead Afghans, potentially the latest example of U.S. troops treating those killed or captured on the battlefield as trophies.

The Pakistani government has mounted a counterattack against moves by the country's military and Supreme Court that could result in what critics call a constitutional coup against President Asif Ali Zardari.

Pakistan's former ambassador to Washington — the focus of a scandal that threatens to topple the government in Islamabad — said Monday that he was caught up in a "witch hunt" against democracy.

The controversial American businessman at the center of the legal case that threatens to bring down the Pakistani government vowed Thursday to fly to Islamabad and tell the court the "unaltered truth" in the so-called Memogate scandal.

The American businessman at the heart of the explosive "memogate" political scandal will not come to Pakistan to testify, blaming concerns for his own safety, his lawyer admitted Monday.

The Obama administration pledge to shift American military strategy toward Asia overlooks a key fact: The United States never really dropped its focus on the region. But the current budget proposal might cut big-ticket items needed to increase its presence in Asia and counter China.

A Santa Maria police officer who was fatally shot early Saturday by another officer after he reportedly resisted arrest was identified Sunday by a family member as Albert Covarrubias Jr.

Pakistani Islamist militants on Sunday pledged to cease their four-year insurgency against Pakistani security forces, and join the Taliban's war against NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's powerful army wants President Asif Ali Zardari gone, but it has ruled out staging a coup, and instead is hoping for a legal ruling that could lead to Zardari's impeachment by the country's parliament, analysts and military insiders say.

A destabilizing confrontation between Pakistan's fledgling democratic government and its powerful military is evolving into a debate over the country's controversial nuclear weapons program.

Pakistan's military on Friday ratcheted up tensions with the U.S., rejecting the findings of a Pentagon investigation into the friendly fire deaths of 25 Pakistani soldiers. The rejection came amid increasing political instability in Pakistan over allegations that the president, Asif Zardari, had in May sought American assistance to avert a military takeover.

South Asia's nuclear neighbors, India and Pakistan, tentatively agreed Tuesday to renew an agreement that aims to reduce the risk of an accidental nuclear war.

Mitt Romney lashed out at Newt Gingrich Monday, blasting the former House Speaker and saying "he's got some records which could represent an October surprise."

Newt Gingrich surged to a landslide victory in the South Carolina Republican primary Saturday, a stunning come-from-behind upset that shook the contest for the party's presidential nomination. Mitt Romney came in second, a crushing loss for the one-time front-runner, his hopes dashed for a quick and triumphant march toward the title.

Former House Speaker Gingrich's victory in the South Carolina Republican primary is a testament to him sticking to an unconventional campaign strategy that many experts dismissed as political suicide.

The Republican presidential nomination race is momentarily in turmoil. But Mitt Romney, who long ago prepared for a long, methodical slog, is still in strong shape. Every non-incumbent Republican presidential nominee since 1980 has lost at least one primary on the road to nomination.

In five polls taken over nine days through Jan. 12, Romney had an average of 29 percent support with Gingrich netting 20.2 percent. When the ballots were cast Saturday, after a 10-day barrage of anti-Romney ads that South Carolina political analysts and consultants said was unique in its volume and intensity, Gingrich won with 40.4 percent of the vote, while Romney garnered 27.8 percent.

The tumultuous Republican presidential campaign unfolds over the next 10 days in Florida, the most diverse, complicated and expensive state yet. Campaigning in Florida is more akin to stumping in several states at once — with 10 media markets, several of them pricey, and a land mass so large there's little opportunity for retail politicking.

Three states. Three winners. A divided delegate count. If there is any clarity in the unpredictable, captivating turns of the Republican presidential race, it is this: Anything can happen and Florida, which is next to vote, is wide open.

Arriving in Florida just days before the Republican candidates who want his job begin to court the state's voters, President Barack Obama on Thursday is expected to tout a plan that he says will help a region whose economy is heavily dependent on visitors.

Wichita, Kan., prides itself as the Air Capital for the multitude of aircraft manufacturers that call it home, but after this week, it will have to contemplate a future without Boeing, the signature company of the city's signature industry. But another potential answer for Wichita is energy, a solution that both Charlotte and Fremont have embraced. And Kansas has one form of energy in abundance: wind.

Iraq's political crisis deepened Sunday as Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki ordered the country's vice president off of a plane and had him held temporarily at Baghdad airport, on suspicion that members of his security detail took part in a string of assassinations.

Egyptians completed voting Wednesday in the final round of parliamentary elections, with little suspense over the results: When final tallies are announced Jan. 13, Islamists are assured a majority through the steamroller parties of the Muslim Brotherhood and the more fundamentalist Salafists.

Egyptian soldiers hurled rocks, cement bricks and glass plates at protesters as the two sides battled in a second straight day of post-election violence that's left at least nine people dead and some 300 injured, according to official figures.

Egyptian authorities on Thursday raided the offices of 17 domestic and international human rights and pro-democracy organizations, including several that receive U.S. government funding, in a sharp intensification of the military's crackdown that recalled the tactics of the country's ousted authoritarian president, Hosni Mubarak.

As another delegation of Chinese officials toured America's Central Port in Illinois on Wednesday for a possible business deal, the port director said any agreement will not develop quickly.

Lured to a drab spa on the edge of an industrial park in central China, high school students were forced either to strip naked or to have sex — accounts vary — and their naked bodies were photographed. The pictures allegedly constituted a threat: Bring your classmates to the club, or your nude image will be passed around the streets of Chengguan.

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was threatened Monday with jail for contempt of court and ordered to appear before the Supreme Court in person, with any conviction on the charge leading to him possibly being disqualified from office.

Consultants on Alaska's billion-dollar Knik Arm bridge project were pretty clear Thursday the financial plan for the bridge is for the state to foot the bill for any difference between how much money is collected in tolls and how much the private developer will be paid.

Chants of "Guantanamo has got to go" echoed down Pennsylvania Avenue on Wednesday as a crowd of rain-dampened protesters marked the 10th anniversary of the arrival of the first 20 detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Minority voters have long had problems simply exercising their right to vote in certain parts of the country — and minority lawmakers fear the situation will become worse in 2012.